Teaser of Disneyland

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from our vacation. (not in any order)

Graduation

The highlight of the past few weeks has been GRADUATION!

Jimmy graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelors of Science in Business Management. Ah! My friends-its has been a LONG road, but I am so proud of my husband! Its been great having him around more, and the stress of homework is gone! Jimmy started school in January 2006. He decided if he wanted to move up on at his job, he would need a degree. So the journey began!


While Jimmy was in school, we had two children (wow), worked full time to provide for his family, changed jobs, tried to go on vacations, camp and have a life too. All of those activites always had the homework ghost hanging around. There was always homework due just around the corner. Jimmy did not take summers off, as the U of Phoenix does not have semesters. He took a week or two off of classes, but no real time off. (See with the U of Phoenix, you have 5 weeks of a class, then you move onto the next class/subject for 5 weeks and so on).


The excitement began as he finished his last night of class, and finally GRADUATION. Lots of sacrifices were made. Were we the best parents during this journey? probably not. Were there arguments, loss of sleep, high stress? YUP! Did we miss family events & did we both gain weight through it all-um yeah. But the excitement of graduation was amazing!


It all set in as we were gathered in the E Center for commencement-surrounded by family. To make it fun for my children, I had T Shirts made, cause it was a TEAM effort to get Jimmy down this road! The shirts were a surprise for Jimmy! He was told about them the day of graduation! (it helped him find where we were sitting in the stands!)


Jimmy worked hard for this degree! Jimmy would leave the house at 7 am and return home after 10. Soo many nights the kids heard the excuse "Daddy's at school-you won't see him tonight." That is why it was a TEAM effort-the kids


I AM SO PROUD OF YOU JIMMY! (I get emotional thinking back on the journey.....oh.....)
I am so glad its DONE!

Here we are seated at graduation:


Jimmy didn't know I wanted pictures in his gown-he was eager to turn it in after the graduation! But Jimmy did it.....

Now Jimmy can say:

I am a Phoenix Alumni.

(The shirts read: Team Burns, University of Phoenix, 2010 Graduate, BSB/M (his degree). On the back had names and numbers-the kids were numbered per their birth order. Jimmy's parents, and my parents also got shirts, and cousin Cooper (our 5th kid sometimes).

Getting April caught up

I am getting the month of April caught up----- Yipee!

Peyton's Birthday Party

Our friend, Peyton, turned three years old and mom put on a GREAT birthday party! There was painting of planes & a pinata & the playground. It was fun! (and my kids are just cute and fun to take pictures of!)

A Day Off

Jimmy is getting into dirt biking. We were invited to go out camping and dirt bike riding with some friends over Easter weekend. We thought about going, but couldn't get everything ready to go camping-weather & school. I took the day off we went out to see our friends & hung out for part of the day. Our friends, J & S Gardner, have dirt bikes for their kids (with training wheels on them). The kids loved taking turns riding those. I rode J's bike, and did pretty decent for my first time. I didn't stall the bike or crash! But I couldn't figure out how to change gears......oh well. The wind was horrible, so while the boys went out riding, the mom's & kids hung out in the trailer & played. I love camping trailers and generators! (ME! I was either coming back or just starting to take off again.)

Miss Sarah-out there in the desert riding around!
Wow little lady-I can my camera on zoom too!

Ashley

Charlie

Guitar Hero in the trailer.

Where does she get these blue eyes!

With a baby that rolls around-a trailer is PERFECT for camping!

Jimmy getting ready to take off.


My Favorite:

The Family Picture

Kraft Saturday

Kraft Saturday-Check out this blog. Cute Krafts!!
http://www.kraftsaturday.blogspot.com/

How to Train Your Dragon & Train Adventure

Jimmy's brother Joe, and his wife, Debbie, were in town from Baltimore. We decided to go see a movie, so we rode the FrontRunner and Trax train into the Gateway to see How to Train Your Dragon. LOVED the movie! Kids did good during movie. Sophie and Charlie and maybe Sarah fell asleep during it. Ashley got startled a few times, popcorn flew, but we liked it.

(Trax train)
FrontRunner train ride home after the movie.

(We rode in one of the older train cars from back east-which was cool inside until...see below)
Its all fun and games until you CAN'T GET OFF THE TRAIN!

The Woods Cross station came & went....and we were still on the train. We tried to get out-pushing the little green button, but the door didn't open. So we continued onto the Farmington station, GOT OFF the train, waited 35+ minutes for a train to go back south. We caught the train, and learned a lesson, and made it home~Finally~
Here we are at the Farmington Station. We did laugh about it & the weather was decent so we survived.

Gatrell Family Easter Egg Hunt

My mom's side of the family gathered for an Easter Egg Hunt. Its fun for my Grandparents to see their many grandkids and great grandkids. This isn't even half of them......There were 4 generations here. The sun was out, and we enjoyed a pot luck after. It's always fun to see family!

(I didn't forget to take a picture of Charlie-He wasn't here. Charlie spent the night with Grandma & Grandpa Burns with cousin Cooper.)

Utah Gymnastics

Ashley, Sarah, and I have gone to all the Utah Gymnastics meets this year. Jimmy, Sophie and Charlie went to a few also. The last one was Senior Night. Here are some pix from the meet.