One year older and wiser too!

We just love this guy so much. 10 years ago a brilliant little man was born. 

He has always been an old soul in a little boy's body. 

Grandma Judy likes to call him Benjamin Button, and it seems that "Wilbur" fits him too :)

What ten year old boy is more interested in getting a credit card than having a birthday party or getting presents?  Who else notices and wants a green suit jacket than an old man is wearing at church? A jacket that looks like the ones from the Masters golf tournament. Who else clips coupons and saves his money to buy a king mattress for himself?  And who else saves a root beer glass bottle so he can refill it with other various drinks using a funnel just so he can drink out of a glass bottle over and over? 

 Nobody but our cute little Will, that's who!

We love his inquiring mind, his quirky ways, his adorable smile, his good manners, and his kind heart.

Happy birthday baby boy! 

He requested a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup cake:

Tearing into his present...

And he scores! A tablet and a $100 Visa card!

And just for fun we threw in the "Frozen" movie. We love that show!

That night Sambo posted this on his Instagram. It made my heart so happy. 

Qute Quinny turns 7!

 Quincy Lu had a birthday and I can hardly stand that she is another year older! 

I really wish I could freeze time for at least five more years!

For her birthday, she wanted to go to the new Living Planet Aquarium which was due to open in February, but they had some delays so it didn't happen.  I promised her I will take her friends when they open up.  So her second choice was to go to Airborne which is a huge gym O'fun!

We went as a family and had a terrific time!  It was really great having just us! I love our cute family!

For her birthday she wanted yet another stuffed animal.  I was at Costco and saw this and knew it would be perfect: big, soft, cute, and a bunny - which is pefect because her nickname is "Bunny."

She LOVES it and calls it Fluffy.

For her cake, she wanted Red Velvet and nobody does that flavor better than Nothing Bundt Cakes. 

We threw in a number "7" sparkler which really topped it off!  

Fun day with a super fun girl!  We love you Quincess!

Sambo's Skiing & Superbowl Birthday!

My firstborn son is 12. Twelve!

I can't stand it, and yet I am so excited for him.  12 is a big year...going to YM and becoming a Deacon, going in to Junior High, puberty, becoming aware of girls...

He really, really wanted a cell phone for his birthday. So much that he decided not to have a friend birthday party so money could be spent on a phone. I couldn't stand no doing anything on his birthday, so I let him choose somewhere we could go as a family to celebrate.  He wanted to go skiing, so we went to Sundance for night skiing and dinner.  His buddy Seth came too.

We love Sundance. Everything about it. But especially eating in this cozy lodge by the fire. Yum!

The next day was Superbowl Sunday.  Broncos vs Patriots. We had the family over for dinner and a party!  Most of us were cheering for the Broncos.

The Patriots won. It was probably one of the worst games we've ever watched, but we still had fun!

Sambo got what he wanted...a cell phone! He was so, so happy!

For another gift, he also got to be able to go back to Ridgeline!  BS and I decided that he had earned it and we could tell he was missing his friends too much.  Here he is on his first day back before school:

I just love this boy so much!

Party of the year!

For Millie's 14th birthday, she wanted to have a party at the cabin. It worked our perfect because her birthday fell on Human Right's day so they were out of school on Monday. We filled up 3 cars and hauled 15 girls up to the cabin Sunday evening. They got in the hot tub, ate treats, watched movies, played video games, and pretty much stayed up all night.  You know, doing what teenage girls do best. It so happens that Clegg's were at the other cabin so Tyler joined in on the fun too!  Millie's friends thought he was SO CUTE so he was an added bonus to the fun!

 The next day was all play all day:

 Everyone had a blast!  They talked about this party for days!  I'm so glad that Millie has so many friends who are not only darling but really good to her.  They are so kind and funny!

Playing "what if?" in the loft at 2 a.m.

 

The next day after school, some friends "kidnapped" her and went to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt.

Again, such cute kids!  It's too bad that Millie isn't loved at all ;)

Cayden, MJ, Andrew, Chloe, Cousin Connor, Kaden, Christian, Mason, Skye, Jessica

 

A Birthday and a Green Day in Vegas

This half Leprechaun had a birthday!  Yep, he turned 9.  And what better place for a money lovin' guy to spend his birthday than in Las Vegas?! 

Actually, we were hardly near any slot machines or casinos because this year the 6 of us stayed just outside of town instead of the Polo Towers.  We went down with the Clark clan for their traditional Spring Break trip (for the college students), but because we are a big family we got our own place that was a mile outside of the action.  The best thing about the condo was definitely the swimming pools which included a lazy river!  The weather was in the 80s all weekend and we couldn't have asked for better weather.  It's always so great to get the kids all to ourselves and away from the hustle and bustle. 

 

Quincy is a total fish. She loves to retrieve diving sticks and pennies from the bottom of the pool.  At first the lifeguard kept telling her she needed to be with a grown up in the lazy river but he soon discovered that she was as good a swimmer as the grown ups! 

Another good thing about where we stayed was the convenience of yummy food options and the new outdoor shopping mall just down the street.  Dunkin Donuts and smoothies (can't remember the name) for breakfast.  We discovered a drive-thru called Raising Cane's which has delicious chicken fingers, fries and fry sauce, garlic bread, and good ice.  Random but yummy.  We went there twice in 3 days.  And *BONUS* they had GREEN lemonade on St. Patrick's day!

We didn't make a big deal out of St. Patrick's day this year because we were too busy enjoying our vacation, but thank goodness for the green lemonade to save the day.

We also went to one of our favorites, Qdoba.  Yum!

Our family likes to explore and go on hikes (as long as you don't call it a "hike"), but we have never ventured out in Las Vegas.  BS did some research and found an awesome hike that was in Red Rock Canyon called "Calico Tanks."  We filled up the Camelbaks and headed up the trail.  It ended up being a perfect hike for us with the right amount of exercise and fun.  It took about 3 hours both ways.

This is our 4 little troopers at the top.  You can see the tall hotels on the strip in the background:

There were lots of fun rock stairs, caves, and structures to play on:

Love this guy

 We met up with the rest of the Clarks (Grandpa & Grandma, Adam & Jess, Sean & Meg, Jordan & Jenny) a couple times at their place.  The girls went shopping at the Miracle Mile shops while the dudes went to the "Pinball Hall of Fame" and The Zombie Museum
(except for Quincy - she's half boy sometimes).

Just when they didn't think it could better than a Zombie museum, Uncle Adam took them to the Pinball Hall of Fame which is the best Arcade ever!!!

Uncle Adam, Uncle Sean, Uncle Jordan went too!

Then we all met up together for Will's birthday dinner.  We went to Caesar's Palace, of course.  We love the fish tank, the Atlantis show, the shopping, designing shoes at the massive Nike store, and Cheesecake Factory.

Quincy could have spent hours watching the sea life.  She named all of the fish.  This one is Peppermint Patty

And finally Will's party!

Good food, good company, and good dessert at Cheesecake Factory.

He couldn't be happier.  What a day!  What a weekend!

Everyone knows Will loves to get money $$$

When we got home, we had to have yet one more celebration because it was his actual birthday.  But we kept it boring with brownies and ice cream on the Special plate.  He got an XBOX 360 remote and 500 water balloons.  Just want he wanted :)

And we couldn't forgot Pork Chops...it's his birthday too.  Happy 3rd birthday good ol' boy!

Here, have a bone.