Hello, again

I haven't blogged in 18 months!  That's crazy. 

Back in the Spring, Matt and I left Facebook, which has been a good decision for us.  I care too much about what other people think of me, and Facebook is a horrible place for someone who can obsess about other people's opinions.  That being said, I have come to realize that there are a lot of people I love who I have lost contact with since leaving Facebook.  I wish I could get together with all of you every week, but unfortunately, that's impossible.  Yet, I want to know what's going on in your lives, and I want you to know what's going on in my life.

I hope this blog will be eclectic.  By that I mean, I hope I will include newsy posts about me and my family and thoughtful posts about what I've read or have being thinking about.  Above all, I hope that I will keep my goal to write a blog post once a week.  If I don't, you have my permission to bug me--but only a little bit :)

For my first post, I'm just going to post pictures and tell a little bit about them.  It won't be cohesive, just cute. 

This is Kirsten on her 4th birthday.  So happy.

In June we went to Bryce Canyon and camped for two nights.  The girls loved sleeping in a tent.

              

This is our family at Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon.

Look at this cute girl on her daddy's back!  So happy to be hiking the Navajo Loop.

On the 4th of July we hiked Stewart Falls up Provo Canyon.  The girls enjoyed playing in the creek below.

For our birthdays, Matt and I rented a boat and invited some friends to join our family on Deer Creek Reservoir.  The girls were sleepy at this point, but they enjoyed swimming and tubing for eight hours that day.

Matt driving the boat.

Look at that happy smile!

I made my traditional chocolate cinnamon cake for our birthdays.

At the end of August, we took Porter to the Provo Rec Center for the Puppy Paddle Pool Party.  He won Most Athletic Dog!

We found these pillow cases at Swiss Days in Midway.  We colored them for Family Home Evening one week.

My dear friend Jennie took this picture of us at Hogle Zoo.

Every October we go to Jaker's Pumpkin Patch, which is down the road from our house.  It's free during the day, and we love it.  We are getting ready to go on a hay ride in this picture.

We also went with Brian and Norma's family to the Hee Haw Farms in Pleasant Grove.  The petting zoo was pretty neat.

We went to Jaker's again with some friends.

And we went to Jaker's again with daddy.  Here he is buried in the corn box.

Halloween:  Reagan was Sally Cat from Busy Town, and Kirsten was Katerina Kitty Cat from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

Last Monday we made our first snowman of the season.  Don't worry, the snow has melted.  This morning we played outside without jackets on.

I hope you enjoyed  this photographic journey with me.  Look forward to more next week!