So You Think You Can Dance

We love the show So You Think You Can Dance, so when I saw a flier for a workshop featuring dancers from the show I had to sign Kenzie up. One of my all-time favorite dancers from the show was going to be there, namely Twitch!!! He is such a great dancer and has such a fun personality. If you aren't familiar with him, just go to YouTube and watch some videos, he's awesome!

Anyway, the workshop was on Saturday from 8-5. Kenzie was able to learn choreography from three different dancers from the show, Twitch, Lauren, and Legacy.

Her first class was with Twitch. He taught a really cool hip-hop routine. It was much harder choreography than Kenzie was used to, but she had a lot of fun with it and has some new moves to show her friends. Twitch was a great teacher and really fun to watch.

Her second class was with Lauren. She taught a jazz contemporary routine. Kenzie wasn't all that fond of the dance style, but learned a few moves that she really liked. Lauren is a fantastic dancer and it was really cool to see what she was capable of.

The last class was with Legacy. He also taught a hip-hop routine and actually ended up using the same music as Twitch so they could add the two routines together. Legacy was recently a backup dancer for Justin Bieber, so he spent a large part of the class doing his best Justin Bieber impression. It was very funny! He also showed off some of his moves at the end and it was absolutely amazing!

After the classes, we all gathered together to sing Happy Birthday to Twitch and they brought out cake for everybody. Then we were all able to get pictures with the three of them and then line up for autographs. We were able to get a shirt signed and a poster. It was a very long, but very fun day!

My goal by the end of the day was to get a picture of me with Twitch for my new profile picture on Facebook. I was a little worried it wasn't going to happen, but right before we left there was no one around Twitch, so we were able to talk him into it. I seriously felt like one of those teenage girls that gets all starstruck by their favorite celebrity, but I just couldn't help it.

Hogle Zoo

Since the weather was gorgeous this week, we decided it was the perfect time to go to the zoo. We brought our niece, Amaya, with us since she hadn't been to the zoo for a while and really wanted to go. We ended up buying a membership because it was only a few more dollars than getting all 7 of us in. Hopefully with the membership we'll actually make it down a few more times this year and experience the animals in different times of the year. I've heard they are much more active in the winter, so we'll see. It was our first time going to the zoo without a stroller and it was heaven! It's such a different experience to be able to get through the crowds without pushing a large stroller everywhere you go. Brooklyn and Kaden did get a little tired, but overall it was so much better. We rode the train and the carousel while we were there, had a picnic lunch, and saw most of the animals. It was a long, but fun day.

Brooklyn had told me that she didn't want to see the gorillas when we were there because she had a nightmare about a gorilla biting her foot. I thought she would get over it by the time we got there, but as soon as we went in the building to see the gorillas she started crying. She was so scared even though they were behind a glass wall.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Where do I begin?

After 5 months of no updates, it's hard to know where to start, so I guess I'll just go back to May and move forward.

At the end of May my mom underwent heart surgery and my grandma passed away. That put a bit of a damper on the beginning of summer and I don't really feel like it began until the end of June.

Right before my mom went in for surgery, Kaden had one last field trip with his preschool to Discovery Gateway. We rode the train down and enjoyed a couple hours there and then went to lunch with Les. We had a great time together.



Kenzie also had a puppet show at the end of May. Her group did a really good job and it was fun to see all of the kids creativity with their puppets.


Kenzie, Kaden, and Brooklyn were all a part of a dance/tumbling recital at the end of June. It was a hectic two days of dress rehearsals and performances, but it was a lot of fun to see all of their hard work pay off.


At the end of July, Kenzie and Kaden started school. Kenzie is in the 6th grade and Kaden is in Kindergarten. They both have great teachers and are doing really well in school.


We also took our first camping trip of the summer at the end of July to the Uintah's with Les's family. We were able to spend time with his parents, four of his brothers, all of his nieces and nephews, a couple aunts, one uncle, and a few cousins. The kids had a blast floating down the river. It was great to finally get out and have some fun after the rough start to our summer.


In August we celebrated Kenzie's 11th birthday. I surprised her by decorating her room for her while she was at school. It was fun to see her reaction, she even got a bit teary-eyed, which in turn made me teary too. It was well worth the time and effort!



A couple days later, my mom ended up back in the hospital after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain) which wouldn't stop because of the blood thinner she takes for her mechanical valve. It was very scary to go through something like that again and very stressful. She was in the hospital for over two weeks and I tried to make it up there everyday to keep her company. She's doing really well again, thank goodness, and hopefully we won't have anymore scares like that again.

Cody started school in August as well, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him on his first day. He started the 8th grade this year and he's definitely noticing the difference in homework this year.

We woke up to a surprise one Sunday morning at the end of August. Our very large willow tree in the front yard had blown over in the wind. It was quite the site. Luckily it was too short to hit the house, but it was very close.


Over Labor Day weekend we finally were able to take a camping trip with my parents. We went up to Flaming Gorge. We spent time in the boat, hiking, and just relaxing. It was a much needed break after the craziness of our summer. Cody's friend Nate came with us for the weekend for his very first camping trip ever. It was fun to have him around and Cody definitely enjoyed the company.


Brooklyn started preschool a couple days after getting home. She absolutely loves it! She wishes she could go to school everyday like the other kids. I just can't believe my baby is in school. I'm kind of stuck between emotions on that one. On one hand, having some alone time is pure bliss, on the other, I'm sad that my kids are growing up so fast.




In a nutshell, this has been the past 5 months for our family. It's been quite the roller coaster ride. Hopefully this will be the last marathon post for a very long while!