2009 in Pictures! 9-10

September

At the beginning of the month we were still in Utah. We got to do a little babysitting of our cute nieces. (they could be models, couldn't they?)

Bryan's extended family had a mini-reunion at his parent's house.

There was lots of swimming...

the boys camped out in the yard...

smores around the campfire... (Daniel was not a fan of the smores, so he just had graham crackers, lol)

and some more night swimming followed by Golf for the boys the next day. It was a blast and needs to be a yearly tradition!

We also got to see an awesome game between BYU and TCU. Go Cougs!

October

In October the leaves finally started to change and Columbus was GORGEOUS! It's definitely my favorite season here in Ohio. I got to take some pictures for some friends of mine one day and snuck a shot of Daniel with all those leaves!Here are just a few shots I took. I also took some one a different camera with a lense that blurs the background, (they were my favorite of the bunch) but those photos all went when my computer died. :( We still got some good pictures though, it's not hard when the family is as cute as they are!

I started working on two quilts using this fabric, which I LOVE. (it's so beautiful in person!)

We topped October off with lots and lots of Halloween celebrations. Daniel wanted to be Yoda, which I also attempted. Although I still had to sew him into it every night. :0

2009 in Pictures! 6-7-8

May and June were the months of our great trek. We drove our poor little car from coast to coast within 10 months. This is a map of all our galavantings. Good thing we love a road trip, eh?

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June
Bryan studied for, took, and passed his boards! Yay Bryan! He had to go back to Ohio for the test and some classes. So Daniel and I drove up to Washington to hang out with my sister.

Daniel, Nick and Zoe

We also went through another failed adoption in June. Obviously not fun, and obviously, no pictures. :)

Bryan and I got back to Utah just in time to join his family on a trip to California and spent some time on the beach. So wonderful!

We saw a balloon man...

and some beautiful scenery!

When we got back to Utah we got to spend some time with Bryan's maternal Grandfather and his wife. I always love our visits with him, and this time he told us some fun family stories.

We took some time (on a VERY hot day) to take some family pictures. These are some of my favorites.

And of course before we could leave to go home we did some more... swimming!!!

On our drive home we spent a day near Moab at Arches National Park. So beautiful! I think everyone needs to go hear before they die!

We also stopped at Dead Horse Point which is near there. Amazing views! (I'll have to find/post pictures later!) I've lost most of my pictures for July and August as my hard drive died on me! :(

August found us making our way BACK to Utah to help welcome my parents home from an 18 month mission to New Zealand. Daniel has become quite the traveling pro!

Great minds think alike. Daniel and his cousin found out they had the same shirts! (Daniel thought this was so so funny!)

And he and his cousin Jakob discovered that the other loved lego star wars just as much as they did. (they had a blast)

Think they're related?

We had my family over to Bryan's family's house for a swimmig party.

And the girls all spent a day at the spa! It was awesome. I sooo needed a massage! (this is my neice Becca, she got a mini facial)

2009 in pictures! 4-5

April

In April we had a short break, so we ran over to Kansas to visit my sister and her family and my brother and his family. (so handy that they live so close to each other!)

We got to play with our cute new (ish) nephew,

and Daniel got to play with a bunch of his cousins. He was in heaven!

My brother acted as our tour guide and took us to some of the church historical sights. It's always a sobering experience for me to see how much those who came before sacrificed so that we would be free to practice our religion. Amazing. I'll never get over the trees that covered the temple plot at Far West. Insane, I can't believe that the men had to work so hard to clear those for the site. I would not want to step anywhere near where one of those spikes could be!

We found the grave yard where some of the saints were buried. It was really interesting to note that they were buried right along side the people who drove them out. I guess death makes all men equal.

After Far West we traveled over to Haun's Mill. They tell you not to go when it's rained unless you have four wheel drive. They weren't kidding. We slid all over the place in our little Honda accord. I was convinced we'd end up stuck and with no cell service. We drove back to Columbus (10 hrs away) and I washed the car twice and all the dirt still didn't come off.

It's a very sobering experience to walk that ground. What a sad situation.

We also spent an evening at the Plaza. Such a fun place to go for a night out.

With the weather warming up, we had fun playing at the parks

and having Easter Egg hunts.

We hit the zoo one last time before we left town. Columbus seriously has the best zoo!

Daniel posing as the stinkiest flower ever. (a little too fitting :) )

Daddy's almost as big as a Tiger!

May

Daniel discovered McDonald's Ice Cream cones. Love at first sight.

We had fun watching hot air balloons and guessing where they would land.

We made our way to the west coast by way of Kansas. Of course a light saber battle ensued. ( I love little boys!)

When we got to Utah the first thing we did was hop into the pool, Look at that little tadpole go!

Thomas was in town so we trucked on over and spent the day in little boy heaven.