June 2018 Part 2, and Smith Reunion

After Recital week, we enjoyed a regular week at home.  One noteworthy experience was saying goodbye to our friends the Lee family.  They moved here shortly after we did and are moving back to Utah, since Steve finished his residency.  Debbie and I have been great friends and have shared many fun experiences.  She is smart, kind, patient and very committed to her family and the gospel.  They have quite a few kids that match up to our kids' ages and they have been great friends!  We found out through our Family Tree app that Steve and I are 9th cousins and Debbie and I are 10th cousins.  We will surely miss them!

Another cool thing that I have started this month is exercising with Katie Buskin and some friends from the Dublin 1st ward.  This has been good for me to run more, and have additional work out friends.

On Saturday June 16th we left for our annual trip to visit family.  First we drove to Illinois and stayed with the Owens at Kristen's mom's house.  Here we enjoyed time to reconnect and spend time with them.  We also got to enjoy her horses.  Kristen taught us how to brush, wash and saddle them.    Sheri was in heaven with the horses, Eve was in heaven with the lost kitten we found, and Christian particularly enjoyed climbing the mulberry tree and eating the fruit.  We had such a nice time.  We felt very lucky to have this opportunity!

We were very grateful for their generosity in hosting us!

The following Monday we headed to Lake of the Ozarks for the Barton Smith Family reunion.
This was a very fun reunion.  The lodge we stayed at was right on the water and had a dock and an inflated trampoline in the water.  The lodge itself was very spacious and had lots of room for fun and games.  It even had a separate bunk house with tons of bunk beds for the boys to sleep in and also play video games.  The week was spent playing in the water, playing games, eating yummy food, having family discussions, and enjoying lots of cousin time.
Of course the thing we cherish most is the time we were able to spend with family!

As you can see, Uncle Mike was so patient and kind to Christian!  He gave him lots of time and help!  What an awesome Uncle. 

   At the end of the week we carpooled with Bart and Wendy, Katie's family, and Mike's family further west.  We took advantage of some church visitor centers (including Liberty Jail) in Missouri and gradually made our way to Colorado.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!  We love them!

I will write about our Murray visit in my next post.

Dance Recital 2018

We just finished our big dance recital for the year.  Dublin Dance & Gymnastics did a show combining Wicked and The Wizard of Oz.  The kids were in 3 different shows for their various numbers. They had a great time and all did a great job!  I love to see my stars on stage!  As a quick side note, the kids did more dance classes than just these over the year.  These just represent the ones they performed in.

This was Christian's first "Big Show".  He performed a gymnastics piece as a rooster on Dorthy's farm.  He was very cute!

Sheri was in 2 gymnastics/acrobatics numbers (Sheep & Horses - with Sterling) as well as a hip hop number (Ease on Down the Road).  She also took classes in Ballet, Jazz, and Tap.

Here are some pictures of Sterling in his Sheep and Horse costumes.

Eve was able to perform her ballet piece (Bubbles) in two shows as well as her Jazz piece (Ease on Down).  Eve also took tap and conditioning this year.  It has been a GREAT year for her as she has been fully able to participate in all her classes with very little pain (following her year of majorly limited dance due to unexplained chronic joint pain.)  She has made great progress this year!

And just for fun, here are some sibling shots.

 This picture shows how siblings sometimes feel about each other.  It makes me laugh!

I surely love all these great kids!  I am so grateful for them, and grateful for Matthew who makes all their lessons possible by working so hard for our family!  Dancing is so much fun!