We had a great time in Oregon as usual!!  It was so fun to be with family, play at the beach, go to the Enchanted forrest, and picnic with the Olsons.

This is out of order, but didn't want to forget my awesome birthday getaway!  One of my dear friends has a family vacation home in Midway, UT.  Our birthdays are close together, so she decided to plan a girls weekend to celebrate!  We had a great time playing games, soaking in the hot tub, yoga, and doing the zip line at Olympic park!  I love these ladies ( the picture is missing Amy Webb, Wendi Christenson, and Erica Heart)!!

For the fourth of July weekend we decided to go camping.  We rented a rustic cabin in the Uinta's...beautiful place!!  We had a great time exploring, playing games, shooting arrows and bebe gun, roasting smores, and telling scary stories around the camp fire, and doing a treasure hunt.  We have started leaving Claire with respite when we go on family vacations...traveling is very difficult for her, so it seems to work out best for all of us even though we miss her.

Late in June (2015) we celebrated my parent's 50th wedding anniversary (even though their actual anniversary was in January)!  We met up in St. George (just adults/babies) and stayed in a large beautiful vacation home.  Activities included:  Temple, shopping, museums, Mountain Meadows Massacre (with our own personal guide), Tuachan Amphitheater, games, food, homemade ice-cream, and old family slides.  We had such a great time and are planning to do it again!  We love our parents and are so grateful for all they do for us and for their amazing example.  As our gift to them, we all pitched in and made a nice photo book for them, and Shirell made an AWESOME replica of their wedding cake.  Love my family!!!

Well it's been years, yes YEARS since I last posted.....but here are a few favorites of our fall family photo session.  :)  (Maybe I'll get the motivation to start catching up on the ol' blog)

Allen Family Christmas Party 2012

 The Allen family Christmas party has been a tradition for as long as I can remember.  Included in this event is always: A talent and update from each family, a story from uncle Terry, lots of food and visiting.  This year the party was at Uncle Terry and Aunt Nadine's home in Bountiful....we had a great time and it's always great to see everyone!! ( One unique thing about this years party was that there were several stories about random acts of kindness....a great reminder for me to be better!)

Sledding!

 Our Hintze cousins have a great little hill/slope in their backyard, so we brought the kids over to have some fun...and they did!!!