Ally is Eleven

 It was love at first sight for Josh and I on that bright September morning eleven years ago when Ally entered our lives.  The years have flown by and she has turned into such a cute, sweet "tween".  Here are eleven things we love about our Ally:

Her big blue eyes.

Her determination.

Her perfect handwriting.

Her smile.

Her kindness to others.

Listening to her play the piano.

Watching her dance ballet.

Hearing her laugh.

Her cheerful attitude.

Her cute sense of (modest) style.

Her ability to deal with having three little brothers. (She needs a medal for that one!)

Since her birthday was on Tuesday, and it wasn't a "friend party" year, we didn't do much for her birthday. We ended up going to dinner at Idle Isle with both sets of Grandparents.  We all had a fun time watching her open presents and just celebrating having her in our lives.

Here she is with all her gifts.  She got stuff to make flower bows, lots of craft kits, pajamas, some clothes, socks, recipe cards, and a gift card for Wal-Mart.  She also got a cute Birthday haircut. We are also going to let her join the 5th grade orchestra as one of her birthday gifts (cellos aren't cheap).  We love our Ally Boo!

Labor Day in the Uintahs

The kids begged all summer to go camping, so we decided to go over Labor Day weekend.  Josh's parents took their trailer up to Sulpher Campground in the Uintahs.  This picture was taken just a little ways past our campsite.

We brought everyone's bikes and Logan had tons of fun riding around the campsite.  The rest of us decided it was lots of fun going down the campground road, but not so fun coming back up.

Look!  It's a rare picture of me on the blog!  I'm doing what you're supposed to be doing while camping: nothing but sitting and enjoying the scenery.

Ally and Bubs by the river.  We enjoyed taking walks around the river and looking for fish.  Holden liked throwing rocks in the river to scare all the fish away.  We also saw several moose including one we could see from the trailer.

We took the kids fishing at Butterfly lake where Jensen caught two fish.  Nobody else caught anything. 

 After spending one miserable night in the trailer (Bubs wouldn't sleep, it was uncomfortable, there were icky bugs and lots of dirt-yes we are spoiled)  we decided to drive to the cabin for the next night.  We enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend after that.  We'll see if we ever go camping again...maybe at the Holiday Inn!