Spook Hill Hike

We went hiking this beautiful March morning on Spook Hill. Here is a picture of us on the top!

St. Francis Xavior Recording

Last night the choir I am in, East Valley Mormon Choir, recorded a Christmas CD in the beautiful St. Francis Xavior church in Phoenix. The church has a beautiful cathedral dome that made our 240 voice choir sound AMAZING! This is our second recording. Over the summer we recorded Brett Stewart's "Messiah In America" that was released in December and flew up the classical billboard charts to the #1 Album! This Christmas CD will be filled with my personal favorites- including my ultimate favorite- The Angel Suite. We had the full orchestra there and recorded the 7 songs in just one night arriving at 3:30pm and recording to 11pm! I can't wait for you all to hear it!!! It will be AMAZING!!! This is the First Soprano Section. I get to be section leader of these beautiful singers and it is truly a JOY to sing with them!

Playa del Carmen

Johnny and I went to Mexico this last week and had a BLAST together! We stayed in an all-inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We stayed right on the beach and had so much fun sight-seeing, shopping, eating and just plain-old relaxing! Here we are at a Chichen Itza, a Mayan ruin. It was absolutely AMAZING!

This is our hotel, Playacar Palace... gorgeous right?!

Johnny swimming in the ocean

Here we are at Tulum, another Mayan ruin. It was right by the ocean- if I was a Mayan I would have chosen to live here! It was beautiful!

Dinner on the beach

The view out our balcony

We went to XCaret and swam in underground tunnels. It was 1,800 feet long and so fun! We started in the middle of the park and the tunnels ended up right at the ocean at the other end of the park. It was fun swimming in the dark and looking up through the limestone skylights they created.

This is the beginning of the underground tunnels and the water was FREEZING! The only reason why I got in was because there was a line behind me! We got used to it though and it was great!

We swam with dolphins! This is Ballam, which means Jaguar in Mayan. He is 10 feet long and over 600 pounds! I had never done this before and I LOVED it! Definately a MUST for anyone thinking of doing it!

Here is Johnny dancing with Ballam.

Such a fun week!

Grace's Swimming Lessons

Grace took 4 weeks of swimming lessons with Miss Heather this summer. She started out kicking and screaming before and during lessons (literally!!!) and finished... swimming! It was a miracle! See the video below to check out our little fish!
Gracie learned to float on her back and then flip over and swim. When she needed a breath she would turn over and float again. She would also learn to "grab the side" when she went in the pool.

Here Gracie's floating with Miss Heather. She would sigh when she floated (haaah...) to show she was relaxing and breathing through her mouth. What a great idea Miss Heather!

Relaxing after a long summer day...

The kids relaxed after a big day of doing chores, practicing piano, doing workbooks, riding bikes, playing in the sprinklers and jumping on the tramp. WOW! They were so exhausted. I put on a movie and they just layed there!

Dad was in charge of dinner...

I put Johnny in charge of dinner tonight and look what he brought home!!! The pizza was gigantic! Really... it was huge! The pizza was as wide as my table is wide. The kids had a blast with the HUGE pieces! It was sooooo good too! We will definately get another one!

Crazy Gracie!!!

I found Gracie asleep on the couch... the girl is crazy!