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ENGAGED!

On January 9th 2009 Michal purposed to Kiya, and she said "yes," Way to go Michael. We all love Kiya, and think that the two of them are a perfect match. It's a good thing we took two family portraits!
And it just so happens that all the sisters took a picture as well!
And this is a series shot of the proposal.

Back Home

Well, we finally arrived home again. Our vacation was long enough to do many things, as well as to not be rushed and tired. I will spare putting up 800 pictures of our vacation and just mention a few things that happened. I might post other pictures later of the vacation, but it's midnight and I'm tired, and there are many things to do to prepare for Saturday.

We stayed at the Parker home with Randy and Karen, two of the greatest people in the entire world. We can't thank them enough, or express our love to the degree which they deserve. This was taken just outside their house before we left.Having the whole family in Utah presented a unique opportunity for all the McConnell Children to be gathered. This has not taken place for quite some time now, so we hired a photographer and made history! No one is really sure why Michael seems to be standing apart from everyone else... it's as though he was wanting to put someone by his side (I'm praying for you Champ)

The Heck's also took the opportunity to take a family portrait.And who can not go to Utah and NOT see the Salt Lake temple. This was a picture I took in the reflection pond. I wasn't IN the reflection pond, it's just a picture of the "temple" in the reflection pond (that's for those of you who like getting me on my semantics). Now that I look at it though, it kinda' looks like the temple against a mysterious, fantasy style sky...
What winter trip would be complete without the sliding down a mountain on sticks?! This was my second attempt at skiing. The first attempt failed miserably. For those of you who did not hear, my first attempt at skiing resulted with me falling every 50 ft. I actually did some skiing this time though! Unfortunately my little brother had an experience similar to my first attempt. It was David's first time skiing though, and he did better than he gives himself credit for. Luke, we missed you, next time though!
While we were staying with Luke and Kristy the Utes won their bowl game, and finished their season undefeated. I'm not sure I have met a larger Utes fan than Luke, which made this scene all the sweeter. Kristy and Luke have a little teddy bear that has a University of Utah cheerleader outfit on, well it just so happens that little Emma fits into it! Luke didn't know this, so these were the series of shots as Kristy and Emma came down the stairs.
We all the the tremendous privilege of meeting Kiya, one of the sweetest, nicest, most thoughtful, caring people of all time. Michael and Kiya were like two inseparable bandits. Our only hope Kiya, is that we get to see more of you in the future.
Our last night we stayed at Than and Lana's house. We played games and had such a great time. Michael and Kiya joined us as the evening progressed, and Kenneth was not left wanting for people to play with. Ben and Chase were more than happy to oblige.
As I shuffle through the hundreds of pictures, I'm sure I'll be posting a few here and there. We had one of the best trips anyone could have asked for.

Our Night Time Prince

This Utah vacation has been tons of fun. I have taken over five hundred pictures, most of which will probably just end up on my hard drive never to be seen again, but there are those few that you just want to blow up huge and keep admiring all the time. Now of course I am a biased parent, but...

Utah!

We finally made it out to Utah. The 2 plane trips we took were not that bad actually. Kenny did not have any problems with the first plane trip, it was the second one that we all struggled with though. None of it was his fault though, it was past his nap time, and you know how a baby can be if he does not get his nap. On the plane we were fortunate that a very kind woman gave up her seat so that we could have a whole row to ourselves. For any parents out there that will be doing any travleing with infants under age 1, try and get a whole row if you can, it makes all the difference in the world. It has been snowing on and off for the past few days, and Kenny seems to be enjoying it.

Belly Like a Bowl Full of Jelly

Those of you that have kids will know, that there is no sound quite like the belly laugh of your child, especially when you hear it for the first time. Kenneth and I had been playing for 5 min or so before Kimberly walked in with the camera, so this is only the tail end. It is a sound I don't think that any parent can forget.



My only regret is that we did not catch any of the actual "belly laughing" on camera.

Snowman Kenneth

These were some pictures we took in the house, 5min in photoshop, and... well this is what came out.