London is such a great city. We only had the afternoon and evening, but we walked the town over. By evening we were so excited to sit down in the great theatre and watch "Wicked". It was a spontaneous decision, and we are so glad we did it. Other places visited, buckinham palace, downing street, westminister abbey, the south bank, covent gardens and many crowded subways. By 6 a.m. we were off to gatwick airport and headed home!
Kelsie (Amy's sister) and Mike did well with this cute little jewel born August 16th... 2 weeks early. He was 7 lbs 7oz. and 19 inches. It was a tough delivery... but Kelsie was a champ! Carston Kelly Martin is their first and we are so excited to have him in our family.
We went to this CRAZY-COOL animal farm near olympia national forest that has all these bears, bison, llamas... and buffalo that eat out of your car... you literally drive through and throw bread at them... some are behind fences, like the bears, but the bison, elk and buffalo had free access to us... it was fun!
We picked and ate so many berries we made ourselves sick. We ran accross this great farm w/ berries and a fish hatchery. The girls fished, and we had trout and berries for dinner! We visited Desolation Pass, a crazy bridge on Whidbey Island, and spent many hours in the hot tub on the back deck of our wonderful house.. in the woods!
We took a helicopter ride above Midway that was really scenic and spent the afternoon w/ Amy's fam up there. We continue to enjoy many great swim outings to the Rose's pool w/ family, here on the 4th of July... and of course the summer wouldn't be complete w/ out a couple days spent at wonderful, mucky Utah Lake... skiing!
We had some fun adventures... hiking the "crack" near
Forgotten Canyon was a neat/little scary, slot canyon. The kids slept like "babies" as the boat did it's magic. Here cousing Dylan sleeps for hours, and Karri, Aram and Shep had a memorable first trip as a family to Powell. Karri and Kelsie both waterskiied pregnant...but very cautiously! Kelly (pampa) is our favorite boat driver. This year was sad because we said good-bye to our long-time friend, boat. But, he was such a pleaser by becoming a member of toyshare so we could carry on the family tradition of boating. (w/out the stress!)
Lake Powell was so great. We haven't been for over 5 years... so, we were so happy to spend a few days there. The Sheppard clan enjoyed 2 sunny days, and one windy day near Bullfrog. Blakely skiied with mom on 2 skiies... she was a champ.. Fun was had by all! Bry even was able to relax a little because he didn't do all the boat driving. 
