12 Years

This Sunday, Vince and I will have been married for 12 years. Last night,we enjoyed our annual night away from the kids. Thank you Toni for watching the whole gang. Hopefully one of these days, we will get away for many days and go somewhere over seas. But for now, I am just grateful for a fun night. By this point in our summer vacation, we have usually driven so many thousands of miles, that we don't want to travel very far. So we seem to find some local treasures every year. This year, after dinner and a movie, we stayed at the Silver Fork Lodge up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was scenic and cozy and included an amazing breakfast. We were the only guests last night, since Winter is their big season. Then this morning we hiked to Blanche Lake (second picture), Florence Lake, and Lillian Lake (top picture). It was gorgeous. I can't believe that I hadn't done this hike before. But it was 3 miles up and pretty darn steep and now my legs hurt and that is why I am sitting here blogging for a bit, because it hurts to do much else. LOL

Dirty Faces

My friend Amber just emailed me these great pictures from a recent get-together at their place. Since I have been a major slacker at downloading my own pictures or updating my blog, I thought that I would share these here. We are trying to grow-out Aud's bangs. She is horrible at keeping clips or elastics in, so her hair is always in her face. This fits her wild and feisty personality, but drives me crazy. Sophie is swinging with her cute friend Eliza. And notice her poor knees. Maybe she has her mother's grace. Thanks for the pictures and the party, Amber!

Halloween 2009

We had a great Halloween this year. Landon was a pizza delivery guy. William was "a secret agent in China named Poncho". It took him forever to decide on something and that is what he finally came up with. Sophie was a witch. And Aud was a kitty cat who refused to wear the ears.

William was baptized that morning. It was a beautiful program and a special day that he will always remember. We let him choose where to go to lunch after the service and he chose The Cracker Barrell. He loves breakfast. He ordered a big stack of pancakes and was happy, happy.

William and Saint Louis

Vince presented a paper at a conference in Saint Louis last week. We all went along for the ride and had a good time. The first day we spent at the Saint Louis Zoo. It was free. I even found free parking. We all had a great time. The kids loved the penguins. Aud clapped and told the seals "good job" when they did tricks for fish. The huge tortoises and the new baby elephant were my favorite. I left my camera at the hotel and missed some good photo opportunities. Darnit. We also enjoyed the hotel pool and then drove around the city and ate at a Vietnamese Restaurant followed by some gelato. Yummy. Day 2 we went up in the Saint Louis Arch. It was really neat. This picture is of Vince and the kids in the little tram car that takes you to the top. It was a great trip and a needed break.


William turned 8 on Sunday! He has grown up so much lately. I like this picture becasue it captures what things are often like around here. The kids just hanging out and being silly together.

Aud

Audrey turned two on the first of October. Here are a few recent pictures of her...


This first picture captures her sweet little personality. We have a cute picture of the older three standing directly behind one another, and have been trying to get the four of them to line up for a similar picture since Audrey could stand. But she hasn't cooperated yet. The boys say that she is advanced and entered the "terrible twos" months ago.


I took this picture the other night after she and Sophie were painting with watercolors and she decided to taste the water.

She loves clothes as much as her sister, and loves to dress up and change outfits. Their room is never clean. She was running around in this cute hat a couple of weeks ago.

Audrey keeps things interesting around here. She can be a handful but we sure love her. She is growing up so fast. She potty-trained herself a couple of months back. She is daddy's girl and likes to tell me so. She might be the youngest, but no one pushes her around. And she has a sweet side too. I am blessed to spend my days with Aud.

I've Been Replaced

Vince has always had a picture of me and the kids as his desktop backgound. Well, not any more. I have been replaced. Vince waited in line for over two hours with the girls at Disneyland last month to see the princesses. They saw Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle. Belle has always been Vince's favorite princess and now he has her on his desktop. I am so hurt.

First Day of School

The kids started school last week!

Sophie is now in Kindergarten. So far, she loves it. They go all day.


William is a second grader and has had no complaints.


Landon is in Middle School. Crazy! They start middle school in fifth grade here. He likes school too, although he says that his history teacher is mean.


Here they are on the bench that Vince and William made a couple of weeks ago.


Aud is still home with me. It is really quiet around here but we are having a lot of fun together. We will try to find more time to blog. We had a great summer that we have yet to post about at all.