End of Year Recitals and an 8th Grade Graduate!

Spring Sing!

I feel like I blink and they are wrapping up the school year with song.

1st graders on the left, 2nd graders on the right.

 

Della wasn't on the top row for once!
A place all of my kids seem to be placed.

Lindi with her flowing hair I am envious about.

See, top row. Ha!

Her bestie, Scarlet.

They met in Kindergarten and have been inseparable ever since.

Even got lucky to be in the same class this year.

I love how Della is double her size.

 

Oh Mrs. Baxter and her fancy outfits she wears on performance nights.

She is the principal, and takes her job very seriously.

She is so kind to the children and has their best interest at heart.

Our last Tuck and Tumble performance.

They are building a new studio that is too far away, so we will

be switching to a new place next year.

BIG news!

Lindi got her backhand spring!!!

She has been working years (no exaggeration) on this.

She does things at her own pace, which can make me want to pull my hair out sometimes.

She is timid and cautious, which can delay mastering certain things for quite some time (sigh).

But she was thrilled to show it off!

Della is opposite than her sister.

We were a little worried she would get the back handspring figured out

before Lindi did!

She is close.

Rusty graduated from the 8th grade!

I was trying to remember Lanes 8th grade graduation.

Turns out he didn't have one because it was during Covid.

Actually, I think he said they did have one, but no parents could come??

Or he didn't tell me about it??? (on purpose, no doubt). 

Boy howdy, it was pretty long.

So long I needed to leave to grab Lindi from dance.

I thought for sure I would get back to it being over.

NOPE!

They hadn't even gotten to Rustys name yet!

He is an excellent student, got an award for having a high

GPA for both 7th and 8th grade.

So proud of him and can hardly believe he will be in

high school next year!

The Franklin bubble has officially burst for him.

Dancing at the Diamondbacks Game

No rest for the weary!

Luckily we got home the night before the girls performed at the

Diamondbacks game!

 

I don't think we have ever gone to a game with our whole family

of any sort!

Luckily the boys like baseball, so it was a win all around!

The Kids Had Fun, Too!

I love my village!!

It was a combined effort between my mom, 2 sisters, and the Whitmer's,

to allow us to take off like we did without a worry in the world!
May is a killer time of the year to disappear for over a week.
SO many ACTIVITIES going on!

I was stressing majorly wondering how the stars would

align to make sure each child was taken care of. 

Super grateful for the people I can ask and depend on!

It made me happy to receive so many pictures of updates on what

they were up to. Smiles big all around!

They got to do all the crafty things I always say no to!

Miche is a wizzard with kids.

Truly loves the mess of experimenting and creative minds.

And genuinely loves these girls like her own. 

She is going to be a grandma soon, and will be the BEST at it!

 

The best big "sisters"!

They basically adopted them for a week,

melts my heart!

Lane loved being an only child at my parents.

(I guess the girls got to share in being spoiled for a couple of those days).

Seriously, it's like being in a 5 star resort when you are a guest over there!
He would move in if I let him!

He said Grandma never kept him hungry, always asking what

she could pick up for him to eat.

He was a good boy and got himself to church.
And apparently made himself comfy in the bishops office. 

He had his baseball banquet that week.

Abbey was nice to send me this picture.

When I was thanking her through text, I mentioned

I was sad we had to miss it.

She said, are you really sad to miss eating
hot dogs and awkward chatting? 

Lol!!!!
You got me.

I guess I wasn't too sad after all!

I was thinking I would be sad to miss Lane taking Libby to prom!
However, he sneaks out of the door lickity split to avoid

pictures, so I wasn't missing much anyway. 

Once again, thank you to the mom's keeping me in the loop

with pictures!

Rusty was able to spend the night at the Bosens.

They are like his second family.

He also got to sleep over at the Evans, his best cousin buddies. 

It was Mothers Day, and she sent this saying she was happy

to celebrate with 5 children.

She is the best!

Maururu Tahiti!

Another word we heard on repeat and spoke while

on the island was maururu (ma-roo-roo).

Which means, thank you!

MAURURU Bora Bora!

I could hardly believe it was time to go. 

Walking away from perfect bungalow.

I just couldn't stop looking back as we walked away.

I may have shed some tears.
It was a hard goodbye!

Looking forward we did have a

fun day planned ahead of our red eye back home.

Another last glimpse of the Sands restaurant.

 

While waiting for the boat to take us back to the airport,

we noticed this employee boat coming back from getting provisions.

They must had hit up a bakery because look at those sacks of baguettes!

A conch shell farewell.

Soaking in the last bit of blue water. 

Flying out and now knowing the island made it fun to point the landmarks we

had seen and been around.

I spotted our resort and exact bungalow we stayed in. 

Back in Papeete!

We rented a car and zoomed off to explore as much as we could

 

This island was not luxurious at all!

It felt third world and was old and very run down.

I am sure the nicer resort areas had a better vibe to them.

I guess they are known for their black sand beaches. 

I was hopeful to swing by one real quick but we had so much to accomplish

in a short amount of time.

This island was also a lot bigger with crazy roads and freeways.

Glad I wasn't the driver!

And SO many scooters!!!

We grabbed a quick bit to eat.

Chickens everywhere!

See the scooters?!

I didn't dare eat the meat.

I struggle with USA hamburgers from here.

Wasn't willing to risk food poisoning on an 8 hour flight!

Dessert and fries hit the spot.

They had different options than back at home.

Lava cake?!

I was beyond disappointed that we never made it to their

well known street market.

I guess its vendors of all sorts for miles.

I tried so hard, but with their silly business hours, and being closed

on the weekends it didn't work out. 

I still needed to get souvenirs for the kids.

Which was tricky because all stores had closed by now.

We found a few "surf shops" that were still open.

They weren't authentic, but had Tahiti printed on them.

It will do! 

We ran into a typical grocery store to grab a couple of things.

It was fun to see the differences in their stores vs ours. 

Way more seafood selections!

Their carts were cute.

Half the size of ours!

They must eat very local and fresh.

Baguettes, of course!

I grabbed things I thought the kids would like to try.

We did a session at the LDS temple!

Tiniest temple, ever.

It's only on 5 acres of land, and has a total floor area of

9,900 sq ft.

We have homes were we live about this size!

It was a humbling experience, with a strong spirit. 

You could tell we were out of the touristy areas as we

truly had major language barriers.

Lots of pointing and chuckling as we tried to communicate with each other. 

I'm so glad we put forth effort to make this happen.

I asked a sweet temple worker (who is a native to the island)

where we should eat. 

Once she figured out my words, along with eating actions, lol.

She wrote down a restaurant.

I trusted her and off we went!

Hands down, our favorite meal of the trip!

Authentic in every way.

Blue Banana.

It was Mothers Day as we landed in LAX.

Another flight home and we had Lane picking us up at the airport.

It is wild to think that we were just on the beaches in Tahiti, now we

are back home and living life like normal again.

Our normal life is so different than what they consider to be normal.

Another reason why I love to travel so much!