Another One Leaves the Nest

Kyle has gone off to college! He headed off to the BYU campus this fall and he was pretty excited. He's living in the dorms, Helaman Halls. His roommate is from Arizona. They seem to be getting along well.
He may be close to home, but we rarely see him. I think he's liking this taste of independence; he hasn't shown much sign of homesickness. So, while Mom is a little sad about this, mostly we're glad he's enjoying his college experience. We hope he makes wonderful memories this year. The remaining three at home are rattling around and trying to find each other.

Grand Lake...Here We Come Again

In August, we finally had one week where the boys were all available to take a vacation. Summers shouldn't be so busy! This was very important to Larry and I because next summer, Kyle will be taking off on his mission. We might be able to squeeze something in before he goes, but we can't count on it.

So this may be the last vacation the whole family will enjoy together for a while. With this in mind, we definitely wanted to include Andrew, Tiff, and Taylor too. That meant going close to them; Andrew's days off are limited.

After mulling over some new places...we kept going back to the idea of Grand Lake. We had such fun and enjoyed Grand Lake so much last year, we figured a repeat was a great idea. And AT & T were able to join us for the weekend!

We hiked to Adam's Falls again. Always fun.

We also invited T Taylor to join us. He fits in well with our boys.

Andrew and Taylor heading out for a bike ride.

Roasting s'mores.


We spent lots of time playing games. Settlers, Bananagrams, Hearts....
They are playing together...competing against each other.

Waiting to go to church.

Everyone went on a hike,


while Grandma stayed back to play with Taylor. :-)

Water, rocks, sticks...life can't get better than this.

Taylor loves to throw the rocks and sticks, but he HAS to taste them first.

I love this pic...he's wet and so into the water and rocks.

This was so much fun!
We've got a special place in our hearts now for Grand Lake.
I'm sure we'll be going there again.

Summer of "Run"

We had some fun "run" experiences this summer. I don't know where they got their love of running (definitely NOT from me!) Must be that Macfarlane blood. Well, wherever it came from, some of our kids decided it was time to push their bodies and run.

Kyle ran a marathon for the first time! He trained for only 2 months and off he went. He did great! He says it was to check it off his "Bucket List," and has no plans to do it again. But, I wouldn't be surprised to see him try to improve his time. He learned alot.

Tiffany and Andrew gave in to the urge to run, bike, and swim. They both entered a triathalon with Donna Mercer. All three did great. Tiffany is ready to go again and trying to get Kyle to try a triathalon now. I'm so proud of my family. And I'll keep cheering from the sidelines.

Andrew, Tiffany, Donna, and Donna's friend

Taylor Turns 1!

While Andrew and Tiffany were here for Kyle's graduation, we also celebrated Taylor's birthday. (We actually celebrated 3 days early...but, shhhh, we won't tell him.) It was fun celebrating before they had to head back home. So, what's 3 days?
We went swimming and then let Taylor enjoy his cake and ice cream. And boy did he enjoy it!

He sure loves the water!

It was pretty funny...seven adults all following one baby around the pool.
We all had fun just watching Taylor.

He had to go on this slide. And he went several times!

Taylor eating his cake.

I'm not sure if Taylor got more cake ON him
OR
IN him. But, he sure had fun!
And we loved watching him.

Happy Birthday, Taylor! We sure love you!

Kyle Graduates

I can't believe another one of our kids is ready to leave the nest and try the life of an adult. Kyle graduated from Timpanogos High School! It was a beautiful day and we had lots of wonderful family support. My parents and Tiffany and Taylor drove over from Colorado. Larry's parents came and lots of aunts, uncles, cousins were there to celebrate with Kyle. Thanks family!

Kyle with Grandpa & Grandma Mercer

Kyle with Aaron, Lauren, Ryan, and Devin

Grandma Macfarlane & Grandma Mercer helping with the Graduation Feast!

Ashley had the cutest eye patch decorated in honor of Kyle.
Thanks Ashley! We loved it.

Congratulations Kyle! We are so proud of you. Kyle is planning on going to BYU. He's excited for the next stage of life. We know he'll do great.

Cinco de Mayo

We don't usually celebrate this holiday, but the guys at XangGo did. They called it Cinco de Mustache. I had to share these awesome pics of Larry.

It looks pretty good for a fake.

End of School Year

As I'm sure all of you have experienced, the end of the school year brings a onslaught of activities: end of year concerts, prom, awards nights, and all sorts of ways to celebrate the end of another school year.

Here are a few of our highlights:

Kyle and Amber on Prom night.

We had a little extra excitement with Prom this year. We had to rush to the ER after Kyle sliced open his finger while preparing lunch for his date and the others in his Prom group. He called me up and said, "Mom, I almost sliced my finger off!" Just what every mom loves to hear. It wasn't as bad as he made it sound. He almost cut off the top of his finger to the first knuckle, not the whole finger! But that was bad enough. So, they gave him some shots to numb him up, he got stitched up and went back to his Prom activities.

Devin's end of year band concert was themed "Through the Decades." Devin had to dress up like the 80's. So, on came the parachute pants and the pastel blue shirt. I wish you could see it!

Kyle's ward friends at seminary graduation.

Kyle's last team ballroom concert. He's had so much fun with this, it's sad to see it end.

Devin also had a Freshman Finale. Mom wasn't there to take pictures. He's off to high school next year!

Big Island of Hawaii

For Spring Break, Larry, Devin, Kyle and I went to the Big Island of Hawaii. Kyle is graduating and we wanted to do something special with him. Time is running out before he leaves the nest.

We had a great time. With two teenage boys, we were very active. And they aren't kidding when they call it the BIG island. We tried to see it all. I think we get points for a valiant effort. We saw a couple of black sand beaches and even a green sand beach, yes green.

We celebrated Kyle's 18th birthday there and Easter Sunday. We swam, snorkeled, hiked, explored, the guys all learned to surf, we kayaked, went to a luau...I'm sure I'm forgetting something. It was go, go, go!

Devin getting ready to snorkle.

Don't you love my Easter baskets? Much easier to pack.

First black sand beach.

Visiting the volcanic crater, Kilauea.

Street sign swallowed up by lava.

Exploring a lava tube.

Here's the green sand!

I don't know why, but I love petroglyphs. So, I dragged my boys on some hikes to seek them out.


Up close and personal with some sea turtles at our second black sand beach.

Devin surfing!

Kyle...lookin' good!

Enjoying a luau and the end of the trip. Aloha!