Fall!

This is going to be a GREAT week! The kids have UEA (Utah Educators . . . . um . . . I don't know - we used to just call it the Deer Hunt) and have school off and we will using that vacation to unpack. Yes, we will FINALLY close on our house on Wednesday!! YAY!!

Fall is here and we have been taking advantage of it. Driving up the canyon to see the changing leaves, picking apples and pumpkins, eating chili and apple crisp etc. These are a few of my favorite things - fall edition: The kids eating a donut off a string at the fall carnival at school, that was big back in the day!

Picking out a homegrown pumpkin from my dads garden.

We used to come home from school and sell pumpkins in front of our house.

Picking apples. . .

Hiding in the corn stalks:

Seeing how many people, pumpkins, bushels of apples, bags and jars of jam we can fit in one Mini:

And pine nut stands everywhere! I love pine nuts and have missed having them in the fall. There are about 100 more stands around town then there used to be - not that I'm complaining mind you.

Now we just need to get into our house so we can set up shop and get nestled in for the approaching winter.

The Big Bash

Last Saturday was the big party/fiesta of Jon turning 40 and Collin turning a bonified teen. Jon wanted a taco cart with five different meats, 2 pinatas, lot's of cold drinks and as many people as we could get there. I added 4 cakes (which no one got pictures of :( from The Chocolate) and sent out the invitations. We had a blast. (I know this will come as no surprise, but the lack of pictures is because my memory card was full - it wasn't my battery dying this time!)

I think this is Jon's first plate of maybe 4? Tongue, buche, and other cuts/parts of pork:

Lot's of girls for Grace to play with:

And some of the guys hanging:

People ate till they were stuffed and we still came home with about 10 lbs of meat and taco fixings and almost 2 full cakes. These are the taco helpers and eaters:

Then pinata time. I love this picture of Jon's mom Sue cheering him on in the background:

I love the kids faces in this one:

We had a great time and hope everyone else did too. I'm already starting to think about Jon's 50th! Maybe a BBQ. . . I'll think on that while I eat some cake. MMMmmmmmm.

Sept. Update

What a busy month! We are suppose to close on a house this week, but we've had some recent developments with the first, perfect, best, house we looked at. So, things might change. I have also noticed that since moving here, I have taken SO many less pictures! And the ones I do have are of houses . . . the many MANY houses we have looked at in the 2 months we've been here. But things are good. The kids LOVE school and Jon and Collin have their birthday this week so things are going really well. Here are some of the few pictures of the last month in no particular order:

Jon works at Tahitian Noni and they have a summer bash every year that is just amazing. This years theme was the 50's so they had all these old classic cars in the garden and grounds. There was SO much really good food - a sliders bar, soda bar, shake bar, churro and slushy bars, filet mignon etc. I was eating too much to take many pictures, but here are some:

The beautiful gardens in the back:

They also had so many activities for kids - ceramic banks to paint, candy necklaces to make . . .

And a whole field of blow up fun to play on.

Then there was Swiss Days in Midway. I missed the Swiss Taco sign. Very authentic.

And a stop at an old favorite in Heber, Grannies:

A ward campout up Hobble Creek that was FREEZING, but not cold enough for Collin to shmooze with the ladies:

Then the Greek Festival. Great food, but . . .

It traumatized Grace

And last, the good old Natural Science Museum at BYU.

First Day of School :(

Where has the summer gone?? We moved, went to Seven Peaks a couple of times, Collin went on a few scout trips and now school is here!

This little girl has been counting down the days ever since she found out she got in.

Collin was NOT excited about school starting. He takes after me and was nervous and worried:

Yesterday though he had 7th Grade (I can NOT believe I have a 7th grader!!) orientation and couldn't get the combination right (what my nightmares are made of) and the sweet girl a couple lockers down helped him. After he got it he said, "I don't know what I would have done without her!" (after I showed him 35 times how to do it the day before.).

Collin was going to Freedom Academy before we moved. Grace had gotten into Kindergarten and couldn't wait to start. Where as the time gone? After 3 years of home schooling it is a big adjustment for me. I shed a few tears after dropping them off and have missed them and worried about them all day.

The best part of today was right before I dropped them off. . . . Collin said, "Well, at least my pits smell good!" Thanks AXE for Collins' good smelling pits. One less thing for him to worry about.

The Move. . . . duh duh duh

I know it's only been a month since we moved but it seems more like 6. How does that happen?We had friends in town over the 4th of July and they left on the 5th. The 6th we packed up, the movers came on the 7th and we left on the 8th. Whew! I found this on the driveway after the washing machine got moved and we found the long lost sidewalk chalk: (the movers tried to step around it as much as possible. :)

I call this picture "How many men does it take to get a Mini in a moving van?":

We had a "great" idea of taking the kids to Target before we hit the road and giving them some money to buy a toy for the long journey. I guess we should have given more guidelines because Collin got an RC car (for the 3 day car trip) and Grace got a dog as big as she is (for the 3 day road trip in an already stuffed car).

We had to stop at the Collin Street Bakery in Dallas - of course!

We made it to Amarillo the first night so we could go to The Big Texan. Home of the "free" 72 oz (that's 4.5 pounds!) steak. You might have seen it on Man vs. Food and some other shows. If you can eat the 72oz steak, a baked potato, roll, salad and shrimp cocktail in an hour, it's free. A teen age kid tried it while we were there and Discovery was there interviewing and filming it.

They have a huge cow (that Jon cut out in the pic above) and a huge boot out in front:

Because:

We saw this scenery for miles and miles and miles . . .

We planned activities every day to break the drive up. We stopped at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and even though we got rained on, it was so cool. Jon had been there before and has always wanted to go back.

This was in Southern Utah and I'm not sure what it's called, but we called it Water Bottle Rock because Grace had just gotten a short round water bottle that was this same shape.

We stopped at Moab on the 3rd day - one of my Favorite places!

We got rained on again, but we had a great time.

It was a great, leisurely road trip and we had a great time. We are glad to be back in the mountains and by family again. We have been having so much fun with cousins and friends that I am busier now than ever! It's good to be home . . . well in Utah. We don't have our own home yet, but we're working on it.

We're Heeeeeeeee-re!

So we have moved and I can't find my cord to download my pictures I took before and during the move, so pictures will have to wait. On the drive (the looooooong drive) here I made a short list of things I will miss about Houston/Texas and things I won't:

Will Miss

Humidity for my hair and skin

Mild winters

Lupe's Fajitas

Pineapple Agua Fresca

REAL BBQ - We like Pappas

Southern Hospitality

Mourning Doves in the morning

Palm Trees

The Big Texas sky

Texan Pride

The Beach (I don't care how muddy it is!)

Sugarbaby's Black Forest cupcakes

"Y'all"

Won't

Humidity for everything else

MOSQUITOS

Texas roads

Hurricanes

HEB! (Bunker Hill)

Change is coming

These are all over our house:

It's that time again. Time to move. We are heading back to Utah for a new job. We're not exactly sure when that will be, but in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, we are trying to pack up, while trying to keep the house clean, while trying to show the house while trying to live in it. Fun times!

Our Week

We've had Cub Scout Day Camp all week. No, we don't have a Cub Scout anymore, but I was asked to help, so we did. Grace always loves the Siblings class. This is the epitome of Grace - chatting 90 miles an hour and giving me the "wait a minute" finger when I want to take her picture:

One of her admirers on her back. Her leader said to me, "I love listening to Grace. She is knows who she is!"

Collin gets to be a Jr. Staff and earn Boy Scout service hours. He has been having WAY too much fun taking the garbage out . . .

And riding the garbage wagon "doing a Calvin" (as in Calvin and Hobbs riding in their wagon down steep hills):

Me, not so much fun. 30 boys hammering birdhouses at a time throughout the day and I'm saying Where's the Excedrin??

This lady is my hero though. She is about 80 (I love her wig), about 4 foot 5" and she came with her 2 grandsons because she wanted to see what they did. I hope I'm as cool of a grandma!

Livin' in the Bible Belt

Got Wii? Then you'll understand Hii.