Smart Family July 2010

As I go back through our pictures from July, I am struck by the number of mountain and lake shots. I guess we visited a lot of mountains and lakes!

Emma celebrated her 9th Birthday and wanted a Purple Party.

And we celebrated Pioneer Day in style.

More pictures and captions at this Web Album. (CLICK HERE)

Summer Trip to Maryland

I am incredibly behind behind on family blogging. So I'm going to start doing web albums to catch up a bit.

We just got home from our family trip to visit Michael's parents and brothers in Maryland! We loved it!

There are many more pictures at this web album (click HERE).

My Soccer Season- Catherine

Here for your viewing are the pictures of some of my soccer games.

I am the one with the ball by my feet

I had a great team and a great season.

Spring Soccer for Spencer

Spencer had a great spring soccer season. His team, the Blue Tornadoes, didn't get creamed quite so often, in part thanks to Spencer's increased aggressive play. He had a few games where he scored multiple times.

This one was a particularly good game on a particularly nice day. I think he scored 6 (Spencer thinks it's 9) goals that game. I finally had to tell him to stop. :)

Emma keeping herself entertained.

This was his final game of the season. It was the beginning of May and we were all freezing! Spencer had a rough first half, but the second half he came back invigorated and scored at will. Here are a couple of his shots.

Spence was so excited to get his very own medal! (His only lament was that he wanted it to be gold.)

Yay Blue Tornadoes!

And here is a shot of the crowd.

Recent short outings

A couple weeks ago the kids and I had planned to go explore the trails in the foothills above our home. You know that park that is high up with the views of the valley? There are trails that mysteriously weave up and around some small passes.

We've been having crazy non-summer weather, so when the Friday night arrived, it was cold with imminent rain. The other kids were fine, but Spencer was really disappointed and cried and cried. So I took him. Luckily the rain held off.

He wanted to take one of me:
The trip became awesome when we wandered into a gully and found these bones. That weekend our cousin Madeleine identified them as a femur (or humerus - they're pretty much the same on four-legged animals) and some vertebrae. We found them by a bunch of feathers. So we figure that whatever it was (baby deer carcass?) either got eaten by a vulture, or whatever ate this also ate a bird, too. Spencer carried the femur around for the next two days.
The next day was a little nicer, so while mom was out we went to explore the American Fork River that runs behind the high school about a mile away. This outing reminded me of many my mom would take us on during summers to rivers such as the Gunpowder and whatever the one is that feeds the Greenbrier and Cunningham Falls lakes.
Every outing would be about half as long if it weren't for snacks. Of course we spent a lot of time throwing rocks.
Next post I will show the photos from our epic Memorial Day weekend.

Summer, Summer, Summer!

Here I Come!

Catherine’s next-to-last soccer game

This was a few weeks ago. Continuing a theme of April and May, it was cold and windy. She and her teammates played really well, though. She had a perfect assist.

Watching from the van, backed up to the edge of the field:

Mom has more pictures of Catherine and Spencer's soccer seasons.

Church talent show

The children’s group at church put on a talent show. There were about 35 performers there with family members cheering them on.

Emma did her gymnastics floor routine:

Catherine played “How Firm a Foundation”:

Next year Spencer wants to bring his portable soccer goal and score.

Fathers and sons campout

Every spring the dads and boys from church go camping together. It is much anticipated in our household, and this year the boys wanted to start packing two weeks in advance.

For dinner we roasted hot dogs and bratwurst:

The boys liked hanging out with their guys.

The best part was when it warmed up the next day and we went exploring.

David found a huge mound of red ants.

Taking this picture reminded me that this was my and Spencer’s fifth Fathers and Sons already!

More memories – the campsite was near to the one that Catherine and I went to when she was three. She had been begging to go camping, so I borrowed some gear and took her. We had a cozy night and then in the morning we threw rocks in the stream.

Catherine and Emma and I have already planned our “daddy daughter” campout for later in the summer. Photos coming soon!

Our budding Gymnast

Emma has needed her "own thing" (a la Jan Brady) and she decided gymnastics was it. She has loved going to our local rec center once a week. She also loves to practice her moves in all kinds of places.In April we got to watch some of her moves on the real aperati. She did great!It was the weekend the Sorenson cousins were staying with us. All the kids joined in the fun when she was done. You can check our more of their moves here.