Dallin takes STATE in Tennis!

We got to see Dallin compete in the State Tennis Finals last Saturday at Liberty Park. We all wore our Timpview orange shirts in support of Dallin and his team. Timpview took state as a team and Dallin took 1st place in doubles. This is the second year in a row that Dallin has taken state, and he still has his senior year ahead of him. WAY TO GO DALLIN!

Here are links to articles in the Deseret News and in the Daily Herald. The pictures are from the Daily Herald.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700226947,00.html

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/266793/140/

We understand that both Powell and Crew were competing in the state finals for Lacrosse this past weekend down in Vegas. Powell took state for his age group. GREAT JOB CREW & POWELL!

WE WERE THERE!

The day after we returned from New Zealand we rented a Disney movie as a family. In the previews for the movie we watched a trailer for the new Narnia movie. Holly and I literally jumped out of our seats while watching the trailer because the scenes were filmed in the exact same location we were at just 3 days earlier. The scenes were shot at Coromandel Peninsula (Cathedral Cove) in New Zealand. It is a beautiful sandy beach with caves and a really cool archway. The interesting thing is that it is about a one hour hike to this beach. Holly and I were trying to figure out how they got all of the film equipment down to the beach.

Now we are even more excited to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. The pictures on the left are from the movie and the pictures on the right are from our vacation.

Chronicles of Narnia.............................................Chronicles of Mark, Holly & Harper

Princess Harper's First Birthday

This is the day that Holly has dreamed of since she was a little girl...and a day Harper will probably never remember. Holly got to plan a birthday party for her little girl. Holly pulled out all the stops...everything was pink and covered in princesses. It's the fairytale birthday party she has always wanted to plan for her baby girl's first birthday. We had to take a lot of pictures so Harper would have some memory of the festivities. We went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point and then went to Chili's for dinner. Harper was surrounded by her 4 Harper cousins and her 3 big brothers. She trully was the princess for the night. Holly even had Harper wear a tiara just in case any one was wondering if Harper was a princess. Her cake was incredible...it was a princess castle with all of the Disney princesses on top. Harper had to have known it was her birthday, she was giddy during the entire party. She was so happy and knew that she was in the spotlight. She didn't get grumpy or sad the entire night.

New Zealand T-shirts

When we were in New Zealand, Grandma & Grandpa bought t-shirts for Packer, Holland, Cannon & Harper. The boys love the t-shirts. Holland's is an "All Blacks" t-shirt. All Blacks is the name of the rugby team in New Zealand. Packer and Cannon have a Mauri totem face on their t-shirts. Mauri's are native New Zealanders. Harper got a cute pink t-shirt that says "Grandparents Little Darling" Here they are in their t-shirts....

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Packer's Birthday Party

Packer turned 9 and had a great birthday party at "Jump On It." The theme for the party was "Indiana Jones". The first picture is the invitation that he gave to his friends.

The party started at Packer's house with pizza and highlights from the Indiana Jones movies. After pizza, everyone went to Jump On It in Lindon.

Packer Becomes a Bear

Packer is now a bear in cub scouts. He earned his wolf badge, several belt loops and other awards at his last pack meeting as a wolf. He really loves cub scouts and is excited to be a Boy Scout. He wants to earn his Eagle someday just like his cousins Jason, Crew, Dallin & Trey.

He also lead the pack in the pledge of allegiance as well as the cub scout oath, law, etc.

Easter Morning

Pictures from Easter morning....family easter egg hunt...new easter clothes for church...

Cousin Easter Egg Hunt

All the Utah Harper cousins went to Heath & Sheree's for an Easter Egg Hunt. The kids had a blast with their cousins and found some really good loot. Harper even figured out what was going on and loved putting eggs in her basket.

Auckland, New Zealand

We had a great trip to New Zealand! The best part was being able to see Grandma and Grandpa and introducing them to their newest grandchild, Harper. Grandma & Grandpa left on their mission just 1 month before Harper was born. She is now 10 months old and meeting her Brown Grandparents for the first time. She loves grandma and grandpa and had no problem getting to know them. She went to grandma right away at the airport and was very content being held by them or playing with them.

We loved New Zealand! We saw some incredible sites. We saw several locations that looked exactly like scenes from Lord of the Rings and from The Chronicles of Narnia. It is a beautiful country. Our time was short in New Zealand but we packed in a lot of great stuff.

The next several blog entries are about our trip. Several of the postings include a slide show. If you are truly interested in seeing the slides, here are some tips...click on the picture shown in the black box. It will open a new window for you to view the slides. You will enter the slide show mid way through the slide presentation. The slides do not loop, so you will have arrow back to the beginning to see all the slides.

The first set of slides is from downtown Auckland. Auckland is a great city -- very clean and right on the water. We took a ferry across the bay in Auckland. It is a very pretty city.

New Zealand Temple

We went to the New Zealand Temple on our first day. They had just completed the new visitors center at the temple and we arrived right on time for the Visitor Center Open House. The new visitor's center is very nice. The temple is in Hamilton, a few hours south of Auckland.

Coromandel Peninsula (Cathedral Cove)

One of our favorite sites was on the Coromandel Peninsula called Cathedral Cove. It is a great beach that you have to hike to. The hike is beautiful through a dense forest. You end up at this sandy beach that has several caves and an incredible arch that you go through if the tide is just right. I went through the arch just as the tide was rising and got knocked over by a huge wave. We spent several hours just sitting on the beach. Harper loved the sand and water.