Albany and Randon's Wedding

My niece Albany was married on May 6, 2011 in Twin Falls Idaho.  I got to be there!  It was wonderful.

Clearly, she is gorgeous, he is handsome and the wedding and festivities were great.  Plus take a gander at all the other fun people I got to spend time with!

Dean, Lyle (doing his football dance) and Karla

Clint, Trisha (who I dared to do bunny ears during the photo taking session...) and Nancy

Chris, Jeremy, Kent, Samantha and Susan

 My dad- who actually performed the sealing (or wedding) ceremony of Albany and Randon. He did such a beautiful job.

Dad and Mom

Logan, Grandma and Colby

The groom and bride with her grandparents (Sadly, this camera occasionally fogs up... it's a long story...- but love the picture anyway)

AFTER time at the Twin Falls LDS Temple, we went for a lovely luncheon at a nearby church.

 

It was gorgeous.

Randon and Albany looked amazing

And I had a fun group of people to spend time with.

So thankful that Albany made good choices to get her to this point in her life.  Am I ready for any of my daughters to get married?  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Muffins for Mom

I was invited to the little girls' preschool for Muffins for Mom the week before Mother's Day.  I totally enjoyed eating a little morning treat with two sweet little girls.

Me and Madi in the Teddy Bears class.

Then I buzzed over to the Busy Bees and had fun with my little Queen Bee- Emery.  Emery decorated a beautiful little pot and had a plant in it that she gave me- PLUS this great little binder that she has been working on ALL year!

I am so thankful to be your mom!

Exploring the Lava Tube

There is this cool lava tube right near the road on the way to Dawn and David's house from Kona.  We decided to stop by and see it close up!

 

 

Claire

Madi and Grandpa

 

Emery

Kailey

Climbing out of the tube- as you can see- I am wearing high heels! (I wouldn't recommend them for hiking through lava however...)

The REAL explorers!

Yea Shelby!

Jake the Brave

This is what they climbed out of!

After the adventure

The kids with Grandpa

We had so much fun!  Although we missed the Afflecks, Lenhardts and Grandma Carrell- it was wonderful to spend time with Grandpa!  We'll be back!

Easter 2011

Shelby and Claire decorating Easter eggs

Madi was so excited with all the Easter Bunny brought her!

The kids with their stash

Then we had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard

After a fun morning, we enjoyed a great Sacrament Meeting at church and then stopped by the Temple for a few pics.  I LOVE to see the Temple.

The Beach

There's a beautiful beach about 10 minutes away from Dawn and David's Hawaii house.  It was so fun we went twice.

Jake and Grandpa- two of the great Carrell men

Emery, Claire and Madi with our new friend Mark who helped us build a sand castle

The castle with all it's decor- shells, coconut husks, etc.

Kailey, Shelby and Claire- the beach beauties

They're all out there except me!

Shelby and Jake catch a wave..

So so so much fun! We did have to review proper sand etiquette.  It's better to attempt to remove sand from the bottom of your bathing suit while in the water instead of standing in front of people on the beach and digging it out.  Just FYI...

A View from the Pool

We spent a lot of time at the Canoe Club Pool.

 Kailey, Emery, Danny, Jake, Claire and Grandpa

Is she happy to have her brother around?

Considering that she's pushing him away... probably not.

Madi made some good friends with that tea set.

Kailey worked on getting some color

Shelby in the hot tub

Emery worked on her swimming technique- a LOT!

They both LOVE the water

And this is the funnest Dad ever... he took his book to the pool every day and I don't think he ever had time to even open it up.  BUT when you're Mr. Popular, you have to sacrifice sometimes.

Grandpa and Madi at the Keolu Pool

Claire spent a lot of time perfecting her dives,

and cannonballs

and pencil dives.

Em worked on her rock jumps while

Shelby perfected her cannonballs.

Danny worked on his timed picture taking (and yes, Madi IS sticking her tongue out at you)

and after a few tries- decided to just have fun instead!