An Early Anniversary Trip

Our wedding anniversary is coming up.

Nov. 7th. We will be married for 8 years! Chris has to work all weekend on our actual anniversary. It's inventory weekend. So he planned a little get away for the 2 of us, a few weeks early. It was really great to have time to ourselves. A short little getaway, that was just enough, to feel like we really took a great vacation.

Our mom's watched the girls. Thanks Granny B, and Grandma Bump Bump! We had so much fun! Vegas isn't my first choice, but we went to Vegas, because a company that Chris buys product from, got a room for us free of charge. Chris even picked the hotel he wanted to stay at. He didn't want to be right on the strip, and I'm so glad we weren't.

And then Chris researched the surrounding area too. Finding us an amazing State Park to go visit. I think that was my favorite part of the whole trip.

We drove down on Friday. Eating lunch at our favorite place, Olive Garden, in St. George on the way down. We walked the strip for 3&1/2 hours that night. I was seriously hobbling back that night. Vegas is so BIG! A block in vegas is like walking across town! Before retiring for the night, we had some salads in the cafe at our hotel. Not too shabby.

Chris and I were seriously laughing, because the once really cool Pirate show outside of Treasure Island, has turned into a boat of barely dressed women dancing? What? Lame!!!


Saturday, we slept in, had an amazing all out breakfast, pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon, and juice, at our hotel. YUM! Then headed out to Valley of Fire State Park. I loved loved loved this day. We were in our element.







I saw this guy as we were hiking on a trail, and let me just say, I'm glad my camera has a great zoom, because I'm not getting too close to him!
Thought this was so cool. Told Chris it looked like a cupcake with the icing dripping down the sides :)

This part of our hike, was called the narrows. It was super super cool. Loved it :)


I guess this trail marker, is better than your average Caryn.

That night after the park, we ate at the BEST Mexican Food Restaurant I've ever been to. It was called Ricardos. A friend of Chirs' told him about it, and he was right on. The chips and salsa, and bean dip stuff was amazing! Everything else was super yummy too! Then we headed back to our hotel for a swim.
Our Hotel.

This was our pool. We had a great time swimming and sitting in the hot tub after a long day of hiking. It was all lit up at night too.
We took this shot on the balcony overlooking the pool, Sunday morning before we came home. Me and my best friend! He is soooo good to me. I am one very blessed girl :)

Fall Colors or Snow?

Yesterday, we took a drive up by Monte Cristo, to see the Fall leaves. And we found more snow than leaves! I think the leaves still need a couple of weeks to change. We knew there would be snow, so we packed our snow clothes, and our lunch, and had a fun day!

The girls were so excited to see snow! Elle couldn't wait to play in it. And I've got to say, that it was really a wonderful site! When we got back in the truck to head home, the temp read 32 degrees! Yikes :)

Our first Snowman of the year! We actually had some carrots with us for lunch, and gave it a proper nose.

The Pines were plastered with snow. Everything looked so amazing. And smelled so good too!
Me and the Snowman! (My Snowman) When I married Chris, he was into Snowmobiling big time! His email name was Snowman :) He sold his really nice sled and trailer, but last year, we picked up a little retro sled. I think he has plans to pick up another little sled sometime, so he can take us girls and play in the white stuff! His FAVORITE thing to do!
Oh yeah....here are some Fall leaves, that we did find :) The sun wasn't out, or these just might have been even more brilliant.

On a side note.... the Raccoons have been eating our grapes this year. I can't believe how many were gone! But I still have juice from last year, so I'm only making Jelly this year. We are down to our last jar! Tonight after church we picked grapes in the backyard. These are the ones the raccoons didn't get :) Whew!

I just LOVE contributing to my family food storage. I love knowing that we can grow food in our yard, and can turn it into a years supply! There's just something about it that gets me excited. And oh man, you should smell my kitchen right now :)

First Grade

My little first grader is LOVING school.

Although, it's only been 2 months, and she's already lost her coat 3 times. And yeah, we found it each time. And today she left her show and tell item at school. I super cute, brand new book, that we haven't written her name in yet. I just hope it is still there on Monday. These kinds of things drive me crazy!

Last week they had picture day. It was raining and Bree was dressed up, so I took her to school. Not to mention, that we were able to get Elle's 4 year old pics taken too. I'm so glad that they invited us to bring our pre-schoolers to school for pics too! Bree's teacher had nothing but amazing things to say about her. Mrs. Vellinga has never seen another student so confident, and apparently Bree looks just like the teachers 6 year old grand daughter. I guess they could be twins.

She loves to ride the bus! We've missed it a couple of times, and it broke her heart. So we really try to be on time in the mornings, so she doesn't miss the bus. And she's been having me pack her lunches everyday. She is afraid, that they won't have anything for school lunch that she likes. But then the other day she told me that on Fridays, she sees kids with chocolate milk, and other things that she likes. So she asked me if she could eat lunch on Fridays. Today was our first try. Last night she got out of bed, to tell me that she was crying, because she was afraid they wouldn't have anything she liked and then she would go hungary. She asked if I would pack her lunch anyway, so that if she didn't like school lunch, she could go get her back up lunch. I agreed. And when she got home today, she had such a great experience, that she has asked if she can eat school lunch everyday from now on. I'm really glad, because if it were me, I would get bored of the same old sandwich in my lunch everyday. Variety and hot food are good! And they've really tried to make school lunches healthy these days. I know she's going to love it!

The other day, we received some awesome hand me downs from her cousin Aleigha. Bree was so excited about the new clothes, that she wore 2 of the new shirts to school this week. I took some pictures of her, so we could show Aunt Jennifer! :)

I can't believe how well Bree is reading! She has a spelling test every week, and has gotten 100% each time. It's amazing to see her learning so much! So we are just loving 1st grade, and now if I can get her to bring all of her things home from school each day, I will love it even more! ha..ha..

Rain

Wow, we've had a couple of really good rain storms today! Elle and I couldn't help but to open the front door and watch! Elle even got a little bit wet :) The temperature is supposed to drop about 30 degrees this week! Yep, it's definitely Fall.

October is here

I love October! I love Halloween. I always have. I've always loved the fact that for 1 day out of the year, we all get to dress up and be who ever we want to be. Kinda cool. Friday after school, we took the girls to a little pumpkin lot, to pick out our pumpkins. It was so HOT!! 90 degrees in fact. I was a little disappointed that we didn't do the whole Farm and Hay ride thing this year. But it was okay. So is this really for the kids, or for me? Hmmm, probably BOTH :)

Saturday we made some fun Halloween Cupcakes. I baked them, and the girls decorated them. They had fun making Orange and Purple frosting, and adding the candy corn and pumpkins on top! Then we took some over to grandma and grandpa :)

As you can see, some of the cupcakes, got lots of candy on top!
And today was General Conference Sunday. We decided to take our radio out in the backyard, and have some fun while listening to the second session of Conference. We even got out the hammock. And after conference was over, we played catch with the girls, and a tiny football. Just fun to hear the girls laughing.

It's been a fun weekend. October is here, and we've already started to celebrate :)