First Blog!

Welcome to our Ritter Family Blog! I have actually had this blogspot address since last March and it has taken me this long to get motivated to figure out how to use it. I deleted my myspace account, after much encouragement from my husband, and this was the middle ground. He even said that he would post on the family blog too (we shall see). I was looking for our most recent family picture to post on the first blog and realized it was from April (upper right). So I decided I would just post a few pictures from over the summer and try to commit to get better at taking pictures on a regular basis. Most of you know that my mom is a professional photographer and I blame my lack of picture taking on her. She always had her camera, so I never had to have mine (a common problem shared with my younger sister, Anna). The sad part is that I will usually either forget to take the camera with me, realize it is dead when I need it, or have it in my purse and never get it out. So hopefully keeping this blog up to date will motivate me to take more pictures and document our lovely life as it happens. Maybe it will also motivate me to catch up on my scrapbooking... fat chance! My mom just completed Kate's 1st year of life scrapbook at my house this summer. Common theme here; maybe my mom will post on this blog too?



We attempted learning to ride our bike without training wheels. Andrew decided it was time just to take them off and she would figure it out... we still have not figured it out. Our newest conversation/motivation with Kate has been that she will have to learn how to ride a bike before she can drive. The ball is now in her court!



Kate's 9th Birthday weekend was spent with Nana Laurie & Papa Homer (Andrew's parents in from Kansas). The actual party was held at Amazing Jakes, a supersized Chuckie Cheese, with lots of friends from 3rd grade ready to start the summer. Kate opted in lieu of gifts for her friends to each bring a donation item for the Denver Dumb Friends League, a local animal shelter. It was a great day when Kate dropped off the items (I wish I had a picture of that).



Kate's birthday was in May & Andrew's in July, in between (June) we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday by taking a girls trip to Atlanta, GA with my mom, my grandmother, and myself. Lots of fun, however, I personally have no pictures to show, but my mom has plenty (imagine that). Good times!

In July Andrew's parents came down to help us tile the living room and celebrate Andrew's birthday and the fourth of July. Actually truth be told, Andrew helped them tile the living room (they are professionals with all the work they have done on their house) and I think I kept Kate busy. Kate did all the work decorating her dad's cake and if you can tell by his goofy expression, he posed in this picture for her. Silly daddy!



My mom came for a visit in July. We worked on scrapbooking, took a trip to Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, took some pictures of Kate (see right, Miss Kathryn), and on a Saturday that I had to work, Andrew took them to the Unsinkable Molly Brown Museum. I hear they had a fabulous time... I was museumed out (if that's a word) from all the Gone with the Wind/Art Museum/Tours we did in Atlanta that June.



Kate ended the summer with a trip to Girl Scout camp for a week. I was so excited for her, some of my fondest childhood memories were from summer camp. She had a great time and I still need to develop her pictures from that week. This picture was from the day we dropped her off in front of the mess hall, right before we got the cold shoulder as we tried to hug and kiss her goodbye. Andrew was totally cool with it as we walked away (I think his comment was something to the effect of "she'll come around), as I tried to figure out where I went wrong to be embarrassing her so early on. I couldn't remember there ever being a time that I wouldn't hug or kiss my mom goodbye (unless I was mad at her, which I could understand). I think the teenage years start earlier & earlier these days!



1st day of fourth grade. I have actually managed to get this same shot on the first day of school every year since kindergarten. We moved here a week before Kate was to start kindergarten and now that was four years ago. So far fourth grade has been a great year! We just spent a week at home recovering from the H1N1 flu that is spreading through the schools like wild fire and now we are focused on catching up on school work. Fall break is right around the corner, so I think we aren't stressing too much if we still have some work to complete. No interesting pictures there, but I will try to catch some more soon. Maybe once a week (aiming high)? -SR