Sunny day at the park

Spring Break 2015 (or at least a couple days after!) The Lea's are in Vegas!!!

School was back in for us, so Jake is missing from these pictures, but this is the old co-op group two years ago before the Lea's moved to Washington.  Crazy how time flies and everyone is suddenly bigger!!   Jessica, Suzy, and Tyler weren't born yet.  Riley, Frankie, Scarlett, and the twins were about the same age as the babies are now. It's amazing.  Love these little faces and love how they, how all of us, play and just seem to pick up where we left off. 

Jaime took some excellent pictures and posted these words.  I must say I completely echo them-- so I copied this from her post:

We met at Lisa's home on Monday morning for a playdate with the old crowd. It's certainly grown in the last two years. Three of us have had new babies and all the little ones are not so little anymore.

We've had so many wonderful times around this counter. Lunches, art projects, play-doh, dinners. Alyssa was at school, but Frank and Calvin joined us. I cannot describe how my heart soared as I sat around with Lisa and Remi and chatted like no time had passed. Remi is moving to Michigan in June where Dan will begin his residency. It's not likely we'll be able to gather in this way again, so it made this morning feel even more precious.

The kids completely entertained themselves. We were free to visit on the couch for the entire day. It was bliss. I kept checking in on them. Scarlett and Zackary at a Disneyland/Great Wolf Lodge level of happy. Sometimes I feel bad for moving our children away from such a great support system, family members and an incredible ward. Seeing them reunited with their friends inspired a bit of guilt, but it was easier this time than last time we visited to close my eyes and picture Poulsbo and all the beautiful things and people about our life there. Life is about making decisions and adjusting to change, but also appreciating our past. This visit to Vegas helped me to remember that. 

These girls were so young when we moved away.

And Tyler wasn't even born then.

I talk about "having a couch." It's my theory about girlfriends and why I feel they're important, why I need them. When things go wrong and when I'm feeling sad, I want to go curl up on a good friend's couch. I need the couch to be comfortable and the home to be a bit messy and I need to know that no matter what's going on with my friend, she will open her home to and provide her couch for me without cleaning up before I come over because she trusts me to see her messy house and I trust her to provide a couch for me to fall apart on. Lisa has provided me with a couch many times. Her couch is still a safe place for me. This is the essence of good friendship, I think, and when you find a good friend, no matter how far apart you live, your couches are always there waiting to welcome each other back.

On my last night in town, The Gateway Girls took me to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in Caesar's Palace for my birthday, which was only two days away. It was a special night because I was with my girlfriends, Remi is moving soon, and it was what we did during my visit in July. We talked about everything (and I do mean everything!) It's probably best that Dan sent Remi a text with the sad news that all three girls had thrown up. Party's over. But what a glorious party it was. I knew our brief time in The Cottage and the Gateway Ward was special even while we were living it, but looking back now I see how precious it truly was. To have been given so many friendships, in particular friendships with three women in both my same phase of life and also nearly my same age, three women with life experience and talents and opinions, who I had much in common with and still plenty of room to learn from them, will go down as one of the greatest blessings of my life.

Happy Easter FHE with the Cousins

We were missing Jesse and Whitney, but all of the cousins were here and it was an Easter egg FHE!  Although it was uncharacteristicly cold, a few Easter eggs were taken by some hoodlums at the park, and we had to deal with some significant whining, it was a great time.  The kids had a blast and there's nothing like chasing excited toddlers hunting eggs.

Spring Break 2015-- Conference weekend and Baker Cousins!

As if sleeping in a tent wasn't enough excitement, who should arrive and bring even more party with them-- our Baker cousins!!!   Our kids love playing with Mylie and Brynlee-- and baby Teancum is so cute and so HUGE!!  Their spring break was the week after ours so they came to Vegas for Easter/ conference weekend and a couple days after. And-- as if this weekend could get any sweeter, Auntie Shauna and baby Avery came into town, and of course Davis & Becca came over, so it was MacKay cousin party time!    On Saturday we blew up the bounce house.  Saturday, we mostly let the kids play while we listened to Conference. Sunday, was quieter but still fun:).

Auntie Shauna singlehandedly entertaining three babies at once!  Haha!

How many kids can you count in this picture? 

Spring Break 2015-- Backyard Camping!

Jason is the man!  On Friday night he had the idea to take the kids camping in grandma and grandpa's backyard.  I'm not sure when they've been so excited!  They bought camping treats, had ultimate wrestling with daddy, and stayed up late giggling.  (Suzy and I went home for a peaceful night to ourselves. Ahhh.). One of the highlights, that I wish I had pictures of, was Jason teaching yhe kids to play charades.  Apparently it was a kick-- Brook and Ethan being especially hilarious as they made up things on the spot.

Spring Break 2015--The Lea's in St. George?!

Woohoo!!!! I cannot contain my excitement!  Our friends the Leas are visiting from Washington!  Their spring break is the week after ours.  So although they will be in Vegas for a couple of days next week, we cannot wait!  It's a quick day trip to St George for us!

Jaime's parents live in St George and were so gracious to let us visit for an afternoon. Today I am esp grateful for easy travelers and best friends.  The kids had such a great time together. 

Brooklynn and Scarlett especially hit it off right away.  Scarlett dressed up as Elsa, Brooklynn was Anna and they just played princesses or hours-- I don't think there was one arguement the entire time we were there!  That's really saying something for three year olds.  

Pretending to be sleeping beauties. 

Exchanging yellow flowers and later gave them to moms. :)

Twirling. :)

The boys played outside and we all went on a nature hike.  Thankfully Jaime's dad was willing to take the big boys further while we took the littles back. 

Spring Break 2015-- The Park and Playdough

The first couple of days of spring break this year were a busy due to sickness. But once we got past that, it was time to have some fun!

We met up with our cousins Kinzy and her three girls at a new park. It was a drive but worth it. Such a cool park and the best kind of company. It was great just getting caught up and playing together. 

GARTH BROOKS!!

Last night was AMAZING as we were able to attend the Garth Brooks World Tour concert! He did 5 shows here in Portland and when we heard a while ago that he was coming we purchased 8 tickets cause of course all the Rowley peeps are country fans, and it worked out so nice that the concert landed on Jayson's birthday! We started the evening with a spectacular dinner at one our favorite burger places downtown- Tilt - and after stuffing ourselves we headed to the Moda Center to wait for Garth! 

I was blown away by his show! We had pretty great seats - a bit behind the stage but close enough to really see it all and enjoy all the action. He was SO AMAZING  and it was great to hear his wife Tricia Yearwood sing a couple of favorites as well. He had so much energy and the music was all so fantastic!!! It was also fun to watch Jayson and Josh sing all the words to all the songs, scream like crazy, dance and clap and sing along with everyone, watch the crazy drunk people and mostly just enjoy a truly great artist and legend perform!! 

WE LOVE GARTH BROOKS! :)