labor day weekend

I wish I had something totally exciting to write about, like we were a cool family that actually travels during the busiest travelling weekend of the year, but we're not, so I don't. On Saturday morning we attended sweet Natalie's baptism which was very nice but we loved socializing with the extended families of Phil and Lauri. As we were getting ready to go Phil's mom was surprised because she thought we were family, I told her "we are family", and I really do feel this way. Of course I've blogged about this several times so no need to get into it again, but it was fun to spend the day with them for sure. Do you know that I had the camera in my car the whole time? Which explains why there's no photograph to accompany this paragraph.

Matt & Ann shared Bee's tickets with us, so my mom and dad and our family went to watch them play Saturday evening. It was a good game, we watched from the grass which was good for Ethan because he could run around, and he did. The Bee's won 11-7 and there was even a pitcher/umpire in-your-face you made a terrible call kind of argument that got the pitcher tossed! That was fun to watch, that guy was ticked! I should've taken better pictures, that's the story of my life.

Sunday my mom invited us to dinner with a catch, bring your camera she says. My Grandpa, her dad, isn't doing very well and she is leaving early Tuesday morning to go visit him in Alaska. She was hoping I would photograph the individual families and kids and such so she would have some current pics to take to Grandpa. I actually had a lot of fun, I bring my camera a lot but I don't do "portait" type pictures of the families very often and I learned, again, that I belong to a totally goofy family.

My handsome brother Brandon, he's single ladies... Jake and April and their kiddies... Jason & Leah and their kiddies... don't I have the cutest parents? :) These are the most recent additions to the family, Charlie, Ethan and Ashton...

Something totally momentus happened Sunday, something that's never happened before...You saw it here first ladies and gentlemen, a picture of my family. I'm totally embarassed to admit it, especially because it's what I do for a living, but this is the FIRST picture that contains all members of my family since Ethan was born 22 months ago! Maybe you think I mean portait, nope, I don't even have a plain old snap shot of the six of us. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure why we haven't done it before, I've tried a couple of times and failed, but here it finally is, a picture of all six of us. It's that same old complaint that I have had forever, that because I'm the photographer in the family, there are very few great pictures of me and that includes one with me and my family, so I know that we were just kind of thrown together and it's nothing fancy, but I'll take it. Thanks Dad for being the photographer for a minute.

Today, Monday, we went to the park with the Phil & Lauri's family with lunch and a big picnic blanket. We have a great park not too far from our house with lots of shade, it was so nice sitting and watching the kids play while the grown ups chatted and felt lazy under the shade of the huge oak trees there. Allie took charge of the camera so of course the only pictures available for viewing are of Ethan, her favorite subject. We ate my totally yummy quick lasagna recipe with spinach and tomato sauce for dinner and then Rich and I stayed up too late watching Premonition which was way better than I thought it would be. It was a good weekend, but I'm having a hard time gearing up for the week ahead, it's a busy one for sure.