Maple Grove/Andy's B-day

Maple Grove Hot Springs has become a favorite place for me and Andy.

We went for the first time shortly after getting back from our cruise on Jo and T's recommendation and loved it!

For Andy's birthday, I scheduled a time that we could go back during one of Ben's last days of school.  

It started out as a cloudy, rainy day...it was beautiful and peaceful.

We got a kick out of Andy's line on his chest showing how deep he had been sitting in the hot springs :)

By the afternoon the sun had come out and it got pretty warm.

That's Andy out in the canoe you can barely see...

While getting ready to leave I caught a flash of bright blue flitting around.

I was able to catch a few pics...it was so beautiful!

Blurry but stunning!

Andy's parents came and took us all out to lunch at Beehive Grill on Andy's actual birthday.  Then Andy suggested we take them for a drive on the south end of the valley.  There is a property that my brother thinks would be a good investment for Andy's dad so we went and showed what we could to them and then we went further south into even more beautiful country, into a canyon and to a nearby dam.  Merill loved it!  Both of them love going for drives and it was a cloudy, rainy day which they recognized made it even more beautiful.  They couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was.  It really was a lovely drive but drives are not really my thing because of motion sickness and on top of that, I had had a lot of water at lunch and I really should have used the restroom before we left the restaurant.  I was super uncomfortable almost the entire time.  Each time Andy's parents suggested we go a little further I about died!

I made it though :)

I was too slow to get pictures with the candles lit but I did get a couple of Andy playing with the smoke after he blew them out.

I think his favorite gift was a large coffee table book with different artists' depictions of the Savior.

It's actually a book that Abby texted to Andy several weeks ago and said she had seen it at a friend's house and loved it.  Andy had shown the text to me and I hurried and texted her back and let her know I already had it in my closet for his birthday :)

So here is Matt face timing Abby showing her the birthday boy with his gift.

Andy chose to play Camel Up for his birthday evening activity. (Josh was at work)

Ben came over and couldn't stop giving loves to Andy :)

That makes 49 for this guy!

Can't believe we're at this stage in our lives...it's been wonderful so far though!

Let's see if we can double it Hon!

May Odds and Ends (Mostly Ben)

Ben was asked to Inclusion Prom!

This was our response...

I had fun making some flowers for Brooklyn

I had his brothers come get a picture with him before he headed out on his first date :)

We dropped him off and got some pictures of him and his date Brooklyn Brand.

I hope to one day receive the professional pictures they assured me would be taken!

Andy and I went and saw a movie after we dropped him off.

About 30 or 40 minutes before we were supposed to pick him up we got a text from his teacher saying we could come get him any time because he was acting like he was done :)

They said he had a good time though!

Ben has a good friend named Sam.

Ben and I went to visit Sam one day at his house.

We ended up in his bedroom and Ben started collecting all kinds of fun things.

I knew that would be a problem when it was time to go.

It was but after some stealthy strategies, a battle and some physical manipulation I was able to get him back in the car.  Ben still talks about it (in his own way of course :)

 May was a busy month at the flower studio!

Here are a couple of memorial day arrangements I did...

And then I think the one on the left was a birthday and the one on the right was a funeral request.

We were given the circular metal thing in the middle to incorporate and so I suggested a wreath and was given the assignment to design it :)  It was kind of fun!

We had a combined meeting for 5th Sunday and I pulled out my camera at one point to try and keep Ben happy.

I realized this was his last day as a 16 year old :)

Cruise Days 6 & 7

 The last two days of the cruise were at sea.

Andy and I woke up and enjoyed our balcony while the boys slept in.

Ben was given 9 ducks by random people throughout the cruise.

This one, on day 6, a very soft spoken lady came up to us while we were leaving the buffet and asked if he liked ducks.  We told her he did and so she said she was going to go leave one on the rim of the planter for him to find.  We hung back while she went ahead.  As soon as she put it down another woman came up and grabbed it!  We watched as the first woman explained what she was doing. The second lady put it back and we were able to go up and point it out to Ben for him to pick it up.

It was my favorite one that he received...a 3D printed spa duck with cucumbers on the eyes and a towel wrapped around it's head :)

The kids went and watched a skating show together...

Andy snapped a pic of them while they were spectating.

And then our brave Josh got up and sang during kareoke!

The boys had been talking about possibly doing it and Josh just went for it!

He sang Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John.

When I was shown the video later (I had been in the room with Ben) I realized I was not familiar with the song at all but I was so proud of Josh!

Andy spent a lot of time looking out at the ocean and was rewarded with a lot of wildlife sightings...

Rays, dolphins, a whale, a hammerhead shark (not pictured), and flying fish.

He liked to remind us occasionally and make us jealous :) 

Ben with some of his many treasures at dinner

Andy and Josh had lobster.

Matt comparing his sunburned arm to the color of the lobster

Abby with her baked Alaska and Andy with another sugar free dessert

Another comparison...not quite as red as his red velvet :)

More dancing :)

I had bought a fancier dress in Cabo and wore it for our last fancy dinner night.

Andy had seen that there would be dancing in one of the lounges so we left Ben with a willing Josh for just a few minutes to go steal a dance (Abby followed us to get a picture...see below) but sadly, no one was dancing to the live band and Andy and I are not confident enough to dance anyway so we found Josh and Ben and were told that Ben had gotten out of hand and hurt Josh's eye and thrown and broke his spa duck :(

So we got Ben back to the room and when we saw that he was under control we left Josh with him again and went and got a few pics of us in our fancy clothes :)

Some of our towel animals...

Well, we were glad we went but it wasn't a magical solution for vacationing with Ben like we had wondered about.

There were still frustrations and inconveniences but there were definitely some perks...like having food constantly available :)

Talking as a family, we decided that we wouldn't be opposed to ever going on a cruise again but it's not going to necessarily be our first choice from here on out either.