Good-Bye Allreds

Today  we said goodbye to a big part of my heart, as the Allred family moved to Kansas. Uncle Johnny got an offer at Fort Hays University in Hays Kansas, so they packed up and left this morning to start their new lives. While I wish my sister and her sweet family all the very best in life, I am so heartbroken to have her move away. She is my best friend and having her not live 40 minutes away is going to be so hard. I'm so sad about it. 

Because of the pandemic starting here in March, we spent the first two months staying away from everyone, including our family and I feel like we got robbed of some time together. Their move took me by surprise and I'm so sad not to have this last summer together. 

I will be ok. We will go visit. They will come here. It's going to be ok, but for now I just need to be sad. I'm going to miss my sister for sure but its going to be ok, eventually. 

Last Day of DIGITAL School

Today we FINALLY finished our online learning. Digital learning was a little rough but we survived and I'm so proud of my kids for all their hard work. They really did so great. Each morning they would get themselves ready for school by getting dressed, making their beds and eating breakfast. Then we would do 30 minutes of scripture study starting at 8:30 and then at 9 am they would start their school work. This went on for 10 weeks and they were such champs. It wasn't easy on any of us but we all persevered and finished the school year strong. 

I feel like some of the kids changed so much over the last nine months, but Bailey looks mostly the same- just a haircut changed. 

Here is a first and last day comparison.

Since quarantine is our new normal it seemed appropriate to have the kids wearing face masks. 

I think Tucker grew up the most over the school year.
Here is his side by side of his first and last day
Doesn't he look older?

And here are Tanner's last day of school pics. He really loves his star wars masks.  

Tanner looks mostly the same but he got his braces off the week after his first day of school so his smile definitely looks older. 

Oh and Benson wanted in on the last day of school pics. He as so cute and smiled so sweetly for me. 

We  also celebrated with our annual end of school party. This year the theme was "Too COOL for School". It was a popsicle party and it was so cute. 

I love these kids so much! They earned this party this year more than ever before. 

Oh and we ended the day with our normal end of school buckets.
This year we don't know if our POA pool will even be opening but I still wanted to make it special. The buckets had new beach towels, goggles and sidewalk chalk with some sunscreen as well.
The kids loved it. 

Now onto Summer with these cuties!
Yay for no more school!!!

Memorial Day Weekend in MH

We just got back from Mtn. Home and we had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.
We arrived Thursday night and the kids immediately wanted to play laser tag with Papa. In fact, right out of the car Tanner started trash talking to his Papa and challenged him to a laser gun battle.

Benson took it very seriously. I was cracking up watching him. 

I just love this guy. He's the best. 

The kids all loved playing with Papa. It was pretty cute to watch. 

Friday morning all the dads went fishing with Papa while the kids played at Nanny and Papa's house.
It rained on and off on Friday and we just hung out together. 

We got in some serious cousin snuggles all weekend long. It was pretty cute!

We did get to celebrate Hazel's 5th birthday together on Friday too. She loved the kitty cat party I put together for her. 

After quarantine started and we were cut off from our cousin I promised my kids that once we were able to see our cousins we would have a 2-day long cousin's party. So we kicked off our cousin's party with a sleepover in the basement on Friday night. 

Saturday morning dawned sunny and bright so we busted out the inflatable water slide and the kids had so much fun playing together. 

We also inflated two little pools (one for Benson and one for Grant, because they obviously can't share). Benson really enjoyed filling them with water. 

We eventually gathered all the kids together for a cousins picture. It didn't go well. 

So then we had to bribe them with popsicles. 

I sure love this little crew. 

And Tanner is getting so big. I can't believe he will be 11 in just a few months.
He is such a good kid. We just love him. 

While the kids napped and rested on Saturday, I put together a small treasure hunt for them. The treasure hunt had 10 clues that led them all around outside. They had to figure out the riddles to find the next clue and eventually the treasure. 

Here they are finding the treasure map. 

The last clue was found in the mailbox and it led us to the drainage ditch where the treasure was hidden. The treasure was a mason jar full of coins. 

Max found the treasure. 

Then we divided the coins up so the kids could count them. 

It turned out they found a total of $17.50 in their jar. They were pretty excited.
That night after dinner we took all the cousins to get snow cones with their treasure money. 

They all enjoyed their snow cones and it was the perfect spring night. The weather was amazing and we sat on a blanket outside and enjoyed our cones. 

Look at all those cute cousins. BEST COUSINS PARTY EVER!

Then it was back home for another sleepover in the basement. The kids really loved sleeping together. It was pretty cute. 

Sunday morning we ate breakfast then we took showers and got ready for church. Papa led us all in a beautiful sacrament meeting. It lasted almost an hour and I was really impressed with how well the kids did. Of course, it went smoothly because Benson passed out during our opening song. 

Then Sunday we got to celebrate Benson's 3rd birthday. We had fun with our favorite 3 year old and Benson loved all his presents. 

We also got in some wrestling and snuggles with Aunt Laura. 

The kids also enjoyed playing "Life" with Uncle Johnny. He's such a fun Uncle. 

Memorial Day morning we hopped in the van and drove over to "Dry Run Creek" to go fishing. 

Benson loves wearing his sunglasses so much. 

I love this picture of Benson. He looks so happy.

Although there were tons of fish in the creek, they were not biting. They would literally sit and stare at our lures.  But we still had a lot of fun. 

After not catching anything at the creek, we drove over to the river and let the kids play for a while.

They loved this. We had a lot of fun digging in the dirt, skipping rocks and Tanner kept fishing. 

Eventually Tanner did catch a fish. Of course, it was a tiny tiny fish, but he didn't care. He was so proud of himself. All the kids wanted to hold it. 

We had so much fun at the river. After we finished playing, we drove back to Nanny and Papa's for lunch. 

After lunch we played more on the inflatable slide. 

Benson finally tried the slide by himself. He didn't love it but he survived it. 

Then Papa laid out the slip-n-slide for the kids and they had even more fun. 

I love this shot of the cousins sliding together. 

It was a great afternoon in the sun and we were all a bit worn out afterward. But we rallied for an amazing BBQ rib dinner. It was so yummy. The kids ate their weight in ribs.
Then we loaded up our van to drive home. But before leaving we all indulged in root beer freezes. They were delicious and the perfect way to end our memorial day weekend. 

We had so much fun with our family and it was such a great weekend together after so much time apart.