New Pictures

Elayna's 18-month photos are available on our photographer's website!  We took the pictures outside on an abnormally hot Saturday and Elayna was not in a good mood.  Nevertheless, the pictures turned out great thanks to our fabulous photographer, Amy Lee.  I am very pleased!!

To view:  www.amyleephotography.com

user id:  ckellum

password:  elayna

Additionally, we also have Elayna's school photos back.  Yes, her daycare takes school photos.  And yes, I call it 'school'.  Although I didn't buy any, I still think the pictures are cute....

This is her class - there are usually more than 4 kids - it must have been a slow day.  The little boy on the left is her boyfriend, Pete.

Fall Camping

Happy Birthday Aaron!!

To celebrate, we spent this weekend camping near Prescott.  Lynx Lake is about an hour from Phoenix, and the campground was awash with fall colors!  It was beautiful and the entire family enjoyed spending a weekend outdoors.

The only downside was the morning temperature.  We woke up both mornings to 40' temps - much too cold for our little Phoenician baby.  Elayna was a good sport but she was not in the mood to sit by the fire or snuggle in the tent; we spent both mornings huddled in the car with the  heater and Shrek on the DVD player. 

Huddled by the fire to stay warm...  this is shortly before seeking sanctuary in the car.

Fall colors on our walk!

Hiking with Dad - such a big girl!!

A favorite toddler past-time:  throwing rocks in the lake!!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Allyson!

Today is Allyson, Aaron's sister's birthday!  I hope she is having a great day in her new apartment in New York.

In lieu of spending the day with her, here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Ok, this might be funnier of their dad, Jerry!  Who doesn't love a good mustache!

In Montana in 2005 (or maybe 2006?)

Poor Elayna ... she's about 2 months

Elayna's in a much better mood with Allyson in Montana last August.

What we’ve been up to….

October is a busy month and I know I've missed a lot of highlights:  my sister's birthday, Elayna's 18-month check-up, the return of 100-degree weather.  I'll try to get caught up as best I can.

First, Happy Birthday Alicia!!  We had dinner with the family and her boyfriend Justin and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Elayna is now 18-months old.  She's happy, healthy, and active!  Her new favorite things include play-dough and climbing EVERYTHING.  What a crazy little monkey!

Her 18-month checkup with the pediatrician went really well.  She is 33 inches now and 95th percentile for height, 25 pounds and 75th percentile for weight.  She's meeting all her milestones and clever and inquisitive.

Today we went downtown for her 18-month pictures with Amy Lee - who has photographed Elayna since she was 1-month old.  It was a hot day and Elayna was not in the best mood so I'm hopeful we got some good shots anyway. 

Afterwards we went across the street to the Phoenix Children's Museum.   This was a blast - they have a lot of hands-on exhibits perfect for young toddlers and Elayna played hard for several hours.  Loved it!!

Tour of Scottsdale

Viva Fall!!  We love October in Phoenix.  The temperature has finally cooled off and we celebrate by spending a lot of time outdoors.  This weekend was one of our favorite events:  the Tour of Scottsdale.  Aaron has rode the 70-mile bike race for the last several years and competed again this year.  He rode the entire race in under 4 hours!

Sunday morning Aaron left early.  Elayna and I attempted to meet him at the finish line (although we missed each other for most of the morning).  It is a large event with vendors and a band and a lot of families.  Elayna loved the people watching although she wouldn't sit still in her stroller for long.  I loved playing with my new camera ....

The photo below was taken with my dad's ultra-wide angle 15mm lens and a slow shutterspeed.  I then experimented with the colors in photoshop for this cool 3-layer effect.