End of School, Alley-Oop, and Seattle

 When we got home from London, we were getting into the very busy month of June!

It started with Bentley and Deacon's piano recital. It was held at the Sundance church this year and the kids each played 3 songs. I felt like it was a bit more rushed this year to get them practicing their recital songs, but they both did great! Some grandparents were also able to come support them. Bentley got a really bad sickness for about a month, but was able to fake it to do her piano recital and I was so proud of her for getting it done. 

Deacon was due for a mommy son date, so I took him to monster golf. Spending time with him is always so much fun and I just love hearing how grateful he is about everything. I could buy him one little thing and he would be the happiest. I think he mostly enjoys spending time together, and I just love him for it. We laughed at the monster scaring us both, Deacon got an amazing hole in 1, and he of course won all the things at the arcade. We also stopped at the gas station to try the Reese' Nougat bars, which are delicious by the way! Not long after our date, I took Deacon to get a perm. He had been growing out his hair for months to get this done and we were so excited. He was a bit nervous about the smell, since he is very sensitive to smells, but it didn't bother him and the process went a lot quicker than he even thought! I am obsessed with his hair!! He loved it too and kept looking in the mirror to make sure it was real. He is one handsome dude!

I also snuck in a little hang out/play date with Lena and the little boys. Boston had fun playing with her twins, Henry and Jasper, in the river. They have moved to Okotoks now, but we are making sure we still hang out and stay good friends!

The main event of Alley-Oop took place on June.13-15th. I always go in hoping that the kids will have fun! That's the main idea, and I don't care too much about winning or losing as long as they feel good about the way they played and are having fun. Deacon is on the top team for his age, and ended up winning gold like they usually do! Even if he isn't the best player on the team, he is doing so well and has come a long way. I always worry he may not feel good enough because these other kids lives revolve around basketball, but he is such a good little player and I love watching him! He had some really good plays and got lots of baskets. Bentley enjoyed basketball probably the most this year! She was on FYB Team 2 and it was perfect. She had Harlow and Coco on her team, and her coaches made it very chill and fun! They would often buy the whole team slurpees if they hit a shot or silly things like that. Bentley became known for her I love you hand sign and tongue out after making a basket. It was hilarious! And she made a lot of baskets this year being one of the tallest. She was so good at rebounding and getting them in! On the last game, she got the Player of the Game award because she made half the team's points. They ended up getting Silver! Leo and Boston had a good time watching the games, but mostly eating the snacks and finding kids to play with. We never like that the final games are on Sunday (and Father's Day!), but we let the kids decide, and they wanted to play. It's only twice a year, so we decided to let them. 

Boston had his final preschool concert on June.18 and my mom was nice enough to come watch it with me. Boston loved having his grandma there, and thankfully performed a lot better than his Christmas concert, where he basically didn't participate. This time he was happy to be there, did the actions and sang, and was very cute. I liked how they called each child up to get their certificate from the teacher, and as they were walking they said a few things about them. They said, "Boston's favorite thing about preschool was learning about bees, and when he grows up he's wanting to be Peter Parker." He sure loves Spiderman these days! After they sang their songs they got to eat some treats, and it was also nice meeting Boston's friend Parker's mom. He always talks about how Parker is his best friend at school and I guess Parker felt the same way! We exchanged numbers and suggested we do a play date over the summer. 

The next day we went to Seattle for Mason and Chloe's wedding. It was a busy time, so we were hesitant to make the trip, but decided it was worth it! The kids had a PD day on Friday, June.20 when the wedding was, so that was nice as well. On Thursday, we actually flew to Abbotsford because it was way cheaper, and then rented a car and drove to Seattle. The Abbotsford airport is so small and nice. Everything is right there, so it makes it go really fast. The flight went well and we got our luggage and rental car so fast. Then we started driving and ate at Olive Garden along the way. The kids loved that restaurant! We stayed at Embassy Suites by Hilton in Seattle and I would 100% recommend it. We stayed at a different place then the Loewen's, Nielson's, and my parents because we wanted a pool for the kids. They were all jealous of us because their hotel was a piece, and ours had it all, including an amazing breakfast with an omelet station and all. Melanie joked about the bathtub handle falling off at their place, and I sent them a photo of my omelet one morning, just to rub it in!! As soon as we got to the hotel we swam at the pool. There was no slide, but there was a big pool and hot tub. That evening we went to Chloe's parents house for a "Roast and Toast." Each of the siblings of the bride and groom roasted them and gave them a little gift, and it was actually hilarious and a lot of fun. Dakota even sent a video for Mason from her mission. Not surprisingly, Leo made a friend right away and was running around with this girl all night. Boston had a hard time staying awake.

 Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel to sleep and get prepared for the wedding the next day. It wasn't until 1pm so we took our time at the breakfast buffet. The wedding was beautiful! The Seattle temple is absolutely massive, but it was so fun to go inside and see it. I love going to sealings, they are so nice to watch. We stayed for a bunch of photos after and then went to Krispy Kreme with Jordan and Melanie's family. Then the family lunch was at 3pm, so we headed to the venue, where the reception that night also took place. It was in a little barn decorated so beautifully! We had Cafe Rio and there were many toasts and speeches. Before the reception we decided to go to Snoqualmie Falls. It was raining, however, so we did get fairly wet in our wedding clothes. It was a beautiful place, though, with a cute little town nearby. We found a bowling alley in the town and decided to go there to waste the rest of the time before the reception. It was such a funny bowling alley with one guy who ran it all - from bowling shoes to pizza! He was just a typical small town guy and eventually got bored and sat next to us to chat. The same song played over and over, and we had to manually enter our scores, but it was so fun! Hilarious and fun!

We made it back to the reception a touch late and didn't realize there was a program. We socialized some more, danced a bit(especially Leo!), and ate lots of food. They had a strawberry fondue in a cup bar, where you can choose your toppings. I just chose chocolate, but it was such a cute idea! They also had Italian Sodas and more food, and did the cutting of the cake. At the end we were all given bubbles to blow on their path as they left. It was very cute! My boys found a bunch of friends and ended up making a big bubble pile. 

The next day we ate the breakfast, swam some more, and then drove back to Abbotsford. We stopped at Texas Roadhouse for food along the way and the kids loved that place too! The flight went really well again, and I was so glad that we made the effort to go. It was nice to be there to support and we had a lot of fun too! The next week we also went to their reception in Calgary, which was held the the Lake Sundance Banquet Hall. Tamara did a great job on food and I thoroughly enjoyed the Glazed and Dazed donuts, pretzels, charcuterie and more. It was just a calling reception but it was fun to socialize some more. 

I lost my voice after all that, as I had been fighting a cold. My best friend Sarah came into town and wanted to hang out. I never see her and wanted to hang out so bad, but I literally couldn't talk! We still went out and she just had to listen to my whispering/squeaky voice. It was so annoying! I showed her Streats tacos in Legacy, as well as Mr. Puff's donuts. We had a lot of fun!

The last week of June came and it was also a lot of fun because the Fox's were in town! The kids were still in school, but played with them almost every evening and still had sleepovers. We had them all over to our house for dinner on the Monday (as well as the missionaries), went to Activate, and did an adult only dinner on the Thursday. The kids had all taken turns being sick in June, especially Bentley who was sick almost the whole month. We had some antibiotics going on, but it didn't stop us from playing hard! The kids eventually finished school and still all passed!! It was a sad goodbye for some, especially Deacon who loved his teacher, but we were also all very excited for summer!