GB3 says Farewell to Brooke!

We had our Young Women/Relief Society BBQ in our backyard last night. It was an evening to honor Brooke Barton, who will be heading off to BYU! Sister McFarland welcomed her into Relief Society, so that meant that Young Women's had to say "Good Bye!" We gave her a framed picture of all the young women and leaders, which she loved! I had my young women write down a word or phrase that describes Brooke and then I wrote a poem for her using all the things the girls said about her. I framed it and read it to her and we both cried! Brooke has been such a big part of my young women leader experience. When I was a beehive leader, she was my Beehive president. She loved the Personal Progress program and received her Young Women medallion in record time! We will miss her piano playing, her fun personality and enthusiasm, but most of all her crazy, fast talking stories!

Good Luck, Brooke! We love you!

The poem that I wrote for Brooke.

The Young Women of GB3!

Waterskiing on the River!

Summer is Officially Over! School has Begun!

It was Brooke and Ashley's first day of school! That's right! Brooke is a sophomore and Ashley is a junior at Granite Bay High! I know...it hard to believe that "the little girls" are that old! Kimber, Tyler and Allie are still trying to get used to the idea that they are in high school!

The report was good when they came home...they found their friends at lunch, they liked their teachers, they didn't have homework...yet! They got a good parking spot...yeah! Ashley's tragic and stressful parallel parking days are over now that she is a junior and gets to park in the lot and not on the street! And finally, Ashley's class won the dance contest at the pep rally, which Ashley was an intergral part of and probably the reason why they won! Mom and Dad didn't have too many papers and forms to fill out and sign that night, so everyone was happy!

Brooke and Ashley posing at the traditional spot where
I take the first day of school picture in front of the house!

Ashley looking cute in the new dress
that we bought in SF at Urban Outfitter!

Brooke wearing the cute shirt that
Ashley and her friend, Matt picked out
for Brooke for her birthday!

Celebrating Brooke's 15th Birthday!

A picture of one of our favorite traditions! We woke up the birthday girl that morning with bagels and candles on the top, and sang "Happy Birthday!" Here is Brooke blowing out her candles!

We had fun celebrating Brooke's birthday this year! Brooke wanted to go to San Francisco on her birthday to do her "back to school" shopping. Since taking the kids to San Francisco for the day is one of my favorite things to do I was excited! Allie heard about our birthday adventure and, of course, she wanted to come too! She had been planning to come out for a friends wedding that weekend anyway. So, Allie and I came up with this great idea! We decided to have Allie fly into San Fracisco and arrive a couple of days early on Brooke's birthday, then she could take BART from the airport to Powell Street, grab some balloons on the way and show up at Cheesecake Factory (where we always eat lunch) at Macy's at Union Square in SF and surprise Brooke and Ashley! It all sounded great!

Of course, it was a little more challenging to pull off the surprise that day! Allie was a good sister, getting up at 5:30 am, just barely making it to the airport on time to find that her flight was delayed. Ugh! And then BART took longer than she expected. Back in California, Brooke and Ashley knew nothing about Allie's surprise arrival. We drove to SF that morning, arriving just as Macy's doors opened and enjoyed a morning of browsing and shopping at Union Square. Then Brooke decides that she want to go to Boudin's instead of Cheesecake Factory. I try to text Allie about the change of location but she doesn't respond because she doesn't have cell phone coverage on BART. Brooke is getting hungry and wants to eat now! I can't get a hold of Allie. Brooke is starting to get annoyed! You know how she gets when she's hungry! Allie finally arrives at Powell Street station. She lugs her big suitcase 5 blocks to Macy's, stops and buys balloons along the way! Still haven't heard from Allie! I try to prolong our shopping at Macy's because I don't want to stray to far from our meeting spot. Finally, Allie gets my text and replies that she is waiting at Boudin's! We make our way to Boudin's and around the corner Allie comes carrying a bouquet of balloons and yells "surprise!" Fun! Fun! I love surprises! We enjoyed the rest of the day with Allie, shopping and seeing the sights of the city!

As we were laughing and telling Dad that night about Allie's crazy adventure that day, Dad was like, "Now, tell me again why you couldn't just book her ticket to Sacramento and tell Brooke she was coming for her birthday like normal people? I mean was it worth all that hassle and trouble?" Allie was like, "Because I wanted to surprise Brooke?" Dad turned to Brooke and said, "So, were you surprised?" Brooke was grinning from ear to ear and said, "YES! It was the best birthday surprise ever!" So, to answer Dad's question about whether it was worth it, I think Allie will agree with me that sometimes it is worth all the hassles, work and stress to make a wonderful surprise memory for someone you love!

Brooke giving Allie a big birthday hug at Boudin's!
Posing in front of Boudin's! Brooke and Ashley are so happy that Allie has joined them to help celebrate Brooke's birthday!
All of us in front of Macy's at Union Square! Notice Allie's big suitcase in the background! We were on our way to the car to drop off the suitcase! We didn't want anything that would slow us down or get in our way during our shopping excursion in the city!
As we walked and shopped along Powell Street, we had to stop and get the "classic" San Francisco tourist picture with the cable cars in the background!
Brooke and Mom posing in front of the cool mannequins and gorgeous chandeliers at the Forever 21 store! Seconds after we snapped the shot, a lady yelled at us, "No picture! No picture!" Oops!
In front of the HEART at Union Square at the end of the day!
We all agree... We HEART San Francisco, birthdays surprises and most of all, we HEART Brooke...a lot!

Park City!

We spent a wonderful week in Park City, enjoying our new place at Vintage! Sitting outside on our balcony and enjoying the view mountains is one of our favorite things to do. The new rollercoaster at Park City Mountain resort was pretty fun too! Here are some pictures of the ride.

Ashley & Brooke posing in front of the PayDay lift!

Brooke & Allie love taking pictures with Dad!
Mom & Ashley waiting in line for the ride.
Dad & Brooke coming up the track!
Dad & Brooke are all smiles at the end of their ride!
Don't Ashley & Allie look cute?!
Brooke & Dad coming down the track!
The gorgeous view of the aspens from the track!
So...Mom kinda looks like a loser cause she went all alone. She was afraid that if she went with Dad he would make the car go too fast! And yes, she still screamed all the way down:)!

Ashley in the YASE Performance!

John Mayer/Colbie Caillat Concert at the Usana Amphitheater in SLC!

It's been a long time since I have gone to a concert...a really long time! I think the last time I went to a concert when Mark took me to see Foreigner in the Marriott Center at BYU! WOW! That was a long time ago! I'm not a real concert goer..I actually can remember almost every concert I've been to in my life. I know, that's sad! I saw Barry Manilow at BYU, and Boz Skaggs and John Denver, both of them when I was in high school at the Grady Gammage Center at ASU! Ok, now I'm feeling really old! The thing is that I'm cheap and it's hard for me to spend that much money on the tickets when I can just listen to the music on my ipod! But when the girls decided to go see Colbie Caillat & John Mayer (but mostly Colbie Caillat cause we love her music!) I decided to tag along with them! It was a blast! Colbie Caillat was awesome in concert! But it was most fun to just people watch!