halloween vacation

I decided to take the kids to Arizona for Halloween this year to see my parents. I needed a sunshine with warmth break and I was also in need of serious retail therapy. That and Katie and Evie wanted to be fairies and it's difficult to bundle a fairy properly so that her dress still shows when it's 35 degrees at night. So I thought we'd go trick-or-treating one time where the weather is more like 80 degrees at night. We all had a great time except for Liam. He was sick for the whole vacation. Liam was supposed to be a monkey for Halloween, but he wound up with a fever and so went as himself and sported an orange and green pacifier as his costume.

Liam also didn't get to join in the swimming fun. Katie loves the water! She jumps in, dives under and splashes everything in sight.

Evie spends her time on the steps. My little girl Evie. She is like none other. Only once did she decide to "jump" into the pool and have me "catch" her. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Would you like to jump to me Evie, I'll catch you?

Evie: Yes (as she stands on the edge of the pool) but come closer.

Me: (Already about a foot away) Ok (I move up 6")

Evie: No, closer!

Me: Ok (As I move ALL the way up to the edge of the pool)

Evie then puts both arms around my neck, wraps her legs around my waist and without ever entering the water says, "Whee!"

Shopping was fun, fun, fun!

Except for car troubles that made me leave a day after I was supposed to and the long drive there and back by myself, oh and the fact that Liam was sick, we all had a wonderful vacation. It was hard to leave the 90 degree temps to return to P-town and SNOW the next day, but it was nice while it lasted!

travel tips

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted anything and there is a good reason for that. I've been busy. Really, really busy. Part of the busyness was getting ready for the Silver Ring Thing, but I will blog about that later. This post is about vacations and how you should take them. First: you should not take them BEFORE any event you are helping with. Something will inevitably go wrong and you will be late getting home or not make it at all. You should go AFTER the event. Then you can truly relax. Second: If you have more than one child and you are traveling by yourself (with no spouse) you should NOT drive in the middle of the night. Especially on a windy pass. Sidebar- I do not like windy, mountain passes. This is a slight problem as I live in Colorado. I can handle Wolf Creek Pass, I cope with Red Mountain Pass. These are the "local" roads I must deal with. However, I refuse to ever again drive through Salt River Canyon in Arizona, at night and by myself. As I mentioned before, I live in CO. I've seen my fair share of elk, I have however never almost hit one as big as a horse going 75 miles an hour... I have also not had to deal with psycho semi-truck drivers who sit on your bumper. Never in my life have I ever felt so excited to see the "AZ State Prison- Do Not Stop For Hitchhikers" sign, it signals the END of the canyon -end sidebar. Third: If you are having car problems before you leave, you should fix them before you have to drive 9 hours to get to where you are going or vice versa. (Or you might end up leaving for home, getting an hour away and then having to drive back an hour to take your car in to get fixed. As I did.) These are helpful tips to traveling. Traveling sanely.

crazy hair night

Katie attends AWANA and a couple of weeks ago they had crazy hair night. Katie won. Enough said.

wedding adventures

Last Saturday the guy who was Jason's best man at our wedding got married himself. (The guy's name is Jarrod.) Well, Jarrod and his gal decided that they were going to have an "outdoor ceremony"- in October. Let's put it this way, the rain and hail held off just long enough for vows to be said. Jason was a groomsman, and he looked oh so dashing, but his groomsman duties left me standing in the cold by myself. Maybe I should say standing under a deck while it rained by myself? Anyway, Jason as usual knew everyone and I knew about 4 people. People assume that I am very outgoing, but I'm so not. Standing by myself at a wedding for an hour is a nightmare for me. Luckily, the 4 showed up right before the ceremony so that I could at least stand next to someone I knew for that. Which brings me to my next nightmare. I, along with a few other daring ladies, decided to wear heels. We of course did not think that the lovely yard with it's beautiful green grass would be so soaked that we would sink in it like quicksand. I was calmly standing there when I decided to shift my weight and realized that my heel had sunk all the way up to the bottom of the shoe. Do you know how hard it is to pull one self out of the yard while standing on an incline and having to put all your weight onto the other heel? It's impossible. After finally freeing both of my shoes, I quietly walked over to where there was some pavement and stood there under the pretense of taking pictures. Jason told me afterwards that he could see me and almost laughed outloud when he saw me trying to get my shoe unstuck. Ahhh. After the day was done, me and my shoes had survived to be shy and sink another day.

A couple of pictures of Jason and I.

Groomsmen and bridesmaids walked down the path to the theme song from Star Wars.Jarrod and Amber performed a sand ceremony rather than unity candles. They poured 2 different colors of sand into the same vase at once and they blended together. As the pastor put it, "Try separating that!"

it snowed

Well, it snowed. Not down here yet, but up on the mountain. If you know me at all, you know that I am not a fan of snow. If I had my way I would take up residence on some Caribbean island, like...umm... Bermuda! As soon as it snows I am cold. It can be a little snow or a lot of snow, but as soon as it's here I am just freezing. It's too soon to turn on the heat in my opinion - and the checkbooks opinion- but we had to turn it on for a bit the last 2 mornings. I am hoping for a winter like last, hardly any snow till after Christmas and then it just dumped. Of course then it must be done snowing by the end of March. I think it snowed the first week of May last year...? This never happens like I want it to, but maybe? I can handle snow for a few months!

The view from my kitchen window.

christian women's retreat

This weekend I attended the 31st annual Christian Women's Retreat held here in Pagosa. This is my 3rd year attending and my 3rd year on the retreat committee. I get to decorate for the retreat every year and do the name tags. This job puts my stamping skills to use and I LOVE getting to be creative! For the 30th anniversary of the retreat this year we chose (I should say GOD chose) the verse Isaiah 61:3, "To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." The theme being God's work in women's lives and the different seasons that they go through, mourning, praise, joy, heaviness...you get the idea. I got to spend the weekend with 41 awesome "trees of righteousness." It was, as always, a wonderful retreat and I am looking forward to going next year. I have included some pictures of my table decor - my take on different seasons - and the Fall beauty of the camp where we hold the retreat, Sonlight Christian Camp. Enjoy and let me know if you want to come with next year!!!


Winter vases & name tags-

Spring vases & name tags-

Summer vase and name tag-

Autumn vases and name tags-

gas ovens and cakes

I have produced the worst cake ever in my 16 year cake baking history. Never before have I had a cake tank so badly. I am not counting my experience of mixing 2 boxes of cake mix and then pouring said 2 boxes into only 2- 8" round pans. 2 boxes cake mix + 2- 8" round pans = an overflow of cake that falls onto your stove element and catches on fire. The reason I do not count this disaster is that the cake never actually came out of the oven fully cooked...

Anyway, I am getting used to cooking with a gas oven. I have previously only used electric. This is a wonderful way to bake as you have instant heat and such. However, I am having a problem either undercooking or overcooking items. I am still not sure which one happend to my cake for youth group today. All I know is that it stuck in a perfectly greased and floured, timer set, toothpick tested cake pan. Half the cake stayed in the pan when I dumped it out! On both layers!!! This resulted in the lopsided cake you see pictured. I would normally never serve a cake so warped, but as I figure it's for bunch of teenagers, who cares. Thus ends my tale, one which you could probably care less about...