Senior Cotillion

This end of the year dance is solely for seniors. No dates...just everyone showing up to celebrate making it through three years of high school and upcoming graduation. The dress is semi-formal so they get to dress up a bit and dance it out one last time. Julianne came home with a banged up knee and a fat lip, due to some hard core dancing mishaps...but with a huge smile on her face. She'd had a great time flitting from group to group, dancing with all her various friends she's made over the years. What a fun tradition.

Julianne and Elle decided to take some pictures together before leaving for the dance. These two will be rooming together at Utah Valley University so it was fun to get some shots of the two of them together as they finish up their years in high school and look forward with excited anticipation to the adventures to come.

Tulip Festival

I love flowers. One of my favorite things is to have a vase full of some sort of bouquet on my bed side table so I can see and smell them as I go to sleep and then wake up to again in the morning. Poor Bryan, I make it so difficult for him to ever surprise me on Valentines Day or our anniversary with fresh flowers...I'm all too frequently buying them for myself. At this point he's more or less given up. As far as variety goes, I'm not picky...I'm happy with daisies, carnations, lilies, daffodils, roses, what have you. But if I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be tulips. They are in season for much too short of a time, in my opinion. So during the spring, those are most often what I choose to fill my vases when I am in the mood for some colorful, fresh flowers.

I'd heard of the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. I'd always wanted to go. But it's a long drive from my house and for one reason or another, I'd never made it down there during the allotted time that the tulips were in bloom. This year I was determined to go. And though I was happy to wander the gardens on my own, I called my mom and asked if she wanted to join me. When Katie heard we were considering a date to go, she said she had a season pass to Thanksgiving Point and though she had just been there a few days earlier with her children, she offered to come along again and get us in for half price. Sweet! Especially considering the entrance price was more steep than I had expected!

So the three of us wandered those beautiful tulip gardens for hours. I was amazed at how many different varieties of tulips they are...and the individual and delicate details of each. Just so stunningly beautiful. We had such a great girls afternoon! We're thinking maybe we'll go back in a few months to see what the gardens look like with their traditional summer flowers.

Lantern Fest

Call me Rapunzel but I've always really wanted to be a part of a lantern festival. I've considered one in the past that takes place just outside of Las Vegas...but that meant getting to Vegas, and paying a nice chunk of change to attend.

So when I saw advertisements for the Lantern Fest that was out near Tooele and a whole lot less bucks to boot, I jumped on it. I decided to not even ask the kids if they wanted to go or not and made an executive decision that this was to be a family adventure.

I happily counted down the days and when we got within the week, started keeping my eyes on the weather. And then got a little nervous. Because it was supposed to be really windy. As everyone knows, wind and lanterns don't really go together. The organizers promised to make the final call within a few hours of the launch as to whether or not the event would cancel or proceed as planned. They decided to chance it, and so we all piled in the car, with a picnic dinner and lots of blankets in tow, and made the drive. It was still windy. Windy enough that I was concerned that the drive would be for naught and they'd still end up canceling. Plus, oh my was that wind freezing cold!

But we settled in around one of the many bonfires to wait for dark, listen to the music, eat our dinner, and try really hard to stay warm. We made s'mores and wrote on our lanterns with the markers they had provided. And listened intently to the weather updates that were interspersed amongst the music throughout the evening. There was still a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not we'd actually be able to launch our lanterns.

The launch was delayed...but it happened! There was a slight break in the wind that the organizers quickly took advantage of. After some instruction to do with how and when to get those lanterns lit and floating, they started playing "I See the Light" from Tangled and then moved to "To Where You Are" by Josh Groban. Julianne was rather delighted with their perfect "rising music."

It was slightly more difficult than expected getting our lanterns to float, but float they eventually did and, just wow. Who could've guessed the overwhelming feeling in your chest watching those lights float up and around in the sky above your head? It was nothing short of incredible.

The drive home was horrific...such amazing amounts of traffic trying to get out of that small area. And the wind picked back up bringing in one of those famous Davis County wind storms that knock over fences and trees, power and semis, as well as rip siding and shingles from houses.
Our lantern launch was in the small little calm before the storm. We lucked out that we were able to take part in "the most beautifulest thing I've ever seen"...according to Lilian.

Weightless

Bryan and I tried out flotation therapy last week. Never heard of it? Me neither. But Bryan came across a groupon for the Salt City Float Spa and thought it looked interesting. I'm always up for an adventurous date night...or afternoon in this case. And really, other than the drive up and back, we were on our own during the actual floating. But still a fun experience to share.

Floating takes place in this alien looking pod. It is filled with 10 or so inches of heavily concentrated salt water. Like, Great Salt Lake salty. The water is warmed to 95.9 degrees, or surface skin temperature. You climb in (swimsuit or not, totally up to you...I went with not) and close the pod lid. Because I was slightly worried about claustrophobia issues, I left the lid open a crack. There is a light inside the pod that you can turn off if you like. I left it on because it was just a nice blue color that reflected off the white roof of the pod...and it was kind of soothing.

Because you are floating, but the salt water is skin temperature, once you settle down and the water stops rippling around you, you can't feel it at all. And it suddenly seems like you are weightless, like floating in space. It is the most surreal feeling. You are meant to spend the hour in complete relaxation and meditation. It reminded me a lot of savasana...that final "corpse pose" at the end of yoga practice. I spent my hour in the pod focusing on my breathing, thinking about each area of my body and how to let go of any tension that might be there. I tried to let everything empty out of my mind and get to the point where I was just completely and totally relaxed. In fact, some people fall asleep while floating. Some soothing music starts playing in your room during the last 5 minutes of your float to let you know that your session is almost over...and to wake you up if you've dozed off. I did not fall asleep, but I was still very surprised at how quickly that hour went by.

I don't know if floating is something we will ever do again...but it sure was fun!

Prom for the last time...

Ah, Prom. Julianne's last of her high school years. And my last for awhile as well. At least in terms of formal dress shopping. Strange as this thought is, chances are good I will be wedding dress shopping before I prom dress shop again. Brandon will be 16 in a year, but in his case we'll be learning the ins and outs of tux rentals. Life is a'changing.

Julianne was asked to Prom by her boyfriend Bryson who sent her on a scavenger hunt around town before coming home to find this message on our garage spelled out in post-it notes. When Lilian caught Bryson and friend Alyssa outside with said post-its, they let her help out. Julianne was delighted when she arrived home and laughed hard when Bryson and Alyssa (who had been hiding out down the street) drove past and Alyssa let out a war whoop through the window.

Julianne decided that in order to catch Bryson off guard, she was going to answer him that very night! So she called up friend Jordan (Alyssa's boyfriend) to help her, thinking it only appropriate. She made a big poster that said something like "It would light up my night to go to Prom with you!" and then actually lit his street on fire. Did you know hand sanitizer could burn so prettily? And then when Bryson was outside with his younger siblings checking out the burning YES! Julianne and Jordan (who had been hiding out down the street) drove past and Jordan let out his own war whoop. Because, you know...it seemed fitting.

From the stories Julianne has shared, Prom was an incredible weekend and the two of them had the best time. Just a truly memorable night. When Bryson came to pick up Julianne I had to hide a giggle when I heard his reaction as Julianne came around the corner and he saw her for the first time. They looked stunning together. After letting me take a few pictures here at home and then meeting up with the rest of the group for official pictures together, they headed to dinner at Parkstone at Station Park in Farmington. Julianne said the food was amazing and they laughed a lot. The dance was at the Capitol Building in Salt Lake City. The night was warm, the trees were all in bloom and the view of the city is stellar from the Capitol. As much fun as they had dancing, they also enjoyed people watching. She said Prom, the biggest dance of the year, is kind of the red carpet version of all the dances. Checking out the fancy dresses, watching to see who is with who...and which are officially couples and which are just dates for the evening.

After the dance their group broke up to do their own thing. Julianne and Bryson headed to his house where sat and talked out on his back patio for awhile. Around midnight they arrived at our house and ended the evening dipping graham crackers in milk, which made me laugh. Except that Julianne said that it was kind of perfect...because she just loved how comfortable she and Bryson were together the whole evening, so relaxing and fun. So, graham crackers and milk in their fancy dress and tux.

Here we go again

He got his learners permit on the first try...he was very pleased. I guess it pays to study up a bit. I made him take a picture because I made his sisters do the same thing. And you know, traditions. He didn't seem to mind...

I'm torn. I love the idea that he is getting closer to being able to drive himself to gymnastics. Because I have been making the drive to and from Bountiful at least once if not twice, every. single. day. For many years. And it's getting old.

But teaching teenagers to drive is not my favorite thing to do. Truth be told, I'd kind of rather potty train a toddler, as strange as that sounds.

But Brandon is excited. So bring on the 40 mandated, parent supervised, practice hours. Here we go!

 Rebekah is driving
Another one driving