Catching Up--2011

I have been horrible about blogging this past year. It's been an intense year. I had a hard time coping from my miscarriage, and suffered another in April. My church calling has been quite demanding, and I didn't feel like I had much to contribute to the blogging world. So forgive me for neglecting 2011. Here are some highlights from last year to catch you up:

Evan turned 8 this Spring and decided to be Baptized! It was wonderful to have so many people come to support him on this special day.

I love this picture of Evan with Vince's Grandma: Great-Grandma Aldridge.


Evan with his Grandparents:

Our three amigos! (Or perhaps the three stooges?)

Turning 8 also means becoming a Cub Scout! Evan's first Pack Meeting was the Pinewood Derby. He won 2nd place!

Grandpa Hogge has a wonderful tradition of taking the grandkids to General Conference after they turn 8. Evan was so excited to go!

We had a great vacation at our favorite Montana lake!

One of our most exciting (and most expensive!) events of 2011 was the purchase of Vince's new toy!

We've been waiting (and saving) for this baby for a L-O-N-G time! And although we didn't get the boat until the end of the summer, it still got plenty of use before it got too cold. Here are some of my favorite pictures on the lake:

Notice Vince's awesome grin...

A few GREAT crashes!

And a few more of my favorite pictures of 2011:

Brooke & Evan's first day of school:

Halloween:

(Notice my lovely costume!)

And our last family pictures of the year!

Our Trip

We always have so much fun every year at the Hogge Reunion. Great fun, great company, way too great food for my good! This year we decided to do something a little different. We usually go up to "The Lake" (won't give the name away--don't want anyone to know of our secret little spot) and camp there for several days. It's the prettiest lake I've ever seen. And not many people know about it, so it's usually not too crowded. But this year, we had two new little babies, and thought camping out wouldn't be quite as much fun for that reason. So through a family friend, we got access to a cabin on Bills Island! (I must admit, it was VERY nice to have a running toilet and shower! We're way too spoiled!) We played hard every day and even managed to get the kids to sleep at night! It's always fun to be with everyone.



After a few days, most everyone had to head home. But we had a few extra so we went back to Montana to spend with Vince's parents. I love their home, and their wonderful hospitality!



We took one day and visited the Lewis & Clark Caverns. It was a HUGE cave tour that was so amazing! I couldn't believe there was all that hidden inside a mountain. Our cave pictures aren't real great. And they do NOT do any justice to the beauty of the caves. But here they are anyway. (And sorry, I haven't had time to photo-shop out the red eyes! Spooky, huh?)

This was just outside the caves, looking over the Jefferson River.

We spent some time just relaxing at the in-laws. They have about 20 acres, and I love it there! We flew kites out in their field. (They always seem to have some wind!)

And we played croquet.

Evan is so funny. We played a game of croquet, and then went off to do something else. But Evan wanted to keep playing, so he started a game with himself. "It's me against me. I'm winning and I'm losing!"

Then we caught sight of this amazing cloud! It puffed up so huge!

After a few minutes, Vince's dad told us all to stop and listen for a minute. There was a strange sound that sounded like a waterfall coming closer. It only took us a few seconds to realize what the sound was. We had about a minute before it started to look like this:

I've actually never seen hail so big! The kids thought it was great! In fact, they decided to keep one. (Is it still in your freezer, MMM?)

One of my favorite parts of the week was, of course, the water skiing!
I was sad, though, that my body just isn't back to normal quite yet. I got tired so easily! "Next year," I kept telling myself. Next year I'll be in better shape and can hold on longer!

Rachel slept through her first boat ride. Looks comfy in there, huh?

This year was especially fun because the kids got to actually ski on their own, and LOVED it! It did take a few days to coax them out onto their own skis and back behind the boat. But once they were there, we literally couldn't get them off!!

Brooke told us that water-skiing is her new favorite sport! She even likes it better than soccer. She even likes it better than SWIMMING!

What a show-off!

But the videos are the most fun. Hope you enjoy!