TORONTO!It

We left for Toronto, Canada on Friday morning early. The flight was great and we met an Olympic gold athlete in the Ski Slope sport! The kids were all awesome on the flight and it went by quickly.
It was SO great to see Grandma & Grandpa Shields! We haven't seen them in 2 years. We had fun relaxing and seen their mission home etc.. on Friday night.  we had a lot of catching up to do. 

Saturday morning we slept in and then went to the beautiful Toronto Temple. Taylor and Emily did Baptsims for the dead along with some new converts as well. It was a wonderful time at the temple. After we had fabulous Mediterranean food which was tasty! 

The afternoons we ventured downtown to see the big city. We went the Ripleys Aquarium which was great! Lots to see! 

After we found a famous restaurant for Pouttine. We tried it and it was great!  A little heavy, but tasty!
We also had to try the first and only "Poop Cafe"!!  Emily really wanted to try this place and it was a lot of fun!
It's an Asian Inspired Poop themed dessert place full of poop emoji's, urinals, and min toilets! It was hilarious! 

Sunday was full of Sacrament meeting, driving to lots of places, and a nice fireside that night. We had fun resting and relaxing at the house too. 

Monday morning we slept in and then headed to the "Lion African Safari" it was a really fun day!  Full of tons of animals, the kids rode on a HUGE elephant and we drove thorough acres and acres of animals in the wild. 

After our long day at the Safari we had a great dinner at the Chinese Buffet, the "mandarin" the kids LOVED this place, it was tasty and full of tons of food choices! 

Tuesday we stopped by the Mission Office and then headed to downtown Toronto! We parked and went straight to the CN Tower! It is 1,810 Feet high in the air and we rode the elevator all the way UP! It was so cool! 

I got little nervous, because of the heights, but it was so cool I couldn't help but look down. We ate an amazing lunch at the 360 degree restaurant  which was SO terrific! The food, the view, the way the restaurant moves around the tower, it was ALL amazing! 

We ate our fabulous lunch, and then went to the viewing areas to take pics, see the glasss floors and take lots of pictures! what a great experience this was! 

After the CN tower we took a boat ride to the island of Toronto. It was a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun! We walked around the island, the kids swam in Lake Ontario, and we just hung out and relaxed. It was such an pleasant day with incredible views! 

All the kids just jumped right in to the lake and swam for a while! 

Wednesday we drove to Niagara Falls. It's about  80 minutes from Brampton. The drive was nice, and very beautiful.  We saw the falls from the car and they were SO much bigger than I thought! The kids were pumped to see them too, and really happy to be there. The air was misty and damp! 

We ate lunch at this really cool restaurant right next to the falls. They had delicious burgers and it was tasty! 

We took a few pictures and then decided to do the boat tour on the big boat! It was quite an adventure! 

You can see the falls SO good from the Canada side, They just keep going and going and going. The falls are loud and wet, damp and so cool to see! 

We rode on the Horneblower boat right in to the heart of the Falls, it was a WET trip! The water was heavy and the wind was strong. But we had SO much fun on that boat! Lizzie was really nervous to get on the boat but she was brave and made it! She loved it after it was over. 

Niagara Falls was SO cool! We had an incredible, memorable day there! 

Thursday we stayed in Rochester, NY and had a wonderful time in Palmyra. We saw the sacred grove, the smith family farm house, we stood not the Hill Coumorah, and then visited where the
B of M was published. We got sandwiches for lunch at a yummy place near the Eerie canal, and then had HUGE ice cream cones in town. 

We had a great day in Palmyra, there's so much to see there and there is a wonderful spirit about the whole area!

Friday morning we packed up, did laundry etc..  hung around the house, had delicious Persian food for lunch, and then said our goodbyes' and headed to the airport! This week went by SO fast! 

Toronto was incredible! We had a fabulous week!
We'll see G & G Shields in one year! 

Summer is here! We are pumped about this! Lots of time with friends, cousins, swimming, late nights and lots fo fun! 

Emily graduated from 6th grade at Uintah! It was a nice memorable night and we are so proud of her!  She and her friends did a song at the Talent Show, I went on a field trip to the park with Lizzie's class. Lots of fun and good times! 

The kids had a fabulous final day of school! This is the last day Emily, Isaac & Lizzie will be at the same school. It was a wonderful time for them to be together at school everyday.

As soon as school was over we had fun afternoon at the park with friends, and then the next day we had a great day at the pool with cousins!  We are headed to Canada soon!

We are feeling really ready for Summer! We spent gorgeous day out on the lake boating and it was perfect!
the kids swam, wakeboarded, knee boarded, water-skied and even surfed a bit. It was terrific!

Earlier in the week we celebrated Danny's 42nd Birthday!  He wanted pasta etc.. for dinner and the I made almond cake with berries and whipped cream for dessert.  We had a fun night all together with the family.
The YW went Ice blocking this week for mutual and Lizzie brought home all her awesome art projects from school! 

Friday was Field Day at the school and then Emily went on a super fun Birthday party sleepover in Heber with some of her friends. She had a blast! Lizzie scored goal at her last soccer game of the season and the we all headed to Jordanelle for a day of boating! 

We really are happiest when we are outside enjoying nature, gorgeous water, green trees and having fun!
We are out of school in 3 days! 

Lizzie's dance photos from Tanner dance this spring! She looked so cute and so big! 

A few random pics from this week.
Trek dancing with the stake mutual
Hanging out with Jane at Breakfast for Monica's bday. 

lizzie had her 1st grade Patriotic program! It was so cute and they all sang so many wonderful songs about USA! Lizzie was thrilled to do this program she wanted her hair crimpy and wore her Red, white and blue dress to school! 

We are happy it's a long weekend for Memorial Day.

We divided this break the guys went camping/fishing/boating at Flaming Gorge. The girls stayed home and hung out with friends, cousins, went hiking watched the PBS series of Little Women and had a blast!
We baby-sat all of Monica's girls on Friday night, we had so much fun! 

Saturday we went for a bike ride, had a cousins sleepover and then went swimming. Lizzie is really into climbing trees right now. 

The boys had a great time camping! Flaming Gorge looked SO amazing this time of year! 

They had fun torturing Emily with these Crawdads. she freaked out when she saw this on her plate for dinner! 

We have been looking for a new car for a while now and this weekend we found one! I have driven my old can for 11 years now- so it was hard to make a change! But we bought a Toyota Sequoia! I'm excited about it, and think it will be a great car for our family! 

We finished our weekend with fajitas for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert!
We had a wonderful long weekend! 

May is a busy, fun month! A lot of things going on and all the end of school activities. Lizzie had her "Chicken Little" Play this week. She was "Ducky Lucky", and she loved every second of it! Such cute songs, happy faces and a great event. 

She is enjoying her soccer season playing with her friends on the team "Unicats". She loves to hustle and play hard with her the girls on her team. 

Isaac earned his Webelo in scouts this week. He has terrific leaders and really enjoys his time at scouts! Lizzie moved up to a bigger bike, it seemed too big for her, bu t she's doing great!
I had the YW here for their activitiy this week, we worked on Personal Progress, such  great group of girls. Danny attended the U of U Business school graduation last week, complete with cap & gown. 

Emily had her Choir end of year performance this week.  She does not love singing in the choir, but I think it's been a great experience for her, and I'm proud of her for doing it. They sounded awesome! 

Now that the weather is great we can ride our bikes in the evenings to "Sweetaly" for our favorite gelato! The kids LOVE this gelato! 

Emily had a big Volleyball tournament on Saturday. It was ALL day long! Her team did good, and it was great learning experience for the whole team!
We are looking forward to summer!  Off to another crazy week! 

We had a wonderful Mother's Day!!
We went to church, Danny spoke and the kids sang in sacrament meeting. Then we came home and had rests, played games, and I took a nap, it was fabulous!
Later we made homemade pizzas on our pizza oven. 

earlier in the week we went swimming at the Randall's pool. WE had a fun family dinner at our house with cousins etc...Lizzies been bust with her dance rehearsals and recitals! She is a very graceful, beautiful dancer, we love watching her perform! 

Friday night the kids had art night! They are all so creative and doing so well at school!

We all went to Lizzie's dance recital at Kingsbury Hall. It was a great event and she did awesome! 

It was a terrific Mother's day!  I love these kids so much!  They bring me joy and laughter every single day! I feel SO blessed!