Senior Trip by Whitney

End of High school? Awesome!
Senior trip? Definitely!
Go with three friends? Yes!
Take a week to see 14 of the 16 Utah temples?
Excellent!

That was the plan as I forayed out on an adventure of spiritually epic proportions. Armed with Aubry's car, Jeremy's DVDs, Natalie's mother's-friend's-sister's-

roommate's living room, my gluten-free food and a FedEx driver (Aubry's dad), the Fellowship of the Temple Recommend set out. We started in Logan and made our way down the state, ending in St George. We slept when we where driving and didn't sleep when we weren't driving, we saw the Avengers, hiked Zion's visited antique book shops and walked in the rain. All around an awesome trip.

(Note: The group plans to finish with the final two temples - Manti and ironically Salt Lake - in the next week or so.)

Timpanogos Temple

St. George Temple

Vernal Temple

Provo Tabernacle Temple Site

Payson Temple Site

Provo Temple

Ogden Temple

Monticello Temple

Logan Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Draper Temple

Brigham City

Bountiful Temple

Jordan River Temple

Dancing Through Broadway

Ellie and Janey have enjoyed taking modern dance this year. Their Spring Concert, "Dancing through Broadway" was a joy to attend. Ellie danced to "Hushabye Mountain" from Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang and and Janey dance "Anything Can Happen" from Mary Poppins. They are both beautiful dancers with deliberate and graceful moves.

Issue 211

Graduation

The big day finally arrived! Our high school holds graduation at the State Capital, which makes for an impressive ceremony. Because they share the last same name, Whitney and Analese got to march in and sit next to each other during the ceremony. Noreen is president of the school's Governing Board, so we got front row seats!

Beautiful Graduates!

We are so proud of Whitney! She was her school's Salutatorian (second in her class) for 2012. This is a picture of her receiving her award. She would have been Valedictorian if she hadn't taken time off to intern at the State Legislature this session. I asked if she had any regrets, but she said she'd rather have had the Legislature experience, and besides she got the award without having to write a speech. :)

Well done Whitney! Well done.

Graduation Party

After months (and years!) of hard work, all that was left was to celebrate graduation. I couldn't be prouder of my seniors.

Natalie, Whitney, Analese and Jessie. Aren't they great?!

Me and my girls! I was lucky enough to have not just one, but three seniors in my life this year. It was such a joy to have Analese live with us this year to finish up high school and an honor to work with her to get her to the graduation finish line. We couldn't have done it without Natalie, our faithful math tutor, my personal assistant and Whitney's best friend. She spent so much time at our house this year that we joked we should put another bed in Whitney's room. Seriously, we should have! And of course Whitney! She worked so hard in high school and I loved working with her on her goals. I can't believe my first born is on her way to BYU!

We had worked for weeks before graduation to strip and re-stain our deck for the big shindig. We were literally laying down stain until midnight the night before and I was touching up the morning of. Before heading off to the Capital for the ceremony we had over 50 people over for the big bbq.
The star of the party (besides the graduates of course) was this beautiful chocolate and vanilla gluten free cake. My best friend Denise not only made this masterpiece, but delivered it too! Everyone LOVED it. Thanks Denise! Didn't we just graduate from high school together? I can't believe the time has gone so fast.

Issue 210

Beautiful Senior Pictures

Antelope Island

Dad and Janey and Ellie went camping on Antelope island while Mom and the older kids were getting ready for graduation. They saw lots of wild life up close and personal and especially loved seeing many barn owls. They also enjoyed biking the island until a big rain storm stopped them short. I'm so glad they love nature and adventure! Thanks Dad.

Issue 209

Seminary Graduation

Another week of milestones around here! Not only do the girls have everything turned in to graduate from High School, they graduated today from four years of Seminary.

Whitney also spent the full day Thursday at BYU at New Student Orientation. She got to attend class, talk with an academic adviser and even got her student ID! It was a very surreal experience to drop her off at the Student Center. Wasn't I just attending there myself?

Analese spent Thursday evening checking out UVU and is very excited to apply.

Prom Date

Whitney and her good friend Jesse on their way to the Prom. Don't they look stunning?! Whitney had a wonderful time at her high school's Feast and Ball Saturday.

Analese also had a wonderful time at Prom, but was picked up from another girl's home, so we didn't get any pictures.

Snow Canyon

My mother's day present this year was a trip with Steve down to Southern Utah to bike beautiful Snow Canyon. Along with the amazing scenery, we saw many fun birds, including the curious Canyon Wren pictured above. We biked miles of trail and hiked through the red sands. A quick and timely getaway that was the perfect present!

Issue 208

My Student Art Show

For the last three years I have loved teaching art! This year we focused on learning about different influential artists and art styles and doing pieces inspired by them. After many extra hours of preparation, we held our annual art show at the local library. Here are some of my favorite pieces that we did this year.






I wanted to teach pointillism to my students this year. (Pictures made from tiny dots of color placed close together.) This mural (all done with dots of paint on the end of pencil erasers) was a team effort and a labor of love. It took well over 60 man hours to complete. I just love the way it turned out looking like a beautiful patchwork quilt. An experience the students will not soon forget!