Annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch

(Also formally known as "the pumpkin catch" or "the patchy patch")

Aunt Laura gets married!

Extended Udall family at the temple

Gorgeous bride, dress and flowers. Laura designed her dress herself.

Cool guys. (Spencer found these sunglasses in the car on the way and insisted on bringing them.)

Cute kids

Officially sick of taking pictures:

David loved climbing on the steps of the temple.

The reception

I don't have many good pictures of the reception, so I'll post more another time when I get some better ones, but these are good for now.

Spencer was so happy when they finally cut the cake. He'd been asking for cake all night. So tempting right there in front of him!

Laura tossing the bouquet - which Catherine dived on the floor to catch. :)

Kids dancing. They loved it!

Swimming at the Ft Detrick Pool

One of our kids' favortie parts of visting Grandma's is going to the pool We were able to go lots and the kids - particularly Emma - made lots of swimming progress and had a lot of fun. We ate dinner at the pool and stayed later a few nights.

Our trip to Maryland

In August we spent 10 wonderful days visiting Grandma Rosie, Poppy Dave, Timmy and Matthew (or Tim and Matt as they are now known) in Frederick, Maryland. Lynn was around for the weekend as well. We had so much fun! We are so grateful for their hospitality and for the time we had to just be with family. The kids loved being with their grandparents and uncles and we loved the time to just relax and be together.

Every morning Grandma had a devotional/planning-the-day time and the kids learned to sing (with enthusiasm) "Shall the Youth of Zion Falter?"

Catherine in one of her favorite places: Grandma's garden. She really loved eating her Grandma's cooking too.

Tim and Spence hanging out on the deck together.

Our trip to the National Zoo

We had another fun trip to the National Zoo in DC. It was another muggy, HUMID day so we particularly enjoyed the indoor exhibits- particularly the meerkats, the golden tamarin monkeys and of course, the naked-mole-rats. We also learned that one of the best ways to help prevent the elimination of the elephant population is to practice human-population control. That and the little-bit-too-descriptive information on the panda reproduction left us with the conclusion that whoever is running the show at the National Zoo is somewhat of a liberal and probably has no children. We persevered and had fun together despite the heat and the people who gave away the giraffes, hippos, and rhinos, and think the world shouldn't have children, so that there's more room for elephants. We really liked the elephants and all, but felt it was a little extreme.

After a trip through one of the "misters" - the water mist felt extremely refreshing!!

David is tired.

10 years after our engagement

Michael and I had a great trip to the DC temple - many thanks again to Grandma Rosie and Aunt Lynnie for making it possible. While we were there we reminisced about getting engaged here 10 summers ago. Now, 10 years and four kids later, it's great that we still enjoy hanging out together. We had another date night while on our trip getting some good crab and going out to a movie. Wow! Such a treat to have such kind, willing babysitters - and our kids really liked it too!

A fun day at the lake

On our Saturday, we went to the lake in the Cotoctin Mountains - an annual favorite. Everyone had a great day - the weather was perfect and lunch was awesome!! The boys loved playing in the sand the girls loved swimming with Grandma, we all loved eating, Poppy took a nap, Tim and Matthew did some of everything - the fun didn't stop!

More lake pictures

Spencer and Poppy Dave fishing.

Catherine tried to walk out to check on them and found herself stuck up to her ankles in mud!

A visit with the Aldous family

One day during our trip to Maryland, Michael needed to catch-up on some work for BYU so I took the kids to visit my cousin Suzanne Aldous and her kids who live in norther Virginia. The drive to their house is so pretty and I'm always amazed how rural it is too! Well, those rural roads got the best of Spencer who, 3/4 of the way into our journey, threw-up all over himself and his carseat! And of course I didn't even bring any diaper wipes with me because I knew I could borrow some from Sue when I got there. So all I had to clean up with was a dry diaper and one old paper towel. We drove the rest of the way with all the windows rolled down. Good thing it was such a nice day! When we got there we borrowed an old shirt for Sp (hence the pink color) and we got him and the car cleaned up. The kids had a great time playing with their second cousins and Sue and I had a great time visiting. Hard to believe that between the two of us we have 10 kids!

Field Trip to This is the Place State Park

At the beginning of August, my sister Jenni and I took the kids (including her girls Abby and Isabelle) on an outing to This is the Place Heritage Park (or something like that- they keep changing the name.) Anyway, it is a reconstructed pioneer village with original and recreated buildings, cabins, etc . that have been moved to this site. The weather cooperated nicely - cooler and overcast. Much better than the blazing heat we'd been having. The kids always have fun visiting the pioneer era houses, schools, stores, etc. This year there was the fabulous addition of a petting zoo, horses to ride and a train we could ride around the park. We definitely don't do everything there is to offer with this group, but we have a fun time doing things they like at these ages. It also made a difference to have two adults as Jenni took the bigger girls into the old-fashioned store an I took the younger set to enjoy the animals. :)

This is the place!