Rewind: More Utah...

(Sept 2009)

Caleb and his "first cousin once removed" really hit it off. Can you tell why:





Marcus was a hit too.

Logan came to visit us when Marcus was born. He must have felt a connection with him because during our trip he claimed possession over Marcus and kept calling him "MY Marcus".


Mckenna, while very shy through out our visit, has formed a special bond with Marcus also. She always asks about him and calls him on her play phone.


And of course Grandpa can't get enough of him either.

Rewind: Family Pictures...

(Sept 2009)

Remember those family photos I wanted to take every month... well, needless to say it's not been happening. We are however keeping up with our biannual quota.

(Uh, yeah, the kids were a little uncooperative...)

Sadly these pictures didn't happen out of my diligence in working towards my goal. It was part of a planned shoot to get a picture with all of the Crouch Family.

This is all of my immediate family:


And this is all my extended family (on my Dad's side):


(...if I'm even using those terms correctly ["immediate" and "extended"]. Family relations are so hard to understand and explain. For example, I often use the term "second cousin" when it's actually my "first cousin once removed." This is a pretty good explanation of how your related to someone. Does it make sense when I look at the chart... of course. Will I remember correctly how I'm related to someone or be able to figure it out with having the chart in front of me...Hah, yeah right. Anyway...)

Here were a couple other pictures taken that day:

(Yes, my younger sister is really that much taller than I am.)

(Caleb and his new best friend, Brandon)

Rewind: Cruizin' the Town...

(Sept 2009)

While in Utah we rode tracks into SLC.

(Artistic photo taken by Caleb)

We walked around temple square:





We stopped by the Conference Center. But my favorite part of this venture was the Church History Museum. They had a cute little children's area with lots of fun little activities set up for the kids.

They had a little nursery/doctor's area:



A Build a Temple area with the coolest wooden blocks:




They had a dress up area with a stable and a manger. They had some coloring stations where you could make rubbings of the CTR symbol in all different languages. I can't even remember all the cute little fun things they had for the kids to do, but the Church History Museum is definitely on my list for the next time we go to Utah.

Rewind: Salomons Reunion...

(Aug 2009)

There was never a dull moment on our trip to Canada. We had a handful of large events that happened all in one weekend. Darren's Grandpa's birthday party, a Celebration of Life and Love for our dear family friends, and the Salomons Reunion.

Darren's dad is one of seven boys. Here's that leg of the family, all of us in red:


Darren's grandpa was one of six (I think). Here's the rest of the gang:


(Play Where's Waldo and see if you can find us. [click the picture to enlarge])

Rewind: Papa's 80th...

(Aug 2009)


While we were in Canada we had a birthday party for Darren's grandpa. Although his birthday was earlier in the year, he had a larger celebration while the fam was in town. There was lots of delicious food, friends and family from all over, some delightful entertainment, and cake!

(Great Grandma and Great Papa)

(Caleb and Auntie Carlie)

(Cousin Owen enjoying some cake)

(The Birthday Boy treating us to a few songs)

The weather during our trip was quite pleasant with the one exception of the day of the party. So no pictures of Mommy or Marcus because we were hiding in the kitchen trying to keep warm, but here are some very sweet pictures of Marcus and Great Papa from later that day:

Rewind: Calgary Zoo...

(Aug 2009)

The first thing we did after arriving in Canada was hit up the Calgary Zoo. We met Darren's dad and siblings there.

Do you see the moose?


Here's Caleb and Marcus with their cousin Owen:


My favorite part about the zoo is the giraffes...


...Or is it the Koalas...


...Or the joeys???


Seeing the grizzly-wranglers is always fun.


We saw a Daddy-wrangler too!


Just some other random pictures from the zoo:

Uncle Colin & Caleb

Grandpa Dale, Daddy, Auntie Carlie, Caleb, Uncle Colin, ...Marcus, and Mommy

Ram - Caleb

Caleb's Shadow (picture taken by Caleb)

Cousins :)

Miss Me???

Well, I'm back and I've had it. We are getting all caught up starting....

NOW!!!

(I hope you don't feel bombarded by the next twenty-or-so posts that are coming real soon)