Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Backwards
Do your kids ever completely misunderstand a concept you are trying to teach them?
Whenever Jonah wants candy pumpkins now he tells me his teeth hurt.
A few weeks ago while he was eating a candy pumpkin I told him candy would make his teeth hurt if he ate too much. Now he thinks if his teeth hurt, he gets a candy. Ugh.
Whenever Jonah wants candy pumpkins now he tells me his teeth hurt.
A few weeks ago while he was eating a candy pumpkin I told him candy would make his teeth hurt if he ate too much. Now he thinks if his teeth hurt, he gets a candy. Ugh.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Last Night
The costumes at last night's party were impressive. The activity for the evening was a photo scavenger hunt. The teams were supposed to be three couples. Melissa's husband was on a scout campout and Debbie's husband was on-call and had to run to the clinic right after we started, so Brandon ended up in a car with three women. It was a riot! We only had the iphone's camera with no flash so the pictures are terrible quality, but funny nonetheless.
(Emily = elf, Debbie = Queen of Hearts, Melissa = sexy, old librarian, Brandon = guy who thinks a fringed leather jacket is a costume)
Yes, this is two teams at a cemetery struggling to get the first photo with Chief Tabby's headstone.
(Emily = elf, Debbie = Queen of Hearts, Melissa = sexy, old librarian, Brandon = guy who thinks a fringed leather jacket is a costume)
Yes, this is two teams at a cemetery struggling to get the first photo with Chief Tabby's headstone.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Halloween Madness
The costumes are all picked out, but we still need: fake blood, two princess crowns, something warm for Elora to wear under her costume, and black & white face paint. Any guesses?
Tonight, if I can find a babysitter, Brandon and I are going to a costume party. Monday night we have tickets to see the Odyssey dance troupe's Thriller performance at Kingsbury Hall. Wednesday is Jen's adult pumpkin carving dinner party. Friday is the ward party and Saturday after trick-or-treating we've been invited to three parties, we haven't decided which we will be attending. We may go to a couple, we may not go to any.
Yesterday we stopped by a Halloween store to find a few items for our costumes.
After showing very little interest in the fun hats I put on them, the kids picked their own items to carry around the store and keep them entertained while I shopped. Jonah insisted on carrying this spider that was larger than him.
Do you see the glee on this face?
Elora's favorite thing in the store was this pink feather boa (it was Jonah's favorite thing too). I would have bought it for her except it was such a mess, shedding feathers all over the store. The other thing she liked was anything with a scary face, which she would point to and say "pu-kin", you know, like a pumpkin, a jack-o-lantern.
We left the store with: a clown nose (just for fun), glow bracelets, a wand, a white wig, and "alien" ears. Intrigued?
Tonight, if I can find a babysitter, Brandon and I are going to a costume party. Monday night we have tickets to see the Odyssey dance troupe's Thriller performance at Kingsbury Hall. Wednesday is Jen's adult pumpkin carving dinner party. Friday is the ward party and Saturday after trick-or-treating we've been invited to three parties, we haven't decided which we will be attending. We may go to a couple, we may not go to any.
Yesterday we stopped by a Halloween store to find a few items for our costumes.
After showing very little interest in the fun hats I put on them, the kids picked their own items to carry around the store and keep them entertained while I shopped. Jonah insisted on carrying this spider that was larger than him.
Do you see the glee on this face?
Elora's favorite thing in the store was this pink feather boa (it was Jonah's favorite thing too). I would have bought it for her except it was such a mess, shedding feathers all over the store. The other thing she liked was anything with a scary face, which she would point to and say "pu-kin", you know, like a pumpkin, a jack-o-lantern.
We left the store with: a clown nose (just for fun), glow bracelets, a wand, a white wig, and "alien" ears. Intrigued?
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Dinner Guests
A couple Sundays ago we had Danielle and Matt over for dinner. We know Dani from Oklahoma when she was a Sister Missionary in our ward! We had a great time eating black bean soup, homemade bread, and their "brownie crap" on ice cream. In addition to being fun to talk to and hang out with, they love our kids, and the feeling is mutual:)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Harvest
Sept. 30th - Our tomatoes were covered the night before because of a freeze. We find out it is supposed to snow that night. We have plans for dinner and a play (Chorus Line, which was tons of fun) that evening with Alan, Linda, and Andy. After getting home and sending the babysitter home it is almost 11:00 but we set to work to save our precious fruit and chop down our garden. We brought in 16, yes I said 16, grocery bags full of mostly unripe tomatoes. We've been enjoying them ever since, mostly in the form of fresh salsa.
P.S. - It hasn't snowed in the three weeks since this.
P.S. - It hasn't snowed in the three weeks since this.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Utah Museum of Natural History
The last day of the frog exhibit was free. Jonah had never been to this museum so he and I made a date of it one Monday while Elora stayed home with her dad. Jonah loved this place, we will have to go again. I think we looked at everything in the entire building twice. Then we went out to dinner with Andy, Papa stopped by to say hi, and headed home. It was a great afternoon.
Jonah looking at one of the frog exhibits.
Jonah kissing the frog prince statue.
Inside a dinosaur footprint
Jonah looking at one of the frog exhibits.
Jonah kissing the frog prince statue.
Inside a dinosaur footprint
State Fair
Totally backtracking.
Some great September photos I've just got to blog about.
The perspective on this photo makes it impossible for you to grasp the enormity of this cow. It is the biggest bovine I have ever beheld.
Riding a fake sheep.
Some great September photos I've just got to blog about.
The perspective on this photo makes it impossible for you to grasp the enormity of this cow. It is the biggest bovine I have ever beheld.
Riding a fake sheep.
Witches Night Out
Gardner Village's Witches Night Out is truly something to behold. I felt like I was at a huge coven. I guarantee you've never seen so many pointy hats in your life. The people-watching was amazing. There were too many people around to do much of anything else. Literally thousands of women there. Awesome.
The group
Jen and I
One of the best costumes there
The group
Jen and I
One of the best costumes there
Friday, October 16, 2009
Jonah
(Jonah thinks wearing his shirt as pants is hysterical)
Jonah turns three in three months. I get sad when he looks like a little boy instead of a toddler. He is still a shorty (just barely fitting into 2T clothes now). He is a very good big brother. He has always referred to himself in the third-person, but this week he has started using "me" and "I" appropriately. He is growing up.
Elora on the other hand, likes to say "mine", a phase Jonah never went through. I suppose he had nobody trying to take his stuff away though:)
No Halloween costume for Jo yet, thinking Superman, a skeleton, or Robin Hood.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
DVR
DVR, I love you so, how did I ever live without you? You allow me to watch The Mentalist, Glee, The Office, So You Think You Can Dance, 30 Rock, Ellen, and Community at my leisure and without commercials. You make me happy. I love that "all my geeky friends" (quote from Brandon) are watching Glee. How do I know? Pretty much everyone's facebook status says so this morning.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Girls' Roadtrip
For months I've been talking about taking a roadtrip with girlfriends. Brandon does a boys-only backpacking trip every year (this year they actually did horsepacking) and I decided I need to do a girls-only trip too. I've done a few in the past, but not for a couple of years. I needed a weekend away from the kids and my day-to-day life and Brandon needed a chance to be Mr. Mom.
Jen was the only girlfriend who committed to the trip early on. I let her pick the weekend we would go because she would have to take two days off of work. She and I did a girlfriends trip to San Francisco in 2002 and we were overdue for another. In July airfare to Philadelphia plummetted to under $200 roundtrip and we almost bought tickets, but I decided that rather than spending time on a plane where we could see no scenery, we'd save a little money and take the scenic route. We listed about 10 cities we could drive to and finally narrowed it down to Ouray, Colorado or Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. These also allowed the three other friends that were considering joining us a better possibility of being able to come (none did).
I have an awesome book called National Geographic's Guide to Small Town Escapes. I've been on trips to three of the towns previously (in OK, AR, and LA) and I chose Ouray from this book.
This past Friday, Jen (one of my best friends since 8th grade) showed up at my house around 9 am. We were on the road by 10:00. It was slow-going for awhile on 1-15 but then it was smooth sailing. We stopped for big juicy hamburgers somewhere in southeastern Utah for lunch. I'd heard good things about Grand Junction, CO and we were considering staying the night there, but when we arrived we were unimpressed. We did stop to stretch our legs and check out a few shops in town and then took a walk along a path by the river. From there we continued south to Ouray.
The valley were Ouray is located is narrow with steep mountains surrounding the town closely. It was stunningly beautiful and there were white-capped even taller peaks in the distance. We checked into a hotel with a tiny room and a kitchen. We explored Main Street on foot and then found us some dinner before heading back to our room for the night.
After checking out of our too-small and slightly uncomfortable room the next morning, we got breakfast and then headed up to Ouray's Box Canyon to check out the waterfall and deep ravine where there is a huge (like 1/4 mile long) manmade ice-climbing wall in winter. It was pretty amazing. We hiked around a bit up there for some amazing views of the town below.
Next we drove about 45 minutes on the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton. The road was slow-moving with so many twists and turns overlooking the yellow river and yellow aspens with views of huge mountains growing ever closer. It was truly incredible scenery. We passed under two bridges and saw several abandoned mine shafts and mining ruins as well as an old, abandoned fire station.
Silverton was in an impressive location but was a dusty, weird, old mining town. We had lunch there and then headed down a long dirt road for several miles to find the ghost town of Animas Forks. This was probably my favorite stop of the trip. It was at an elevation of over 11,000 feet and was rather remote. There were about five other cars there checking out the abandoned homes and mine. There was also a mountain goat hanging out in the vicinity who got really close to us, apparently thirsty when we were near water. The homes there were built around 1900 and remained occupied until the early 1940s and despite incredibly harsh winters, still remain standing.
To be continued...
Jen was the only girlfriend who committed to the trip early on. I let her pick the weekend we would go because she would have to take two days off of work. She and I did a girlfriends trip to San Francisco in 2002 and we were overdue for another. In July airfare to Philadelphia plummetted to under $200 roundtrip and we almost bought tickets, but I decided that rather than spending time on a plane where we could see no scenery, we'd save a little money and take the scenic route. We listed about 10 cities we could drive to and finally narrowed it down to Ouray, Colorado or Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. These also allowed the three other friends that were considering joining us a better possibility of being able to come (none did).
I have an awesome book called National Geographic's Guide to Small Town Escapes. I've been on trips to three of the towns previously (in OK, AR, and LA) and I chose Ouray from this book.
This past Friday, Jen (one of my best friends since 8th grade) showed up at my house around 9 am. We were on the road by 10:00. It was slow-going for awhile on 1-15 but then it was smooth sailing. We stopped for big juicy hamburgers somewhere in southeastern Utah for lunch. I'd heard good things about Grand Junction, CO and we were considering staying the night there, but when we arrived we were unimpressed. We did stop to stretch our legs and check out a few shops in town and then took a walk along a path by the river. From there we continued south to Ouray.
The valley were Ouray is located is narrow with steep mountains surrounding the town closely. It was stunningly beautiful and there were white-capped even taller peaks in the distance. We checked into a hotel with a tiny room and a kitchen. We explored Main Street on foot and then found us some dinner before heading back to our room for the night.
After checking out of our too-small and slightly uncomfortable room the next morning, we got breakfast and then headed up to Ouray's Box Canyon to check out the waterfall and deep ravine where there is a huge (like 1/4 mile long) manmade ice-climbing wall in winter. It was pretty amazing. We hiked around a bit up there for some amazing views of the town below.
Next we drove about 45 minutes on the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton. The road was slow-moving with so many twists and turns overlooking the yellow river and yellow aspens with views of huge mountains growing ever closer. It was truly incredible scenery. We passed under two bridges and saw several abandoned mine shafts and mining ruins as well as an old, abandoned fire station.
Silverton was in an impressive location but was a dusty, weird, old mining town. We had lunch there and then headed down a long dirt road for several miles to find the ghost town of Animas Forks. This was probably my favorite stop of the trip. It was at an elevation of over 11,000 feet and was rather remote. There were about five other cars there checking out the abandoned homes and mine. There was also a mountain goat hanging out in the vicinity who got really close to us, apparently thirsty when we were near water. The homes there were built around 1900 and remained occupied until the early 1940s and despite incredibly harsh winters, still remain standing.
To be continued...
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