Halloween in Phoenix

Over Halloween we went to Phoenix to visit some friends. Can I just say going back there made us homesick? I have always felt that Phoenix is my home & going to visit is bitter-sweet! We had a fantastic time & have to give much thanks to Karl & Chantae for putting up with us & our sometimes inappropriate behavior for the few days we were there!

Nothing says friends like bath time! Will Charlie & Marley despise us when they are older & we have bootie pictures of them together in the bathtub? But me oh my, they were cute in the tub!

So we carved some pumpkins just before Halloween. Karl had an Elders Quorum emergency but did not allow it to cut (no pun intended ha ha) in to his pumpkin carving time. Looks like Kevin & I take our pumpkin carving pretty darn seriously! Look at that concentration...that steady hand movement...

Attempts to take pictures of the pumpkins in the dark...I said attempts!

Miss Charlie & Miss Marley LOVED to sit in this chair together. As you look through these pictures, you will notice Marley RARELY smiles for the camera, and of course, Charlie always does because she's a complete gem!

Awwhhh!! We miss Phoenix so VERY, VERY, VERY much! We drove by our old house & it induced fits of depression! Maybe we can move back someday!!!!

We had a list of several places to eat from "Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives" & only managed to hit two of them. I must say they were fantastic! Over Easy had these insanely wonderful Banana Walnut French Toast (& a super friendly owner, who chatted with us about the show). Joe's Farm Grill had the best seared Ahi tuna sandwich I have ever eaten!

Miss Marley wore her Dorothy outfit again...check out those kicks! Lovely red slippers!

Oink! Oink! Miss Charlie was the cutest pig ever! Oh my heavens was she adorable!!

The most precious family in Phoenix, Chantae, Karl, & Charlie!! We were lucky enough to go to TWO, that's right, I said, TWO, ward Halloween parties! YE-AH!

Miss Marley loved the candy...she wasn't too sure about the lady hiding behind the cauldron, but with a bit of encouragement, she took the bait & snagged some candy!

Hey if you don't have a costume, duct tape seems like a good alternative...seriously? Will this kid die because he can't sweat? How does this come off with out taking pieces of skin with it?

Two little Missy's with sacks full of candy!

Ouch! Charlie really wanted to sit in her shopping cart so we ended up putting a blanket in there to give her some padding!

Whoa! It's sugar rush time! This is right after the Halloween shindig & this is what a sugar high looks like in a couple of cute little girls! Nuts!

Oh my stars! These have to be the cutest PJs ever! When you turn off the lights, the little skeleton bones glow. An attempt to take a picture of it turned out WORSE than the pumpkins!

Here we are with our wonderful friend Eileen. We managed to meet up with her for brunch & were sad that we didn't get to spend more time with her!

We also got a chance to meet up with my good friend Suzy! She has the cutest little "grandbaby" ever! And Kevin was so totally impressed with her son, Jake! Kevin used to take him to scouts when we lived in Phoenix. Jake's huge & a fantastic football player! It's so crazy what a difference 3 years makes! But he's still a fantastic kid! It was LOVELY to see them & we definitely miss them!

So I had to get pictures of of Marley on this awesome bike. It doesn't have pedals, which helps children learn to balance on the bike, so then they can go right to riding a bike without training wheels! I had to throw in that picture of Charlie with the hat on! Just adorable!

Flaming Gorge

Last weekend we took a short trip to the in-law's cabin in Flaming Gorge. My sister-in-law, Tina, had Monday off for Columbus Day so we decided to take advantage since she's almost never able to come up. I really didn't get many pictures. I did, however, get a bunch of pictures of me, Tina & my sister, Alece, at the end of a little hike we took. The background in some of the pictures almost look like a backdrop, almost too surreal to be real! We started out taking some normal pictures but it got a tad goofy toward the end. We were told to bundle up really well (we actually ended up taking our coats off because we started to sweat due to the nice weather) and wear these fantastic bright-orange vests so we'd be "noticed" since it was hunting season. We mostly looked like big dorks!

See, at first, it was just some nice, sisterly, pictures....

Then it turned a tad rageful....

Then we just started to be dorks & mess around!

St. George

As I'm sure everyone else who visits, LOVES St. George like I do. I've visited many times, most of which when I was in high school & college, so I always have fond memories of the beauty & small town feel that St. George offers. Kevin & his mother, Ruth, both have birthdays toward the end of September, and to celebrate, we took a weekend trip to St. George. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL (which was nice to get away from the terrible weather in Salt Lake) and we had a great time hanging out with Marley's paternal grandparents. Kevin & I also got to see "Aida" at the outdoor Tuacahn theater---the background setting of the red rock in for the theater was incredible! We made a short stop to Cove Fort, which has been wonderfully restored & has a fantastic history behind it!

Marley had a good time, mostly because we were outside & she got to play with her Grandma Ruth! And yes, the guy in the top left picture actually wore those denim shorts voluntarily!

Jerry checking his cell phone...always working & always closing!

The fort itself was extremely well built and "will stand for ages" according to our tour guide. They refurbished the insides & tried to use actual time pieces related to the time when the fort was in use. It paid off because it looked like we had stepped back in time!

Kevin & I aren't often in the pictures, and I thought about turning the blog into a book, so I figured we should get more pictures of ourselves in the blog!

Marley looooves her Grandma Ruth. If Grandma Ruth isn't the world's greatest grandmother, she is definitely in the top 3 of greatest grandmothers of all time! She spends so much time with Marley & plays all sorts of games with her. Marley just adores her!

The St. George Temple is absolutely gorgeous! The white of the temple against the red rock of St. George is stunning!

Goblin Valley

We went tent camping (yikes!) with children (double yikes!) in Goblin Valley a couple weeks ago. Justin & Mandi dared brave this venture with us that some would consider absolute lunacy! I had gone earlier this year to Goblin Valley with a youth group & really wanted to go again. September is supposed to be prime time to camp because the weather has cooled off a bit, but is still warm enough to make tent camping worth it. Even though naps & bedtime got just a bit scary, we had a WONDERFUL time camping. Marley (who was afraid of sand a few months ago) was practically rolling around in the dirt with Sadie! Mandi had the genius incite to bring a pack-n-play (and lots of toys) that we managed to corral the kids in when we needed a break! Even though the forecast predicted rain well after we should have been packed up & gone, we got a little surprise the day we were leaving. We woke up to rain & had to scramble to pack everything in the rain! Rain aside, this trip created fabulous memories that we hope to create again sometime!

Justin made his grandpa's awesome dutch oven stew (what is it with camping & dutch oven dinners being the best thing you've ever eaten?)


Sadie is always so sweet & willing to play with Marley's & hold her hand! So cute!


Justin wanted some nice flagstones for his yard...whether or not it was kosher, he got some really nice stones! The sky & landscape are gorgeous & almost seem surreal!

I had to take pictures of Sadie messing around in the tent. These make me laugh every time I see them!

The views are incredible!

Kinley & Sadie ready to make their decent into the Valley of the Goblins! (Marley was napping & didn't quite make it.)

Park City

It had been a REALLY long time since I'd been to the Homestead. So when asked by my family if I wanted to go and check out the volcano, I thought, alright, sounds good since I'd never seen it before when I'd visited the Homestead in the past. I hiked these really steep stairs and when I got to the top I was...disappointed...wah, wah, wah! It was ugly looking rock with rusted out chicken wire in the middle. At least the view from the top was nice.


We took as stroll up and down Park City's main street. I love doing that, no matter how many times I've done it before. I like the feel of main street and all the little shops and eateries. Marley got a special treat from her Aunt Linda...a ride on the carousel!! Marley absolutely loves them!!


To make the visit Park City complete, we took a ride down the Alpine Slide, and surprisingly, everyone came off uninjured. I thought for sure someone would take a header trying to go to fast!!

Goblin Valley

Last week I went camping near Goblin Valley for a few days for YW Camp. It is ABSOLUTELY amazing down there! I was so impressed by the beauty and uniqueness of Goblin Valley that I am planning on coming back with my fam. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries the very first day and so I only got a couple pictures of Rachel and my tent (which, by the way, I sent up nearly all by myself with only a minute amount of help!) We took a hike that turned out to be a huge 8 mile, 4 1/2 hour trek through some slot canyons. I really enjoyed it (the weather was cooler, overcast, and not rainy)...some of the girls, however, wish it could be erased from their memories. We also took a short river rafting jaunt down the Green River and I think that most everyone enjoyed that. I did really miss my family though and when I got back, I swear Marley seemed bigger!!!

Cabin with the Coopers

We went to Flaming Gorge (again!) but with some friends from Phoenix! They have a daughter who is only about two months older than Marley. It was interesting to see them "play" together...they did interact somewhat, but, because of their age, they spend most of their time in their own little worlds! It was really cute to see them together!!!!

Kevin and Karl went fly fishing while Chantae and I hung out with the kids. Fortunately, the first couple of days produced really nice weather...however, it rained the last two days! Ack! We can never go to the cabin without some sort of bad weather!

It was so good to see the Coopers and we wished we had more time with them!


Do you like our ghetto treadmill baby gate? There wasn't a baby gate long enough!


While outside one windy day, Marley started furiously rubbing her left eye. It became watery, red, and she had a hard time opening it in the light. This continued into the next day, so we had to drive about one hour to Vernal in order to go to the ER. I knew she had a corneal abrasion, but we had to get prescription eye drops. The ER visit was short and sweet (thank Heavens) but the pharmacy took FOREVER to fill our medicines due to the amount of elderly people ahead of us!

The playroom has all sorts of toys, but Charlie seemed to just love these plastic eggs.

I tried so hard to get a good picture of both them sitting in these mini recliners...but failed miserably!

Marley likes to show us her toes through the stair railing and Charlie likes to show us her belly button!

Two little monkeys playing on the bed!

The girls LOVED the golf cart even though we couldn't get it to run. All was well until Charlie decided she wanted Marley's cup of milk! They are sooo darn adorable!

Flaming Gorge with J&M

Since we love going to the cabin in Flaming Gorge, there will probably be a lot of posts regarding our trips up there. This time we had the lucky opportunity to go with our good friends Justin & Mandi, and their two cute little girls, Sadie and Kinley. Even though the weather was supposed to be warmer with "light showers", it turned out to be cold and snowy! But we managed to have a great time anyway. Kevin and I now can call ourselves the Phase 10 & LRC ChAmPiOnS as we dominated Justin & Mandi in both games! YE-AH! (he he he!) It was so fun and we are going to have to plan to go up again sometime soon when the weather is actually, nice (if it's possible; it seems every time we go, the weather is uncooperative)!

Sadie just loved the go-carts...it's too bad it wasn't warmer
because we didn't stay outside for long!


Here come Mandi and Sadie!

Sadie brought her little princess scooter up, and Marley

was absolutely enthralled with that scooter. She would

stand and hold on to it just perfectly and let you push

her around. She tried to scoot herself around, but she's

just a bit too small to do it herself. It looks like we are

going to make a trip to Target some time soon so Marley

can have a scooter of her own!

I love these pictures of Sadie and Marley with the scooter.

Sadie was such a sweetheart share her most precious

toy with Marley!

When going through the pictures, I realized I had very

few of Miss Kinley! But the one on the top left is a good

picture of her! Can I just say she's a wonder baby? Her

crying must be a myth because I never heard it and she

is ALWAYS giggling, smiling, and in a good mood! What

a gem! I also love the picture of Marley and Sadie standing

at the foot of the stairs! Too cute!

There's rocking moose that I just couldn't resist getting

a picture of Sadie and Marley on!

These little recliners are awesome. Sadie's just kicked back

and lounging...Marley, however, had a case of the wiggles.