Ahhhh...Fall Break

Yes, I know. More Ranch pictures. You see the rocking chair on the grass? That is now my favorite spot. Kids playing and squealing with joy and I'm relaxing with a good book. We really don't go any place else, so it's hard to make this exciting. But wait! Justin thought he'd show his dangerous side and bought a bow and arrow set for the kids. What's more exciting than giving your kids weapons that can kill a humongous bear? (well, not the one we bought, but I've seen some that can ;) How about showing how cool you are by trying to shoot a kiddie bow and arrow!



Here's a couple of shots at the top of Greenspeak.




Oh yeah, the kids were all making gagging sounds. Someday they'll think it was great that we were so shmoopy. It's funny. Justin's and my first kiss was AWFUL. He caught me off guard when he came in for the kill and I ended up kind of swiping my lips across his nose. Honestly, I'm surprised that he asked me out again after that. Lucky for me I had a car and a good job. How could he pass that up?
(and it's a cami you're seeing under my shirt. My clothing staple)



We picnicked in the meadow, saw a hundred deer and elk, and just relaxed. I can't wait to go back in the spring.

Bass Pro Shop Adventure

Here I am getting ready to climb the rock wall at the Bass Pro Shop.

Look, I think she's looking at my humongous buttocks and hoping the straps will hold.

Justin got some great pictures, but this was definitely not one of them. Those straps are not the most flattering accessory. I should have worn black pants to camouflage the bum hugging straps.





Here I am ringing the nonexistent bell at the top. (Justin said "Ring the bell!" so I spent 10 seconds hanging on for dear life looking for the stupid bell that wasn't there)
That's right, I actually made it to the top. My goal was to get higher than Victoria. It's pretty sad to just want to beat your 12 year old. I'm so ashamed, yet proud at the same time.





Here's Toria having her turn.



And Justin. I think it was way too easy for him. I'm just glad I went before him so I didn't look like a total wimp.








Here are the kids looking at the big fish tanks and then taking some shots with their Sarah Palin approved hunting rifles.










Gracie got a little freaked out by the fish.







All in all, it was a successful outing for us. We decided to call it FHE since there was some definite family bonding and we were reminded of Heavenly Father's many creations (even though most of them were brutally slaughtered then stuffed)

As a side note: I need a new camera. Mine's old and I don't get very good pictures from it. Any suggestions? I need something small and not too expensive.

HUH?

So Cameron, my 8 year old, comes up to me while I'm looking at my sisinlaw's blog and I explained how we're related to them. He then asked..

"So I'm more related to you than to Dad, right?"

"What do you mean Cam?"

"Well, I came out of your stomach and all Dad did is marry you."

This is why I have a blog. Now I'll remember this forever and never let him forget it.

I Love Halloween!

Maybe I should just say I love Halloween candy. That's probably the main reason I love Halloween. All of those mini Almond Joy bars and Reeses cups. I'm not embarrassed to say that I totally raid the kids cauldrons when they're not looking.


I do love the kids all dressed up that night, but I don't really enjoy trying to figure out what they're going to be. I'm almost afraid to start getting costumes together too soon because you KNOW they're going to change their mind two days before their school party. They'll want to be Hannah Montana instead of the fairy princess you worked for two weeks putting together. ( I guess you could make the dress a mini, add some hoochie mama boots and really heavy make-up and she would be fine. )

Seriously though, did our parents really put this much effort into Halloween? I had a bag-o-costumes in the attic as a kid and you had to try to find something to wear from it or make something up. Then we'd all run around with our pillowcases (that's right, no fancy cauldron. You can fit so much more in a pillowcase) and hit every house in the neighborhood totally unsupervised. Ahhh, the good 'ol days.



Well, last year I tried to be resourceful and frugal. I got an old torn up Belle costume from my mom's MASSIVE costume collection and disassembled the whole thing, bought some matching material and reassembled it. Voila! We already had Snow White, and Victoria was......honestly I have no idea what she was. She does it on her own and I think that's great. Now Cameron's costume was awesome. Ok, that probably sounds boastful. But when he said he wanted to be Jango Fett from Star Wars, I looked online for costumes and they were $40 on Ebay?! So I bought some $5 blue thermal underwear from Walmart and some silver clearance material and got to work. A little glue, an ASU football helmet, some duct tape and a lot of love and he looked perfect. (you know, perfect for a 7 year old who would run around in a Darth Vader cape and his Transformers undies if we'd let him. He's not too picky :)










We'll see how it turns out this year! And if you're getting ready to buy your candy to pass out, I hear the kids really love the full size Almond Joys. I know I'm stocking up. ;)