Happy 8th Birthday Trevor!

Happy 8th birthday to our FAVORITE son!  We cannot believe you are already eight years old and ready to be baptized!  Your Heavenly Father is pleased with your decision.

We are so thankful to have a son who is so full of energy, tender hearted, close to the Spirit, extremely outgoing, athletic, happy, eager to learn and a self proclaimed ladies man...haha!

Trevor was born with a smile on his face and can usually be found with that same smile daily.  Here he is at 2 months at 6 months and two years old:

Lake Isabella

Our family took a short vacation to Lake Isabella last week.  The weather was perfect and the water was beautiful!  The best part of the trip was that the lake was empty, Trevor could really be in his element and since the Lake was empty the girls were given free reign on the Sea Doo's one evening.  Mackenzie was pulling the 360's Madalyn was fast, but a bit more cautious!!

Here is our campsite.....total white trash looking!

Here is my parents campsite...total "camping" luxury!

Of course I had to take a picture of Jim's new ride!  His last truck was totalled by some girl talking on her cell phone or texting while driving.  His truck was parked and she rammed into the rear of it.  It was a bummer because we loved that truck, but this one is pretty sweet!  Ryan and I were the lucky ones who got to drive it to the Lake.  Pretty nice ride...lot's of horsepower!

The kids loved the tube!  Ryan was so great to take them out over and over again! 

Grandpa Wright taught Trevor and Meredith how to fish and we took some rides in the canoe:

One morning we woke up to a green Lake.  It was so green that we would not put the Sea Doo's in the water.  Luckily the green went away by the afternoon and we were able to enjoy the Sea doo's.  However, the green did not stop Trevor from going in the water- YUCK:

3rd of July

We live in a wonderful family oriented community.  We have Harvest Festivals, White Christmas Celebrations, Santa at the Clubhouses, Decorating Contest, Taste of Ladera, Easter Celebrations and a 4th of July 5K and firework spectacular.  These are just a few fun activities that our community plans every year.  Unfortunately the 4th of July 5K and firework spectacular fell on a Sunday this year. Our family loves to participate in the 5K so we were sad to not be able to participate this year.

Apparently we were not the only LDS people in Ladera that felt the same way so two of our wards got together and created the 4th of July Fun Run on July 3rd.  They mapped out a 5K, 1K and diaper dash route so families could still participate in the running festivities!  Since I am still recovering from my surgery, Meredith has no desire to run and Madalyn fell and hurt herself at girls camp two days prior we were the designated water distributors! Scooter came down and ran with Ryan, Mackenzie and Trevor. 

For the 4th of July our Bishop (who lives 3 doors down) had the ward over for a flag burning ceremony by the scouts and talk by Frank Doss and his experience in the military.  It was an inspiring experience and made us all thankful we live in a free country.  The night ended in the Bishop's backyard watching the spectacular firework show the community put on.

Trevor blew us all away with a time of 30 minutes!  He had not trained or exercised a lick for this!

When the 5K was done he decided to run the 1K also...he's the man!

Afterwards there was muffin and juice and a bounce house for the kiddos to play in!

Aspire Higher 2010

The last week of June Mackenzie and Madalyn went away to girls camp with our Stake.  Ryan was also able to go the entire time since he is the high council rep. over the Stake Young Women.  The girls loved the "perks" of having their Dad (aka BroJo) there! 

The theme was "Aspire Higher".  Each ward was assigned a value color...our's was green for knowledge. The camp was by Lake Cachuma (sp?) in Santa Barbara.  They made signs, flags, necklaces, went canoeing, shot some rifles, did archery, took a very difficult (steep incline) 10 mile hike, had many opportunities to feel the Spirit, made many new friends, stayed up almost all night and had an absolute BLAST!!!  They took about 200 pictures so here are just a few to highlight their week:

I was told that Ryan was not so good at archery!

This is the view from the top of the hike they went on.  Beautiful!

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

As a child in Primary the children learn a song called "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission".  Some of the lyrics are: "I hope they call me on a mission when I have grown a foot or two.  I hope by then I will be ready to teach, to preach and do what missionaries do.  I that I can share the gospel."  Well my nephew is making history in my family.  He will be the first male (that is blood related to me) that has chosen to serve a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

On Thursday, June 24th Scooter's mission call arrived in the mail.  We all gathered together at 9:00 p.m. to find out where and when he would serve his mission.  Many predictions were made about where he would serve...India, Idaho, Texas.  Well the call finally arrived and the anticipation was mounting!

The call was in his hand and he began to open it.....

We made him begin by reading the letter:  "Dear Clinton Shipp, You have been called to serve a mission in...

DURBIN, SOUTH AFRICA

for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You will report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Johanesburg, South Africa on November 11, 2010!

We all screamed when we heard the location!  We could not believe he would be going so far away!  We were so excited to get on the internet and research the area.  It is suppose to be a really nice part of South Africa and he will be speaking English.

Now all the preparations begin to get his Visa, shots, suits, shoes and all the necessities ready.  We are all so proud Scooter has made the decision to turn two years of his life over to serving the Lord and the people of South Africa.  He is setting a good example for his cousins and future children!