Toni, the first of the clan to reach The Big Five-Oh, was shocked to her toes when an intricately-planned surprise party caught her
completely off guard.
In the span of an hour, she discovered 50 friends in her living room, watched a 15-minute film of her life, laughed and cried at poems & gifts, and learned she was going to Australia the next day.
She's still in shock.
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Anne, soccer lover extraordinaire...
Funny to imagine that her parents once dreamed of her in formal dresses playing the piano. But Animal, the name on her soccer uniform, wants no part of that. She loves the in-your-face muddy comraderie of her team; soccer's been part of her since she was tiny.
She's all fired up about playing soccer in Costa Rica this summer and going to BYU next year when the life of being a burned-out-on-school senior is over.
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 Ben, lemme see...how to put this delicately...has a problem with, um, puking. Gosh, I wonder why? Doesn't anyone who accepts his crazy Aussie friends' challenge to down this disgusting grub get cursed with a lifetime of woofing at the thought of it?
So he continues his education in the health sciences (no irony there) while he spews overdoses of toxic-level Wasabi-laced sushi.
But he has developed quite a deep intellectual curiosity, reading les Miserables multiple times and getting his dad to read it too--and following developments in astronomy and biotech closely, fascinating his papa with the stories he tells of what he learns.
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 Cobi, horrible
hound of the house, has crossed the bounds of all decency. He's so adorable nobody can resist spoiling him beyond your wildest imagination and he milks it for all its worth.
He snores, he twiches, he has bad dreams that make him whimper at night, and yet...his masters are so soft-hearted they let him sleep in their bedroom anyway...they spoil him almost as much as they spoiled their kids. 
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 Don & Eliz, still act as if they're Romeo and Juliet or something, a year after he got the girl.
They cuddle, they coo, they talk baby-talk in each others ears... Good thing the other kids are growing up or they would say eeewww.
Don is doing what he loves and founding a super-secret game company, even hiring his daddyo to work for him for zero wages (Editors note: I've been working for him for zero wage since he was born).
Eliz is doing what she loves, going to college, working at a vet's, and shooting incredibly impressive photos. Update 7/02: She now has her own photography studio!
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Mark has spent 18 months of a two-year Mormon mission in Italy--and not exactly the garden spots of that gorgeous country, although he's loving Genova.
He is fiercly dedicated to the work, but he's human and notes in his letters that Italian girls are breathtaking (same thing Don noticed).
Aside from spreading the good word and noticing cuties, his favorite topic is stomping fellow missionaries in soccer on days off. Must be a day off from Christian charity too.
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 Baldy has gone overboard again and announced his intent to become an IronMan in three years. That means swimming 2.4 miles, bicycling 112, and running 26.2...all in a very long day.
"I can't believe he's doing this," moans Toni. "What's wrong with walking for an hour? It's
great exercise. But he has to go do some macho thing because Phil challenged him."
She got
that right... My friend Phil said "you're not gonna do an IronMan. That dog won't hunt. Not at your age." So of course I have to do it. Anything less would be...
wimpy.
In the meantime, the training calls for Escaping from Alcatraz this summer. Yikes.
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