Weekend Review

Yes, I know I'm doing a weekend review on a Thursday, but you know, better late than never!

Ryan got home Friday night from Vegas and he was pretty worked over.  The week is pretty nonstop for him and it never fails he always comes home with a cold.  So Saturday he was pretty much a zombie...seriously, I would look over at him at he would just be staring off into space...he was probably sleeping...with his eyes open.  But alas, he was a sport and joined us for the annual Chalk the Block event.  Ellie (Haley's bestie) joined us.

 Ellie and Haley.  

I think it's pretty darn sweet that they hold hands.

I hope they remain bosom friends forever.

 Elsa was at Chalk the Block, and I kid you not, every time Piper saw her she had to run up to her, she was in love.

And wouldn't you know it, I didn't get one picture of the chalk art.  Oops.

Sunday was our stake conference for church, so we played hooky and went to the Utah State Fair.

 Morgan was in piggy heaven.  Have I mention that this girl loves pigs?

It was a pretty hot day, so we welcomed some relaxing in the shade whenever we could.

And with all the running around it's never a surprise to see Rory like this every now and then.

Happy Thursday!

What we're watching.

So last week Ryan was gone for the annual Interbike held in Las Vegas.  As you know when he's gone I like to have some kind of show to watch in the evenings and it's usually some kind of girly show that I know he would hate.  

My new obssesion:

 The Paradise.

It's a BBC show about a small town girl, Denise, working in the first ever Department Store called The Paradise.  If you liked Downton Abbey then you would also love this show!  It's just so good...so, so good!

I have one more show to watch from Season 1 (so don't tell me anything!) and then I think Season 2 airs soon...I think...I hope.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, our TV died several weeks ago.  We got it after we were married (15 years ago!) as a wedding present from our college cycling team, so it had a good run.  We didn't have real channels or anything, we just used it for movies, but still...so sad.  But anyway, not sure how our TV dying is related to us getting Netflix, but that's what happened.  Hulu has been good, but we wanted a little more...and I kid you not Netflix will be the death of me!  The amount of shows are endless!!  How do people keep up?  

So this next show Ryan and I have been slowly working our way through it, one show at a time.  And  since we usually only have time for one show an evening before we're too exhausted to keep our eyes open, getting through a 5 season show takes FOREVER!!  And that's what this next show is, 5 seasons.  I think we're on season 3??  

 Breaking Bad.

I realize that pretty much everyone is aware of this show...I'm a little late to jump on the wagon.  But in my defense we just got Netflix a couple of months ago, so cut me some slack!  So yeah, a chemistry teacher dealing with his diagnosis of lung cancer decides to start cooking meth.  Seems pretty realistic, right?  I know, I know, kind of a weird story line, but it's pretty darn good...and a darn nail bitter at times.  It does have it's share of violence just to throw that out there.

Next up:

Borgia.

Notice I said Borgia and not The Borgias...there is a difference people!!  Borgia is the real European show whereas The Borgias is the Showtime version and not as good.  I haven't seen the Showtime one, but I've read that it isn't done as well and they don't follow the historic accounts.  So yeah, Borgia.  This show follows the Borgia Dynasty, Rodrigo Borgia being the Pope and his three children.  Oh, the scandal!  Again, violent, and (cover your eyes!) nudity.

We're trying to crank these shows out because at the end of this month the Fall shows start!  Some shows we're looking forward too:  Amazing Race, Survivor, and my beloved Parenthood is having it's FINAL season!!  Oh, they better have Joel and Julia get back together!!!  Do you hear me NBC!!  Don't let me down!  And of course we'll having Vikings again too, but I'm not sure when that will start.

So there you have it...what we're watching.

What are you watching?

Masters Nationals

So a couple of weeks ago Ryan raced in the Masters National Championships...his first time racing masters anything (I think).  For those out of the know, masters racing starts at 35 years of age and the categories are divided up 35+, 40+, 45+...you get the idea.  

And just a side note...Ryan has raced all the different Nationals Championships now: Junior, Collegiate, u23, Elite, and Pro...pretty cool.  I'm pretty proud of him.

We were lucky that it was held in Ogden, which is just over an hour away from us.

It was a little crazy watching the race with my kids as Morgan was pretty much a grump the entire time and wasn't getting along with Haley (or anybody for that matter).  At one point Haley and Morgan were fighting on the sidewalk...like boy fighting...hitting and everything!  My sweet girls...fighting...sheesh.  Yes, they do this occasionally at home...but in public?!  It was a little embarrassing to say the least to have to break up my children in a brawl.  And of course there is no denying that they belong to me...the red hair is a dead giveaway.  So, I couldn't just turn and walk the other way and let them figure it out on their own.  Not that I would ever do that.

And then Rory had a major issue with the porta-pots and refused to go the bathroom in them.  She calls them Ew potties.  Anyway, the girl had to go in a bad way so I resorted in having her go behind a dumpster along side the race course.  Good times.

I was able to snap a few pictures of Ryan, and is just me or is he smiling in every one of these?

It was a really nice outing even with grumpy smurf, and we were able to see some S. CA people who made the trek out for the race which was nice.

Oh, and Ryan got 16th...not too shabby for a race he didn't train for at all.
I think he's pretty awesome.

Window Well Battle

This is one of my basement windows, in all its dungeony gloriousness.  (Are those even words?  Probably not.)  This particular window has a tendency to flood whenever there is a HEAVY downpour.  It's one of those things that you only think about fixing when it's starting to flood, but then as soon as the sun is out, you think...nah, it doesn't need to be fixed, we're good.  Well, I'm saying this now....it REALLY needs to be fixed!!!

You think we would have fixed it after spending the half the night in the pouring rain filling 5 gallon buckets from this well a few weeks ago.  Yeah, it was quite a sight.  The water seeps in from the sides of the well filling the entire space like a bathtub until it finally surpasses the window itself (I call this the fish bowl effect, because it literally is like being in a fish bowl) and then pours like a faucet from the corner of the window into our basement.  The only saving grace is that this window is in our unfinished part of the house, so the damage (if any) is minor....hopefully.  

You may remember my little adventure with the window well a couple of years ago.

Well, it ended up being more than just a rain gutter problem as you can see.

Well, with all the rain and flooding in AZ and NV, it's no surprise that we got quite a bit as well.  The downpour hit so hard and so fast this morning that I kid you not that well filled within 20 minutes!  And of course this always seems to happen when Ryan is out of town for the week.  Again, I had to lower myself in that thing and carry out 5 gallon bucket after 5 gallon bucket...good times.  Luckily, this time I recruited my neighbor to help me.  And as it turns out he happened to have a pump which we lowered in there to speed up the process!  In fact he left it with me as they were leaving to go out of town for the week.  So you know, just in case.

So my day has consisted of waiting for this darn rain to STOP!!  And checking the window well about every 20 minutes...just in case.

Labor Day Hike

For a little outing on Labor Day we decided to go up to Sundance to ride the lift...except this time we rode the lift up and then hiked down.  Now, we go to Sundance A LOT...it's kind of our home away from home, however, we've never hiked down from the lift.  I know, crazy!  Not sure why it has taken us so long to do it, because it's the perfect hike with small kids...it's all down hill!  We chose the short route because we needed to be back for a BBQ, but next time I would like to explore a little bit more.

 Notice the fall colors!

Morgan was still having fun at Rendezvous, so we need to get up there again soon so she can join us!

 Not sure what kind of pose Rory is making here.

It was a beautiful day!  And after hiking around we went to my folk's house for a Labor Day BBQ.  It combined as a goodbye dinner too, as my folks have since headed back to LBC...sniff, sniff.  But they'll be back in a couple of months.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day too!

Ft. Bridger Mountain Man Rendezvous

 This year Morgan was again invited to go with their her bestie's family to the Ft. Bridger Mountain Man Rendezvous in Wyoming.  So we drove up all together on Saturday and spent the day and then left Morgan there to stay another couple of days.  This was my first time going.  Not sure if you remember, but this is how it played out last year.  So, I was glad everyone was in good health this year and we could all go together!

We borrowed the clothes from our friends (no, Ryan and I did not dress up...sorry folks).  The girls love dressing up for it.  I may even try to sew some outfits for them for next year!

Our friends tent.

 My folks and my brothers (along with my nephew) came too.  The weather started out a little stormy looking and even rained briefly...but then it turned out to be a pretty nice day!

My brother, Jeffy, looking manly.

 Haley in Rendezvous heaven.

It's hard leaving Morgan for multiple days in a completely different state, but I do know that she is taken very good care of and she absolutely loves it!  The house is so different without her, and I'm always thinking, "Where's Morgan?!" whenever we go somewhere.  "Oh yeah, she's at Rendezvous."  I'm glad she gets these special memories...but, oh how we miss her when she's gone!