Witch Hat!

I know you cant really take decent pictures in this kind of light without a flash but I had to try to capture our trip to Gardner Village to see the witches. This place goes all out for Halloween. Steve was working late, and let's face it is probably happy to not have to go to this place.....so we decided to have a gals night out with the witches. We talked about them all day so I was figuring that she would be fine when we got there.

We started out at the candy shop. I LOVE those watermelon suckers they have....well they didn't have those but Katy didn't mind going with an orange one. I guess I wasn't paying much attention, because I would have stopped her from popping that thing in her mouth if I had realized that I would spend the next 30 minutes in line trying to pay for the thing! It was insane in there! I guess that is what happens when all the tweens were taking full advantage of the free fudge samples....sheese!

Once we were done with that place we strolled around to take a look at the witches. And really, things seemed to be going good. She defiantly got nervous around them but was fine when I held her. We'd be strolling along and she would shout "holdie" I would pick her up and we would take a gander. I even tried to convince her that the dancing witches were in fact doing the hot dog dance like Mickey does on Micky Mouse Clubhouse. She wasn't convinced!

"Oh my gosh....I see one now." She wouldn't take her eyes off them once they were in her line of site!

She thought the pumpkins were cool. Until....

She realized there was a witch next to her. "HOLDIE!" Oh and I think I heard "blankie" in there a few times.

All in all I thought it was a good trip. She was defiantly nervous but I though because we didn't have a break down we did good.

Because it was so late when we got home we had to go straight to bed, after our normal hand washing, teeth brushing and book reading. We said prayers and I gave her a kiss. She told me love you and night night. I shut the door and didn't think twice.

Little did I know that a half hour later she was SCREAMING from her bed room. I let her cry for a minute but realized that something must be wrong because she never does this. I laid in there for about a half hour with her before I finally got it out of her that she was scared. She kept saying KK scared, scary. I asked her what she was scared of. She promptly answered......"Witch Hat (this is what Katy calls witches)!" Ahhhh! and Ha at the same time! I should have known that witches and sugar before bed don't mix! By the time she said she was scared she was back asleep because she had cried so much! Luckily it only happened that night and I haven't heard of the witches again!

Like I said....note to self: Witches and Candy before bed DON'T mix!!!! But are good for a laugh a few weeks later :)

Moab....again!!!!

So is it really that surprising that we went to Moab again? I think not....remember, we love this place! And since Steve got a new motorcycle he found a good excuse to make another trip.

This time we decided to bring Roger and Joanne along. Now this is not our first rodeo together. We actually went down here in July a few years back. Note to self: do not go to Moab in July. This was not as fun of a trip for us because it was about 106 degrees out! Not to say we didn't have a good time still. But I think we made the most of this trip for sure...Katy in toe this time.

Our first night down we decided to take a trip to Gemini Bridges. Steve on the motorcycle, Roger on the 4wheeler and Joanne, Katy and I in the 4Runner. I must say that although Steve and Roger think they had a funner time....Joanne and I had a splendid time chatting it up. We had to laugh every time Steve or Roger would stop to "check on us" and see how we were doing! Like Joanne can't off-road. Let me tell you this gal can off-road! We got there about sunset as planned. Awesome!

The following day we ventured into Arches....probably my most favorite place ever! Seriously people come from all over the world to see this place and hardly anyone speaks english it's that COOL and it's in our own backyard! Yup, my family spent many vacations here growing up camping out in the park. We didn't camp in the park this time! I guess these people don't camp! Ha Steve and I stole Roger and Joanne's tent a few years ago when we "borrowed it". We made some good use out of it too until Roger stole it back when we moved. I guess he wants to be prepared in case of an emergency. I think we'll have to "borrow it" again one time and try to camp here!

So back to our day...we ventured into Arches. Now Joanne told us before we left that she had gotten a case of shingles. Not contagious if you have had the chicken pox, or the vaccine. She had to call though before we left to make sure I wasn't pregnant....nope. Good to go. I think I underestimated this little flare up because I drug her up this trail, despite her not feeling very well, she didn't complain once! Really though, I am sorry to not realize how bad she felt. You could tell at the top that she wasn't feeling so hot. I guess I forget how this is pretty much a straight up hike! And even though we went the end of September-first of October it was in the upper 80s and made for a hot hike with no shade!

Katy managed to convince us she could "walk" as she said, and actually did a pretty good job...

But mostly we carried her. I actually convinced her that I could give her a pretty great ride on the way back when we imitated how the different animals would hike....she liked flying like an owl best I think!

We made it! Very hot, but well worth the view!

Katy didn't seem to mind the view much but did like her teddy grams she got at the top!

The next day we went to "Hole in the Rock". A must for sure. Roger was none too excited, but went for Joanne. She loved it and said it reminded her of a fun family trip she went on when younger.

We saw Mater from Cars...

The infamous license plate wall...

We even played on some old toys. Oh and Katy is wearing her splat man shirt we purchased from the TShirt Shop. I guess this one is a tradition since she has a LOT of these type of shirts!

Kind of cool. Steve and I did go on the tour of the house found inside this thing one time....kind of cool but not worth the money for sure!

Later that day we went on the Chicken Corners trail. Joanne and I got to ride the 4Wheeler this time. Joanne did great. I think it's a good look for her too!

We enjoyed the scenery...

And brought a lunch to eat...

Katy took this picture! Not really she fell asleep in the car. She is the queen of falling asleep on off-road adventures!

That evening evening we hiked to Landscape Arch. This might be my favorite arch. I am just wondering if it will be around forever? Makes you think it may not because it's so thin. This arch is about the length of a football field just to put it into perspective for you.

I think Joanne enjoyed the fact that I didn't make her go on a CRAZY hike to get there although it was still a pretty long stroll!

Yup, great time...great trip! Until next year (in a few months) I'm sure!

Preview

Ok so I know this light is HORRIBLE!!!! But here is a preview of our Halloween. Yup Minnie mouse. Hopefully we can snag a few more before the big day!

Ode to Summer!

I suppose summer had to end sometime. It's sad though, because I had a great summer. I got west nile virus, lost a TON of weight, then I went back to the lake. I......stepped on a piece of glass in the parking lot, which hurt. That got infected even though I peed on it. Saw Inception, or at least dreamt I did.

-Michael Scott

The Office

I know this is an ode to summer, but we are already well into fall (hence the pumpkins)! And Katy picked out these PJs at Costco today although I tried to convince her that she wanted the CUTE ballerina ones. She insisted that the monkeys were the way to go. I guess we need a few more pairs so maybe next time! And excuse the crazy hair, we had a sucker today!

Dirty Dash

Does this picture sum up this post or what??? Well when Holly told me about the dirty dash I didn't really know what to think about it. Then my whole neighborhood was doing it so I decided to get a team together.

What is the Dirty Dash, though, really? Well take a look folks:

It's a 10K through the mud, yes the mud! This picture really doesn't do it justice though. This was the hardest race that I have even done! You think you're in decent shape and then you run this and feel like you are going to die! I guess it's good to be humbled now and then!

What are we doing? There were a lot of teams that dressed up. We were lame and just decided to wear things that we could chuck. My outfit consisted of my beautiful soccer shorts I got from my sister-in-law Robs when she was getting rid of them. Let me tell you they are so comfortable, but Steve reminds me every time I wear them that it looks like I am wearing a diaper! Until I saw this picture I wasn't sure what he was talking about. I am eating his words now as I am looking like I am wearing a diaper! When he saw what I was wearing before we left, he was tried to make me take them off until I reminded him that I was going to chuck them afterwards! Then he was all for it!

We started out on a huge hill of mud. I was so suprised that my shoes didn't pop off! They were getting sucked down into the abyss of mud!, then it was the 3 1/2 foot high hay bails...this is when the legs began to feel like jello, we then enjoyed the tunnels, followed by 5 foot 2x4 walls we had to scale, then a tire ally, a huge field of sulfur mud....stinky, a huge slip and slide and finally a mud pit!

We were laughing so hard when we would randomly look at each other and have mud in our teeth! I was later reminded by Steve that it probably was more than mud....and that's when I remember seeing all the huge cow pies and when we were going through the sulfur mud I'm pretty sure it was laced with duck poop! EWWWW! Considering this later, I am very grateful that Steve was still willing to give me a kiss...after I brushed my teeth!

Here we are making the final sprint for the finish!!!!! This was right after the huge water slide. That was probably my favorite part. The hill right after though is where I ate it several times. Can you break your butt cheek? Because I landed on mine so many times I think mine may be broken!

Steve stopped us to take a group photo.

Then we finished in the mud pit! Steve said it was so sick to see people go through here. He said that people came through in waves and when no one was going through it all sorts of questionable things were settling at the top! He also mentioned that a lot of people were limping across the finish or being carried by there teams. Maybe they brook their bums too!

And the finish! We opted for a superstar pose! My team consisted of my neighbor Randi, Holly's neighbor Michelle.....who had a baby C-Section style 2 months before!!!!!, me, Holly and Melynda. I couldn't have asked for a better team, we had a BLAST!

Katy just kept wanting a hug and didn't get why I wouldn't give her one! Steve is incredible, he was so great to come up and be our unofficial team photographer! Probably didn't even get 5 hours of sleep before. You are incredible Steve, thank you so much for always letting me do crazy things and coming along to laugh with me about them!!!! I love you!

Good bye diaper shorts!!!!