I would like to tell you about our daughter Chelsea, about her dreams, about the things she loved about life. She was such a good girl her entire life. She always had an infectious smile. She tried to be nice to everyone, wherever we went she always made a friend.

When she was in first grade she started going to Girl Scouts. She would sell over one thousand boxes of cookies every year. With the credits she would earn she would sign up to spend a week at Camp Cloud Rim. There she learned how to canoe and made lots of friends from all over the state. She went there for a week each summer for three years. She loved it there. She stopped going to Girl Scouts when we moved to Farmington in 2003, because we couldn’t find a local troop.

Another of her great loves was soccer. She found out about soccer in the second grade when they played it in P.E. The following year she was on a team with AYSO and in fact played on two teams that year in Orem.

In 2007 she was still playing on a team in Farmington and two in Layton. She always wanted to be playing. She wanted to go to the University of Utah just so she could play on their soccer team. When you would ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up, it was always a professional soccer player.

Chelsea had a fascination with the ocean and everything about it. She loved being at the ocean and playing in the surf. Believe it or not… she also had a desire to swim with the biggest predator in the sea, the Great White Shark, just like they do on the Discovery Channel.

Most of all, Chelsea loved her family and we just adored her. She was extremely close to her great grandmothers, as well as grandparents who live in Louisiana. She loved her little sisters and would help them and play with them.

Even after death, Chelsea continued to help people through the gift of organ donation.

I would like to let teenagers know that even though you are trying to become independent, please be smart about what you choose to do. Don’t follow your friends if you know what they are doing is stupid or dangerous. Be a leader, not a follower.