Fall Break Day 3 part 1

The next morning, we set off on a morning rock hunting expedition.  Justin and I walked to the first hunting ground to look for pidgeon blood agate while the rest of the gang rode in the sidexside.

 

Dad let Justin drive the sidexside.  Look at his elation.

Allison found a nice olive.

After lunch and an hour long search for a Nintendo DS, our little family left for Goblin Valley.

Fall Break Day 2

It rained during the night; outside was fresh, crisp, and muddy.  Ammon and I got up early and went with Grandpa for a drive in their sidexside.  I got up early because I pretty much didn't sleep.  Jacob tossed all. night. long. AND ground his teeth all. night. long.
We were on a quest to find the dino dig, but were side tracked by a nice find of travertine.

I noticed a cave and scrambled up the mountainside to explore.  It was worth it.  It was a long skinny cave, where animals obviously had inhabited at some point.  My dad couldn't handle not seeing it, so he joined me.  If I were more adventuresome  I could have trummy crawled, but it did look dangerous and kinda gross with little poopies all over the place.  Dad took home a few large pieces of travertine for his collection.

Isaac acquired about 3" of mud.

We drove to our next campsite, Floy Wash.  And did I mention that it rained?  

We drove to see some dinosaur footprints, hoping we could avoid rain, but alas it decided to rain bucket fulls as soon as we got out of the car and dying as soon as we were done.  My dad's truck got stuck in the mud but he got it out pretty fast.  Everyone was soaked through to the skin, except for Jacob and Isaac who donned rain gear.

And rain?  Uhm yes.  On the drive in, there was no water in these stream beds.  We did drive through, probably stupid, but we made it.  The mini van prevails!  I did get a video of going through the wash on the right.  It was intense!!  I love my dad's reaction, watch for it.  He wanted a video but we were too quick to drive through.

We drove to Moab to see a rock show, since the day was rained out.

Right outside of town, people were stopping all over the sides of the road and my first thought was some type of animal, but instead there was a raging chocolate colored waterfall.  Stunning.  Later that night on our way back to our campsite, this water fall was no where to be seen; dried up completely.

We stopped at a hike near a canyon leaving Grandma and Allison in the car.  It looked like rain, but it held off!  It was a beautiful hike.  The engorged stream was mesmerizing and I loved to see different types of plants, including a cliff rose.  We also saw cute tiny frogs/toads.  

 
 

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us crash in your camper!

Fall Break Day 1

Ooooof!  What a weekend!  Amazingly, nothing went too wrong in our five days of camping.

We left only an hour and a half late, not too shabby, for Price.  Justin stopped at a bike shop while I took the kids to the Dinosaur museum across the street.  

 

Ammon insisted on buying this little pterodactyl we nick named "Terry" but he didn't like so he called it "Something" the rest of the trip.

I love old theater signs.

We met up with my parents in Price (stopping at the DI and finding a sweet deal on a badminton set, brand new for $2!!)  and took off for Crystal Geyser.  

Justin was walking along the Green river bank and found out it was very squishy mud.  Har har!

 

 Something unique about this place:  you can walk around and there are no signs, ropes or people telling you what to do.  It's free too.  It is not a hot spring, by the way.  Justin HAD to get a closer look and only got his shoes a little bit wet.

Another rockhound friend of my parents, Dan, met up with us here and we all drove around looking for a dinosaur dig in vain.

Halloween 2012

Justin's brother, Tony, invited our family to his work party at Adobe in Orem, so Justin and I dressed up (not normal).  This party was huge.  I heard there were 9,000 people that showed up.  The employees decorate their cubicles with a theme (Plants vs. Zombies, Mad Scientist, Hunger Games etc) and you walk through haunted house style.  It was amazing.  The kids loved it, although Ammon seemed to get scared sometimes, but that meant he would hold my hand which I love.

 Trick or Treating in Utah.

Not different from Minnesota.

If you notice in the bottom right picture, it was warm so no jackets.

Allison went with a couple friends from school.  Jacob, Isaac, and Ammon, armed with a highlighted map, went on their own.  Which if you might notice, means Justin and I were ALONE.  We watched an episode of Psych.  Awesome!  We had about 30 trick-or-treaters, about 50% more than MN.

The three younger kids participated in our tradition of The Halloween Goblin and gave a large portion of their candy to The Goblin in exchange for a gift.  The kids got little Hexbugs.  And The Goblin made out pretty well too.

October Randomness

9/1 I'm a failure.

Total Failure.

I tried (for the second time) to make a cover for my camera strap.

Failure.  Fail Fail!!

And let me tell you about my fail of last night:

I mixed my hair dyes just right.  Sat 35 minutes.  Washed.  Dried.  Still had gray hairs.

What the freaking CRAP.

Went to bed baffled.

In the middle of the night figured out I'd forgotten the developer.  Now I get to do it all over again.

FAIL period.

Must be pms time?  Who knows.

We have a ping pong table up in the basement.  That should be fun.

One hour later:  made a third camera strap cover and it fits.  Mostly.
My house gets dusty fast.
I am hungry for some yummy food.
10/2 Today was a better day.
I also didn't do anything crafty, just in case.
I did start to redo our 72 hour kits.  Mostly just need food.
Allison loves the Thomson tradition of chipped beef for dinner.
Jacob finished his MeeMercial.  Well, I say Jacob very loosely, but at least it's done.
I've heard "you look too young to have a 16 year old" a lot since I moved here.
Makes me wonder if they thought I was a pregnant teen Mom.
10/3 Our water bill for the month of September was $133.  For only water.
In Minnesota is was about $110 for THREE months including sewer and garbage pick up.
Had a meeting with Jacob's school about his education, transition etc.
It's overwhelming to me.
Jacob in college?  Wha???
10/8  General Conference was amazing.  We were at my parents house.  I feel I was able to get more out of this conference than many years past.
And Jacob possibly leaving in two years for a mission?  Whoa!
Had our kids give a synopsis of one talk per session.  I was amazed at how well the did.  Good job kids!
Came home to a freezing house.
Ammon wrote me the cutest letter.  Plus I got three Skittles taped to it.
Brought home a few more grapes and bunches of apples to play with.
My new full length mirror makes me look so tall and skinny.
10/17  My hands are freezing.  Welcome to colder weather.
Driving by a Costco, Jacob said, "don't they have like giant bars of mayonnaise?"
I laughed for about five minutes.
The church being built about a block from our house got a steeple today.  Woo hoo!
Family camp out to Goblin Valley was super!
Life is starting to get busy between school and church.
Maybe we'll make friends some day.  That would be nice.
10/22 Why do thrift store clothes smell the same no matter where you buy them?
Had a fantastic day out with one of my besties, Tina.
My birthday was crappy, okay, then crappy.
My kids were cute with making cards and wanting the day to be special for me.
10/23  I love Lemonheads.
So foggy this morning, I couldn't see houses next to mine hardly at all.
Especially just down the hill from me.
I MISS MY FRIENDS!!!

First Day of School in a New School

 
Pictures taken on an ultra windy day.  It's been 6 weeks since they started and are doing okay.  Allison is doing fantastic.  Ammon I find out tomorrow.  Jacob and Isaac are struggling a little, but not overly so yet.  They're all enjoying having cable tv, which we've never had, nor would have, except it comes with our lovely HOA.  

September Randomness

9/4 Looking into buying a new car.  Must have all wheel drive.  

It's going to totally wipe us out of our savings.

Went to WalMart and did double coupons and price matching.  

I love going to one store to get all the great sales.

But seriously, can't people take their kids home to nap and feed them at lunch time?  

So.  Many. Screaming. Babies.

Went to Cascade Springs (along with hundreds of others) yesterday with Tony and his family.

Alpine canyon is amazingly beautiful. It's only about a 15 minute drive.  But it costs $6 to get in.

I love sitting around with family yabbering about nothing and everything.

Made four batches of plum freezer jam and four *almost* pies.

I read that you can freeze the fruit in a pie plate, then remove it, put it back in freezer (I put mine in vacuum freezer bags) and can bake a pie easy peeeezy later.

I love my counter tops.

Not sure how I feel about a gas stove/oven.  My oven is 50 degrees cooler than it says.  50.

9/5  2:00 AM on the dot.  Can't sleep.
My freezer is full to capacity.  I might need to plug in our extra chest freezer.
I made about 15 more batches of plum jam, and two peach.
That ought to last our family 6 months.
Took Isaac to the dr for his checkup.  He's still super small. 3% and -3%.
I found out that at least I don't have to bring the boys in as often.
Every six months instead of three months.  That will save us $60 a pop.
On the down side, we can't do three month mail order on their prescriptions.
That will cost us a bunch more.
9/5 In the pm.
It was a cha ching! kind of day.
Bought a new car!
A Volvo XC90.  Justin has been wanting one for years.
It is much smaller than our mini van, so hoping the kids don't get mad at less leg room.
Also bought flooring for our office.  The dog pee carpet has. to. go.
Excited to paint it a different color than the rest of the house.
We were recommended to paint Kilz on the subfloor.
Also bought a pear tree.
Ate at a yummy yummy restaurant called Teriyaki Grill in Draper.  I'd like to eat there everyday.
Still on the hunt for fun and different hooks for the kids bathroom for their individualized towels.
9/12  Jacob and Isaac went to their first night of Young Men.
Finished painting the office a nice gray.  Actually, I love the color.
The dog pee floor has been a pain.
Started on another project of changing the back of two shelves into pallet wood.
It's much more of a project than intended.   The nails are hard to get out.
Made dried apples with jello with the kids help.
Read today that we aren't allowed to hang laundry to dry outside.
Must have window coverings.  Legit window coverings.  No sheets.
No garage sale signs or any like that.  Ever.
This HOA buisness is a hoax.
9/13  I wish bacon were cheaper.
Two dumbs today.
First dumb:  Got one month supply of meds for Jacob for the price of three.
Forgot to use my groupon for a canvas print.  Expired one week ago.
9/17 It's a windy kind of day.
Justin is in Las Vegas all week.
Our office floor is done.  Done!
Next up is a mud room wall in there, but for now, it's amazing!  I LOVE it.
Spent the morning putting things away and reorganizing my filing cabinet.
I killed about 5 flies today so far.  Where did they come from?? Seriously!  Gross!
My favorite waffle iron is biting the dust...ie: the teflon is flaking off.
I happened upon one on eBay this morning that just popped up.
Got it for $25 with shipping.  This puppy retailed for over $70, so I was pleased.
We make waffles a LOT.
I love having a basement to shove stuff in.
I love the bookcase do-over Justin and I did this last week.  It looks amazing.
9/30 Justin and I got callings today.  Justin is Teachers Quorum Advisor (again)
and I'm in Activity Day Girls (again).  Reruns.
Wish we would hike more.
Went to dinner with Aaron and Tina last night.  I've missed them.
When people don't respond to my emails/phone calls after a few times, I have a strong desire to write them off.
Went to Logan on Thursday and loved it.  Too many finds at thrift stores.
Lunch at Rumbi with Mom, Justin, and Stefanie.
Isaac stayed after school for a test...he forgot I was in Logan.
Was able to get a ride to the elementary school and rode the pm bus home.
VERY stressful 30 minutes for me trying to find someone to pick him up.
Justin's job isn't going well.
2nd raffle for the kids went well.  I've decided it's hard to buy things that make everyone happy.
Except candy.