Fall of Festivities #1

OK, I know that it is a little early, but I can't take it anymore.  The temps are starting to cool a bit and after the summer of chaos, I am ready for some fun.  Trying to convince the rest of the family to get in the spirit wasn't easy.  The 1st festivity of the fall is putting up the decorations:


 


 
I tried to get better pictures of the stuff on the window, but the light wasn't cooperating:

After I finished the dining room, Bailee came upstairs.  She saw what I was doing and she squealed because she wanted to help.  So I let her put the Halloween village up:
 
No Halloween village is complete without a giant spider web:

Then we continued to decorate all over:




So this past weekend, I looked and looked for some kind of sign that said "Pumpkin Patch" or "Pumpkin Place"  even quilted bear let me down.  So I decided to make my own.  I bought a $4 frame at Walmart and made the sign in Photoshop.  You can't see the finished project really well because of the glare, but I was quite proud of my creation:

Here is the design from photoshop, its a little better:

So my house is officially decked out and ready for the fall.  I can't wait for more fun fall festivities.  It's going to be great!!!

Ouch!!

It FINALLY happened. Bailee lost her first tooth. It has been loose and wiggling for about a month now and last night we decided it was time for a visit from the tooth fairy. She was VERY anxious:

Matt got the dental floss:

Then the screaming began. She screamed and screamed. She would not be consoled:

until we mentioned the tooth fairy. She calmed down long enough to say she wanted to go see Grandma. So off we went. By the time we got home, she was happy little girl who "claims" that tooth pulling isn't that bad.

Such a big girl. :)

1st Day Of School

In preparation for the 1st day of school, Red Cliffs had back to school night last night.  The kids got to meet their teachers.  Bailee is in afternoon Kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Robison:

She was probably the most excited about school.  Mrs. Robison sent her on a scavenger hunt around the classroom to find her desk, her cubby, the bathrooms, and the play area.  She was all over the place:

Jeremy just sat and scoffed at the "sissy little" Kindergarten chairs.  He was quite proud he didn't have to sit in a little chair anymore.  After we filled out forms and signed up for teacher helpers, we headed down the LONG hall to the 2nd grade classrooms.  Jeremy's teacher is Mrs. Webster:

Jeremy walked in the classroom and gave her a great big hug.  (personally I think he might have a little crush on her)  We filled out papers and headed for home.  Both kids were SUPER excited for school to start.  Jeremy was up and dressed by 7AM and Bailee was right behind him.  After breakfast and a little pep talk, it was time to go:


We headed over to Grandmas to say goodbye and get a few pictures:


As I was getting ready to walk Jeremy to the bus stop, he patted my arm and said, "Don't worry mom, I'm in 2nd grade now, I know where to go, you don't need to come with me."
So I sat back down and Jeremy was off to school.  Bailee didn't go until noon, so she went in the front room and started playing.  She wanted to go with Jeremy but I had to explain her class was later.  Hopefully she's not driving Grandma crazy wanting to leave for school.  So now, both of my kids are in school now.  I hope they learn amazing things and have a blast doing it!!!!

Bon Voyage

Donadagohvi, Hagoonea', Ahoj, Sayonara, Tschüss, Viszlát!, Arrivederci, Au Revoir, Adios, Hejdå , Aloha, Le'hitraot, Paalam, Hasta La Vista, Valete, Ha det, Doviđenja, Ćiao or in other words - GOODBYE!  Yes indeed, goodbye to the lamest summer ever.  I'm certainly glad to see it go.  Glad it is over, glad I survived, and especially glad to MOVE ON.  So, to properly say goodbye to the summer, Matt and I watched "Summer Magic" last night.  We ran and got the ultimate summer beverage - Slurpees and put our pjs on and got ready for some "Magic":

One of my favorite movies growing up was "Summer Magic" 



A widow moves her family from Boston to Maine into a run down yellow house where crazy antics ensue and a little magic can make everything wondrous. 
It was a great night, and a perfect way to tell the summer to "hit the road!!"

Book Cliffs Day 2 & 3 (Again, by Matthew Morrill...Not Abby)

Alrighty then. Day number two started out pretty good. We got up, at our leisure, and turned the horses loose for some grazing and water.While the horses were getting their fill; Lynn, Jeremy, and I enjoyed a couple beverages and talked about the days plans. It was also a bit interesting to watch the horses for a while. Poor Sonnie was picked on relentlessly by Nebo. After a little while we decided to head back to camp and make breakfast: Bacon and scrambled eggs. Mmmm...so delicious. I accidently over cooked the bacon a little bit and Jeremy informed me that he didn't like it when the bacon was so crispy. Now it wasn't burned, just really crispy. After breaksfast was eaten, we saddled up the our horses and got ready to head on out.

We headed out of camp and had a run in with a couple of guys riding together that will from now on be referred to as Wyomin' Mark and Bishop Brown (they were both named Mark) We stopped and talked with them for a bit and found out that they were headed in the same direction we were going. So we decided to all ride together for a bit. Lynn knew a lot of Bishop Brown's family (he was from Elk Ridge) so they had a lot to talk about. Wyomin' Mark and I talked for a while, he and I were about the same age. We talked about horses, missions, Utah wilderness country, etc. We rode up to the top of the ridge on the east side of She Canyon and headed north towards 3 Springs (that was our destination). While riding around the side of a mountain I looked up under a big pine tree and saw four bucks bed down under it. When they spotted us the got up and kind of made their way up the mountain. We rode a little bit more and saw them standing on the mountain side watching us. Wyomin' Mark and I got off our horses and tried to get some pictures. We were able to get within about 40 yard of them before they decided to leave, but were able to get some pretty good pictures. Now keep in mind that these were taken with a digital camera with not much of a zoom. It was really exciting to see them.

We kept riding for a bit longer before we came to the infamous "Jump Rock". It's a rock in the trail that sticks up so tall horses sometimes have to kind of hop to get up them. Just before we got to the Jump Rock, we heard some elk whistling. We looked across the ravine and saw a heard of elk that were stirring. Bishop Brown had an elk call on him so he'd whistle and bugle back at them. They got organized a bit and started over the top of the ridge they were on. I estimate there were between 60 - 80 of them. So we came to the jump rock and I wanted to get pictures of Jeremy going up it so I hopped of Wilson and got above them to take some photos.

Wilson was kind enough to just follow Jeremy on up so I didn't have to go back and get him. This is the only picture I got with Wyomin' Mark and Bishop Brown so I thought I'd throw it in. We made it to 3 Springs and stopped for lunch. Jeremy was so excited to get going again that he got Lynn and I's horses untied and brought them over to us because it was time for us to be moving along. This is where we split company with Wyomin' Mark and Bishop Brown.

We made our way down a ridge trail called Rivegot. It was a beautiful ride that offered plenty of view. Along the way down, Jeremy found part of an elk antler and wanted to take it with us. Rivegot dropped us in She Canyon.

At the bottom, Jeremy wanted to inspect his found treasure a bit more, and to have some fun with it. We headed south again

back towards our

camp. When we got there we decided to let the

horses do a bit of grazing again. Jeremy was so happy to be with his horse that he wanted to spend a little more time with

her while I made dinner. Mmmm...Steak.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying dinner, roasting marshmallow's and listening to Jeremy talk about all the fun he was having. The following morning (Saturday) we got up and made breakfast: bacon and hashbrowns.

I was more carefull with the bacon this morning and Jeremy was nice enough to compliment how much better I did. We packed up the horses and headed on out of camp.

We

stopped at the DWR cabins again on our way out to see if I could have a little better fortune at getting some pictures. It worked out much better.

We took a little different trail back

to the truck. We headed up Bogart canyon and got on the new Totem Pole Trail. It dropped us back out on the Went Ridge Road. From there we made it back to the truck with no problems. We unsaddled the horses, packed up the truck and trailer, loaded up, and made our way home. It was a wonderful experiance to be able to share with Lynn and Jeremy. On the way home Jeremy kept talking about and planning our trip next year. It was a great time full of excellent memories.