Last Day, CHRC, Tulip Festival

Today is Hyrum's LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! Hyrum was waiting to get picked up by his friend for his last day of school, and I was pulling out of the garage when it occurred to me that this was his last day of high school! I told him to come out so I could get a "last day of school" pic of our senior. "I don't want to come out!" "Come on! Today is a very big day! It's your last day of high school!" "I could tell he was coming outside for me, as he continued to say "No, I don't want to" and then he stood there for me. Such a good and obedient son. 

Just like the old elementary school pics... Wow - 10 years ago! And now they've all gone and flown the nest! 

Joseph was in 6th grade, Mel 5th, Ethan 4th, Hyrum 3rd... "Time flies on wings of lightening, we cannot call it back." So Hyrum continued to talk to me through my phone... "Just use the picture you took for my yearbook ad cause I'm literally wearing the exact same outfit..." he said (and he was!). I took a quick pic, he turned and walked back inside. "Thank you!" I said as I drove away. A closing picture of Hyrum's high school experience (except for a graduation pic) is in the books. 

I continued on my way out with the little boys. We were headed over to the Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center with 4 racquets and lots of balls. We walked in and I bought a family membership. I just got the basic, but I might need to upgrade to Premium, because I didn't realize that the weight lifting room is not included, and that's a bummer, cause that's one of the reasons why I really wanted this. It's going to be my gym. For the kids, I really just wanted a walled in place where the kids could go be loud. And after they all had fun at our gym time at the church last week, I knew this would be a good thing.

They kicked and hit and threw the balls over and over again.

Peter always kept the little green soccer ball close by.

Owen went back and forth between racquets and kicking. 

Daniel stuck with the racquets the whole time. 

I only had tennis balls last week, but I got some racquetballs over the weekend. Now the blue balls and Daniel's favorite. They are so bouncy! We came home in time for Owen to catch the bus for kindergarten. Daniel went over to play with a new neighbor boy, Oliver. He was over there yesterday too. That just left me with one! Just me and Peter.... what will I do with my time? He didn't take a nap, but here is a picture of him this morning. 

Cute little crossed feet.

I think this rec center membership will be great for our family. It's another fun thing to do along with the Thanksgiving Point Membership that we also got last month. With these two memberships we should be set. We went to the Tulip Festival today at 5:15. Such a good Earth Day activity, huh! (...but we didn't plan it because of that, but we'll pretend we did!) We had plans to go with Joseph and a good "friend" of his named Emily. Well... they are a little more than friends right now. Joseph's sisters kept teasing him about all the TWO-LIPS and then they'd giggle. Joseph said "I expected nothing less!" 

Abi didn't tease much, it was mostly Lily, Sophi, and Natalie. There are more flowers here than just two-lips, you silly girls!

Abi did get annoyed by my wanting to stop and take so many pictures. 

Yes, I do have hundreds of pictures of flowers from the Tulip Festivals from years past, but still! I'm trying to enjoy the flowers of the present moment. Group picture! But Owen didn't want to sit for it. But he did walk in circles past them... This was the best "group" pic we could do for now with Owen in it.

Daniel was very friendly with Emily and was hogging her lap and arms. She carried him and he was hugging her. Looking at white blossoms - it looked like the Tree of Life!

Joseph there behind - Daniel's moving in on his girl! We came in two cars, because Corey came from work and also picked up Natalie on his way here. So Corey was a little later than us. When he did arrive, he intercepted Daniel who was still having her carry him and he was stroking her hair. New rule: Hop down, it's Joseph's turn. Daniel was not allowed to touch her anymore while we were there. Daniel obeyed very well. Corey also had to let Emily know that she's not the first girl that Daniel has professed his undying affection to, ha! and we shared the little funny story of Daniel and Aurora. 

The flowers were beautiful. I was very happy we came. 

Emily hadn't been there before. We all thought that Joseph and her make a lovely couple. 

We tried to give them a little bit of time together without all of the little siblings hanging on Joseph or harassing them, but they still got plenty of being hung on.

It was a very good day and we're looking forward to the weekend. I brought some boxes for Joseph to take down to Provo and he's packing up tonight, checking out of his dorm in the morning, bringing things up tomorrow with Emily's help (she had a car) and I think they are going to spend the day with us? And then he's going back down again tomorrow night and spending the night with friends and then coming up Saturday morning on his motorcycle to bring that home for storage while he's gone for the summer. Sounds like a plan. When we said goodbye to Joseph and Emily, she asked to give Daniel a hug. Daniel wanted to, but held himself in reserve until Corey approved: You can give her one hug! It was a good day: busy, fun and full. Life is good.