27 things I do from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm on a weekend

I am still having issues trying to figure out what to do with the morning hours over the weekend. "Shhhhh! Nate is sleeping."

"What? I get to choose?" 

"All by myself. 

"I get to do what I want?"

Well, this is what I have done so far.

1. I cook crock pot meals. 
2. What? I cook? 
3. Truth is, I am not a fan of crock pot meals but it gives me something to do and frees up our time when Nate is awake
4. I do yard work.
5. Which means (lately), that, I did holes.
6. I dug out a window well. (It still sits unfinished). Its a big hole. 
7. I dug out a path (unfinished)
8. I found some rocks so... I dug them out and filled the hole with cement
9. Which made me think the area next to it needs cement.
10. I started digging it out too.
11. The family thinks they have a pet lab. (But its really me.)
12. My arms are strong. Seriously! 
13. You should ask to see my muscles. They are huge! (at least that is what you should say when I show you).
14. I do house work. 
15. Nothing interesting there.
16. Tanner and I go outside and "whack bushes"
17. We are looking for insects for his frogs. 
18. Frogs are horrible pets because they like live food.
19. We have an official "whacking stick"
20. I often wonder what the neighbors think about us sitting outside, usually in our PJ's, I hold my morning brew in one hand and whacking bushes with the stick in the other. 
21. I finally found a website that will send me 50 crickets in the mail.
22. I wonder what 50 chirping crickets will sound like.
23. The other day Tanner and I went for a morning walk in Dimple dell.
24. Its hard concentrating on what Tanner is saying when there are birds and plants everywhere that I am interested in seeing.
25. (Does this  mean I am a bad mother?) 
26. Dont answer that.
27. Here are photos from our hike. 

This is when Tanner realized I was taking photos.

Bike:

HaPpy (belated) HaLloWeEN!

It has been such a crazy few months. After the 24 hours of Moab (which I still want to post about) I went into October with a huge list of neglected items, Halloween around the corner, and the promise I gave a friend to do a half marathon. I dont know what I was thinking.

Now as I sit here, I am happy to see that I am through October. I am excited to enjoy the season, rake leaves, and prepare everything for winter.

 But before I leave October I felt the need to share some of our costumes.

Casi, this year, was what I call a "contemporary or teen tink". This costume almost did not happen. It is extremely difficult to find tink green in an army green world. Apparently its the popular green this year and Casi does not like army green AT ALL. I finally resorted to a trip to Walmart where we found our first green item. Then later than week the costume evolved further with sporty green shorts and blue and green striped socks from Target. Casi and I made the skirt.I think she turned out adorable. 

I was inspired by Casis costume and decided to be a dark pixie. I love a costuem that involves wearing socks on your arms, big blue eye shadow, my old "club'in leather vest", Casi's dress, sparkles, and my favorite color.... black. This is the costume I wore for my work costume and chili bake off party. Sadly, I still did not win the trophy. Ahh, but it was a HUGE upset and there are plenty of people that felt I was robbed.

Tanner, for the longest time, wanted to be a gargoyle. I was a bit stressed over the costume since it would involve painting muscles onto a gray outfit, devil horns on his head, and huge wings. I found one costume available for purchase but it was over a thousand dollars and did  not include shipping. After weeks of research, however, I had put together a plan and wanted to start putting it together.Tanner and I got in the car and drove to the nearest Halloween store where Tanner proceeded to the rows of bagged costumes, picked one out, and told me that he wanted to be Zombie scream. I did not know whether to be relieved or sad. After driving home with him in his mask and seeing his excitement, I decided to be happy since he was happy.

I just love the holiday and I will miss trick or treating when Tanner moves on with his friends. I am running out of years. This year Trick of treating was fun in the rain. Tanner and I were soaked through after a few mins with an umbrella. we were the only ones out there and everyone seemed excited to see a trick or treater so they doused him with candied gits. It was fun to watch. On Sunday (the real Halloween) we went to Park city and enjoyed Main street, people watching, and the dressed up pups!

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Halloween costumes:2009

A quick post of Halloween pictures; for documentation purposes only...

Casi: The Game of Twister

 

Tanner: Zombie Ninja

The first picture is his hair before we tried to "Mohawk it up". Next year I may try to get him to do an Albert Einstein.The hair and expression in the photo make me think he could pull it off. 

Pumpkins grow on trees.

OK. We went and did the "go out and pick your pumpkin out on the farm" thing. It may have been overratted... well, it could have been the farm we choose...I think. OK. It probably was.

We pulled up to a cute little farm in the middle of Sandy. To the side of the entrance road, pumpkins were neatly arranged in rows alongside young, newly planted fruit trees. Part of me wondered if the pumpkins were even grown at this location yet appreaciated not having to trudge down muddy rows of dying pumpkin plants to find the perfect Jack -O-latern shape. There were a few other families there. Some, like us, wanted pumpkins and searched the rows with their kids. Others wanted fall pictures and were arranging pumpkins and kids; camera in one hand, kid in the other.

Tanner picked out his pumpkin almost immediately. He was so excited to get one home and carve it that he did not care about the artistic nature of choosing a pumpkin. This may have bothered me. I think every decision should be painfully thought about. Options weighed. He also insisted on carrying the 25 lb pumpkin to the wagon  himself. Now I dont know his body weight but I would venture to say that a 25 lb pumkpin is more than half of it. So all I have to say about that is Preeeetttty iimmmmprrrrreeesssive!

The photo of him carrying the pumpkin, makes me wonder if he will one day be a contestant in the Worlds Strongest Man.  If you have not seen this competition; you should. Its quite entertaining and the large bulky men are not so bad either.Hehm. Anyways, check out Tanners picture compared to the strong man. See! He has pretty good form. Oh, and by the way. Tanner does work out.... just ask him.

Casi, as usual, avoided the camera LIKE the PLAGUE! Complaining immediately as we left the truck; seeing I had the camera. I commented (a bit too loudly) that "at least I wasn't forcing her to pose with a pumpkin". Feeling bad for the mother who was still trying to make her kid do just that a few rows over. Then when she found her pumpkin, I suggested she pose with it. Perhaps she "should show her love for your pumpkin and kiss the pumpkin". She declined such silliness with a smirk expression which said "Mom, are we really related?". Tanner then exclaimed that he "would kiss the pumpkin" and I took a picture (not shown).

Eventually, I was able to manipulate this shot. It was taken while her face was turned towards the ground  (the pumpkins are actually on the ground). The image, though, when turned this way makes her  look like a happy, golden-haired, giant excited to consuming tinner pumpkins and that makes me get a smirk expression which means "I think I'm funny".

Once we got the pumpkins home, everyone started carving.Well, except Nate who went to the internet. Casi started work on Frankenstein, Tanner carved bats, and I "did what the pumpkin told me to do" with a crazy, evil (because his eyes had a mean expression), eagle eyed, cigarette smoking personage. Then Nate, once finished with his research, started work on his version of the flaming skull. We all think he won "the award".

* there really was no award**

** unless by "award" we mean "the good candle".

A quick trip to the zoo: Zuri

The kids and I went to the zoo to see babies. Hogle zoo is full of them right now. I know it seems weird right? Are babies not a spring item? The popular ones are: 1 new elephant, 3 Amur tigers, 1 snow leopard (we missed this one but it's still worth mentioning), 1 giraffe, 1 Siamese crocodile, and a crap load of meerkats* .

* I think it is funny that they spell "cat" with a "k".

Mostly, we wanted to see Zuri; the new baby elephant.

Zuri is cute, and "fun'er" to watch than a batch of new born puppies! Here she is leaning against her mom. "Mom, are you still up there?"

Zuri occasionally feed (thanks mom!), played with a stick*, and would pick up poo. Tanner thought the last action was too funny!

* The "stick" is famous in Zuris world. Zuri found it the day before we arrived. See Zuris blog here about her stick.

Another fun thing to see is this video. If you don't go "Aww!" when you see it, you are a Nazi*.

* I know, its about as related as calling OBama a Nazi for socialized health care and I thought "why not join the mass of unrelated correlations". I must admit it was kinda fun!

A few pictures of the kids because people tell me they like to see them.

I will leave you with a picture of the Amur tigress and one of her cubs. I just love the duplicity, of body language and white spots on their ears.

Red Rock

Last weekend Casi, her friend Meggie, Tanner, Nate and I went climbing at Red rock in Draper, Utah. We arrived early in the morning.  The air still had an early morning earthy smell and held the silence of winter. From the parking lot, the trail worked its way up the side of a hill. It was encased by the silent forms of oak brush. The last few reminders of fall clinging to their branches. As we walked leaves crunched under our feet and ghostly Gypsy moths fluttered by. It was beautiful and I was almost sad when the trail ended at the base of a rock wall. 

The rock wall was red interspersed with grey. It looked like someone haphazardly tossed large boulders together forming the wall. We had our choice of climbs. No one else was there.  Only Nate wakes up excited that the snow was melting and thinks "Wow! 50 degrees! Lets go climbing!". The thought of climbing in late fall only made the kids and myself drag our feet to  get ready. Dressing in layers, long sleeves, hats, gloves and coats. 

I lead the first climb, Facial fracture, a 5.7 and by the time I finished the climb my hands were numb from the cold. At times the only reminder I had, that I was holding onto a rock wall were the sharp ends of the rock pressing deep into my hands. Strangely enough, I enjoyed it. Rock climbing is an incredible sensation that focuses my mind and in some ways simplifies life.  

After I finished the climb, Cassidy followed next and then Tanner and Meggie. Cassidy completed the climb with only one "rest"!  After everyone had climbed Facial fracture, Cassidy asked if she could lead a climb. It would be  her first time leading and we were excited when she red pointed Baby teeth, a 5.6, on site (there is some climbing jargon for ya- if you need definitions click here). By now the kids are pretty much done with climbing. Spending their time running up and down the steep sloped hillside and bouldering the small boulders at the base of the wall. By the time we went home there would be three flesh wounds on two different kids. Nate and I however were still gung-ho about climbing. Nate lead our last climb, Dry Socket a 5.8 I followed after and cleaned the gear from the climb. 

  It was a great way to start our Sunday. Next time Nate wants to go climbing in late fall I might drag my feet a bit less.