Family Photos by Julie Harman-- High Style Photography

This lovely lady, Julie Harman who we went to BYU-Hawaii with, took our family photos this summer while we were in Utah. I L.O.V.E. her!!! Not only does she take phenomenal photos but she's a stellar person. You feel energized just from being around her.

These are just a few of my favs! Enjoy!

Fortie Family Reunion at Camp Nauvoo!!!

Just go for it Tyler. What happens at the Fortie Family Reunion stays there.

Doug pushed Carli and Trav REALLY high on the swings. Looked like they'd fly off!

Brooke swung on this swing ALL day for 3 days. Here she is almost falling asleep in it.

We had a big softball game. My team won-- sorry Alan!

My dad was the camp cook. He worked SOOO hard making yummy meals for us. We were very thankful.

We were Team Fortie instead of Team Jacob

(or I guess you could be Team Edward if you like ice cold rather than smokin' hot!)

Mom, Julie, Nicole, Alan, and Mike singing "When I Fall In Love"

Denny walking right in front of the performance: "Oh, opps! My bad! Didn't see you there!"

Aunt Nicole and her band "Rocky and the Revelettes" came and performed. It was AWESOME!

We went to a real gold mine that was in use when gold was discovered right in this area.

We had the kids lip sinc to "Old Time Rock n' Roll" at the talent show. It was so cute!

Only Brooke would insist on wearing her princess dress to go CAMPING!

J.O.B.

ALAN GOT A JOB!!!

Woo hoo! *happy dance*

The job is in Sacramento working for the state of CA as a web developer. It pays well and he started on Tuesday. We are so VERY grateful he found something so FAST! So for now he will work full time and go to class 1 night per week.

He has a couple partners who are helping him keep a pulse on the business they were trying to start. We hope that we will eventually get some kind of return from it so that the last 18 months won't be a colossal waste. Of course to Alan, Mr. Optimistic, nothing is a waste. But for me, having been raised by Mr. Practicality, things are a little more black and white. So I guess that makes me Mrs. Guarded Optimism?

But Alas, thus is marriage. Adapting and adjusting and bending where you should and learning not to bend where you shouldn't. I never considered that you shouldn't bend on something when it comes to your spouse. But I've learned a great lesson of late-- spouses need to make decisions TOGETHER that work for BOTH of them. And I mean REALLY work for both. Not one person keeping their mouth shut because they don't want to be seen as an unsupportive dream crusher. Trust me, that doesn't work in the long term. Lesson learned.

In the end, I guess it all comes down to the words of the ever-wise Miley Cirus,

It's the Climb

---

. . . either that or Taking Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Squeaky Green

I just found this super cool kids soap/ shampoo at Target. It's 99% natural which I love because I'm finding that the more products I use like that, the softer my skin is and such. I'm all about going green whenever practical. And this stuff even smells good!