A Year in Pictures

I've always liked the "Christmas letter." You get to the end of the year and then write about the things that stick out most. Now that I see the light about blogs, I feel jipped that I didn't get to share these other experiences. So while writing my Christmas letter this year, I thought I should do a "best of 2007" post. Then I came up with way too many pictures, so I narrowed myself to 20 - 10 for family specific activities and 10 for being aesthetically the best. So these family ones are first, followed by the second post of the more artsy pictures.

Chris and I were invited to a murder mystery dinner, pirate themed. I was a tavern owner and Chris was a sailor. It's not a very good quality picture, but it's all we have. It was a fun night - food, friends, and dressing up like a pirate!

Sledding at Mount Charleston in February. Jared loved it. Avery sat in the car eating all the snacks we brought.We finally knocked down our old shed in the back yard. Chris drove the Bobcat over and put on a good show for us.

Hiking to Calf Creek Falls near Escalante, Utah for Jared's 4th birthday. We camped and then hiked in the morning. Jared loved hiking. Avery got a shoulder ride. The water was freezing!!! And it provided a romantic backdrop for our friend Andrew to propose to his girlfriend!!

Who doesn't love ice cream cones, especially in the summer. This is what we have for birthdays, since I am not a big fan of cake (I don't want leftover cake, either) I just love ice cream more than cake, and I think I am training my children as well.

Jared at swim class. His teacher kind of looks like she is pushing him under. Jared went from being overly clingy to being a show-off, running and jumping into the deep end and even going off the high dive.

At the Kennecott Copper Mine in Salt Lake. This was a fun vacation for us. Usually trips to Salt Lake are to visit family and that's it. We came for Andrew's wedding and did quite a few touristy activities: the copper mine, the zoo, and Temple Sqaure. This is a tire from one of the dump trucks they use in the mine.

Jared playing soccer on a city parks & rec team. Chris was the coach and I really like this shot.

With Jared's first Halloween we carved a pumpkin and took a picture with him inside. So we did the same with Avery.... and we couldn't not do Kiefer. Way to make the third child feel left out! And so in the pumpkin he went. Never mind that he was 10 days old! (The others were 5 and 4 months)

What is this, a picture of our couch?? No it's the kids and their load of soon-to-be-confiscated candy!! ;) We finally got the kids to put their costumes on. Neither really wanted to wear what we had (even though they did like the characters, they just didn't want to put the costume on!) Jared was Nacho Libre (sans cape and mask in picture) and Avery was Tinkerbell. Chris thinks the black converse shoes with the costume make her look like some crazy 80's chick. I thnk she's cute.

Ok, so there were some of our family moments.