Here is

Thirty on Thanksgiving

Yes, I'm 30 and still a little goofy.

Here I am enjoy my own little lemon birthday cake, my sister Erica made me. Delicious but unnecessary considering the many other pies we had: black bottom, apple, pumpkin, chocolate chunk pecan, & mincemeat.

I didn't have room for it all, so sad.

The feast is almost ready!

The kids are playing! Even a gift from my sisters- -thanks!

It was so great to spend my birthday and Thanksgiving with my entire family! We failed at taking a picture with all of us in it, but we sure enjoyed all our family time. It made my birthday fabulous. I loved all of Mom's thanksgiving foods.

Then our family stayed the night at Bri's house and we decided to try out the whole Black Friday thing at midnight and hit Old Navy & Target. Can you believe I made it all the way to 30 without ever participating in any Black Friday craziness? It was fun. Glad we kept it short and didn't turn into a marathon.
After our quick trip across the mountains and back I got to spend time with my good friend Gretchen. She was in town from Utah and it was a great surprise to see her and she was kind enough to help me pack. We are moving next Saturday--yikes!

lots of Lucy

Here is our sweet Lucy. Enjoy her many darling faces over the months.

Lucy has been poorly represented on this blog and I've been soo behind, but here is our darling girl. Hope you enjoyed a bit of her photo journey. These are photos up to about 6 months old.

nuclear

ever wonder what a plutonium reactor looks like up close?

can you believe they did all the calculations to build this with only slide rules?
I love this picture. Thanks Erica or Nathan for taking it.

This summer we did something so cool in our hometown.
We went on a tour of the B-reactor at the Hanford nuclear site. It was part of the Manhattan project and the first reactor of its kind and produced plutonium back in its day. I learned a lot.
We were lucky enough to have Mike's grandma with us. She was almost a celebrity on the tour. Her family owned a farm in White Bluffs and was relocated for the Manhattan Project. Later she worked at Hanford, so it was cool to be there with her.

We all goofed off in the control room.

If you ever have a chance to do the B-reactor tour, I highly recommend it. They only do it on certain days in certain seasons, but it is free and the tours fill up fast, like less than a day.

Five!

Riley turned 5 the next day, so we had a big party for all her friends at Pump it Up! The birthday girl was in heaven. Here are a ton of pictures of the big day.

These girls are so ready to party!Everybody had a great time!

So glad that cousin Isaac & the grandparents could be there.
It was great that so many of Riley's friends and their families could join us! (even the adults could run, jump & play)

Can't believe I am a mother to a 5 year old! It was so fun to celebrate her special day!

(and leave the mess there and go home to rest!)

a special Sunday

The day after Michael's graduation we made it a very special day. We blessed Lucy in church (similar to a christening) and later that night celebrated birthdays.

Here is the gorgeous babe, Lucy.

All the family who came to support us!

(Don't you love that she is waving?!)
These booties are made by a close family friend and have been worn by all my girls on their blessing day.

However, each daughter has wore their own, different blessing gown, hand made by a grandma, great-grandma, or aunt. This beauty was made by my sister, Monica. Nice work, eh?

We are so happy to have this baby in our family!

The Birthday Celebration
Riley & my sister, Monica, both had birthdays approaching later that week so since we were already all together...time to celebrate!

There were pretty presents

singing

blowing of candles & cake

and wonderful family togetherness!

what a day.