Resemblance?

Noah's First Rice Cereal

Here are some funny pictures of the first time Noah tried some rice cereal back in July.

Albion Basin Photoshoot

On the first of August we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon, past Alta, to Albion Basin to see the wild flowers and take some snapshots. The Indian Paintbrush was spread across the mountain side adding lots of brilliant color. Jill has really been wanting some decent pictures of Maya and Noah so the pressure was on. There were lots of other people with same idea. We found a few spots and took lots of pictures. You can see some more pictures here.

Lexi's First Birthday

Lexi celebrated her birthday (in August) at the East Millcreek Rec Center park. It was also Justin's 21st birthday. All the cousins had a blast running around on the playground. Lexi was not shy at all about digging right into her cake. Here are the rest of the pictures.

Family Backyard Camp Out

Our Second Annual Family Backyard Camp Out was a great success. Lots of great dutch oven cooking, disc golf and socializing around the campfire. I made my Dutch Oven Jambalaya again. This time I went a bit crazy on the spices. It definitely had some serious heat that most of the kids (a couple of adults) did not enjoy. We set off lots of fireworks. Noah decided he had had enough of the tent around 2AM. The next morning we had a delicious breakfast then got wet with some fun water toys. Matt and Justin were competing for the distance record on the slip & slide. They both ended up with some serious scratches on their bodies from sliding past the plastic onto the lawn. Great fun for everyone. Here are the rest of the pictures.

Front Room Photo Shoot

While Cami was in town from Richmond, (back in July) we set up a make-sift studio in Mom's front room in order to take pictures of Mindy's new born girl, Saley. Of course Jill wanted some pictures of Noah too, and Porter was visiting, and Jake was there too. So we took quite a few pictures of the kids and some of them turned out really quite good. I have not seen Cami's pictures, but I am sure they are much better than mine. She is amazing at taking great portraits of kids and babies. You can see some of her stuff here. There are more of my pictures of the Front Room Photo Shoot here.

Backpacking in to Duck Lake

For the second year in a row, a group of us backpacked into Duck Lake in the high Uinta Mountiains. We started by Trial Lake then hiked about 4-1/2 miles into Duck Lake. This time, my dad and I decided to try walking poles. I had purchased some poles for snowshoeing and all the reviews mentioned how great they are for backpacking. I would have to agree. They helped out a lot more than I thought they ever would. Once we figured out the right movements it was really quite beneficial, both for forward propulsion and a stabilization. Dad once again documented every nuance of the trip in his trusty journal and took a few pictures (he almost left his camera at home!) I, of course, took a few pictures. And the rest of the group just fished, fished, fished. This year the total number of fish caught was considerably less than last year. Once again I brought my hammock to sleep in and I also brought a bivy to try out. The bivy was quite a bit tighter and more constraining than I like, but it worked pretty well. Marv was pretty excited that He was able to sucker Dad and I into two games of Fruit Salad. The rest of the boys knew better and adamantly refused to play. It wasn't that bad of card game even though we lost quite terribly. Dad found himself a walking stick that that carved some rings and other designs. This years trip was one day shorter than last year but it was still a blast. I really enjoy being out amongst the nature and soaking it all in. There are plenty more pictures to be found here.