Halloween Fun

Here are a few photos from our church Halloween party.

The cast:

One chicken-rider
One space explorer
One two-face monster
One grim reaper

and I'm not really sure what to call myself. I guess there are three options:

1. Just some guy with hair

2. Darren Keele circa 1996

3. OR, since the name of the wig was "Vampire Heartthrob", maybe we'll just go with that...

This is a horse

Nana, Papa, Nony, Britt, Christa, Em, and the Fam Christmas 1993

Papa

First of all:
Happy Birthday Mom!!!
You are fabulous in every way.

Well, I've been absent from the blog for way too long, it's good to be back. Wow, sometimes life just seems to pass me by without any warning. Here's what I've been up to: For Christmas Darren signed me up for a photography class, which I have to say was the best gift he could have ever given me. (I won't tell you what I got him, because it's lame) I was definitely nervous, but excited. I felt like I was going back to college or something. Darren has always been good at pushing me to do things for myself that I love.
(Thanks babe) :)

Anyway, so I'm finally wrapping up my class and it was a challenge, but I learned a lot. The hardest part was not being allowed to do any post editing of the photos, but to learn to create a good composition straight out of the camera, but it was super fun! I still have SO much to learn, but here's a few of my favorites: (Oh, and I did crop the first one, but the others are not changed in any way).

Stratt helping out his little friend, Lauren:

My snow bunnies...
or should I say snow ninjas-
(I think that's more the "look" Quincy was going for)

brothers:

I love this one of Quincy outside enjoying
our teaser of Spring weather:

Stratt usually dresses himself with a little guidance from mom, but this day (since he had no school) I gave him full freedom of expression.
Polo + vest + sweats = awesomeness.

These next ones are just for fun, because it cracks me up to see Tucker be such a poser. And I didn't have time to mess with any special camera settings on these, because sometimes you just have to grab your camera and shoot in auto or you miss the great moment!

Fall Fishing

We're almost halfway through October now, but since it was 83 degrees outside I wanted to see if there was any chance the fish were still biting. So, Quincy, Stratt and I headed out to the Cedar river for a little fishing adventure.

Every time I looked up one of the boys had a fish on the line! This was the first time Stratt had an actual hook that he was casting and reeling in on his own, which was a little scary (but more fun than scary). Up until now we only let Stratt cast with one of those fake little plastic fish that comes on kid poles to keep everyone safe, but he told us, "I hate this stupid blue fish - I never catch anything!" So, Stratt went "live" tonight and loved it. And I swear that with that little fishing pole he can cast a mile. It's incredible.

The boys kept me busy pulling bass off of hooks and untangling lines. We had a great time and caught about 15 fish!

We fished until dark and came home and enjoyed a fish fry with the family. The boys had a blast.

Stratt and Q from keelefam on Vimeo.

Stratt Frog from keelefam on Vimeo.

Stratt Fish from keelefam on Vimeo.

Spring/Summer Fun

Most importantly, Darren's sister came home from her mission in Peru this spring! Yay! Welcome Home Christa!!

We are sad to see the warm weather go, but we definitely took full advantage.

We spent lots of time outdoors.

Stratt learned to ride a 2 wheel bike and hasn't stopped since.

My parents came to visit.

I went on a girls weekend trip with my sisters and my mom . . . it was so fun! Especially the part about waking up with no kids to take care of! Definitely a much needed break.

The boys did lots of fishin' . . .

. . . which meant eating lots of great fish!

The boys did lots of tree climbing . . .

and even enjoyed some time hanging out and reading in the trees! I think my neighbors must think we're crazy!

Quincy really enjoyed baseball this year! Much more exciting than T-ball, that's for sure!

Darren had NeoCon up in Chicago this summer, and so the kids and I decided to join him for the week and just go to some fun museums and the beach. We had a great time!

I'm glad my boys have Darren, because he lets them do all the fun naughty things, like throw sand at each other, while I'm not looking. I seriously have like 50 pictures of them just hucking sand at each other. I don't get it, but it's a good thing Darren understands boys.

Darren went to Scout Camp for a week with his Boy Scout troop. It was lots of craziness, I'm sure. Quincy can't wait until he gets to go to Scout Camp!

We went down to Nauvoo with our friends, Ted and Amber and their kids, and watched the Nauvoo Pageant for the first time. The boys really enjoyed it!

Thanks for coming Ted, Amber, Kara, and Dillon!

We finally painted the back of our house and stained our deck.

this is just getting started: (I hate it when Darren is up this high, but I hate doing it too, so I'm glad he's willing) :)

The boys worked on finishing the shed:

Even Tuck got in on the action:

I definitely prefer my boys clean:

At the end of the summer we took a 3,750 mile road trip to Gardnerville, NV to see Darren's family and then to Boise to see my family. My mom drove with me on the way out and then Darren drove back with me. It was crazy, but a fun adventure! (pics to come)

And by the end, we were exhausted! :)