Another teenage driver

Kenna is officially DONE with driver's education and has her permit! Her last class was today and she must now spend the next 6 months chauffeuring us around while I sit white knuckled in the passenger seat, before she can take the driving test and get a license to drive without an adult in the car. If there is anyone out there over 21 and wanting a chauffeur, I know Kenna would be more than happy to oblige you! Well, two kids able to drive - sure makes me feel old! It has been pretty convenient to have a teenage driver to help with errands or run kids here and there, I just hope I can keep the fighting to a minimum over which girl gets to drive!

Young and sweet, only 17!

I wanted to really make sure Lindsay felt special on her birthday since it fell on a Sunday and we spent the weekend in Salt Lake. We woke up early and make her breakfast in bed, which consisted of bacon and eggs, grandpa Luman style, toast and apple juice. She had friends over until midnight last night so this was pretty early to be waking her up. Chris, Ali and I (the only ones that were awake) went into her room singing 'happy birthday' and handed her a hot plate of food. I don't think she was too pleased that I also had my camera in hand. Here she is smiling anyway. Showing off the 'you are special today' plate.

Once the rest of the kids were up, they were excited for her to open her presents. Most of her gifts she already had as she got to choose them while we shopped in Salt Lake the day before, another reason why I wanted her to feel special, she already knew her gifts. There were a few from grandma and grandpa Root, grandma Jackson, Aunt Kara, Aunt Laura and one from each of her siblings. Here she is showing off Aunt Kara's gift.

Pomegranate 7-up, one of her favorite drinks.

After church we came home to her requested meal of Italian chicken. YUM!

Chocolate fudge birthday cake and cookie dough ice cream.

I could barely fit 17 candles on her cake!

Blowing out her candles....

Happy birthday Lindsay!! It's never fun to have your birthday be on a Sunday, especially when you are a teenager but she made the most of spending time with us and didn't complain that she didn't have friends over!! She gets more beautiful everyday, not just in her appearance, she's a great example to all of us and she makes good choices that will continue to bless her as she gets even older!! We love that she is in our family and love that she is such a fantastic big sister!!!

Weekend in Salt Lake

With the kids out of school last Friday, we took the opportunity to head down to Salt Lake and spend a few days together. We did have to come home on Saturday evening because Lindsay wanted to have a few friends over to hang out for her birthday which was Sunday. We did a lot of fun things and we all enjoyed it.
We stopped at the reflection pool in front of the Salt Lake temple. This picture is out of order but Jace couldn't be happier about the food he was able to eat at the Little America restaurant, we ate there twice since we were staying there it was convenient. Here he is posing with Baylie and his waffle.

We wandered around temple square. Jace was just a baby the last time we took the opportunity to actually stop and walk around.

We ventured up to the 26th floor of the church office building for a panoramic view of the city. Here I am with Jace, Salt Lake temple and tabernacle behind us.

The capitol building, from the church office building.

The temple and tabernacle....

Our cute kids......

Me and Chris......

We went to the visitors center. Here are the kids with the Christus.

Baylie and Jace stopped to pose with Joseph Smith.

We took the tour of the conference center......

Our tour guide took us right down to the front where the pulpit is. She told us all kinds of stories about the conference center and we enjoyed this tour a ton. She even told us the seats we were sitting in are the same spot that President Monson sits during performances. I decided that I was probably the one sitting in his seat!

She took a picture of all of us, in the Friberg painting room. This is a room full of original paintings from Arnold Friberg. Most of the paintings are depicted from stories in the Book of Mormon.

On the roof of the conference center in front of the fountain.

Of course we had to swim in the pool at Little America...... Here's Ali and Emily playing around.

Ali showing off her 'starfish' float.

Chris with Ali, Baylie and Jace. Emily isn't too far in the background.

Emily and Ali, still playing around.

Lindsay and Kenna headed to the hot tub!

Emily, Lindsay and Kenna in the elevator heading out to gateway to do some shopping.

We shopped until Chris dropped!! These are but a few of the bags he had to carry around for us, he's still smiling at this point!

Of course you can't go to Utah without stopping at Nielsen's Frozen Custard! Caramel Cashew...... DELICIOUS!!! We actually stopped on our way into town and again on our way back to Idaho Falls (who knows when we'll get there again).

This was such a fun little get away. Too bad it wasn't to warmer weather but we still enjoyed each other and that's what was important!

Sweetheart ball

Last night was the sweetheart dance for the high school. It was a girls choice dance and Lindsay asked Tyler Nelson. She sent him a poster that said, "will you be a sweetheart and go to the dance with me?" She had attached a little box of conversation hearts and on the back of some of them, she spelled out her name. He then had to unscramble the letters to see who was asking. I don't why but I didn't take any pictures of that. He answered with a rose that said yes. She also went to get her hair done from the same girl that has done her hair for the past few dances but instead of taking her boring old mom, she took 2 of her friends and they all got their hair done together, and because of that, I have no pictures of that either.
Here is she all ready to go (excuse the mess of piano books near the piano) We found her dress online as Idaho Falls doesn't have a modest dress shop - I'm still surprised by that! Here she is with her siblings with the exception of Emily who was off babysitter for some people in our ward.

One last check in the mirror......

These next two pictures are out of order. My good friend Nicole offered to let Lindsay drive her mustang convertible GT - what a lucky girl!! (I must say that Kenna was beside herself the whole time this car was in our possession as it's her dream car!)

And, she's off to pick up Tyler. It is a pretty sweet car!

A quick little story, Lindsay forgot the boutonniere in the refrigerator and as soon as she left, I realized it and had Chris take it to Tyler's house. She called when she realized what she had done and we told her dad was on his way. The next day, Tyler was telling Chris that he noticed the sweet car in his drive way and figured it must be her even though he didn't recognize the car but that she was just sitting in the drive way. Then he said he saw Chris drive up and hand off the boutonniere. We all had a good laugh!

Lindsay and Tyler at Tyler's house. Since she wouldn't come back to the house to let me take pictures of the two of them, I had to rely on his mom to take some and she did a great job!

More of the cute couple

Pinning on the forgotten boutonniere

putting on the corsage

What a gentleman....

The two of them in front of the car

One last photo before they drive away....

They headed to the school to have their pictures taken so once the dance started, they wouldn't have to wait in the picture line and then they went to one of Lindsay's friends' house for dinner and games before the dance.
Here they are getting ready to play a game, one of the moms is explaining it to them - Lindsay is on the right about the 3rd person in.

Playing one of the games

Lindsay, Tyler and the group of friends that they went with.

Lindsay had a great time on this date and I'm grateful she makes good choices, not in just picking out modest dresses to wear but also in her friends. She has a great group of friends that she does things with. I will try to remember to scan in the professional picture when we get it back.