Shayne Callie Mortensen's blessing day.

Justin was so excited for Shayne's blessing that he fell asleep on the way to church.

Cole was feeling the GQ look.
Mama and Papa and their 24th grandchild.

The Fourth of Juuuly! (make that sound really happy to yourself)

July 4th is my second favorite holiday, right behind Christmas! We took the kiddos out to Balloon Fiesta Park for the city's celebration and firework show. Mama and Papa watched Shayne for us. They are the best grandparents ever!

I looove baby hands!
If you can't tell what Cole is saying, it's "OK, we've arrived, you may begin!"

The first water fight of 2009

As you can see, the girls started off with a bang, or more appropriately, a splash.

They were in complete control.
You could definitely say they were dominating.
But then something went terribly wrong. The boys called in reinforcements. Caitlin is valiantly trying to hold the pool.

And then Jenessa gave it her best shot.

But THEY were everywhere!!

It was a massacre! Jenessa could hardly get up....

and Caitlin was running away.

But THEY were having none of that, THEY were on the attack.

Briana was the last girl standing.

footnote: this was an atypical water fight, I must say that the girls usually win!

We did do more in Cailfornia than just soccer.

Right after we arrived, Shayne's umbilical cord finally fell off, so she received her first real bath in a hotel in Stevenson Ranch, CA.
Shawn and Britta were administering the bath when, bam, Shayne pooped. This is the cleaning of the tub.

We're back in business.
Most of the evenings during the soccer tournament, Cait was at a team dinner. This was one of those times. Can you tell we had just eaten a chocolate strawberry pie by the smile on their faces.
It caused a strange reaction in Brit and Ness.

Justin really liked his piece too.

If we had been on the ball, we would have gotten Shayne in this picture and had all eight kiddos in for the shot, but Nooo, not us! This began our day at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Cole went up on stage at one of the "shows" and had a squirt gun competition. He was really intent as you can tell. He had to shoot into a hole in the middle of a target,...

underneath that target was this little boy getting soaking wet. Cole totally won the competition by getting his balloon to pop first and dump it's load on this same little boy.

Briana then competed at the same "show". She had to shoot water balloons into...

the bucket on this kids head. She also won and attributed her win to being a basketball player. Kinda funny.

Cole was totally stoked with getting completely drenched as he stood on the bridge to the really big log ride. Water was squishing out of his shoes.

Caitlin messing with the camera while taking care of Parker.

The day is done.

We spent a day at Newport Beach. Cole decided he wanted to learn how to shave.

Britta and Caitlin

Shay showing off his muscle mag look.

Look ma, a shell!

Look ma, a bone! Oooo, yuck!

Look ma, I can't get this sand off of me!
Proof that all the bigun's got in the water. There's Shawn, Caitlin, Jenessa, Britta and Shay.

The "triplets" warming up after a dip in the chilly Pacific ocean.

Cait and Brit racing to give Parker their shell first.
Shayne spent her first time at the beach sleeping.

Shay bought a Star Wars Lego ship, with Luke and R2 D2, for Cole, and proceeded to help the kids glue it together. They loved it as you can tell.

Wait, I need to fix my hair!

Okay, now you can take the picture.

There's my honey!

Cole and Briana wanted to be buried, but they didn't want to get sand in their hair.

Just before Brit and Shay had to leave for San Fran (actually Oakland). Shayne looks like she could be theirs, don't you think?

Disneyland!

Whew, that was a trip and a half, don't ya think?