The Utes Rock!!

On our Family Weekend we also got the chance to go to the Utes game. Again, the weather was abosloutely Perfect (I think I was really into the weather that weekend). It even got a little hot at the game. The Brophys were singing "Utah Man" and yelling GO UTES!!!

Just a Bunch of Monkeys Hangin Around

Earlier this month we spent a few days just being a family!! We took a little bikeride to the elementary school and played games and a little bit of touch football. The weather was ABSOLOUTELY beautiful and we couldn't pass up spending it outside. We truly were a bunch of monekys on the bars.

Natalie starting it all off. Usually she comes home from school with blisters on her hands because she spends so much time at recess on the monkey bars.

Wow - this is one flexible monkey!

This sure was A LOT easier when I was younger. It was all I could do to get my legs up on the bars....boy - I am getting way too old.

Sean's trip to Ireland!!

Sean just returned from a trip to the UK and Ireland. It was his first time traveling to Ireland and he absoloutely loved it. His favorite day was driving through the country (on the other side of the road) and taking pictures of the countryside. I did ask him if he took a basket of fruit, cheese, and bread. I guess I just thought you would take along a light little snack. I think he thought that was a little odd (but I guess I can be a little odd). He did make a stop at an Irish pub and enjoyed an Irish meal. . This is actually one trip I really wish I could have gone on. I hope that the next trip he takes to Ireland I can tag along.

Sean started out in Dublin.

Sean ended up in Galway.

Happy Birthday "Indie"

Happy Happy Birthday "Indie" (Mason) Dear

Happy Days will Come to You all Year!

If We had a Wish then It would Beeee....

A Happy, Happy, Birthday to you from ME!!!!!

Watch out...it's the serious Indie!

The "Indie" in the Brophy house has everything under control!

Happy Birthday to our little Mason. We sure love having a little man around the house.

Wow - What a Summer!!!

Holy Cow - we have had an amazing summer. It has been so very busy and so very, very fun! I know that my blogging has just "slightly" been a little slow but hopefully with school getting going I might find some more time to sit down and blog. We had such an amazing summer I thought I would just post some pictures and short explanations of what we have done. I have posted through the 4th of July and things after that continued pretty strong. We had something going one almost every weekend or every other weekend. So - since we left off at the 4th of July here we go on to our next outing!!

WINDRIVERS!!!

We had an absolutely amazing trip to the Windrivers in Wyoming! We hiked in for three days with most of the Hall clan. Craigers family, our family, & Pappa did the "REAL" kind of camping. We caught a fish with almost every cast (really - I'm not just saying that) and we canoed and attempted to get in to the very, very cold water. All of our kids have said that Windrivers is their favorite vacation. Hooray, hooray - one of my favorite things in the world will continue with my own little family!!!

Here we have the mightiest and bravest of all hikers in the world. They have conquered all mountains!!!

We had some pretty awesome fisherman/chefs!

**I have some many fun pictures from Windrivers that I think I am going to put up a little slide show to show all the fun we had -- stay tuned!!(hopefully it won't take 6 months to put up).

Madison & Mom in California!

Our next trip was to Irvine, California for the Slammers Soccer Tournament. Madison and Mom enjoyed three days of the California weather and sun together. Madison had a soccer tournament where she was the team MVP for two of the games that she played. Not only that, but we got to go to the California Adventure park, Newport Beach (one of our most favorite spots in the world) and we had an incredible time just being together!!! I am pretty lucky to have such an incredible and awesome daughter (not that I am biased or anything).

Even the flight over was a lot of fun! I killed her in UNO!!

Look really close & you can see us on the elevator ride at the California Adventure Park. I was a little bit more nervous than Madi was.

We got a little wet!

This is a look of pure 100% joy and happiness on Newport Beach!!!

Girls Camp

The next part of the summer was Girls Camp. I had the opportunity to spend three days with our ward just past Morgan, UT. I had a wonderful time and it reminded me of the things that I should be focusing on. I missed my family and I realized I needed to put all the outside stuff away to focus on my family and the gospel. Thank heavens for the small and simple things that remind us of the important things in life!

Ahh, yes the wondreful things we do as leaders!

Fathers and Sons Campout

I got back on thursday from girls camp and on Friday, Sean and Mason took off for Fathers and Sons. Mason was very, very excited to spend time camping with his Dad. He was ready to go with Gatorade and camping treats!

Ready for the dark!

Just a bit excited!!

***Yikes - I am getting tired and I sure you are too. So - the remaining part of our summer....to be continued.

Stadium of Fire Fun

We had an AWESOME 4th of July. Thanks to Lyndsey we all got to go to the Stadium of Fire and have a fun family vacation. Although we missed out on the annual softball game and Kaysville parade (boy, I missed the Davis High Band) we had a lot of fun being together. We spent three days in good old Provo. Although it was a little hard for some of us to be so near BYU, we did enjoy the program at Stadium of Fire. Mason was the first to let us know to be careful where we ate. We asked everyone if they wanted to go to the BYU creamery for their famous ice cream. Mason said, "Yuck - I will not eat BYU ice-cream". I think we may have taken the Utah/BYU rivalry a little too far. Lyndsey spent many HOT hours practicing at the Stadium while the rest of us spent a lot of HOT hours at the pool!


We were lucky - we got to go in the night before the Stadium of Fire performance to watch Lyndsey in a dress rehearsal. This is the only time we had decent seats.


Lyndsey is at the bottom of the picture. You might need to look really closely. There were A LOT & A LOT of dancers!!!!

Lyndsey on the 4th of July - right before the performance.

Getting ready for the performance in our "GREAT" seats. We were 6 rows from the top. They were awesome seats when the F-16 jets flew by.

Natalie trying to put her leg behind her head. The Blue Man Group was teaching the crowd how to act at a rock concert.

Miley Cyrus just walked out!! The girls were pretty excited!

Rockin' with Miley!!

The night ended with a very, very BIG fireworks show. It just kept going & going & going.

Annual Scleroderma Walk & Run

On Saturday, June 28th we participated in the annual Scleroderma run in Syracuse. This is the day that all the Halls get together to support the Scleroderma Foundation and to remember our awesome Mom (and grandma) Jeanette Hall!! We absolutely love getting together to spend time as a family for a good cause. You can either do the 5k run or the 1 mile walk. Those of us that walk get to cheer on those that finished the 5k run! Way to go Craiger & Whitney !

The whole gang (except for the Four Floridians). The woman standing next to Pappa is the organizer of the Scleroderma Chapter here in Utah - Judy Bradshaw. We sure appreciate all that she does for the research of Scleroderma!!!

The runners extraordinaire - Craiger & Whit! They actually ran the race together in less than 25 minutes!!!

The Walkers!!!

Enjoying a post walker treat. They provided fresh fruit, Einstein bagels, and muffins!! Yummy!!!

Boy- you can't get much cuter than this! If you notice Mason is wearing a blue and yellow ribbon (the swedish flag colors) in remembrance of "mommy's mommy". Everyone wore the ribbons to show our love and support!!

Everyone was very excited to be a part of the race!!

Everyone loves little "E"

The Brophys

The Halls

Our Amazing Trek Experience!!

Sean & I went on our Stake Pioneer Trek in early June. It was one of the best experiences we both have ever had. It was A LOT of work, but definitely worth every minute and every mile that we treked (we hiked 32 miles in 3 days!!!). Thanks to Sean's calling we were one of four couples in charge of planning our Stake Trek. We owe a HUGE thank you to our kids for putting up with us being at meetings (really long meetings) way too much!!!! Madison gets a lot of credit for a TON of babysitting. We couldn't have done it without her. We were the company leaders of 100 people of the RED company. Sean chose that color on purpose (Go Utes!) It was great to get to know the kids in our company. We thought our company was the best. I loved watching Sean on Trek with the youth. I also decided that I really like Sean in cowboy (pioneer) clothing & a scruffy beard (Now I know why I like to go to Rodeo's ). It was something that I absolutely loved!! I will go on Trek whenever possible. On the next Trek Madison will be old enough to go and in 8 years all three of our girls could possibly go on trek - CRAZY!!! Those are the two treks that I definitely want to go on. Anyway, it was an awesome experience and super fun! Good luck to any of you that get to go on Trek. Call us if you need any Trek supplies.

This is the Before picture of Trek. We left on Thursday morning at 5:30am

This is on Saturday - the AFTER picture. Yikes - kind of a big difference. I actually got natural botox on my lips that last day. My lips were so swollen from sunburn.

One of the good spots for a rest.Sean - my Cowboy!!

One of the most beautiful spots during all of Trek.

David Tolk - New CD

Hey everyone! My favorite, favorite artist right now is David Tolk. I am so excited because I just bought his new album- "Grace". I totally recommend all his CD's. My favorite album is "Reverence". If you want to know more about David Tolk - take a look at his website!

http://www.davidtolk.com/

Our Visit to Victor!

Well, as you can tell I haven't really posted anything new on my blog for a really long time. Part of the problem is that things have been REALLY crazy. The girls are now out of school (since May 22) and just before we were busy with projects, end of year recitals (dance & piano), field trips and award ceremonies. Sean and I have also been busy planning our Stake Pioneer Trek (we leave in 2 days!!). So, I decided once Sean was leaving for Europe it was the perfect time for me and the kids to get away. We decided that we would go see our AWESOME friends the STREITS!!!! So, I packed up the kids and off we drove to Victor, ID (one of the most BEAUTIFUL places on the earth- I'm really not just saying that!!). The kids had a GREAT time with Cambrie, Tatum, and Jake. Jason is trying to convert my girls to the ways of the outdoors (which is perfectly fine with me). He took them fishing for rainbow trout (which was awesome - they got a trout almost every time they cast their line) and he took them shooting on the 4-wheeler. However, it didn't matter how much he tried to get the girls to shoot a grouse they would only shoot the trees. Madison & Lyndsey said, it wasn't very nice to shoot a bird. Better luck next time. We also went for some REALLY, REALLY good shakes. They were so good you had to use a special large straw to drink them. The best one was the huckleberry shake - Wow YUMMY!!!!! Most of the time the kids were off doing their own thing and Shelley and I had a great time just hanging out. If anyone gets the chance - you should go up and see the other side of Jackson Hole. Go up and see Victor, ID!! (By the way, my pictures don't even do it any justice!!!)

On the drive up we got so excited about driving through the moutains, past the snake river , and in Swan Valley. Madison kept telling me to slow down because I was going too fast for the scenery. We stopped on the side of the road and got out to enjoy the scenery. As we were looking at the river we saw a beaver in the river and 2 deer in a nearby meadow! All at the same time!!

There were dandilions all throughout the mountainside in Victor. Here in my lawn I don't really care fo dandilions (unless Mason is picking them for me). However, when there is a field of dandilions it is a beautiful sight. One afternoon the girls & Mason picked a TON of dandilions in nearby field and it didn't even make any type of dent in how many dandilions were left.

Tatum and Mason had a grand old time in the creek by the Streits home. The two were "fishing" with their sticks and hopping back and forth and tromping through the creek.

Mason looks a little sly!!! He knew he might get in a little trouble if he got wet!