a walk in the woods

When Kristen made the decision to visit Utah over our Spring Break instead of us visiting Phoenix, (for the sole purpose of visiting her), she had only one request. Oops, I take that back. She made 2 requests, number 2 being Pumpkin Donut Holes. (Which aren't really donut holes, more like mini muffins... but whate'rr.) Oh, and going to Gardner Mill to see the witches aka the Witch Festival. Well, whadaya know? Turns out she had a lot of demands requests, now didn't she? Sheesh Kristen!

Jk. We'd do anything for you! As long as what we're doing includes donut holes, and visiting witches, and her number 1 request, the reason I'm even posting after such a ridiculous amount of time spent silent...,

Kristen's numero uno request was to experience Fall. As in Autumn. As in cooler temps, shorter days, and most importantly, the changing of the leaves. Apparently, AZ doesn't do seasons. Unless HOT, hot enough to bake your donut holes, is a season.

Well, Fall in UT is a glorious thing. Unfortunately though, for Kristen, she missed the annual autumnal prime time by a couple of weeks, but we did find some beautifulness and wondermunt driving up Hobble Creek Canyon. ohmergosh, I'd forgotten how much I love that Canyon. (I've also forgotten my compulsion to use too many adjectives. Usually unimaginitive made up ones. Maybe I should just remain silent.)

There were pumpkin donut holes/mini muffins. We did go to Gardner Mill, a post for another day, AND we ate out at Mi Ranchito, (yet another request made by, you guessed it, KRISTEN. She does know how to make the BEST demands, demands everyone enjoys!! Demand away, girl!)

The Sunday of her visit, after church, we drove down to Hobble Creek, as I heretofore mentioned. I'm so glad I thought of going there as Provo and American Fork Canyon were past their prime. I knew this because we'd driven up there 2 weeks prior, a drive in which we almost died several times. You know it was bad when even Kevin was nervous.

But that was then. And this was then, but a more recent then than then.

Fall leaves ALWAYS make me think of when Kristen was born. Because someone brought me a big bouquet of fall leaves and they were so gorgeous. When I think back I realize whomever gave me the leaves must've brought them about a month after Kristen was born, being that the leaves would not have been changing on Sept 9th. I remember them sitting in a container until they shriveled up and crumbled to pieces. Seems so sad now. Yeah, well, still a fond a memory.

I'm not sure why Kristen is leaning. She seems a little stiff overall actually. Still a cute pic!

NO, Kevin and I did not plan to match each other let alone to match the leaves. One of the few times we have our picture taken together and we just fade into the background. Kismet much?

Love this pic! It's totally rad! 

This one is the raddest!

And so ends the story. The story of Kristen's demands, unintentional matching clothing, the unfortunate demise of a leaf bouquet, and most importantly, the end of the annoying commentary on a fairly ordinary day.

Now, why is it that I stopped blogging?

he bought a boat

 was there really any doubt that kevin would buy a boat... 

sooner or later? 

no. there was not. 

but as you will see these pics are more about the people i love 

and less about the boat. 

i couldn't even give you a single pertinent detail concerning

the boat,

other than that it is, in fact,

a sailing boat. 

i'm really hoping it is also a 

floating boat.

wow. summer is almost over. every year it is the same. school ends and life relaxes. (as if my life needs to be anymore relaxed.)

and now school starts 2 weeks from today.

summer rehash: camped once, kristen visited, fireworks in idaho, quick trip to yellowstone, and the biggest event of the summer, of course,... jake and maki got married!

maybe a quick trip to see mike, (in boise), next week.

i wanna a do over!

mostly i want to keep sleeping in!

four o'july or a post in which i can't decide whether to CAPitAliZe or NoT.

So, Yay! My computer and iphone decided to be friends again, and I have my fourth of july photos!

and that was written about 10 days ago. 

So, Boo! By the time I'd messed around with emailing them and uploading them and picasa-ing them and then finding out they were in iphoto the whole time, and picasa-ing them AGAIN, I wanted to shoot myself.

here we go with pictures and commentary. 

aka pics and commies.

oh my gosh. cutest kids ever, sans Luke; who was undoubtably honing his mad skills on the tramp. oline.

Look! It's a collage! 

I actually succeeded in making picasa work right (by work right I mean of course I didn't lose patience before I threw my computer against the wall.) (how could I do that to my one and only true friend aka macbaby?) (i just made up that name right now. great, huh?) 

AND now I have the 4 pic masterpiece which you behold. 

there's kristen and kristen & wes and potato salad & jello fluff & etc and cups of smurf juice with barbershop straws and a GIANT potato chip. 

it was so cute IRL

collages are hard. sigh. 

What's a four o'july celebration without a funnel cake? Or at the very least a picture of a funnel cake making truck. 

try saying that 5 times real fast. thatthatthatthatthat Oh, I am on one. 

i should delete that last paragraph. 

Honestly, though, without someone goading me on to actually purchase a funnel cake all I got was a pic. Honestly, though, funnel cakes are so gross. 

Beauties at the fireworks. aka Tracy and Kristen. 

hahahahaha. me took a pic of them taking a pic. 

(I do not know why I do not have more friends.)

Be still my heart............

my attempt to dress patriotically- apparently pink and gray are not actually our country's colors. 

NEXT YEAR. 

Shawn looking Sharp. hahahaha.

what wes did after carrying 4 camp chairs for approximately 10 miles. 

what. a. stud. 

yes, i offered to help 10,000 times. 

i am seriously IN LOVE with this girl. 

you cannot blame me. 

the mass of humanity surrounding us waiting for darkness to fall. 

and it explains some of the panic i was feeling.

bye bye 

:)

the camping trip that almost wasn't

Also, the blog post that almost wasn't. (Read the title.) I had many more pics I planned to post today yesterday, but, after 2 hours spent trying to figure out picasa, 2 hours I could have spent cleaning bathrooms or laundering laundry or pretending to not watch the ID channel, here I am spending at least 2+ hours trying to put this dang post together.

My first plan was to write a post that included many pictures from the last few weeks but after spending so much of my precious time, which I should have been doing all the stuff I don't and probably won't, I narrowed it down to these few from last weekend.

Let me explain the title of this post first. (skip to the pics if you'd rather not read this explanation.)

Okay, now that no one is reading, I will open up and share my TRUE feelings about this camping trip. I pretty much hated the whole thing. I know that I'm a big giant complainer pants, but let's be honest here, I do not love nor much like camping. (I don't want to hear about how camping in an RV isn't real camping. Shut it.) I like checking into air conditioned hotel rooms with soft beds heaped with copious pillows. Going out to eat, even if it's Subway. Do not care as long as I don't have to cook. Normal sized bathrooms with flush toilets. And not losing every single thing I set down for a moment. It's my own darn problem that I chose to stay in the camper most of the time and avoid the plague of flying insects and the relentless sun, (gone are the days in which I desire to bask in the hot hot heat), but I was beyond stir crazy by the time we left Sunday morning. This reaction from a woman who goes days at a time without venturing out further than the yard.

But I usually find more to enjoy than to complain about. Not this time though. I've had such a sucky attitude of late and I dragged that frame of mind along with me when we left Thursday. Kevin had no idea where we were going other than somewhere near Strawberry, only some vague directions to the perfect location given from a work buddy. Well, after a brain scrambling drive on the worst road in the history of roads and 4 hours later, he finally accepted the fact that we would have to go an actual campground or go home. (guess who proposed the go home idea.)

I love Kevin. He never gives up. He never gets mad at me. I do not deserve him.

Serendipitously, 2 days before we left I caught a friend's photo album she'd just posted to FB and it just so happened that she and her family had just returned from the Aspen Grove campground near Strawberry, a campground I'd never heard of before, and it looked beautiful. A few things were misleading in her photos, like the fact that there were several shots of her family on quad trails, yet we found out that you can't drive them out of the campground NOR on any road leading to a trail. Also there were no shots of them furiously batting away millions of annoying flying insects. Since I'd seen her FB album, we knew we should go see if there were any spots available and there were. Aspen Grove turned out to be a pretty good place to camp. Even Kevin was mildly accepting of it.



So, now you see why see this camping trip almost wasn't. That is, if you actually read the previous several paragraphs.

NOW, believe it or not, there are a few things I do LOVE about camping:

camping up in dem hills

1. The beautiful majesty of this world, the mountains, trees, blue skies, and... parking lots.

fixin' up some breakfast
sausage, hash browns, eggs, and pancakes

2. A Denny's style breakfast. Only the food actually tastes good.

3. Game Time. 

OKAY, all of the next pictures are inexplicably out of order. I tried 3 times to make it right, and then gave up.

#4 "Random". Yes, I like random.

Random is fishing for Crayfish. Or is it Crawdads? Random is boiling them alive and eating them. They say crawfish taste like lobster. I wouldn't know.

Craw/Crayfishin' (didn't mean to exclude Tanner from these photos. Hey, that's his shoe!)

chicken and potatoes. for real.




#5. Dutch Oven Food!!!!!!! yumyumyumyum

It's Jessie!                                                                       And Tanner!

#6. family.

Don't know why I didn't take a picture of Jake and Maki. :(

And now for a bunch more random pictures:

Wes w/an AirHead & Hunter; Granny's ice cream that no one liked; Jessie & her Phone; Grammar boo boo

owie

oh Hunter you're a good camping dog

Crayfish or Crawdads?

bye bye blog readers!

a fairly flitting mind

My mind is fairly flitting with thoughts and ideas for things I'd like to say. I say say as opposed to talk about cause of course there is no one here to talk to about anything if you know what I mean. Meaning: I'm here alone. (Not as alone as I'm gonna be tomorrow). :(

If anyone would like to drive up to clear creek camp and peek into Wes' cabin and make sure he's not upset or crying, and, if he is doing either, if you'd like to sneak into his cabin and tuck him in and give him a kiss from me, well, that would be okay with me. Just saying. If you would do this every night this week it'd be super awesome. Throw in a little back rub and we'll be best friends forever. The back rub is for Wes, though I'm perfectly willing to accept one as well.

That is all. For now.

He'll be fine, right?

Boondocks and Such

Heavens, it's been a long time since I've posted! No reason, just life getting in the way. I'm thankful for a life that gets in the way, whether good or bad. But I do miss making cards and playing with challenges! Soon, I keep telling myself.

I don't want to go into details about the going ons to which I'm referring, not yet anyway, I just have a few pics to share. 

I have been making cards, although not officially for challenges. I've been so scattered that I usually miss the deadlines. No matter. Here a couple of wedding cards that I made for a couple of recent marriages. 

A couple of weeks ago Wes was the featured child in his school class aka Star of the Week. As things usually go with Wes we were throwing the poster together 9 pm the night before. It turned out pretty well all things considered. 

{Apparently we're fond of the "huddle" style of family photos.} 

Last night we went to a party for Kevin's work at Boondocks. Fun, games, and pizza. Of course I'd never been to this place of Boondockery, as I'm not a fan of fun apparently, (or arcade games or pizza really), but we had a really good time. 

 As you can see, Kevin is the old man at work.

 If you look really closely, with a magnifying glass if possible, you will see how happy Wes is about this ride. He was pretty ticked that he wasn't big enough to drive by himself. I don't blame him for the face. 

This would be the track. And Wes looks no happier. You'll have to trust me on that, since the power of zoom sucks on the iphone. 

 Wes was much happier here, with his own boat to captain. 

 Trust me, it was not warm yesterday and pretty cloudy. And the water is not heated. So, I'm not just not a fan of fun, but also of being frozen. 

Not that I'd have been in one of those floaty thingies even if it'd been warm and sunny. I am also not a fan of being shot by a water cannon. Or any cannon for that matter. 

*cannonball wound*

Due to Wes' expertise with video game skillz, he was the only one who figured out that you could reposition the cannon many different ways, like up and down as well as side to side, and he pretty much shot and hit anyone. Finally, a good reason to waste all that time playing them games. 

Speaking of video games as I just did there, I'm really proud of Wes for making the decision to give up his violent games. Well, it was not so much his decision as it was me deciding to take away what I should have never let him have anyway, but after a few hours of drama, he's been a good sport. He even noticed that he's felt better after giving them up. He's a good boy, is he not?

Next, we moved on the miniature golf. Good times. 

 No idea why there is the Halloweenesque wall on the course. I'm not a fan of things that make no sense. 

Next, we moved on to the pizza dinner and the arcade games. Wes ate about 5 slices of pizza and a big salad and garlic bread and an ice cream sandwich. All that play made him a hungry boy. I'm not a fan of cheap pizza and bagged salad, but I'll take anything over fixing dinner myself. (I didn't notice what Kevin consumed. How negligent of me.) 

This is the only pic I took on the arcade floor. Other than this and a game of air hockey, Wes just went bee-bopping through the arcade using tokens to garner tickets. Cuz tickets lead to some stellar prizes. Like a doohickey that spring ups after you squish it down, a slinky worm, some sour patch kids, and a fake nose/mustache/glasses combo. Which he models here. Kevin's get up however is not a mask. 

I kind of really love this picture. 

Funny story. On the way to the place where we went, I popped in the new Brian Reagan CD. So we're listening and from my vantage point it appeared that Kevin did not find it humorous at all. Then he decides he better turn it off since he was laughing so hard he could hardly see. But only on one side of his face. Ok, that is more sad than funny. 

Later 'gators.