Rim to Rim! Grand Canyon hike

A friend of mine invited Joe and I to hike the grand canyon and seeing that neither one of us had ever been we jumped on the opportunity.  We left friday morning and headed to the north Rim.  

Then at 5 AM saturday we got started.  It was VERY cold in the begining!  It was dark and a bit scary because I couldn't see anything and I had looked the day before at how big of a drop it was.  But we made it through the dark and cold times.

It was so BEAUTIFUL  and I kept trying to remind myself to look around and enjoy it.

By this time my feet were hurting pretty bad.  I had a lot of blisters but we were so close.  26 miles starts out fast but when the pain sets in I thought we were never going to make it back out.

It was a good thing this sign reminded us it was mandatory to get back out!

Oyr hiking buddies coming out!

Jodi and I waiting for our ride to show up!

We were able to eat dinner and enjoy some down time... including washing my feet and NOT putting my shoes back on while we waited for the last of our group.

time out for women

We had plans to go to Time out for Women in Phoenix but Lexi already had plans so a week before Leanna decided we should head to Vegas so we didn't miss out!  It was really fun and a great 2 days!

I am a college graduate!

I graduated on august 9th from BYU but I was not able to go up to  graduation because of the kids school starting and Kevin's wedding the next week but when I got my diploma in the mail Joe's family was so awesome and threw me a surprise graduation ceremony!  The had a blue robe for me to wear (it was lined with fleece and so if you can see sweat dripping down my face that its why) and made me a cap with tassel and all!

The kids were the audience.

I walked in to music!

Everyone gave speeches but mine was the best because I was the valedictorian! I thanked my kids for making my degree take WAY too long and thanked my family for bugging me all the time and asking how my classes were going!  Oh and so much more!

Dave presented me with my diploma!  and then...

All the kids squirted me with silly string!  It was the best graduation EVER!  I am finally done and my diploma hangs in my new awesome craft room!

Lego time!

they had a new lego exibit at the science center so I had to take them.

Joe wanted a picture on the nail bed! 

Tyler's 9!

Well my big boy is 9 now!  We let them choose were to eat on their birthday and this year all 3 picked CiCi's pizza (not my favorite place!)  I guess just eating there 3 times a year is doable.

Trying to be like jesus

In the Friend there is a column called "trying to be like Jesus" and kids write in and tell what they did that was a good choice so our primary asked all the kids to write one for the bishop and I just loved them so much I had to take a picture to record this for them.