Dear Birthday Girl Emmy (updated . . . finally),

Happy birthday! I didn't get to writing your letter . . . so I'll do that as soon as I can! But I love you and I hope you know that you are loved.

love,
mom

Okay, 9 days later I finally have time to write you your birthday letter! Whoowheee, it's been busy around here. I got a new PRN job at the cancer center and started orienting there on your birthday.  So that's my excuse.

But you had a splendid birthday party and a fun couple days of birthday celebration. Celebrating you turning 12! Twelve used to be sort-of a big deal because that's when you would start going to YW, but you go to start at the beginning of the year . . . You love YW and love participating in Sunday classes and week-day activities. You also have started working on your Personal Progress, with the hope of achieving the Young Women Recognition award. It's been all "You" driven - you do the reading and work on the goals pretty much on your own. I have helped you, of course (a lot in some cases), but you are the driver and it's awesome. I wish your brothers would follow your example with their Duty to God . . .

You finished up your last year at Northside. I don't think it was your favorite year, but it also wasn't your worst. You didn't have to deal with too much drama junk at school - just a bit. You didn't really connect well with your teacher, which I don't really blame you for - I don't think she understood you well. But you still succeeded as a student and earned the Presidential Award. You started the year thinking you were horrible at math and didn't like it, but then you realized you weren't so bad and actually ended up really liking math.

You finished up the school year with one of your favorite activities of the year - 5th-grade field day. It's a fun day of hanging out at the high school field, participating in all sorts and track and field events. You ran the mile and got 2nd place! I was so proud and I know you were beyond excited, too.

You are growing in to a lovely little lady. You still have your "moments," a lot of them frankly. Especially "mean to Lucy" moments. Sigh. But you are maturing and it's quite nice. You are losing interest in younger girl stuff and are truly becoming a young woman. You like to babysit - especially Milo and Aidrey, who are some of the cutest toddlers around. You love to bake. Your favorite birthday gift was a donut cookbook and some donut-making supplies. :) You realized that Harry Potter books aren't that bad - in fact, they are quite good! You are on the 6th book, I think. One book you LOVED reading in 5th grade was Flipped. I randomly discovered it was a movie and so we watched it and it was the most adorable movie. Good taste, Emmy!

So far, you really like middle school. It's great because there are more kids - including more LDS kids. I don't want to sound like that's the only kind of friends I want you to have, because that's not true. But you have been the lone LDS kid in your grade ever since you started kindergarten. So it's nice to have some friends with similar values. A lot of these girls you've known through our preschool-days (Holly and Jillian), plus others that you've met at camp, etc. It's fun for you to actually see them and hang out with them at school!

You have matured in your "crushes" as well. Instead of having like a list of 40+ boys, like years in the past, you've kept your list to just a handful. I approve of the boys - for the most part. :) You're not boy-crazy, but do like them. :)

Aunt Laura once told Ben how she much more enjoyed her teenage children than her toddler children. I think I might have to agree. While we were in Midway last week, you and I decided to walk back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was just fun chatting with you, talking about your homework, friends, etc. I loved our walk together.

I'm excited to see you continue to mature and grow in to a fine and fiesty young woman.

I love you,
mom

Emmy's 12th Birthday Party!

For Emmy's birthday she decided to go paddleboarding - and eat donuts! :) So we invited some friends and had a great day! It was really fun and the kids all loved it.

 The girls and I got there a bit early to set-up. The boys were getting the paddleboards. (Jonas and I had gotten rental coupons for a race we did and so we got 4 boards for the price of 2. Plus, this rental place is inexpensive. I got four boards for four hours for $40. Score!)

 Once all the girls got there (except for one) we did a little getting-to-know game of 2-truths and 1-lie. Some girls had tricky ones!

I didn't get too many pictures of the girls (and our boys) out in the pond, but they had an absolute BLAST. They were off the boards as much as on the boards. :)

 What a bunch of cute, sweet girls! Adaiah, Lauren, Jillian, Holly. Emmy, Jhoselin, Lucy, Bailey, and Lila in the front. :) Lila is Holly's sister and Lucy's friend. The rest of the girls are from church (none in our ward, though) and gymnastics.

 Jhoselin pretty much did bunny-ears in just about every picture. :)

 Gym friends! Bailey, Emmy, and Jhoselin.

 After taking a break from the water and eating some veggies, pretzels and hummus, the kids played some old-fashioned Red-Rover - per Emmy's request. It's actually quite the physical game - we had one girl cut her lip a bit and another girl pummel into another girl . . . But everyone survived and had fun. :)

 Check out Lucy getting some air trying to break through!

 Go, Jonas, go!

After snacks and Red-Rover, the kids all went back into the water. Csilla and her family came and played with us for a bit. Again, the kids had a super fun time. After a bit, we called them in to have donuts.

Here they are coming back in. Check out the donut inner-tube Emmy had picked out a couple of months ago for her birthday. Perfect!

A bunch of awesome kids - all the same girls, plus Lexi. Our boys plus Kyle and Levi. Emmy is in her donut with her friend Lauren - her "twin." They share the same birthday (including year)! :)

 The donut cake turned out cute. Emmy picked the fruity-pebble donut. She LOVED it. :)

 I made these signs to decorate the table.

 Getting ready to sing . . .

 Happy Birthday to you . . .

 Our lighters didn't work (as Jonas informed me as I was trying to light them. I think he had used them all up. :( ). Oh well, Emmy still pretended to blow them out!

 While we waited for parents to come, the kids played "Night at the Museum." A statue game. Emmy opened her presents and got lots of adorable gifts - earrings, lava lamp, 3000 question journal, Target gift-card, color-your-own water bottle, etc.

 Emmy playing with her donut after everyone had left.

What a fun birthday party!

Random Summer Pictures . . .

 We have a huge sunflower growing in our garden. It's like 8 feet tall or something!

 Maybe 10 feet?!

 The kids all entered something in to the county fair . . . the girls won some ribbons - 2nd in category (age and "Jam") and reserved champion (whatever that means). Fun!

 While the boys went off with a friend to eat lunch somewhere downtown, the girls wanted to go somewhere, too. At first by themselves, but then I just hung around - because they and I wanted me to. :) Double-dog Tuesday at Crash Burger. Perfect.

 July!

 Bella's funny . . . on a walk she got a feather stuck on her chin. Lucy asked me to take a picture. :)

 Last night Ben helped Jonas work on his talk for today. I helped Miles. It's definitely worse trying to help your child write a talk (especially if that child is Jonas; I had tried earlier in the week . . . ) than just writing one yourself! Oh the pain.

Coloring in new birthday coloring books!

The Day Lucy Turned 9

So Lucy's birthday turned out to be quite fun for the kids. The kids had wanted to go up to Grand Junction's Banana's Fun Park before school started. Seeing as Fridays were "buy 1 get 1 half-off," I suggested the boy's pay half for their ticket and then buy the girls' pass - as a birthday present. The boys agreed and so on Thursday night, Jonas and Miles surprised the girls with this letter:

Wouldn’t a birthday be better with a banana?

Or maybe 2 of them

How about bananas

Not the kind you eat but the kind you go to in Grand Junction.

For your present from the boys you will get to go to bananas on your birthday

Happy birthday from the boys

The girls were super-excited. So we spent most of the day up in Junction at Bananas. The boys couldn't get enough of the go-karts. It was pretty empty there (Junction had already started school) and so there weren't any lines. Lucky. The girls had fun on the mini go-karts, boats, mini golf, etc.

 We stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut on our way . . . .yum.

 Emmy was a very conservative driver. She also liked to just stay in her "lane." She didn't care about passing anyone; she just had fun driving!

 The boys had a blast. They loved trying to pass each other.

 Miles, so cool. :)

 Boats!

 The girls spent a lot of time on the mini go-karts as well.

 Lucy's unicorn cake. I was too lazy to make more frosting, so the base layer wasn't the greatest . . . But still kind of cute . . .

We got home, Lucy opened her gifts, we had tilapia for dinner, then watched a movie. But at "intermission" we stopped for some cake and singing!

 Happy Birthday Lucy! We love you!

Galbraith Cousin Reunion

My dad and his three brothers and their kids and their kids' kids all met up in a park in Sandy and had a Galbraith reunion. It had been a very long time since a lot of us had seen each other, so it was really great. We had lunch, played some minute-to-win-it games, slipped the slide, etc.

 We had to swing by the SLC store of Scottish Imports so Miles could buy a derby hat. He saw this a couple months ago when we visited the store and has been wanting it ever since. He looks good!

Grand Teton National Park

It had been about 17 years since I or my sister had been there! Way too long! We both had worked there one summer and had spent many more times up there hiking and backpacking. I love that place.

We met up with one of Erin's best-friends and all shared a group-campsite. We had a good night on Wednesday and then Thursday we got up and ready for a day of hiking in one of our favorite canyons in the Tetons: Cascade Canyon. It did not disappoint in the least! It was such a lovely and perfect hike, really. Plus, we saw three more moose - and this time Emmy didn't cry! :)

 We decided to take the boat-ride across Jenny's lake, thus saving us about 4 miles. We wanted to hike in the canyon as much as possible - and not tire out the kids by walking around the lake . . .

 It was a fun ride, too!

 Our first stop on the hike was Hidden Falls. A lot of people come here, then on to Inspiration Point, then back down. So once we went up further in to the canyon, we lost the big crowds. It was nice.

(Insert Erin's picture of us all at Inspiration Point . . .)

 Handsome man in the beautiful Tetons!

 Lunch-break and turn-around spot.

 Miles did Emmy's hair. :)

 There were many beautiful waterfall cascades.

 We saw three moose on this hike - 2 mamas and one baby.

 Love, love, loved it.

 When we got back to the boat-ride (after hiking about 7 miles), it starting raining on us. If we had stayed much longer, I think we would have been in a down-pour in the canyon. So our timing was just right!

My family decided to head home that night. We had originally planned to stay another night. But seeing as we weren't going to go out on the water Friday morning like we had originally planned (no reason to after our awesome outing on Henry's Fork!) and the weather was to be raining all evening/night, we decided to drive to Midway that night. After finally getting out of Jackson Hole, we had a nice, late drive home.

The Grand Tetons indeed.