Utah

The first week of October I went to Utah to visit my sister who had also gotten me a weekend of photo shoots. She's always advertising for me on her blog and telling her friends. It's great! Plus the weather was so nice. Actually, I'm used to sweating and being so hot on my shoots, that when it was 40 degrees and rainy for my first shoot, my fingers were so cold it was hard to switch my camera settings. I wasn't quite prepared with gloves or anything.

All of these pictures are copyrighted for the safety of my sister's family, but they are too cute not to share. Do not copy, print or use these in any way.

I got to go to my niece and nephew's soccer games which were SO much fun. I took Peyton's team soccer pictures too. I never realized how entertaining little kids' soccer games could be. If someone tripped it was kind of like a snowball effect until everyone was piled up on each other. Chase did really well at his game and is getting better and better. I can't believe he didn't want warmer clothes on since the game was at 8 in the morning and it was in the 40's. So cold.

Peyton is really good. She weaves in and out and is right up there in the action. She's not afraid to get kicked in the shins or taken down. And I love that her tongue hangs out in concentration the entire time. They had a bag of sliced oranges during her break and I think she ate 3/4 of the bag by herself too. She's too funny.

Then there is cute little Perry all bundled up in the cold weather. She did really well.

While I was there we also went to the pumpkin patch. We brought TONS back to Arizona because they are so cheap there. This was only about a block from my sister's house. Can you believe how many pumpkins there were?! It blows our pumpkin patch's out of the water!

Perry was so amazed by the pumpkins and wanted to grab them all!

It was so much fun to spend some time up there and the weather was gorgeous.

Go to my photo blog to see a lot of my Utah shoots

After I was there for the week I drove with their family to California to go to Disneyland. We haven't been as a family since I was in elementary school and California Adventure hadn't even started to be built. It was a so much fun. More to come....

Baby Brayden

Then when I got back, Coby's oldest brother Brandt and his wife Gina had their 2nd little baby boy on September 21st.

Washington

It's been awhile. I've been swamped with pictures which is a great thing and I've very grateful for it, but I've really slacked with updating things we've been up to.

In September I was able to go up to Spokane, Washington and visit my relatives. I went to do my cousin's senior pictures and just visit with family. I was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant with the Holbrooks for 2 years and got really close with them. It was an experience that would bring anyone closer together and it stinks that I don't get to see them too much.

To see some of the pictures I did while I was there go:

Here for the Seniors

Here for some of the family

Also while I was in Washington, Coby started his new job here at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I think he likes it pretty good. I know it took some getting used to to see sick children all the time. He works as a transporter. He cleans up surgical rooms after surgeries, transports patients from surgery to recovery or wherever they need to go, and he makes IV kits and such. I think he really likes being in the medical atmosphere. He likes talking to doctors and nurses about which routes are good to take and tips here and there. It is a great "foot in the door" type of job, and we're really grateful that he got it.

Back to Washington... Spokane is GORGEOUS! One thing I love about it is you can live in the country and by 5 min from the city. So different than Arizona where you have to drive for hours to see the country. Plus it was good to spend some time with my cousin John and his wife Rachel before they spend a year in Rwanda, and my cousin Colin who leaves next month on his mission.

The weather was perfect. It was in the high 70's most of the time and was wonderful compared to Az. We did 3 days of pictures and if I wasn't doing that, I was just hanging out. Here is their amazing backyard.

In the water there were tons of little frogs. I HATE frogs. Just ask Coby. Good thing none of them jumped at me.

See how many you can see in this picture:

When I was really young (like 5-ish maybe) we went to visit the Holbrooks when they lived on the East coast.

We went to Vermont together and remember from pictures how fun it was. One thing that I remember most was the Vermontster.

We were talking about that trip on my last night, and my Aunt said, "well let's go get one." I had NO idea you could get one anywhere!

I thought it was just a Vermont thing... but it's a Ben and Jerry's thing. Rachel (John's wife) is from England, and I LOVE her. It was so great

getting to know her better. It was so fun to see her reaction to crazy Americans and things they go to eat. She thought it was great! We got

to be great friends and am so glad John found her. Anyway, we went to the mall and got our treat.

A Ben and Jerry's Vermonster:

20 scoops of ice cream of your choice in a bucket

5 chocolate chip cookies

4 bananas

1 giant brownie

10 little cups of whatever toppings you want

a tub of hot fudge

and a can of whipped cream

You can change yours however you want. I suggest less cookies, less bananas, more little toppings. We took it home to eat with everyone.

My Aunt and Uncle are representatives for the singles ward up there and they always have a bunch of the young single adults at their house.

Anyway, I had one of the boys take pictures with my camera. I think they all thought we were crazy with how excited we all were to eat

this huge bucket of ice cream.

The goods:

I LOVE my Aunt's face in this one. Isn't she great!?

It did get a little messy

All the boys only had a couple bites. The girls kept going, then me and Rach finished it off leaving behind the only healthy thing... the bananas.

The next morning was my last day. Before my flight my Aunt Michelle and Colin drove me around to see more of Spokane. We drove for about 10

minutes and saw this gorgeous country side. I just took these from the car as we were driving by. We were trying to get in as much

as we could before my flight. They drove me by the Spokane temple which is so pretty.

Then they drove me to Coeur Dalene, Idaho which was only a 20 minute drive. It was STUNNING. We went and got hamburgers ate them

on the beach. We spent a little too long there and had to speed to the airport and I was almost late, but it was so pretty. I want to go back

there very soon. Summer time in Coeur Dalene is honestly gorgeous.

I had a great time Holbrooks! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Can't wait to come up again soon!