Kelsey's Graduation and Misc Stuff

It's the time that most parents either can't wait for or they fear. Mine was the latter. It marks an undeniable change in our lives. Our baby has graduated from High School. She isn't moving out or, thankfully, even threatening it. Bryon and I are happy to let her live at home until she is 30 if she chooses to. That may change.

Kelsey is planning to attend GCC next year and work toward getting her nursing degree. We are in negotiations on where she'll go to get her B.S. degree. We are encouraging her to go to Idaho, like Ashley. We think it would be a great adventure of independence for her. She thinks she'll freeze to death.

This is our sassy little adult. I hope she never looses her wonderfully magnetic personality that draws us all to her. She is a constant bright spot in our family. That's not to say that she hasn't created her fair share of challenges, oh she has. I know that she'll use these opportunities to learn and grow and become an amazing woman because of them.

The ever spoiled Kelsey, baby of the family, received a new laptop, for college along with some sweet sunglasses from her brother. She started her day with a delivery of beautiful flowers from Ashley. I think this day was really difficult for Ash. She wanted to be there for Kelsey, in the worst way. It stinks when all of your kids can't be together at times of celebration. Our family has always been together so it's a big adjustment for us all.

She's such a spoiled princess.

But a really cute one.

This was taken before prom this year. We had all of these kids over for dinner in the back yard. It saved them time and money. I hope they enjoyed it and it will be part of a great memory. It was fun seeing so many kids that we've watched grow up over the years. They're not babies anymore!

Kelsey is of course the most beautiful one in the bunch. I feel bad saying that but, hey, look at her.

The wind wouldn't stop blowing, of course. It didn't stop them from eating most of the food. They had Olive Garden do the food. It's always a hit.

This is another one of those bittersweet times. This is the first birthday that Justin and Ashley weren't together to celebrate. They turned 21 on February 1st. This was really hard for me. Okay, one big collective aww, for me.

My oldest niece, Jessica, her husband KJ and they're baby Holi, came to AZ for a brief visit. It was great to see them again. They are a beautiful new family and Jessica and I both have a common appreciation for the advances in fertility treatments. I hope that they are blessed with a bonus baby like we were.

Kelsey with her cousins, Kaitlin and Holi.

Bryon and I did a day trip to Jerome. We used to do little day trips before we had kids all of the time. We are trying to remember all of the things that we did before kids no that we have so much more time to spend together. YIKES

Jerome is a little ghost town with some historic buildings and fun artsy things to do. This is the old bank. You can pitch coins through the bars into old pots. They are actually out houses but I was afraid to gross anyone out. They're just the shell of the out houses but you get the visual.

I probably pitched a roll of quarters hoping it would bring us good luck. I am still waiting to see the results.








This is the old Connor Hotel. Jerome was a copper mining town and The Conner was the posh place to stay while visiting. Or another version would be that it was named after my friends son Connor because he's such an amazing kid. We won't tell him about the saloon on the bottom floor. It still packs them in.

The real draw to Jerome for our family has always been the Copper Country Fudge. It's homemade with the good stuff. It is seriously the best fudge in the world. Hands down.