Travis - Spring 2009

Travis sure has grown over the past few months. He is now quite the chunky guy weighing more than 18 pounds! He just started solids last week.

Travis in June.

June.

Jared took this picture of Travis in May.

Travis and Great Grandpa Swift ("Papa") in Canada at the beginning of May.

Travis in April.

Travis in March.

Lauren - Spring 2009

The last few months have been very busy for Lauren, and the summer is turning out to be just as busy. This week, she just finished her first of three week-long high school marching band practice sessions that will take place over the summer. She is also busy babysitting, earning money mowing the lawn and doing odd jobs, going to movies with her friends (she has seen Star Trek three times!), and continuing to work on her fantasy novel (her and her best friend have been working on it for almost two years). Next month she has YW Camp. Between marching band (which is a year-round commitment), seminary, YW activities, and difficult coursework as part of the four-year honors program that she is starting next school year, she will hardly have a spare moment!


At the end of May, we let Lauren invite around 15 of her friends to a graduation party at our house. Kathy and Lauren's best friend Jordan helped plan the event. There was music, water games, lots of food, a fire, and even some Wii time inside later in the evening.

Lauren's graduation party.

Yes, believe it or not, Lauren and her other 14 year old friends are not too old to enjoy spraying each other with water hoses and using a slip-and-slide! Justin joined in on the action.

Lauren and a friend are all dressed-up for the 8th grade graduation dance. The girls and their mothers went shopping together and found these dresses at Goodwill!

In May, Lauren's 8th grade band was invited by the high school marching band to march in the annual Indy 500 parade in downtown Indianapolis. It was a great experience for her in preparation for high school marching band this coming school year.

In March, Lauren's 8th grade band played in an annual county-wide band competition in Danville. Their band achieved a Gold rating, which is the highest possible score.

Lauren's 14th birthday party in March.

Sweet 16 in Indianapolis

Kathy, Travis, and I braved a hostile crowd on Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to watch the Sweet 16 game between Arizona and Louisville. It was possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Wildcats play in Indianapolis, so we were willing to spend a little bit of money for the tickets. We were lost in a sea of 25,000+ Cardinal fans who made the short two hour drive up from Louisville, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We were not expecting a win out of the Wildcats, but we were certainly not expecting a 39 point blowout either! Oh well. We were just happy that Arizona made it as far as they did when they weren't expected to. We got a lot of attention being some of the only Arizona fans in the section we were seated in (behind the Louisville band!), and we got even more attention having a 3 month old baby with us dressed in his U of A outfit. Travis actually did very well throughout the entire game.

After the game, I was somehow still able to smile!

Wildcats warming up before the game. That is Chase Budinger with the ball in the bottom right of the picture.

Travis Pictures

January Snowstorm

On January 28th, we had almost a foot of snow overnight. This is the most snowfall that we have experienced since we moved to Indiana almost three years ago. The kids had a snow day home from school, and Daddy got to stay home from work! The snow actually stayed on the ground for more than a week, which doesn't happen often around here. The kids had a lot of fun having snowball fights and making snow dudes. It wasn't long before the beautiful smooth snow in the backyard was completely trampled!

Justin with a snowball as big as his head!

Coming inside to thaw out.

Lauren and her friend Sara from down the street.

Almost 12 inches of snow.