2010 Family Pictures

One of our few beautiful, summer days.

Before our oldest child goes off to college...

We get a few family pictures.

Before I know it, it will be these two going off to college!

Mid-life crisis???

  

So it started with "May Day".  Brooklynn was a princess on May Court at the High School. It was so much fun! She prepared for it for 2 1/2 months. Dance practices every week for the 2 1/2 months, picking out the color for her dress ( all the princess dresses were the same style just different colors.) ...They had 2 presentations. 1 during school on Friday and another one Friday night.

Princess Brooklynn and her escort Prince Kyle Lair

                               Even Blake and Skyler had fun! We gave them the choice to only have to go to
one of the performances but they wanted to go to both of them!

Then, Saturday was prom. Brooklynn's last and Brittany's first!
They looked so beautiful!

 The little girls from the neighborhood were over here checking them out before they left for the dance. (Brooklynn's May day crown was a big attraction to them!)

 Brooklynn and Brittany went in the same group for dinner and dance.  Our whole family went to the "picture taking party".

I was pretty much a mess! I couldn't stop crying! All the other parents were giving me funny looks, I'm sure wondering what in the world was wrong!  That whole weekend was a shocker to me about how "old" my kids are getting! I wasn't ready for my oldest child to graduate from High school! I wasn't ready for my 2nd daughter to be dating! (Oh and NO graduation pictures as our car was broken into while we were in Ut. for my brother and sis-in-law mission farewell and our camera was stolen!!!)

For a couple of years I've had issues with the word "empty nester". Every time I hear that word I cry!
I didn't ever want that to apply to ME! But, suddenly I'm feeling "it" creeping up on ME! I just know how fast these kids came into my life, that once 1 leaves, I know how fast it will be before they are all gone!
I started telling Brian, "I KNEW we were suppose to have 6 kids!"  It was a very emotional weekend for me!

NOW... there is a "funny" part to this story! ......

2 weeks later.....

I'm like clock work with my cycle. 28-30 days.  Well, I'm suddenly 3 days late. 4 days late. 5 days late... OOOHHHH MY GOODNESS! Heavenly Father has heard my "complaints" and is going to put an end to it! All the sudden, I start to realize there is a possibility that I wont be an "empty nester" until my late 60's! All the sudden being an empty nester with Brian in my mid 50's sounds good! I'm thinking about "what if we have to go buy crib, car seat..... ???? My mind is going 100 miles an hour! I told Brian and funny enough he was more excited than he was the previous FIVE times I've told him "i think i'm pregnant!"  He told me I'd better "pee on a stick" and find out!
I went to another CITY to buy a test!
I came to the conclusion that IF, I was in deed meant to have 6 kids I would!  Otherwise, this was Heavenly Father letting me know.... it's okay to have kids grow up and move on. It's the way it's meant to be! Be happy for them AND for myself! Each phase of life has it's things to look forward to!......
The test was negative!
12 days late!
It was seriously a good life lesson Heavenly Father knew I needed. ENJOY the here and now! I read a quote just the other day that was something to the effect of...
Tomorrow is a mystery
yesterday is history
and today is a gift that's why it's called "the present"
I haven't cried since then (yet) about Brooklynn graduating and moving out. I'm happy for her and the fun things she has to look forward to!

And now..... the rest of the story!

So the trip started out VERY Early! Our good friend, Jason Price came to our house at 3:30 AM (the Price family was moving out of state that same weekend so we decided it didn't matter if he as too mad at us!)  picked us up and took us to the airport.

The boys showing what time it is! (AM)

Had a little layover in SLC! (Brian, only a couple hours into our trip!)

                                           From SCL we went to Atlanta then for EIGHTEEN MORE HOURS
                                                                       on to...

                                                      

We were in the air for a total of 23+ hours!

We got to "Jo'Burg" about 4pm. It was perfect because it was still light outside. We enjoyed the ride to the McOmber's home. They live in the same neighborhood as many of the embassies and Ambassadors of many countries!

(a hill side over looking a neighborhood in Pretoria)

Many beautiful homes!

The yards were so incredibly landscaped! But EVERY house had an electric fence, a guard, big, mean dogs....

Although it was March and Spring in the states. It was the end of the summer, going into fall for them.

The weather was warm and beautiful!

My sister in law, Kim, is such an amazing person! She had worked for many weeks before we got there putting together an itinerary for us! Getting things organized and scheduled for the 7 of us and the 6 of them was not an easy task, i know!

When we got to their house we had an awesome dinner, talked for a while and off to bed to get ready for our first adventure early the next morning!

ELEPHANTS!!!

 We drove to an elephant sanctuary.

 It was VERY COOL!!! 

We brushed...

Walked (with fingers up the elephants trunk, he suctions on and follows!)...

touched feet, tails, eyelashes, ears.....

Got UP CLOSE

and personal!

getting KISSED by

ELEPHANTS!

It's trunk covered the ENTIRE side of my face!

Suctions so tight I thought I was going to have the worlds largest hicky!!

No, just a slathering of ...mud?

Gross but, cool,  hu?!

Brittany had her 16th birthday while we were there. Of course Kim had a special surprise for her!

All the girls went zip lining! 

11 different lines across this canyon. We all had such a great time! 

But, that wasn't all! Then we went to..

a SPA! In So. Africa! (these are all the workers singing to Britt!)

This is ONE of the dogs you have to step over to go check in!

Wish you could have seen all the chickens running around behind me!

It was definitely not American but it was interesting, funny and awesome! 

We learned about African culture.

We went to lots of different animal parks where we got to see TOUCH WILD animals!

We went on lots of Safari!

We saw a lot of things! We ate a lot of good, fun, interesting food, we went mall shopping and flea market shopping. We went to an amusement park We went swimming and played beach volleyball at the American Ambassador's house! The list goes on and on......!

THANKS McOmber Family for  the vacation of a lifetime....

AGAIN!