My First Ever Photodynamic

As I uploaded these pictures, I was texting my cousin (Hi, Anne!) and telling her that I was working on a photo dump.  But autocorrect changed my wording to "photodynamic" instead.  Which, you have to admit, sounds WAY cooler.  So that's what I'll call this.  No, I'm not just dumping a random hodge-podge of pictures on my blog with no particular nod to story or chronology!  I'm creating something unique and beautiful: a photodynamic!  Tell me you're not impressed!

Anyway, you may have noticed, but it took me forever to upload all the pictures from Bentley's birthday onto the computer.  Probably because they were scattered around on three different cameras, so it seemed like a lot of work to gather them all together.  And in the process of uploading those, I found oodles more pictures that never got posted.  So that is all being remedied in one fat blog post photodynamic, right here.

Captions will provide explanations where necessary.  And-- who am I kidding?-- probably where not necessary, too.  Enjoy!



In August, we went to a Mitt Romney rally held right here in Manassas!  There were so many people there that we weren't even close to getting inside the Pavilion where it was held.  But it's hard to be angry that there were too many people who uphold your own political beliefs, so rather than being annoyed about that, we just found the jumbo-screen where they were broadcasting it and partied there

Ryder was very good about clapping every time everyone else started clapping.  I guess that shows some sort of skill set, right?  Like being a team player or something?

It turned out that half the ward was there, too, which was awesome!  AND, we dragged our friends Jeff & Juliana, who were visiting from Seattle/Provo along with us, so that made it even more fun!  This picture was actually taken by my friend Andrea

Here is Ryder sleeping through Sunday School.  He gets that from his Daddy...

Shortly before the pool closed at the end of the summer

Bentley being a goof-- he makes me laugh!

Also in August, we went camping and I got to see my first ever WILD BEAR!!!  I have to admit that I was totally excited by that.  It was definitely the highlight of the trip for me:

He was just a small thing, and we were still in the car.  The rangers chased him away right after that, so we slept without worrying about him (although I was even more careful than usual about putting all our food in the car!).

Kendra at the campsite. 
The week before, she had managed to fall down and slam her cheek into Ryder's highchair, leaving her poor face a bit lopsided and bruised looking.  My poor sweet girl!

A bunch of us all took our kids hiking.  It turned out to be about four times longer than we were expecting, really hilly, and also really rocky.  So we were all beyond exhausted by the time we got back.  This was taken in the first half and the poor kids were already tired!

But it was a gorgeous view once we finally got there!

Yeah, next time I'll wear actual shoes for the rough terrain.  And Craig won't bring (carry!) Ryder...

On the way home everyone slept but the driver!

Ryder discovers the joy of playing in the laundry basket

Love that smile!

Kendra is busy being a mommy to her penguins

Here she demonstrates her excellent curry-combing techniques

Our friend the groundhog is still alive and well and digging under our porch!

Because he wasn't busy enough, Craig volunteered to be Bentley's scoutmaster.

Here they are getting ready for a pack meeting or a den meeting or something-- I get it all confused...

The big kids napping with Daddy (you can barely see Bentley's head peaking out from under the green blanket)

And now for a bunch of Ryder pictures:

I went upstairs one day to find that Kendra had tucked Ryder in for a nap!  He was quite cozy on her bed-- she'd even let him borrow her light-saber!

Ryder also tried out napping at the top of the stairs, which seems like a terrible idea...

...And wearing Daddy's shoes

...AND wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses!

He likes to call Daddy at work, using his calculator...

And never gets tired of letting me push him on the swings

Playgroup yesterday was at a pumpkin patch-- it was a gorgeous crisp fall day!  And it was fun to spend some time with just my little Ryder!

I picked out this tiny little pumpkin for him.  I think I was more excited about it than he was-- isn't it just so cute?!?!

Bentley liked Ryder's pumpkin, too...

And last, but not least.  This was what Craig sent me when I was in the middle of a presidency meeting.  And we were discussing how we could get the young women to stop using their phones during class and be more respectful.  So I heard my text message "ding," whipped out my phone, saw this, and had to try my darnedest to not bust up laughing in the middle of this discussion.  

Apparently I am no better than the girls.

But can you blame me?

Thus we conclude this photodynamic!  May there be many more to come!