Miss Sophie

Sophie is spoiled and loved by all in this house.  She had her 6 month check-up recently.  She weighs 18LBS, and boy can you tell when you have to carry her around in her carseat!  She has many nicknames: Miss Sophie, Sophers, Sopher-loafer, Squishums, Mister Sophie (that one is by Mal).  

Look at those legs!  We call 'em "Funder Fighs!" in this house.  She's a squishy baby!

Kelsey turns 12

Kelsey is 12. Twelve!! Can you believe it? I have a kid in mutual, that's what seems crazy.  Her birthday was on a Thursday.  She wanted some new clothes (what a surprise!), plus she got some new books, sunglasses, perfume, etc.  One of her gifts was a trip to our favorite spa, Sego Lily, to get a pedicure with Denise & me.  We went to lunch after.  It was a lot of fun!  She's such a great kid, I mean young woman!

Emma & Sophie were the only ones up to watch her open her gifts!

Jared made Kelsey an awesome chocolate cake, and then we did some fireworks.  That Saturday Kelsey went to the Draper Temple to do Baptisms for the dead.  She really had a great experience and was pretty excited & nervous to finally get to go into a temple.  We love you Kelsey!

Jared's Birthday Surprise!

Our neighbor and friend knew we were gone to Lagoon and decided to trash our yard! :o)

Jared turned 35 on June 16th.  Or did he turn 40?

Ain't that the truth! I'm always calling Jared old since he's 4 years older than me.

Mallory just woke up from the car ride home.  My kids thought it was pretty cool!

It was a nice surprise for Jared!  We really love the Bergman family, they are great friends....thanks guys!

See that light colored garage in the background? That's where the culprits live....Jared can hardly wait to get them back!  Also, notice the clouds?  That's why Lagoon wasn't crowded....and that also made us pick up the streamers pretty quick before the rain came!

Lagoon

We went to Lagoon for Jared's 35th birthday!  It was overcast all day, which kept the crowds away.  We were able to go rides over and over.  It started to get pretty cold around 5:00, then started raining around 6:00.  That's when we decided to call it a day.  I must say it was very weird to be driving home from Lagoon in daylight!  But we had a surprise waiting for us at home! 

Jamie went with us.  Mallory, Whitney and Conner on the helicopters.

Will & Sophie....before it got cold!

This was our last ride.  Our kids were the only ones on it!  Everyone was leaving the park.  Ashton thought it would be cool to be by himself on one set of swings while everyone else was on another.

ReAL Soccer game

We got tickets through Sandy City and my kids awesome soccer coach to go see a ReAL Salt Lake soccer game. We went with their coach & some other players from the girls team to watch ReAL vs. Los Angeles' Galaxy (David Beckham's team, but he wasn't there). It was one of the craziest things I've been to, and so awesome to watch! ReAL won 1-0. They scored in the last 10 minutes, and the whole crowd simultaneously jumped up at the same time. The player who scored, Javier Morales, took his shirt off and started running around waving his jersey over his head. It was SO cool!

There's a KFC bucket under that hat, that's why Ashton's head looks so square! The man in the white shirt in the background is Kelsey, Emma & Ashton's coach...Coach Patrick is the best!

Kelsey & Emma... Kels is now taller than me and she will be 12 years old in 14 days....

Conner - wearing his ReAL shirt & scarf Jared bought at half. The game was over at this point & they were setting up for the post-game concert by David Cook!

The pictures are out of order, but oh well. David Cook sang the national anthem to start the game.

Waiting for the game to start!

We start 'em young...

Jared's choice of drink is Diet Cherry Coke. The other night he had Sophie in his lap & whenever he would take a drink she would totally go for the cup....arms out, mouth open. Isn't that terrible? Yes, terrible...but also very cute and funny! The other kids were loving it!

She's almost 6 months old. No teeth yet (thank heavens!), and she's only rolled over once. I told the kids that we all hold her too much, so we are making sure she gets plenty of floor time & tummy time. I'll enjoy this "immobile" stage as long as I can!

International Space Station

Last Sunday my Dad called & told us that around 9:30PM the International Space Station would be visible. He knew Kelsey got a telescope for Christmas, and we haven't used it yet. Dad suggested we meet in the parking lot of Brighton's seminary, so we'd have a clear view. We all got there just before 9, so we had some time to kill. While we waited for 9:29 to arrive, we looked through Dad's telescope at the moon. It's amazing to look through it and be able to see the hills and craters up "close". He also showed us Saturn, which through the telescope looks like a tiny white dot with a line going through it. To be able to see that and know you're looking at Saturn's rings! My kids were amazed. They can't believe how smart their Grandpa is to know all that stuff. We were able to see the Space Station move in the sky, it was visible for about 3 minutes. It looks like a star in the night sky. The Atlantis shuttle is docked with it right now, and we explained to the kids that there are astronauts up there right now, on that little dot moving through the sky.

I love looking through the telescope with Dad. I remember him bringing it to YW's camp sometimes, or even just out in the back or front yard. My favorite memory I think will be last year when we were up at the cabin in Island Park, Idaho with the family (almost the whole family). The stars are SO much more visible when you are far away from city lights, up in the mountains. The longer we stayed out on the deck, the more our eyes adjusted and more and more stars became visible. We saw a few shooting stars and TONS of satellites. I think Neil, Dad and I stayed out the longest. I didn't want to leave. It's amazing. It is both spiritually moving and makes you feel small. Small, but not less.