My Country tis of Thee

We celebrated the 4th of July this year up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Aaron surprised us and planned out a picnic lunch! The weather was wonderful, the scenery was gorgeous, the food was delicious, wildlife was sparse...but the company was perfect! Good thing we decided to finally bring a camera with us on one of our many adventures! The only problem is that mom gets a little distracted taking photos of the wilderness.

Happy 4th of July!

Athletic Ashton

Ash started, and completed, soccer this month. From that experience we now know that his athletic calling in life is not on the soccer field, but most definitely on a football one. He had no problem taking things into his own hands by taking on the biggest and oldest kid on the team to recover the soccer ball. Witnesses say that he shows great potential for a physical contact sport. The stature of this kid would also confirm this.

We are proud of our Athlete Ashton!

A Quick Trip

Aunt Cherie's 50th Birthday was this month! Our whole family went down to surprise her. It was a short stay, but we had a wonderful time! Not sure how, but Cherie did not end up in ANY of these photos. Hmmm... but some GREAT photos of all the other girls!

Ride That Pony!

This is Ashton's first time on a horse. Each year that we visit these miniature ponies mom hopes for a successful ride carried out by her son...and EACH year the attempt has failed...until NOW!

He would only ride the "baby one"...

Giraffa Camelopardalis

We love giraffes and the giraffes love us! These guys know when we are there to visit and why we come...even though the sign says, "do not feed the giraffes. even leaves can make us sick", we disregard it entirely and freely feed them the leaves off the trees that they are already munching on. It is so delightful! (Except when Hippie ladies confront us about it and point out the sign..)

Oh, the places you will go Geoffrey!

We never imagined the day when we would attend our youngest brother-Uncle G's high school graduation!

He is definitely the smartest member of our immediate family. We all know it and are not ashamed to admit it!

Our sensitive and loving Geoffrey will go far in life academically. We are so proud of him...and happy that we don't have to attend another LONG high school graduation for years!

Congratulations little bro!

Lions, Tigers...and Ash

"It's better to be a Lion for a day,
than a sheep all your life."

This imaginative boy LOVES to pretend he's a fierce Lion, so when the opportunity to get his face painted at Chick-fil-a on Kids night arose, he waited and waited and waited to be transformed into a Lion...well, Tiger. He had requested a Lion, but a tiger will do!