SLC and Driggs Vacay...

We had a wonderful 2 weeks enjoying our family and friends. Thank you to you all for an amazing time. We had so much fun and will have so many amazing memories of our time. (sorry I know this is a lot of photos, but there are tons more and we tried to pick out a good sample)

 The cabin at Driggs...

The cousins had a blast riding bikes on the deck and playing store. Ben was usually a freeloader, finding anyone who would take him for a ride. It seemed like he was flexible enough to fit anywhere.

 We visited the horses almost every day feeding them grass and petting them.

 Grandpa Gill shares his love of fly tying with a new enthusiast

 Kim and Tanner learned how to control the mower and made sure the yard was pristine

 The fun tradition of chasing down and waving goodbye to the cousins

The dinner bell

 Another cabin tradition of going to the playmill , Zak pretended it was his birthday to make sure he got a kiss

 Waiting for our world famous guide to take us on the river

 Loving the water

 Driving crazy

 A pretty amazing place

 Friends

 Other Friends

 The winner of the yearly fish contest two years running (what a monster!)

 One great guide

 Talent show

 "Who likes fishing?"

 Mower rides

 One special treat for Grace's baptism from Grandma and Grandpa. Personalized M & M's- Grace loved them

 Fishing with the Barbie rod like only Gracie can

 Ben's beautiful smile

 Too bad the canoe has a leak... guess we will use it any way.

 Grace's special day- before going in the water she noticed a spider floating in the font. I told her if she wanted we could baptize it as well...no dice! 

 Trying to catch a gopher snake in the middle of Grace's baptism dinner. It probably heard about the amazing food spread and the great company. Grandpa Glen finally caught it. 

 Guess where the snake is?

 Max's baseball Legion tournament. He is a great ball player and we loved watching him

 Fun at the ball park...

 Amazing how much attention and love our kids got from these guys

 Discussing world politics while enjoying the Utah sun

 Celebrating Max's 19th birthday. What a special guy.

 Celebrating Grace's 8th birthday. She was so excited opening her gifts

 Grace's special birthday dinner complete with steak, salmon, asparagus, mashed potatoes and of course raspberry chocolate cake! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa

Ben and Omi

Relay for Life

I am unable to size down Grace's speech, but she was asked to give a survivor speech at the beginning of our local Relay for Life. She did an amazing job and we had a great time. Once again it was emotional, but great to see another example of amazing people doing amazing things for Cancer.

Happy Birthday to our lucky baby 7/7/07

Eva,

Yesterday you turned 4 years old!!! Where did the time go? You are such a Fabulous Four year old-the perfect combination of sugar and spice and you keep every minute in our home interesting. I remember the second you were born. You came out screaming-and the second they put you in my arms-you became calm and peaceful. I love how much you trust us. You are remarkably patient for a four year old and you are especially patient considering the pace of our household. You LOVE each family member with all of your heart-and your heart is a big one. Whenever someone is hurt or sad-you immediately turn into a mother hen-protecting and nurturing them. You are keenly intelligent and observant. You are endlessly capable and those things that are hard become your hearts challenge. You LOVE a challenge and you have huge amounts of courage. Eva-you can run for miles and never tire. I'm pretty sure that warp speed will be the pace of your life because you've got things to do and just not enough hours in the day to do them. We love your big, sweet eyes, your contagious smile and laughter and your ability to love. There is just something about you that is magical and you have allowed us to feel life's wonder through your existence. You captivate people with your joyfulness. We LOVE you so much and are thankful we've had four amazing years as your parents-but we can't wait to see all the rest....except maybe teenagehood because yesterday you were making your barbies make out. That scared us. Please stop now.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Independence is Fabulous!

We are thankful for Independence Day! We love celebrating the 4th of July, and we decided to couple it with a final INDEPENDENCE FROM CHEMO!!! Yeah! It made for a very special day and a final goodbye to Cancer.

SO many updates, so little time...

We have enjoyed the summer so much already even thought the weather in Portland has not caught up. Here are some updates


Today we picked up Tanner from a week-long summer camp called Camp Ukandu. It is put on by the Children's Cancer Association and is for children with cancer and their siblings. Since you are require to be 8 yrs or older Grace is waiting until next year.


Tanner had a blast, but even before we saw him camp counselors and staff came up to tell us what a great boy Tanner is and what he did for one brave 8 year old girl. As we found Tanner we hugged him and met his friends, looked at his awesome bunk in a cabin on stilts overlooking the forest, went and saw the horses he rode, the pool he swam in, and the river beach where they had campfires and played games. He then told us of the amazing time he had and the many special tributes they had for children who have lost their lives to Cancer. As we were walking through the enormous camp, we would hear constant yelling "see you Justin Bieber!" "Justin Bieber, I am going to miss you!", "I love you Justin Bieber!" as Tanner would smile and waive to them. Another counsellor stopped us and said that this was the first time he had seen Tanner without a group of girls following him since the beginning of camp.


As we walked Tanner related how he met a young 8yr old girl at the camp who was blind due to cancer. As he described her his eyes welled up, but he proceeded to tell us how this little girl loved Justin Bieber, and once came up to him, feeling his face, to ask if he really was Justin Bieber. Tanner's answer was, "I kinda look like him, but that is just my nickname." Feeling an enormous amount of love for a little girl his sister's age who was not quite as fortunate in the face of Cancer, Tanner planned a performance where in the middle of lunch in front of the 200 or so campers, Tanner grabbed a microphone and sang this girls favorite Justin Bieber song to her with the music which he borrowed from a counsellor at camp. He would relate to us that he never saw her do anything but smile the entire camp although she was battling for her sight and that when he was singing she touched his face to see who was singing. Here is the newspaper article in the camp paper showing pictures of the incident. We are still trying to hunt down the video and will post it if we get it.


He was deeply touched and inspired by this camp, made tons of friends and had a great time. We are so grateful for opportunities like this from organizations like the CCA.

The girls have been loving summer by having friends over and enjoying the warm weather and sun.

We are so excited for Grace's baptism and are looking forward to spending some more time in Utah with all our family and friends on that special day.

Max was recognized as an all-region firstbaseman at the SLC Bees game. We had a great time eating hot dogs, cotton candy and spending time with our family.

We had so much fun getting together for everyone, especially on such short notice. The cousins had so much fun playing at the park.

We are so proud of Max and Gate for graduating. Both of them worked extremely hard and we grateful that we were able to make it.

Sam, Grace, and Eva made Max and Gate leis that had their favorite things, including McDonald's cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, and many other sweets.