Goodbye Dear Flynn

So, Maren had her fish for 5 days, came home early from school today to find her fish dead.  She was so sad and cried for a while, this was her first pet and had been bugging me for one for months.  I told her we needed to flush it down the toilet and she would not have that.  We had to have a funeral.  She put on her black dress, brought her dolls out for it, she even used her birthday balloons to let go.  She wrote on a rock for the headstone.  I video recorded her talk.  Even Sam had to come out a watch before he went to work.  I told her we would get her another fish.  I feel so terrible.  

Maren Turns 10!

Maren got an early birthday present.  A Betta fish.  She was so excited.  We got the fish bowl, rocks, and decorations at Wal Mart, then got her pretty pink fish at Pet Smart.

Sunday Dana came up with her kids and we had a yummy dinner.  It wasn't what Maren asked for, she wanted french toast, but I didn't really want to make that many french toasts.  It would have been around for 22 people.  Instead, I made lasagna for the adults and Mac and Cheese for the kids. (that's Marens second favorite)  We sang Happy Birthday, opened presents and talked for a while.  

I can't believe Maren is 10 years old!  All of my children are in the double digits now. I'm amazed.  

Happy Birthday Maren!  I love you!

Of course we had to get her traditional Build A Bear.....

St. Patrick's Day Parade

I haven't ever gone to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Billings before.  I'm not a big crowd person, but this year Jackson was in the parade with his lacrosse team, so I guess I had to go.  Luckily for me, Jodi and Kenny go to the parade every year, so I was able to meet them there and hang with someone.

I had to drop Jackson off at the float about an hour before the parade started.  Got some pictures of the group, then went to find a parking spot and meet up with Jodi and the kids.  Maren was already with her because she spent the night and came over with her with Karissa and Paige.

Jackson and Cace

Getting ready to go!

After an hour, they finally show up!

We had fun watching everyone go by.  It was cold at first, then got warm when the sun finally came out.  Jodi went out in the middle of the parade and gave Jackson a big hug to embarrass him.  I think it worked.

They couldn't throw the candy, so they handed them out with their sticks.  I thought that was pretty ingenious.  It was a fun day.  Aliza and Kyla would have been there, but they were at their first volleyball tourney for their club volleyball season.  

Mexico

What a vacation.  It all started when Danette told Sam sometime in November that she was taking the month of February off.  What????  Rebecca, the girl we had just hired, would not be ready to be there all day every day alone.  So I said I could go in every once in a while (it ended up being most the day every day) and help out.  I also decided that it would be a great time to take the last week of February off like we had in previous years, so I would only have to work for three weeks instead of four.  We, of course chose Mexico and were so ready to go.  I didn't have much time to exercise, lose weight, or shop for the trip due to working, but got some in.  We decided to leave from Salt Lake again because it would be less money, but I don't know if it is worth it.  We flew out of Salt Lake Friday morning at 6:30 and Sam worked all day on Thursday, so we would have to drive through the night.  We certainly took our time getting there, and shortly after Pocatello we got in a snow storm the rest of the way and had to go even slower.  We barely made it to Salt Lake Airport before we had to check in.  I don't ever want to do that again.  

Once we got on the plane, I was able to relax and sleep a little bit.  Neither one of us had slept that night.  Once we got to Mexico and got checked in we were in heaven.  We decided we were so tired, we didn't want to do any activities, and we didn't.  We slept in every day until 10:30 or so, laid around then made it out to the beach around 11:30 or 12:00.  I would sit on the beach chair and Sam would walk.  Later during the day, I would walk with him for an hour or so.  The pictures below are from one of our walks.

It was fun to see the iguanas hanging out there.

The first few days were terribly windy, which made the waves huge.  The one time I went in the water I got pummeled.  Didn't go in again.  

There was this lone palm tree on the beach which was a good picture spot.

I was the worst picture taker this trip, I mean what you see is what I took.  Sam took a couple on his phone, of which one is the picture below in my spot on the beach.  There were a couple of weddings right around there which was fun to watch while I was lounging.

This was taken the last day.  We sat out in the chairs for an hour before we had to leave.  It was sad to go, but good to see the kids again.  We got to Salt Lake Friday night late around 10:30 and got to Kass's  to stay the night.  Sammy was there and we hung out with him for the day on Saturday.  I had to take him to the hospital to get his last blood test for his mission papers, then Sam and I took him and his roommate, Will, to the Brazilian restaurant in Provo.  It was good.

We then headed home and stopped in Idaho Falls for the night, then got home early afternoon on Sunday.  I was already to get back into life again when my back went out on Monday and couldn't do anything for a week.  It was terrible.  I so do not like being sick or hurting.