Senior Prom

Senior Prom had the potential to be amazing for Alyssa. All she wanted was to go with her group of friends that consisted of 4 guys and 3 girls. They found another girl to join the group and everyone knew who they were going to ask. Alyssa's guy friend, Aiden, even convinced her to break things off with Kevin (the guy she had gone to the last 2 dances with. A nice kid that wanted more from Alyssa than she wanted to give at this time in her life.) Then everything fell apart when Aiden got really mad at the girl he was going to go with and decided not to go to prom. And he convinced all of the other guys not to go either. So now, Alyssa wasn't going to be asked by Kevin, or any other guy because they all thought something was going on between her and Kevin. Long story short, Alyssa's friend, Leisel (who has a boyfriend) found someone to ask her and they joined up with their group. She was happy that she got to go, but was also sad that she didn't get to hang out with her friends at their last high school dance together.

Her hair

Her date

Their group

Her dress matched her eyes perfectly and she looked gorgeous that night. She said it was fun, but it would have been more fun if her best friend, Kate, would have been there with her. I'm just glad that she got to go because it would have been a sad night for her if she didn't.

Easter

 Easter came and went. I didn't get any pictures except a quick one of the kids in their new easter church clothes. 

It was early this year and the weather was still cold outside, so it didn't really feel like Easter. It kind of snuck up on me, but we still managed to dye eggs, do some egg hunts, and have a nice dinner. We were going to go over to Gawbie and Grandpa's after church, but Gawbie had to be admitted to the hospital a couple of days before Easter. We told her we would postpone dinner and do it when she got out, but she ended up staying for over a week and by that time, the ham wasn't good anymore and no one felt like doing all of the work to have Easter dinner. So hopefully next year goes better. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and his atonement. Easter is such a special time of year as we celebrate his life and all he did for each of us.

My One on One With Camden

About a week after Tyler's one on one, I went out with Camden for our date. He chose to go to the bowling alley. We went to Jack and Jills because we had leftover money on an arcade card there from February. We bowled 2 games. I got worse but Camden got better.

After bowling, we tried to use the arcade card, but it would not work at the Lehi Jack and Jills because we bought it at the American Fork location. So we went to an early dinner at Black Bear Diner. 

After dinner, we decided to go over to the American Fork Jack and Jills to finish out the arcade card and cash out for some prizes. On the way over, we drove by the house that had exploded a few days before.

Camden got to bring home some slime and a little bowling game from the arcade. It was a fun night.

One on One Date with Tyler

For my birthday, one of my gifts was a chance to make memories. Each of the kids(and Danny) picked an activity to do with me so that we could make some memories together. The first one on one was with Tyler. He chose to go to Nickle City (an arcade). We spent a couple of hours at the arcade, most of the time on this Wizard of Oz coin dropper game. We won over 1000 tickets on that one game. We came home with an inflatable chair, some candies, and a little stuffed doggie. Tyler was pretty excited about his inflatable chair and spent a lot of time sitting in it over the next month or so.

After the arcade, Tyler chose to go to Kings Buffet for dinner. He loves the imitation crab with teriyaki sauce from the Mongolian grill and the sesame balls. Oh, and the ice cream!

It was a fun afternoon together.

Some Random Things from March

We had a random snowstorm in March after some warm days and we were all a bit angry about it.

We celebrated my birthday. I chose to go to Tucanos. The food was good, as usual. A friend of mine brought over flowers for me. That was a nice surprise, and it brightened our home for the next week or 2.

We played a family game and one of the things that Camden had to do was use household items to make a snorkel. He was spot on, since we had bought the boys over the face snorkels for Hawaii and they looked just like this minus the storm trooper resemblance.

New tradition in our household is to make pie's on pi day in memory of Grandma Bev who passed away on pi day 2 years ago. We sure miss her and we love her strawberry pie. I wish I could make it as good as her.

The boys completed their basketball season. They both had a lot a fun playing. It was good to see them improve their skills over the season.

Tyler's Wax Museum

Shortly after we got back from the Bahamas, Tyler had a wax museum at school. He chose to research Sandra Day O'Connor. He had to do a report on her accomplishments and life. We had to complete it at home because he missed a week of school while we were on the cruise. We had him wear a wig, a robe and a fluffy collar. 

He got to do the wax museum during the day for the other students and then again at night for the families. We went past him a few times to hear his 2 minute presentation. We also listened to a few other students, including astronauts, athletes, MLK, presidents, etc.

He did a good job.

Bahamas Cruise - Disembarkment

We did not rush to get off of the boat on that last day. We finally said goodbye to the Knudsen's around 8:30am. We breezed through the disembarkation right up to the point of finding our rental car shuttle. The line was super long. This wouldn't have been a problem if the shuttles had been big, or if they had more than one shuttle. Unfortunately, they didn't have either of these. And everyone had 1-2 big suitcases with them. so they were fitting about 4 suitcases and whatever people could go with that many suitcases (the shuttles could hold like 12 people, but not 12 bags, if that makes sense). It took at least an hour to get on the shuttle. And then and the rental car lot, there was an equally long line with piles of luggage and people waiting all over the parking lot. Danny got in line and I told the kids to wait by this nice palm tree.

They quickly came back when they read the sign.

After about an hour of sitting in the Budget parking lot, I sent the kids to a park that was a few blocks away. It looked like it would be better than sitting on a curb. When we got the rental(3 hours after getting off of the boat) we picked them up.

We had planned to drive down the coast a bit and to explore, but since it took so long to get the car, we didn't really have time for that anymore. We found a firehouse subs with a gluten free bread option for Alyssa so we got lunch there. The kids liked the fireman hats.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We got a kick out of this "lonely traveler" exhibit in the airport. He looked so realistic.

Camden and Tyler loved flying Delta, because of the games on the screens. Usually we fly southwest, so that was a nice change.

We saw a pretty amazing sunset from the airplane window.

We got home in the evening to a very excited dog. We were sad to be back after such a fun and relaxing week. Plus, Utah was so much colder than Florida and the Bahamas.

Bahamas Cruise - Perfect Day at Coco Cay

Coco Cay is the private island in the Bahamas owned by Royal Carribean. The island was full of beach space with chairs and umbrellas. Most of the food on the island was free. We got off of the boat early because we wanted to take some family pictures on the beach, before they got crowded. Tamma got off of the boat with us so she was able to take the pictures. We just used our phones, so nothing fancy. The colors were great, but we overlooked the lighting and the shadows it would create on our faces. There was also a floating mat that made it into the background of a lot of the pictures.

We also wanted to take Alyssa's senior pictures on the beach, so I took a bunch of pictures of her while the others changed into their swimsuits and got into the water.

Ashley found this conch shell right away, with something still living in it. She wanted to take it home, but knew the creature inside would not survive.

After Alyssa got done with pictures, we changed and went into the water. It was cold, but not miserable. There was a sand bar a little way out into the water that we swam out to. It was covered in seaweed, that never ended, so Alyssa tried to walk across it and we think she got stung by a jellyfish because the bottom of her foot started to sting a lot. So we had to go find the first aid station on the island where they sprayed her foot with vinegar. This seemed to fix the stinging, so we went back to the South Beach where we had grabbed a bunch of chairs. We grabbed some food and by the time we finished, the rest of the Knudsen's had showed up. We went back into the water with them.
The day was super relaxing. The waves were pretty nonexistent, so the kids got bored with the water. Connor and I played some sand volleyball on the courts next to our chairs.

The others cheered us on.

We walked around the island in the afternoon to see what the other beaches had to offer. Alyssa finally got her fancy drink

We looked at the souvenir huts.

Danny took the boys back to the ship midday. Ashley and Tamma followed them. The rest of us stayed on the island as late as we could.

It really was a perfect day. So much fun!