Our trip to see Santa

Visiting Santa this year was a true test of my patience. When a few too many things decided to work against me I should have scraped the whole idea and rescheduled for a different day, but I didn't. The place where I go to get pictures is a huge store, but they allow me to use my own camera to take pictures and they give the kids a print out of the picture they took, all for free. I like free, so I go despite the craziness of the store. On weekdays Santa does not show up till 5pm. I knew that I did not want to go on a weekend because the crowed is too much. Since Rob does not get home that early I decided to arrange for two extra adults to go with me, both for different reasons were unable to show up. I feed the kids an early dinner and we headed out alone. Guinevere was not happy for whatever reason and was screaming almost the whole way there. We arrived at 5:10 and there was already a line. My kids, like all kids I am sure, do not like to wait in lines. They had activities for the children but they were all up closer to where Santa was and I did not feel comfortable letting my kids go up there since I had to stay in line. After 10 minutes of wining I let the older three run up there were the explicate instructions that they had to stay together, yah right. Guinevere was not happy about this either, and proceeded to scream in my arms for 5 minutes before I allowed her to wonder up to where London was by herself. I was close enough not that I could at least see them for the most part. I got a few looks from the other parents standing around me for this, but I am use to it so it did not bother me too much. When I was three people away from getting to see Santa I tried to round my children up. London was the only one who came willingly. I left London in line with the camera and stroller while I went after of my wayward children. London, Jacob, and Joseph all stood willingly with Santa for me to get a picture. I place a mostly calm Guinevere on Santa's lap and she screamed. I was not even able to get a picture of her with my camera. I had originally planned to see Santa a couple times so that I could get a good picture of each of the kids but I was so exhausted after one trip that I never went back.

Zoo

I recently made the mistake of taking the kids to the zoo on a Saturday when an event was taking place. I wanted to go and check out Boo at the Zoo. We were not going to a pumpkin patch this year, it was advertised that there would be a pumpkin patch at this event, and I wanted some cute fall pictures.

First we waited in line to see the new koala exhibit. Cute.


Then we headed to the main event. First off was the hay maze. Rob did manage to get one shot of Guinevere with a bow in her hair before it was lost. None of the other children in this rather lame hay maze. The other kids all made there way to more interesting exhibits like painting picture of a cow.


When Joseph found out the the cow that he had drenched in paint had to stay at the booth to dry and be retrieved later we ended up with this.


After all this fun we lost Jacob to the play area. It was at this time that Rob pointed out the "pumpkin patch" that I had come for. I was somewhat less then optimistic when I sat out to wait in line with the three girls for our turn in the "pumpkin patch." After getting this lovely picture we left. Oh the way home we enjoyed a choir of screaming, thus rounding out a beautiful morning at the zoo.

Halloween

I am finally posting pictures again. Sorry to all our family and friends who have been oh so patiently waiting for me to get my life together and post pictures of the kids.

We had quite the Halloween this year. First on Friday we had a trick-or-treat thing at Rob's work in the afternoon, and then London had a thing at her school in the evening. Then Saturday we had the ward Halloween party, and Sunday night the kids went out in the trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. After three straight days of Halloween we ended up with way too much candy, and two very worn out parents.

Before we went out trick-or-treating on Sunday Rob took the kids outside and got some great pictures of them. London was a total ham for the camera. The boys were mostly cooperative, and as long as I did not try to put Guinevere's wings or hat on she tolerated pictures as well.











Total by chance the little girl that I baby sit was also a ladybug for Halloween. Guinevere was not very cooperative at Rob's work trick-or-treat until Esther got out her camera. Both girls loved looking at there pictures.

Camping on the Mountain

A post by Rob:

This weekend we escaped the heat of the valley by visiting our favorite campground in the mountains. Since our camping plans earlier in the summer were scratched due to rain the kids were really looking forward to spending some time in the mountains. As we drove out of the valley and began to climb the first mountain pass London said to her siblings “Look! We’re on the mountain!” We were so surprised that the campground, which usually fills up quickly Friday afternoon, was entirely vacant. We were to only campers the first night, joined by only one other camper the second night. We set up at our favorite spot, which has a view overlooking the valley 6,500 feet below. As sunset approached, I experimented with several of the exposure setting on the camera, trying to capture the views that make this spot so great. The second day we walked the 1 ¼ mile loop road at the top of the mountain. This wore out Joseph and Guinevere who took a nap in the tent. We saw less wildlife than our previous visits but did have an unwelcome skunk come through camp after the kids were asleep.

I really like the layers of mountain ridges in this photo.

Sunset colors over the mountains.

As night falls, the city lights appear!

With an exposure time of 30 seconds, the planes landing and taking off become a streak of light.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Can you identify some valley landmarks?

The Beach

Over the summer we decided to take an impromptu trip to the beach. My Aunt was so wonderful and let us stay at her house on short notice. She even made dinner for all of us while we were there, she is a great cook, so that was an extra bonus.

The kids loved the beach. It was Guinevere's first time to the beach, and Joseph wasn't even a year old the last time we went to a beach so I don't think the other kids remember it all that well. All the kids loved the water. I thought it was cold, and I really did not expect the kids to play in it that much, but I was wrong. Guinevere would start to turn purple and we still had to drag her out kicking and screaming. When the other three got to the point that they were shaking because they were so cold I would suggest they go and play in the sand for a little while to warm up, and they would insist that they were not cold and did not need to get out. Crazy water loving kids!

I had a hard time picking pictures to post because we took so many good ones. I can't wait to scrapbook all of them.


Yes, Guinevere is about to fall over in this picture. I thought the kids would get water on there toes, see how cold it was, and then run back up and play in the sand. Boy was I wrong, all four of them got there pants wet.



A few days before we left I was trying to take Guinevere's 18m pictures and she refused to look at me. For some reason when we were at the beach she decided that every time she saw me with the camera she would look at me and make this face while saying cheeeese.








Jacob was very difficult to catch on film. Every time we got out the camera he would look down or hide his face. I had to take this one from a distance.

Joseph's 3rd Birthday Party

My sweet little boy has been anxiously awaiting his birthday party every since Jacob had his. When we went to his cousins Tinkerbell party all decked out in purple and pink he got so excited and asked "This Joseph's birthday?" When my sister brought some of the leftover cake over to my house again he got really excited and asked "This Joseph's birthday party?" For the 4th of July we decorated a cake for Americas birthday and again Joseph asked "This Joseph's birthday party?" He never got upset, he would just say "Oh" and move. When the day actually came for his birthday party I made sure he knew that the cake I was making was definitely for him.

Joseph has been into all things Toy Story. In the nursery at church they have a Mr. Potato head. Every time he sees it he gets really excited and says "Toy Story!" When he saw his cake he said "Oh Mom, its Toy Story."

As he opened each of his presents and spied a character from the move he would yell "Toy Story!" I know he knows all the characters names, so it is kind of amusing to me that instead of saying who they actually were he would just say "Toy Story."



When he pulled the card out of this gift he said "stars." He didn't say it like he was noticing a shape, but more like he was in aw that someone had given him actually stars. I wish we had been taking video at the time, it was that cute.


I did not really want to do anything terribly difficult on the cake, so I decided that Mr. Potato Head would be the easiest character to put on the cake. I was super excited with how well the cake turned out.

Joseph is such a wonderful, sweet boy. He is truly a joy to have around most of the time, and I could not imagine our lives without him.

Individual Pictures

I don't think Rob and I have had a good picture taken of us since we were married.


Guinevere of course would not stop to pose, so we had to get a picture of her on the run.

Joseph I love this picture of Joseph. The angle and everything is just perfect.


Jacob really did not want to take anymore pictures. Such a fake smile.

London was all about having her own personal photo shoot. We got a lot of cute ones of her, but this is my favorite.

Family Photos

While we were in Utah for a family reunion we took some time for my sister-in-law Denise to take some pictures of our family. Understandably so, this was a rather difficult task. Guinevere was screaming most of the time. Jacob and Joseph alternated times that they refused to do anything we asked them to do. London was pretty cooperative most of the time, she just got tired of smiling and really bored.

3 Girls

3 Boys




It took some photo merging, but I did get two family photos where everyone is looking at the camera. Thank you to Denise (and Paul) for all there hard work.