Monday, July 14, 2008

July's Only Blog

We are finally going to leave the hotness of this summer this week, so one little blog before then.

Last month was rough, especially with the unexpected passing of my dear cousin Jerilyn Shipley. She was much loved and adored by everyone who knew her, especially by her parents, sisters, brother, husband and her three boys. We pray for all of them to I was lucky enough to spend some time in Las Vegas to mourn and grieve with the family, and the memorial service was sublime. I have many sacred and sweet experiences from the week down there that I will treasure forever. We will all sorely miss Jerilyn. Everyday I find myself using one of her phrases, or having a piece of her advice in running in my head, or laughing about something funny she did. I'm glad she is in a heavenly place, where she can keep an eye on all of us. She always loved to know what was going on with everyone. There are some more photos of her on my cousin's blog at http://mylittlepistols.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-love-you-jerilyn.html
We love you Jerilyn!


Last month, Ana passed off "Vaulting" in her horse lessons, and moved up to Westerns-tyle riding lessons, which are really fun for her, but also more expensive. Since she finally ran out of the money she made at her cookie/lemonade sale in February, she has had to start doing major jobs around her. Her favorites are doing the laundry and cleaning the bathrooms. She's even gone and cleaned bathrooms for neighbors and friends. Its so weird having someone else do my laundry, too. I forget what clothes we own! Anyway, its all worth to her, all this child labor, because she LOVES horse riding.


I also took Ana to the High School musical on Stage. She was standing up, singing and dancing in the aisles. I love this picture of her with Sharpey and Ryan after the play. I entitle it "Gums":
Cam and Elsie are doing well this summer, and Elsie is growing up so fast. She tries new words every day (which is a huge relief after Cam's non-speaking until age three), and walks all over the land. Cam plays with his buddies nearly every day, so he's getting quite socially spoiled. Luckily, he starts preschool next month.
Have a fun summer!

4 comments:

Amanda said...

Cute Post!(Yea for horses!) I LOVE the 'Gums' photo! (You make me laugh!) Hope you guys are enjoying whatever your doing for the rest of this month and summer!!

The Young Family Inc. said...

You are such a good mom to make Ana earn her money. I seriously get on your blog and make notes to myself.

Can't wait to see you all! Let's do something crazy like let the kids run around while I sit and bask in all that is Aja.

Eric said...

We loved seeing you guys! We need to get together more often. Livy and Ana totally crack me up! Hopefully we will see you soon!

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