Twins' Special Day

Alyssa and Emma got baptized this month! It was a great experience us and we were grateful for our family that traveled so far to be with the twins on this day. I can't believe they are getting so old!

Yellowstone

We went on a fun adventure to Yellowstone the last weekend of the summer.  We decided to camp in Yellowstone itself and it was great. (Of course, there was a hiker killed by a bear the night before we stayed there, but we didn't see any bears.) Our campsite was right on Yellowstone Lake and it was so peaceful and beautiful!

Fourth of July!

We are starting some fun traditions for the 4th. We went down to Provo to spend time with Matt and JaNae's family and to enjoy the festivities there. Some saw the Stadium of Fire, some ran in the Freedom Run 5K, all watched the parade and spent fun times playing. We also saw Derek and Sonja's family which is always great. Christiana joined me for the 5K this year, and she did awesome! We ran just over a 12 min. mile and Christiana was 46th out of 107 girls in her age group (I was 80th out of 159). I was really proud of her--she had only ran about 4 times to prepare, but she really did great. What a fun weekend!

Mother's Day

For the last two mother's days, my siblings and father have been meeting at my mom's grave to celebrate our mom and her impact on our lives. It is a great time for me to be able to talk about my mom and how much she means to me. This year my dad brought an album of pictures of my mom that my kids looked at while we were there. It was good for them to see different pictures of her from when she was a teenager and young mother. It is sad for me that my kids have no memories of my mom. She is such a huge part of who I am, I wish that they had the chance to see that and know her.

Graduation!!

Darren participated in the graduation ceremony for his MBA this last weekend. It was fun to share this accomplishment with him and some of our family. We are so proud of Darren!!

Lack of Posting, Not Lack of Things to Post About

So I was looking back at my blogging history, and I realized that I never really blog much in the fall. Which is really too bad, because half of the birthdays in our family and a lot of fun holidays happen in the fall. I take pictures and enjoy all of these things, but they just don't make it onto the blog. I enjoy reading and looking at my friends' blogs, and think, "I should post about things like that", but it just never happens.

So this fall has been great! We have had fun with school, dance, piano, soccer, preschool, Halloween, cheer and tumbling, Thanksgiving, family visits, painting, Nutcracker rehearsals, fishing, volunteering at the school, stitches (twice on the same kid), snowman building, birthdays, and graduating (with an MBA, no less! Way to go Darren!!). Life is good.

First day of school

Christiana doing what she loves to do

Alyssa and Emma with their double 7 B-day cake

Yeah, Julia is a mermaid superhero

2nd Annual Y Hike

The older girls and I got up early on the 24th of July to hike up to the Y in Provo. We actually woke up late (we were supposed to leave at 6 am, but ended up going about 6:45), so we didn't get to go with all the cousins, but we saw them as they were coming down and we were going up. This hike is not for the faint-hearted (which, unfortunately, I am). Sally was kind enough to hike the last bit again to the top, so we had her company as we went back down. It is a fun tradition though, and hopefully next year Darren and Julia will be able to be with us!

Showing their exhaustion

Success!! We are all showing our "Y"s