I'm just going to keep pulling you in...one picture at a time.

another of Brita

Here is another beautiful person. This is Brita. She is a senior in high school this year...such a hottie.

A fun one for this morning. This is one of my nephews. He is a senior this year, and I have to give him props for this pose...it was all his idea.

I'm editing like a mad woman but here is just one of the maybe 2000 pictures I took in Utah. Don't worry, I'll continue to add as I can finish. I was lucky enough to photograph some very beautiful people this past weekend. I had a blast.

GO VOTE

I stole this from Erin, who stole it from Chris but watch it...you won't regret the time. And, by the way, GO REGISTER TO VOTE and then when it's time...voice your opinion and VOTE!

the BEACH!!!

more pictures of our fun vacation

Our weekend in San Diego

Holy Cow we had a fun weekend in San Diego. We spent the weekend with our good friends, the Armstrongs. I only have a few pictures right now to share but I hope to post even more tonight. Some of the highlights...beach, Sea World, beach, Sea World. Here are just a few of the MANY shots I took.

Zachary and Mitchel

Alyssa on the beach at sunset

The whole crew (minus the moms)
Mitchel chasing waves

Zachary's first goal

Zachary is LOVING soccer. I just wanted to share this cute little video of Zachary's first soccer goal. I just love this kid!!!

First Soccer Games

Today was the first day of soccer games for Zachary and Johnathan. They both were so excited...but for Zachary, this was his first game of his entire short life and he couldn't have been happier. He LOVED playing. Everytime Darrel took him out of the game he was sad. He wanted to be in the game the entire time. Johnathan's game was first this morning and because of some construction delays there were only four people from his team there when the game officially started. Luckily more showed up within about 20 minutes and they had subs for the rest of the game. Johnathan played goalie the first half and then defense in the second half of the game. Johnathan's team won 7 - 3. They were thrilled.

When Johnathan's game was over it was time to wander over to Zachary's game. His team doesn't officially keep track of goals but I'm pretty sure they lost by a few (if not many) goals. It's not like the kids keep track though. Most everyone had a good time playing. There were a few tears at random times of the game. I was able to capture some of that with my camera but decided not to post those...just the fun stuff.

This is Zachary before the game. He was SO excited.

Below are some of Zachary's teammates.

This is Zachary's goal. He was pumped.
Below are some of Johnathan's great saves.

Labor Day Fun

OK - I totally shouldn't be blogging this morning, but I was so tired of me ignoring school that I had to get something else on here. This is the first day of preschool and I am SUPER nervous. I have so many butterflies it's not even funny. I know that they are only three and four year olds but whatever, I'm still nervous for the first day like everyone else. As soon as I'm done here I have to go find my flag which I put away at the end of last year and remembered this morning at 3am. I tell ya, I am a bundle of nerves.

Anyway, this past weekend we drove up to St. George and visited Darrel's sister and brother in law. They took us four wheeling, out to dinner, played soccer and football with my boys, the girls took Zachary out to ice cream, and we generally had a FABULOUS time. I don't have time to write a novel but I leave you with some pictures of our four wheeling fun. (It was my first time).


This is Alex
















Johnathan had climbed way up to the top of this rock




the next picture is Johnathan on the four wheeler




























Here is our family (minus Zach - he didn't want to come). For the most part Johnathan rode with Rusty, Darrel rode by himself and Alex was behind me. There was only a few minutes when we were stopped that we let the boys ride by themselves.

The upper pictures show Johnathan getting stuck and Rusty getting him un-stuck
The picture below should be with the one that was a little higher up in the order, it shows Johnathan waving from the top of the rock he had climbed but with my camera zoomed in on his face.

This is me ignoring the first day of school

You notice that I continue and WILL continue to post about our Grammie's week. I am ignoring the fact that I took my firstborn to JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL today. Holy Cow - I am for sure not ready for this. I am freaking out that my kids are growing up...does anyone else feel this way?? So, next on the blog agenda will come the family reunion and I will continue to ignore the fact that I used to have little boys and now they are all growing up on me. AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Kudos to everyone else who updated their blogs to include pictures of the first day of school. I am continuing to ignore the fact that it was the first day of school today. So please don't remind me...

The motorcycle trip

I know that I am skipping ahead just a little bit. I have about 1000 pictures from the family reunion we went to on the Saturday of Grammie's week but for Amanda's sake :) I am showing you these pictures now. I'll go back to the family reunion and talk all about that later. While Danny was still in Iraq he decided that it would be fun to put together a motorcycle trip with him, David, Dad, and Uncle Johnny, and any other brother in law that would like to go. Originally the plan was to go and tour parts of Colorado (I think) and maybe tour around the Rocky mountain national park. These plans changed a little at a time with concerns about Dad's back, etc. Danny talked about it with all the brothers and sisters way before he ever brought it up to dad. It was actually Dad's birthday present from all the kids. They all had to rent bikes so everyone who could chipped in a little bit of money to help with the cost. When I talked to Dad after the trip he said that it exceeded his expectations, he LOVED it and wanted to go again. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall (or windshield) as it may be, to take pictures of their trip. I guess the scenery was beautiful and it was a fabulous ride. I did document the riders before they left so these pictures will have to do.

This first picture is Danny in front of his bike with Zachary. I've decided that anyone who doesn't know Danny would be probably make a judment of him based on his apperance. Danny is one of the sweetest and most generous men I have ever known in my entire life and I love him a ton and I am so grateful for the kind of brother he is to me and the uncle he is to my kids.
This is David on his bike. I think that my mom was the most nervous for him because he was the least experienced of the three riders but I'm sure he did fabulous. David is pretty much good at whatever he tries...love ya bro!! Danny thought he looked hot with his German helmet and black bike...I thought so too.
Danny called his bike the minivan of motorcycles so I thought it only appropriate to let Zachary hop up and give it a try. He was WAY nervous and didn't want Danny to go anywhere with him on that bike. He wore the helmet at my insistance but since he thought that wearing the helmet meant that Danny would ride away with him he wanted to get it off his head as quickly as possible. I love the little thumbs up that they were both giving me.
This is Dad on his motorcycle. Originally the motorcycle they gave my dad was orange but when he went to do a little test drive he discovered that the back blinker didn't work so he switched it out for this one. I think that three black bikes looked a lot better than two black and one orange bike, but I guess it doesn't really matter.

Here are the three motorcycle riders in front of the dealership where they rented the bikes.

When we got back to my mom's house my dad gave her a ride on the back of his motorcycle before they left. My mom is so great. She spent pretty much the whole ride with her arms raised like this. I have at least ten pictures of her with her arms up behind my dad...I love it.
This is right before they rode off. I wanted to get a picture of the three riders with just the lake and mountains in the background. Previously to this picture I only had a picture of the three of them together in front of the dealership and I didn't think that a picture with that background would look as good on my dad's desk as a picture with this background.
Here is the final picture I took of the three of them together. The hand signal that they are making (for those who don't already know) is how motorcycle riders wave to eachother when they pass eachother on the street. I thought it was really cool so I asked them to pose like this for me so I could get a picture.