Family Pictures 2024

 As you may or may not know...I am slightly obsessed with Christmas cards, which by default means that I am 100% committed to making sure we get family pictures taken whenever we're all together, especially now that our time being all together is fleetingly rare.  These days I have to try extra hard to make sure it happens and this togetherness time was an exceeding CHALLENGE!    Not only did Spence not end up being able to come to Idaho with us (or I would have arranged for a photographer up in Idaho), but our window of time once we got home to Alpine was all of 20ish hours before Garrett had to head back to Birmingham.  Throw in some B family commitments Garrett had already planned in that 20 hours and we were literally left with a window of  10pm Saturday - 8am Sunday that we could do it.  😅

So..we all rolled out of bed earlier than we wanted on Sunday morning and trekked over to Lambert Park around 7:15am!  

The lighting wasn't ideal and we were all a bit tired after a week of not sleeping in our own beds, but my sister, Heather, was able to capture some decent shots before we had to throw on different clothes and run to the stake center (which luckily was approximately 200 yards from the park) for Adam to report his mission to the High Council at 8am!    Whew! 

I haven't had time to edit them yet, but here are a few of our favorites:   

Our Lucie Goosie Girl and Sweet Oliver...

The girls...

The boys...

Our Gigi and Papa part of the photo shoot got cut short and we did not get a shot that I liked, but here you go anyway....

I am pretty obsessed with this sweet guy...

And I think the pics of the B family turned out as cute as can be...

And this may well be THE ONE!   It's my favorite at least...

But there was controversy over my rust dress being too "out there", so we may end up with this more muted one instead.  

We shall see! 

A {Semi} Spontaneous Trek to California

At some point during the summer, my sister, Kristina, got a bee in her bonnet about us coming to visit them in California.  And by "us," I mean she really wanted Cami and the kiddos to come visit them and was willing to tolerate Ellie and I coming along as well.  😆

As luck would have it, Cami was equally as excited about the possibility AND was able to easily change her flight home without penalty.   I worked on getting us some cheap tickets and thus our trip to California became a reality.   I think Cam and kids enjoyed the change of scenery about as much as K's family enjoyed doting on Lucie and Oliver.    

Oliver loved having all the floor space to scoot around and both kiddos enjoyed the attentions of  Madeline, Kristina, and the King Boys, especially Jesus and Manuel, who loved to snuggle them and try to make them laugh.  It was quite sweet to see their soft sides shining through.  

We arrived during one of the hottest weather spells they'd had in a year, with temps around 100* the whole time we were there.   The searing heat meant it was a little too toasty for hiking and such, but it was perfect for visiting Newport Beach--especially since the temps were a good 15-20* cooler at the beach too.  Here are some pics from our day at the beach. 

My nephew, Jesus, skipped school and came along with us too, a fact which made Lucie quite happy.  They played well together and I think they kept each other entertained far longer than either would have been on their own. 

It had been quite a while (maybe Hawaii in 2022) since I'd spent any time at the beach and it was a delightful day. 

I also enjoyed recreating this picture with Oliver...

Another day we headed to Balboa Island, where it was also 15ish degrees cooler.  We found some good food and enjoyed walking around together.

We also went on a whale watching cruise where we saw zero whales, but lots of baby dolphins and sea lions.   It was a bit disappointing not to see any whales, but it was still a delightful trip. 

We were only there a few steamy days, but we made a lot of fun memories together and Lucie keeps asking to go back to California, so we are calling it a success!  

Within 24-hours of  returning from California, we put Cami, Ellie, Lucie, and Oliver back on a plane and sent them back home to Birmingham, where Ellie has been nannying for them for the last month.  Our house is way too quiet and lonely without them here, but I am forever grateful for the fun memories we made while we were all together!  💗