Traditions

For the past several years we've had the Halloween tradition of going to Gardner's Village and enjoying the  Fall surroundings.  This year I was reading a magazine and it had suggestions on what to do in Utah for the holidays.  It mentioned going to This is the Place State Park and touring their haunted village.  I thought it might be fun to change things up a bit so we went for Family Night.  I had in mind a headless horseman roaming the park, spooky people telling stories and mild stuff like that.  I am anti-spook alley.  Terrence takes whoever wants to in our family to the spook alley in October and it's never me.  My idea of fun is not walking around with a bunch of demonic people startling me and breathing down my neck.  I know, it's a lot of people's cup of tea- not mine.  My first sign of danger was when they didn't allow us to go in until it was completely dark for the full effect.

This is us waiting for the sun to set:

 Ok, statues of Brigham Young...

 Pioneers praying...

Harmless Visitor Center.

It was a full on spook alley.  Not a super scary one, but still a spook alley (recommended for 10 and up). Conner and Brooke loved it.  I think what they loved the most was that they got me to a spook alley.  Sam felt tricked and wanted to get out, so I kindly waited outside a few of the buildings with her:)  Conner laughingly said, mom sure plans good Family Nights.  I wonder what she'll do for Christmas?

Last night Gardner's Village.  Ahhhhhh.  Now that's more like it.

Buying fudge is serious business and must NOT be missed!

Saw this in one of the stores.  Way better than someone running up to you and screaming with a knife... just sayin.

I think I'll stick with the old tradition.  Besides... it includes fudge.

Something to Think About...

I was given this link this morning.  Ironic.  It was just what I needed.  Just when I didn't think I could feel anymore it allowed me to cry and sometimes crying is a gift.  You see, I'm a mom.  Mom's are keep-it-together because if you fall apart it will all fall apart, and then WHO will keep it together?  Sometimes when things are difficult don't you just get tired of explaining, of telling the same story to everyone so when you do step back into your normal life if might be waiting there for you?  So I will save the explaining and let you read the post for yourself.

Say No to Auto

Warning- picture overload and if you're not interested in photography BORING!  I finally did it!!  I've been working my way around the awesome camera Terrence gave me last year from Auto, to AV (stuck there for a year), to finally the dreaded Manual and it's awesome!  Why did I wait so long?!?  I've been learning about ISO, shutter speed, aperture all that fun technical stuff and it really is fun!  I've always been afraid of missing the shot so I stayed where it was comfortable.  Yes, there were a lot of underexposed and blownout shots and do overs.  Like with anything in life- it will take practice but I think the results will be worth it.  This weekend Terrence took me camping for my birthday.  It was the perfect chance to have downtime and take pictures of stuff that doesn't really matter like weeds.  So here are my pictures of weeds and a few things that really do matter- like my family- but I loved shooting in manual, messing with all the dials and I even switched to RAW for editing purposes.  Oh, so easily entertained.  It was a great getaway by the way.  Nice to have the kids hostage with no distractions and wonderful to have the time to truly unwind.  Loved it.

Strawberry Resevoir

In the condo on wheels

Cool place called Moon Lake.  It had beach sand, ooooooooo!

Moon Lake even had awesome driftwood

Dutch oven chicken stew, Yuuuummmmmm!

Brooke in training with my old Canon

How did he get so big so fast?  

Back at home Kinsey, Kacey and Lane joined us for more celebrating.

Sunny With a Chance of Leaves

This was our tree two weeks ago:

 Sunday afternoon I looked out the window and a small breeze was blowing leaves everywhere!  The leaves fell consistently until there were barely any left on the trees.  It truly looked like it was raining leaves.

 It turned into a leaf-angel making contest:

Then it got crazy!

It's a good thing we have a BIG one of these...