Family Pictures

It's been a while since we had family pictures taken. Dan can't see the need to spend that much money on pictures. Well, lucky for us, my wonderful sister-in-law, Ashlee, enjoys taking pictures. I don't think we're very photogenic, but she somehow worked miracles with us. They turned out great!

Had to get the dog (Missy) in one.

I love Katelyn's eyes in this one.

We had a slight mis-hap half-way through taking the pictures. It's rained the night before and, well ... kids just can't be still for that long. I wish I had gotten a picture from the back too, he was covered in mud! (Don't worry - he cheered up pretty quick and now he can laugh at it). Definition of boy: a noise with dirt on it.

Ashlee wanted to get some pictures of just Dan and me. It was really awkward! We don't usually pose for sappy pictures. We felt silly and couldn't stop laughing. It felt fine on our wedding day, but it's been a while since then.

I love this picture!

I love this picture, too!

This last picture is more true to our family. We're a little (okay, a LOT) goofy. Chow for now. You should be getting one of these pictures in a Christmas card soon.

A phone call from who!?!

After getting home from church a few Sundays ago, I was casually tidying-up the kitchen when the phone rang. Keep in mind that Dan is still at church for meetings. Coleman was anxious to get the phone. I hear him talking to himself:

"Let's see who it is ...."

(pause.... he's reading the caller ID)

"It's Jesus!!"

A picture of his face at this moment would be worth a thousand words because words could never do it justice. It was Dan calling and the caller ID actually read "CHURCH OF JESUS". This experience might not speak too highly of his intelligence, but it does of his faith. He's the kid who immediately kneels down to pray when he loses something, and immediately kneels down to thank Heavenly Father when he finds it. He's found a few lost teeth that way long after I'd given up. A child's faith many times puts me in my place.

Moral: We don't need a phone to talk to our Savior. What a blessing and a miracle the way prayer works.

Yellowstone

. . . I had a hard time posting last fall, too. I'm not quite sure what the problem is, but I've got a lot of catching up to do. So here's our family vacation to Yellowstone last August (just three months late:)

Beautiful "Yellow" stone canyon. Grandma & Grandpa Finch came with us.

Jamison's favorite was seeing all the animals. No surprise... he is my outdoorsman! Here we're looking at a herd of Elk and some swans in the water. We also saw a coyote at the side of the road, a buffalo walking next to our van, eagles, ospreys, two moose really close. In fact one night around the campfire, a moose walked right behind our tent! I panicked and walked in the other direction with Katelyn. Even with all these animals, the kids still thought it was lame because we didn't see a bear.

Watching Old Faithful. I wish we had audio - Coleman and Katelyn screamed and cheered when it FINALLY erupted.

My favorite part . . . swimming in the Firehole river.

The Yellowstone Falls - absolutely breathtaking! You can't get the sense of how HUGE this waterfall is. It gave me butterflies.

This is Inspiration Point - you can see the falls in the background.

Riding the Ferry across Jenny Lake in the Tetons. Then we hiked to a beautiful waterfall.

The kids also loved the Horseback riding.

One short story: While driving up there, we stopped for gas in Cokeville, Wyoming. This is when I realized that Katelyn's backpack, with all her stuff in it, was still sitting on her bed at home! I had to forget something - why couldn't it have been the marshmallows? Luckily, Jackson Hole had a Kmart. We had to buy everything from sneakers, to underwear, to swimsuit.

Way Fun! We loved this trip! In fact, we might go again next year.