Happy Halloween!

 Yesterday we carved our pumpkins.  This was the first time (I'm pretty sure) that we have ever carved them outside while living in Utah.  Weird huh?  It would be great if we can start doing it outside every year!  It's nice not to have pumpkin guts all over everything in the house!

 Jeffy and one of Haley's friends joined us.

 Our creations.

Our garden produced quite a few for us (pretty much the only things that were worth anything in our garden this year) and we got four free ones (compliments of our local grocer)...so yeah, we had much carving to do!

Tonight the kids will be running havoc through the streets of our hood...good times.
Full report on that next week!

Happy Halloween ya'll!!

Overwhelmed!

This is pretty much how I've been feeling lately.

There has been a lot going on with Halloween right around the corner.  I've been sewing a skirt for Haley and myself that needed to be done tonight for our church Halloween party.  And the business of running around and finding all the necessary accessories for everyone else's costumes...it's crazy!

Plus, the big thing that is causing my sleepless nights (other than Piper and Rory always waking up and coming into our bedroom...that's a story for another day), is our big Primary Presentation in our church.  For those out of the know...primary includes all the children from 3-11.  Every year the primary is involved in a presentation that is for the entire congregation.  It lasts about 40-45 minutes.  Every child gets a speaking part that basically goes over all of the things they learned throughout the year.  They also sing all the songs they have learned.  Well, I am charge of the program this year...like totally in charge...like writing all the speaking parts for every child (some have more than one), deciding on the songs, what order, the seating chart for all the children (we have about 50 kids), and so on and so on.  This has been a few months in the making...but tomorrow is the big day.  We've had a couple of practices but that still has not calmed my nerves...I'm terrified!  The kids have been super and everyone is working so hard...but I've never been in charge of such an important event before!  

So anyway, life has been crazy these past few weeks, but after tomorrow it should be starting to settle down a bit!

Here's to a great Primary Program tomorrow!!

Wish me luck!

Fall Break 2014: Part II

I love Snow Canyon State Park...I really do.  Unfortunately, a lot of other people do to, so it can be tricky getting a camp site there.  But we lucked out on Sunday and got a prime spot!  I think I like it so much because it's very nostalgic for me.  Growing up, my family camped there often and I remember running around and climbing the rocks with my brothers.  So it's fun to see my girls doing the same thing in the same spots.

Sunday turned out to be a pretty warm day, so we decided to forfeit any hiking and take the girls to town and play in the little "river walk" and fountain.  Let me tell you, it felt so good to take off our shoes and soak our sandy, dirty feet!!  The kids of course got completely wet which looked pretty good too.

 We decided not to put the rain fly on the tent...it was a bit more chilly, but laying there at night looking at all the stars was so worth it!  It was beautiful!

 Eating breakfast by the fire.

 
The next morning before we headed home we hit up the sand dunes in the park.  The kids could stay here for hours!

 So the picture above is of Haley from 2011 in the dunes...she would have been 7.  I have always loved that picture!!  I was so proud of myself for capturing it so well!

So then I had a brilliant idea!  I'll capture that moment again three years later!  I had this vision of a series of pictures from the dunes of Haley getting older and older doing the same jump...how cute would that be?!

So, I had Haley try to reenact the shot:

This, my friends, was as good as it got.  

Well, the idea was a good one.

After the dunes we grabbed some lunch and headed home, tired and dirty.

Successful trip...check!

Happy Thursday!

Fall Break 2014: Part I

Here in Utah (and some other states) schools get a fall break mid October.  It coincides with the deer hunt kicking off, but you know, if you're not into that sort of thing camping is a great alternative!  We decided to head south to St. George for a few days of camping.  Now this is a big gamble if you don't have reservations already booked in a campground...pretty much EVERYTHING is taken during this long weekend.  But we decided to take our chances and go for it anyway and just hope we found something.

 Road trip!

 And sure enough, when we got there everything was still booked, campgrounds full.  We drove around checking several and found nothing.  Then our last stop (before throwing in the towel and checking into a hotel) we found some primitive camping available in Sand Hollow.  And when I say primitive, we had to pack in our own water, but they did provide a porta-pot thankfully.  Now those out of the know, Sand Hollow is right beside a reservoir and is a prime area for dune buggies, quads and motor bikes.  Not really my cup of tea.  But luckily we found a little spot far away from all the ruckus...and it was actually quite nice!  We thanked our lucky stars and step up camp.

 S'mores...the epitome of camping...seriously.

The weather was perfect, upper 70's-low 80's.  We decided to do a little hiking the next day, and when I say little I mean LITTLE.  Piper is NOT a hiker unfortunately, and she pretty much whines the entire time. But you all know that by now, I think I've mentioned it a million times.

 We hiked down to this dry river bed and the girls found tons of really cool sandstone rocks.  I'm guessing the water created all the cool designs on them.

 They piled all their favorites into one area so I could take a picture of them.

So our second night at this camp spot did not go as well.  We got some new neighbors that owned about 5 quads...now this I have no problem with...it's when they zoom past our camp literally 5 feet away from my children that I don't like!  But you know, I'm the odd one out at this campground...I'm on their turf in a way.

 But luckily, we didn't get back to our spot until the evening so it was dark soon enough and they quit for the day and the evening was quite nice...until...about 9:30.  Our lovely neighbors decided this would be a great time to start playing their mariachi music at an ungodly volume.  Really?!

So yeah, I laid awake for a couple of hours, until I finally dozed off.  I have no idea when they actually turned it off.  It was awful.  I will be very happy if I never hear mariachi music again for the rest of my life.

Since it was Sunday we decided to pack up camp and head to Snow Canyon State Park, we figured people may be leaving the campground and there might be some vacancies.  And if not, we were prepared to just spend the day there and just drive home after.

Morgan was super sad to leave our spot...it was nice to have so much open space for the girls to roam.  Every morning they would wander around and find all the new tracks the animals left from the night before.  Lots of quail, rabbit and lizard tracks.

But she perked up when we got to Snow Canyon and found out we did indeed get a spot to camp!!  Yay!
Part II tomorrow...hopefully.

Sundance

 We've been squeezing in a few last visits to Sundance before our passes expire for the year.  Recently, we took the lift up and then did some hiking...we found a really child friendly loop....then we get back on the lift and take it back down.  Perfect.

Of course Rory crashed mid hike.

And then this last weekend we took the family to the last full moon lift ride.  It makes for a late evening with the kids, but worth it.  

Tuesday Cross

 The seasons are changing, and so are our sports.  We went from Ryan's road and my mountain biking to now cross.  Although, I think the weekly cross series will be coming to an end in a couple of weeks too and then...you guessed it...it will be time for skiing!!

So yeah, we have a local weekly cross race every Tuesday.  And when I say local I mean likes minutes from our home...and one venue is less than a mile from our house!

And since the cross racing is every Tuesday it just so happens to work out perfectly to grab some taco Tuesday at our favorite local taco place.  Pretty nice when we can feed a family of six for under 20 bucks.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend...get out and see those fall colors!!

Bike Racing and a Sunday Drive

I'm so far behind with my blogging!  I've had these pictures sitting in an incomplete draft for the past few weeks...I guess it's time I post them!

Ryan raced in the Utah State Championships...like I said this was a few weeks ago.  It was held in Ogden, just about the same course as the National Crit was on...if fact, if they have a race in Ogden it's usually on this downtown course, so we know it well.

It was a fun day, and the girls did great!  Ryan placed 7th...not too shabby!

On Sunday, it turned out to be a pretty rainy day, but that didn't stop us to go for a little Sunday drive up the Alpine Loop.  We first stopped at Sundance for little hot chocolate and a treat (the girls of course had Sundance suckers) and then we took off to finish the loop.  The sky cleared a bit and the rained stopped so we could see some of the fall colors.

We took a another stop up Tibble Fork at the reservoir to let the kids play for a bit...

...and skip rocks.

Of course it wasn't long before the kids were wet...they just can't resist water.  And Rory took a fall into the water getting completely submerged!  Luckily I had a change of clothes for her in the car left over from her potty training days...what luck!

And of course it wouldn't be complete without seeing Rory in some kind of weird napping position.

Happy Monday!

 Maybe I'll catch up on everything else that's been going on soon.  But don't hold your breath!