Aspen Grove!

Hey, just letting everyone know what I'm doing for the summer. I am a counselor for the Bobcat group (5 and 6 year olds). That means every week I get a new group of kids to work with. I generally have about 20 kids in the group. We take them swimming, go to Arts and Crafts, hike, rock climb, play on playgrounds, go on treasure hunts, sing songs, and face paint. Tuesday nights is Frontier Night, when I get to dress up like a cowboy and drive families around on the train. Fun stuff. Here's some snapshots of camp life.

Just in case...

Just in case you are too lazy to go to our blog... Here is the latest!
Get in, sit down, buckle up and get ready for the ride of your life! Amaya is on the road! I can hardly believe it myself, but it is true... she is old enough and yesterday she passed the test, earning her learner's permit. She is very excited to finally be able to drive like all of her friends have been able to do for a while now. Just watch for more gray hairs to be appearing on my head soon!

Preschool Graduate

Ashley graduated from preschool. She is sad to leave her fun preschool class, but is looking forward to kindergarten. She has already started asking "How many more days until I get to go to kindergarten?"

8 is Great!

Erik got baptized on June 6. He was so excited about getting baptized and becoming a member of the church. He even got up in Sacrament meeting and bore his testimony. Steven and I are proud of his decision to follow the commandments and be baptized.

I have been home in Norway for three days now and the jet-lag is hopefully wearing off soon. I just had to write a little note here on the family blog to thank the whole entire family for being so nice to me these last 10 months. It really meant a lot.

And thanks to Melissa and Steve for naming the baby after me (I know you did, no matter what you say), because now there will always be a Sofie (well technically Sophia) in the family.

We all know I posted this post just because of this not so pretty picture of Sophia and Sofie...

oops.. Almost forgot to tell you how much I'm gonna miss all of you, well, already do!

Klem fra Sofie

Newest Ashcroft #34

Sophia Spencer was born Friday, May 22, 2009, at 11:16 am. She weighed 9 lbs 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

Steven was in charge of naming her. He complained all threw this pregnancy that I named the first four kids and it was his turn to pick the name. He found that it wasn't as easy as he thought. We were thinking about Emily or Emma, but the just weren't right. So, two days after she was born he chose Sophia.

She looks a lot like Ashley did when she was a baby. Same chubby cheeks and hair style, but Sophia's hair is a little lighter than Ashley's.

Sophia does need a playmate so people better start having their oops!

Devin lost a friend.

Saturday night I woke up at 11:30 and saw that Devin was upset. (Actually, I heard him crying but he doesn't want me to say that.) He told me that he saw a news report on TV that night that told of a dad and his three daughters who were killed in a plane crash Friday night.  One of the girls was his friend.  His friend Kaitlyn and her two younger sisters were often picked up by their father Friday evenings to spend weekends with him in Nevada. This time, only a mile away from the airport the father's twin-engine Cessna started moving erratically and crashed.

Devin is so sad.  He said Kaitlyn was a really nice girl, kind of shy but friendly.  He had talked to her during lunch at school on Friday and then she was killed that evening.  Devin was concerned that she had never heard the gospel, so on Sunday we talked about missionary work in the spirit world and baptisms for the dead (which our youth just did a couple of weeks ago).  It is very sad for us when we lose friends and family members, but we know that we will see them again.  How grateful we are for the atonement and resurrection of our Savior.