S*O*P*H*I*E

Sophie got to go to Oakcrest this year. It's a camp for girls who have just completed 7th grade. She spent 5 whole days away from us, all alone. A first for her! We thought there would be some other girls from our neighborhood going, but they all backed out so she went without knowing a single person. But she's so brave. She did get pretty nervous as the day grew closer, but she went and learned that she can do hard things! And she had a great time. You can check out her blog if you haven't read her account of it.

I took her out one night to do her "birthday shoot." She's usually not really into having her picture taken, but this year it was her idea. We did most of them up at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

The day after we got home from camp, we headed up to Afton. The Nashville Tribute Band was performing there on her birthday, so that's what she picked to do. Her cousin, Brayden, is staying with Grandma & Grandpa for a couple weeks so we got to spend time with him as well.

On Saturday my parents had to go to a funeral for a dear friend, so while they were gone we decided to go visit Grandma Lark. It was good to see her, but so hard to watch her deteriorating. I was able to get a photo of her with the three great-grandkids there.

By the time we got back to the house, Ross, Melanie, Nigel and Alfie had come to join the party. They didn't know we were there, so maybe we ruined their plans for the weekend -- or maybe we just completely made their whole weekend. You know, getting to join in on Sophie's party and all.

First things first, we opened presents. It nearly killed Sophie to have to wait until 2:00, but now she's so much stronger.

There were many suggestions thrown out for activities to do for her party (a movie, bowling, floating the river), but Soph chose Sculpey clay! And a game. I love her simplicity.

This is the game my mother threw together -- to get rid of a bunch of her "treasures." I made out with the Gandhi book -- sorry, Ross.

We went to dinner at Pizza Hut, and look at this beautiful selfie I found on my camera.

There's the gang (no tongues out).

In place of a cake she requested Red Baron milkshakes.

And then it was off to the concert. It was a little delayed due to technical difficulties, and they had to go ahead and start without their computer working properly, but they did just fine. Afterwards, we got to go out and meet them all. Sophie even went through the line a second time so that she could get their autographs. We are big fans!

It was a fun birthday and a great way to celebrate a great kid. We are pretty spoiled to have her in our family. Oh, I still need to do a video interview with her. Chloe & Sophie both decided to stay and spend a couple extra days with Brayden and G&G, so I did get my break after all.