Tis the season for family photos! I met up with one of my first and favorite families for a little play day at a park I discovered in the Tech Center. It was Bronco’s game day so we made quick work of it. Here are a few of my favorites!
Thank you Webb family for coming back to me every year! It’s always a fun couple of hours and a blast to watch those boys grow up.
Alright it’s official.
I’m letting go and admitting to myself that summer is over.
I know you Minnesota people think I’m crazy, that summer has been over for a long time, but here in Denver we’ve still been getting sunny and near 70 degree weather (which feels much warmer).
I’ll start looking at homes for sale in Denver for all of you immediately.
Anyway, summer is over.
I’m not happy about it. But, I figure that once our ski’s get tuned up, a new pair of Uggs are purchased, and I start sleeping in sweats every night that it’s time to accept defeat.
It usually takes me a few weeks to turn the corner and get excited for another beautiful Colorado winter and ski season, but this year it happened much quicker. I can’t wait! I made major skill progress last season and am hopeful that I didn’t lose it all over the summer.
Something else that’s aiding in my ‘summer is over sadness’ is that the week of Thanksgiving Jon and I will be visiting Paris! He surprised me with the plane tickets when I got back from Erie, and although he only gave us two weeks to plan, we feel ready and are so flipping excited!!
I decided that in ONE last attempt to hang onto those summer rays I would post the photos of our big lake trip in August. We were lucky again this year to get to Christian’s cabin as well as Jon’s family cabin. Looking at these photos reminds me once again that MN in the summer is the best place on earth.
It’s always so fun to see all the boys back together again.
Yes, the watermelon cups were back and Anna loved them!
This guy became a first time papa just weeks after this photo was taken. Look at him here with his beer and his cluelessness. : ) 
These two. : )
Yeah. All that and she’s got a rock hard body. HATE her. 
THESE two announced they were expecting baby number two. BABIES! EVERYWHERE!
As predicted, we had a great weekend with friends only to head into an epic week with family.
There was a lot of horsin’ around.
Even better, the stars aligned and we got to have Max back from Dubai for the week. I can’t even believe the luck. It was so great.
My ‘crew’ at the cabin. I’m a lucky girl.
Miss Remi stole my heart. Don’t look into her eyes for too long or you’ll be hooked too.
Because it’s the best lake. Duh.
All the random alcohol bottles hidden in the depths of the cabinets along with their name assignments for finishing. 
While the rest of us ‘did work’ on the 25 or so random 1/4 full bottles of alcohol stuffed in random cupboards, these two did actual work. I think those are their thinking caps.
Ever seen somebody shotgun a lim-a-rita?
Now you have. And he was never the same.
Photos like this make my heart so happy. Love those boys.
We even squeezed in an afternoon with the crazy busy Jennie Hendrickson! It was such a great trip home, one for the record books if you ask me. Already looking forward to next summer. Too soon? : )
Meet Hadley Ryan Jagim. I love her. Not in a random way, but in a ‘she grew into a person inside my best friend’ kinda way. I also happen to be her very proud godmother. It’s a co-godparent type of situation along with my husband, but mostly she’s mine. : )
I was lucky enough to spend several days with the new family right as Hadley turned two weeks old. While in Erie, I took some snapshots and iPhone photos around the house as well as more formal family photos. I thought I would throw some up here and officially start my ‘Auntie Ali’ brag book.
I could have sat and stared at these two all day. It was a pretty magical thing for me to watch.
I couldn’t leave Erie, PA without getting some photos of Andrew and Vanessa’s first babies/fur babies. : )
Riggins stepped right in for Jon and slept with me every night. Although he gives me much more space than Jon does. : )
They’re so cute. But…not as cute as Hadley! 
One night while mommy napped, Haddie and I fell in love.
I mean……………..does it get better than that?!!?
Alright alright. Enough of my crappy iPhone photos. Onward.
Vanessa, Hadley, the pups and I spent a morning together getting ready before heading to Andrew’s new office for some photos.
It was so lovely. Little coffee, little bath time, couple dirty diapers, and holding the baby so mommy could get pretty.
Once the girls were all prettied up, we headed to Gannon University to see Dr. Andrew Jagim in action and take some family portraits around campus. 
So class, what have we learned here today?
She’s an angel. A stunningly beautiful angel in the flesh. I can’t wait to kiss her head to toe in one hopefully short month!
I love you Jagim family!!
Each fall I get the pleasure of spending an afternoon with this little nugget (as I call her). This year we got a scorching hot day, so we sought out all the shade we could and went wild. Hopefully you can’t tell from the photos, but she wasn’t too interested in having her photos taken this hot day. A bribe of a trip to pinkberry seemed to do the trick. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!
P.S. The image above is my personal favorite, mostly due to the scratched knee, her favorite doll, and her insistence on wearing her ‘tiara’ for a few. This is her.
After spending nearly a month in Minnesota, we decided that couldn’t possibly be enough time and after receiving the news that baby Ellery had arrived early, we booked a last minute Labor Day trip back to meet her.
It’s funny how a planned trip and a spontaneous trip feel so much different. When we plan a trip, I spend the entire month or two before in an excited planning mode, anxious to make the most of every moment we’re home. I always overbook and end up feeling tugged in a million directions.
The spontaneous Labor Day trip felt indulgent and without any pressure. No plans were made and it just worked out perfectly that my Grandpa was back from Arizona and everyone was able to gather at my parents house for a family dinner.
There’s just no place like home.
18 Kinkade’s, Fettings and Hendrickson’s wined and dined in the front yard on a beautiful late summer night. My dad grilled up loads of salmon and steak, while my mom prepared corn and potato salad. Perfect outdoor meal if you ask me.
It may seem like we get back to Minnesota quite a bit, and we do, but nights like this are rare. It had been well over a year since my entire immediate family (all brothers and sisters at the same time) were together at home. I also hadn’t seen several of my cousins or my Aunt and Uncle since our wedding nearly two years ago. 
Being that everyone was home, I knew photos were unavoidable. : )
My well trained and handsome husband posing for me while I got the light right for our group photos. I’m only posting a few because we all want to use the results as Holiday cards.
We are short one cousin, but otherwise here is Grandpa Pete with all his grandkids! The cousin missing is another boy…can you tell why I waited so long for Livi? I was totally outnumbered!
Nights like this are what tug so hard at my heartstrings when I’m back in Denver. I just have to remind myself that it wouldn’t always be like this, and that if we book enough trips home, the stars usually align to make it happen.
It was a good night.
There’s just something about Minnesota.
For me anyway.
I can never quite pinpoint it either, but I love the landscape. From the dense tree filled Minneapolis – St. Paul residential areas, to the winding, rolling blues and greens of the lakes, there’s just something special about it. It calms me. It makes me feel like myself. I can’t explain it.
Although maybe those places, the lakes and the city, make sense to people. The Twin Cites are obviously beautiful (in the summer at least) and the lakes…what’s not to love? I think where I truly stump people is when I talk about my love of where I grew up. Specifically the roads branching off to the East and South of my hometown.
It doesn’t get any flatter. It doesn’t get much more desolate. But I also don’t think it gets much more beautiful.
Anytime I’m in my car driving those roads I dream about trying to capture what it is about the landscape that pulls me in. I didn’t even try during my last trip home (don’t have the right equipment…yet) but I did stop here and there to snap some small town shots.
I didn’t make it to Ada because my bargaining tools ran out with my little sister.
Next time.
Midwest Mountainess 
