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| How could you not love a place like this?! |
Having some of our best friends live in one of our favorite places and then having them name us godparents to their adorable baby girl, Evie, means that we are traveling to Utah these days as much as we can. In September, we spent about ten days out west just enjoying our friends and the beautiful fall scenery. Utah never fails to blow me away with the beauty of its autumn color.
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| I would fly anywhere to spend time with this little one. |
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| Sweet baby girl. |
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| Evie already thinks he’s hilarious. I think it’s the funny faces he makes. |
Kerri and I managed a short weekend getaway to Denver for some quality time together and a concert by the always amazing
Ray LaMontagne at
Red Rocks Amphitheatre. This miracle trip was made without children. By ourselves. With uninterrupted conversation and complete thoughts. So, in a word, FANTASTIC!
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| A super-smiley selfie of two women who got to choose their own adventure for the day! |
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| Looking down on Golden, Colorado, and Denver off in the distance. Not a bad view. |
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| One of my favorite experiences of all time– this concert with this friend. Perfect. |
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A crappy iPhone picture of a red full moon rising over Denver while Ray plays with his own red moon on stage.
Seriously one of the coolest things I’ve seen. |
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| Posing on the porch at Aunt Charlotte’s, who was kind enough to host us. Thanks again, Aunt Charlotte & Uncle Jim! |
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| Taking in some of the beautiful scenery along I-70 on the drive home. This is next to the highway! |
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| Colorado in the fall is just so beautiful. |
No trip to Utah would be complete without some time spent at our favorite garden–
Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It remains such a lovely place to spend an afternoon and let the kids run around and enjoy nature and each other.
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| James and Gracie beat us to the top. |
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Gracie, James, Mils, and Mads.
Please appreciate the miracle that is four children sitting, smiling, and looking at the camera. |
Even if we don’t do much in the way of exploring or adventuring while in Utah, we are always happy just to spend time with our friends and the kiddos. Having a great time is never a problem for us, and I love taking pictures while I’m out there. The subjects are just too cute!
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| Mads at ballet class |
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| Mils at ballet class |
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| Caught this gorgeous sunset just going down the road. Don’t worry, I was the passenger. |
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| Chris playing “school” with Gracie. Not sure whether he passed… |
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| Chris with Mils. |
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| James really wanted a turn to hold Evie. He just loves babies. It’s so sweet. |
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Participating in a “Color Run” fundraiser at Gracie’s school.
We didn’t run so much as just throw color powder at each other. |
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| It brightened up an otherwise cold, gray, rainy evening. |
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| It wouldn’t be an event if we didn’t get a peek at James’ crack. |
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| The final, messy result. Good times had by most. Mils was not as much of a fan. She doesn’t like being dirty. |
Chris, Chris C., and James enjoyed a boys’ night out at the
Rocky Mountain Raceways drag strip, topped off with a male rite of passage– the eating of a large piece of meat. In this case, they initiated James with an absolutely enormous T-bone steak at
Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
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| Cheering on his favorites. |
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| Having a great time hanging out with Mr. Chris. |
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| Notice the one on the left is meant to look like Mater from Cars. |
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This steak is bigger than his head. He ate it all.
2/3 of it went right after this picture was taken, the rest for lunch the next day. |
I’m always honored when Kerri asks me to take their family pictures while we are out there. She and I had a fun time scouting out locations with a lower elevation (due to Evie’s oxygen needs) and came upon a great spot not too far from their house. This photo shoot was one of my favorites. It’s not hard to take great pictures of such a photogenic family, but I’m especially proud of some of these. It was a struggle just choosing which ones to put on here because I loved so many of them!
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| Our view during our scouting drive. Yes, please! |
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| These two have a sweet and special bond. It’s so cute! |
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| Such a lovely and wonderful family. Love you guys! |
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| Snuck one of my kiddo as well. He insisted on having a ponytail on top of his head. No one knows why. |
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We did a special little shoot with Evie and the quilt I made for her.
This baby is a tough little rockstar and I’m so proud of her. |
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| Our last meal on this trip had to be Cafe Rio and these girls adore their Mr. Chris. |
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| Flying into Orlando with lightning in the air. So cool to see! |
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This frequent flier doesn’t even wake up when the plane hits the tarmac.
Slept through the landing entirely. |
