Stars

Sophi wrote a poem for a school project and I wanted to share:

STARS

When I go camping, I look at Stars!

Those bright Stars!

I wonder what they do at night those Stars.

What are they made of?

Maybe gas or maybe small Stars!

What lives up there?

Star fish?

The world may never know.

I bet Mars knows.

Love my Sophi:)

Amazing Xander

Xander came into our lives with so much joy! Unlike all of our other adoptions, there really was no transition period. When we walked into the room where he was waiting for us in Zhejiang, China, he threw his arms up for a hug and yelled out, "Mama! Baba!" And that was it. He was ours. Completely and 100% committed to us. And us to him. And what an amazing young man he has become. As we were on that adoption trip with several other families, Christi and I just kept telling each other that we had won the jackpot. This little guy had charisma and an infectious exuberance and love and smiles and just glowed. We told each other that we had a future student body president on our hands. Sure enough, Xander was just voted to Student Council for his sophomore year.

Xander has become my buddy, joining me on so many fun adventures or watching shows together or playing H-O-R-S-E in the backyard. He has become a chef extraordinaire. You should try his fancy trout or his onion rings and fried pickles! He is so aware of his family members and ready to serve them as he sees needs arise. Xander is such an amazing part of our family. We are SO grateful to have him!

-Jer

Our first pictures of Xander:

Meeting him for the first time:)

Still in China:

Sibling love

Started with this...

Created this...

Dragonfly Canyon

Top of the first 200 foot rappel in Moonflower

Just a bit nervous...

Birch Hollow

Canyoneering Heroes!

The last week of May, a group of seven of us took on Granary Canyon in Moab. 13 rappels, 13 hours, 6 miles all culminating in a 330-foot rappel overlooking the Colorado River. AMAZING trip! So fun. So much fun to spend the day with Christi, Taylor, Parker, Christi's brothers Matthew and Danny and Danny's [now] fiancé Krystal. Great trip with a great group. Enjoy some pics and video:)

The last video of Christ doing the entire big rappel is a bit long, but it gives a good perspective on what it's like.

-Jer

This may be my favorite pic. Love the teamwork!

Are you kidding me?!?

Parker volunteered to go first on the big drop. What a man!

Taylor's view as he drops down.

Notice the tiny speck of a person against the skyline at the top of the cliff.

We made it!!!

Sophi Shines On!

Four years ago, Barcroft Media made a beautiful video about our sweet Sophi. Barcroft has rebranded themselves as "truly." In April, they reached out to us about doing an update video. Since it was during quarantine, they asked Taylor to do all of the camera work. Great job Taylor! Here is the new video and below that is the original video from 2016.

Brutal Honesty

I have struggled to stay at a healthy, comfortable weight most of my adult life. For the most part, I have stayed in a range that has allowed me to do many of the activities I enjoy: hiking, camping, canyoneering, lots of outdoor stuff. But my weight has definitely inhibited my ability to do some of these things as well or as comfortably as I would like to. I stopped playing pick up basketball and skiing largely because of my weight. Over the years, being overweight has also made buying clothes a chore rather than something fun. It can be challenging to find clothing I feel good wearing. Because of this, I have never been fond of gifts of clothing from others. Christi has learned this the hard way, as I have not shown much gratitude (translation: I've been very grouchy!) when she buys shirts for me. So she doesn't buy them very often.

Recently I have lost enough weight that it is noticeable. Thinking that now I would love it if she bought me clothes (insert eye roll here), Christi came home with a shirt for me the other day. I tried it on and didn't really like the way it fit. She insisted it looked great on me, but I wasn't sold. So she gave it to Taylor. Yesterday Taylor was wearing the shirt. As he walked in our room, Christi said to me, "I can't believe you don't like that shirt!" I replied, "I don't like it on ME. It looks great on Taylor." Taylor who is about 10% body fat. Taylor who has been working a landscaping job for the last month and a half and has developed more muscles than he's ever had before. But she wanted me to try it on again, so I did. I looked in the mirror and pointed out the ways it didn't look good on me. "It just looks so much better on Taylor!" I said. At this point Tay chimed in: "Well dad, to be brutally honest, pretty much all of your shirts would look better on me." We all cracked up. He continued: "And to be fair, pretty much all of my shirts would look better on Chris Hemsworth."

Point well taken, son. I should probably be a little less picky about how I look in a given shirt, especially if my sweet wife took the time to pick it out and she likes it on me.

-Jeremy

Sweet Cali

Life takes such convoluted paths. When I think of some of the challenges our adopted children have faced, I sometimes weep. Five of the seven were abandoned at birth. Graci was abandoned at age 5. Cali's biological father passed away in a mining accident and she was abandoned by her biological mother, but she was still able to live for a time with her paternal grandmother. Due to the rural, inaccessible area where her grandma lived, once Cali was in a wheelchair, it was no longer feasible for her to live there. At this point, she moved to an orphanage that was about a 2-hour drive away. She continued to have some contact with her grandma and her aunt. We met both of these wonderful women when we went to adopt Cali and also when we went back to adopt Conner. Cali had the chance to travel again to China on her own last summer and see them again. It is such a blessing to live in a time of free and instant communication. She still loves her family in China and keeps in touch with them. A few days ago I came across these pictures that were given to us when we first adopted Cali. So precious!!! We love you Cali:)

Love,

Dad

Cali with her grandma.

Cali with her biological parents.

Road Trip

Sophi is the world's best traveler. No matter what the scenery looks like, she loves it! We recently had a daddy date road trip to Cedar City, about 3 hours south. We had so much fun talking, taking turns choosing songs to listen to, and observing our surroundings. We had dinner, watched Spies in Disguise at the theater and swam in the hotel pool. We saw 3 hawks on the way down. We thought we saw a fourth sitting on a fencepost right by the highway, but as we got closer we could see it was actually a golden eagle. So cool! On the way back, we stopped to visit Grandma Larsen in Richfield. We also saw the largest herd of deer I've ever seen. They were grazing near the freeway. We pulled over to have a better look and I counted at least 112. Such a fun trip with a fun kid and with lots of great wildlife. Love you Soph!!!

-Dad

Loving the ride! (At least for awhile;)

We stopped to view some pioneer era charcoal pits. They stacked wood in here wall to wall and  burned it  until it turned into charcoal.

Sound asleep!

Our golden eagle. First on the post, then flying away!

Tuckered out after a long day! Cutest sleep position ever:)

Nutella waffles are just to good to eat with only one fork!!!