The Suite Summer of '11 (Photo overload - woo hoo!)

First, a shout-out and massive THANK YOU!  to Darcy Case, who did Ella's dance pictures (above) right before we moved, and McKinley's newborn pictures, also right before we moved (below).  She is so talented!  Thank you, Darcy!

Now, the rest of the pictures are just going to be our snapshots of the summer, so amusing, but not as top-notch as Darcy's work. :)

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**NOTE:  I noticed as I previewed this post, Caleb wears the yellow soccer shirt a lot and Ella wears the blue outfit a lot.  Can you tell they are the favorite clothes?  But I promise I took these throughout the summer and did not just drag them around one day re-creating our adventures for photos. :) **

Here is Caleb holding Rosie the tarantula at the Butterfly Pavilion (we each had a turn, except Rachel):

 Everyone else in the Butterfly Room:

 Rachel, horrified by the butterflies:

(We've been back since and she likes them now!)

McKinley spent most of the summer here:

 ...in her car seat and stroller, sleeping through our adventures, so I guessed I had better document it. :)

And Ella, balancing on a toy caterpillar.

Then we went to Dino Ridge, here are the kids on the bus:

 And crawling on really old fossil prints.  Pretty awesome.

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This is Ryan and Parker Allen with Kip and Caleb before the big Gypsum Daze 5K - ready to run!

 All the other kids - Brita and Brody, Rachel, Connor and Ella...

 And Caleb and Kip coming in for the super speedy finish!!

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 Ella had fun at her first Rockies game:

 We enjoyed a beautiful mountain sunset during the game:

 And McKinley had fun too!!

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The dowtown aquarium was awesome (I was trying to get McKinley in there!)

 This was the mermaid show where they taught you to recycle -

 MERMAIDS!  Rachel was star struck.

And Caleb's favorite, the shark room -

Yay aquarium!!

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One Sunday before church (at the motel) - Kinley was so cute and Rachel wanted in on the photo action...

 And did I tell you that one afternoon I was looking all around for Rachel's blankie.  The ONE small special blankie that she needs to fall asleep.  Couldn't find it anywhere.  I traced my steps out to the car, scanning the ground, nothing, turned around, peeked in the trash - THERE IT WAS!!  Can you believe someone saw this special, loved, blankie:

 AND THOUGHT IT WAS TRASH???!!

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 This is Caleb being a T-Rex in front of the Tiny Town dinosaur museum - 

 and TA - DA:  (singing)

On top of Mount Sheeeerrrrrrrrrman,

All winded and tired,

But hey, look!  we made it,

and nobody died.

Yes.  Ella is wearing a skirt, with pajamas underneath.  Perfect hiking clothes, in case you were wondering.
 For perspective - the tiny dot left-of-center is a group of cabins; we hiked to the highest point you can see.  Yikes.

  Happy Baby!

 Caught in the act!  We try the binky to little avail - she prefers fingers or thumbs.  Doh.

Here are the kids on their first day of school - they were so excited!

 And finally, some photos from McKinley's blessing at the beginning of the month:

 These are the grandparents on each side:

 and Great Grandma and Papa Mitchell - thank you for coming out!

 Caleb and his buddy Dallin:

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 And, the star of the show!  Our latest angel, McKinley.  It was a great weekend, thanks to everyone!!