The Day We Didn’t Race

Adam and I have loved going to the Frozen Dead Guy festival in Nederland, CO for years. This year Adam signed us up for the Coffin race. We put together a team of 7, built a coffin, planned costumes (uh, we were all going to dress in black and paint our faces–except Adam who doesn’t do face paint) and lined up babysitting. Ellynn and Jason even drove all the way out from Provo (a 12 hour drive in stead of 8 because of a snow storm). Adam & Sierra left for Nederland early this morning, a little while later we saw that the race was moved to tomorrow due to high winds. Since it is Sunday, we won’t be racing. We went up to see the parade and decided next time they say there are high winds, we should believe them and stay away. It was unbelievable. To ease our sorrow, we ended the day with a dance party.

Chautuqua

The day before Thanksgiving, the kids and I needed an adventure. So, I piled them into the car and we drove to Boulder. We ended up at Chautuqua Park, one of my favorites.

My Birthday!

I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long to post this, ’cause I know I’m going to forget important details. My birthday started with my first half-marathon distance (actually, my phone GPS didn’t track the whole run…but I know it was at least 13.1 miles). Gram watched Tristan and Ruby for me & had baklava for me on my return. Then she took me out to Happy Sumo for lunch. After school got out, the kids and I went to visit my sister, Janelle, then off to my parent’s for dinner. Oh, and Erica made the most delicious carrot cake cupcakes and I ate waaayyyyy to many. The Friday before my bday, my friends surprised me and took me out to dinner. They even provided the babysitter! Adam was at work for my actual bday, but that just meant we could extend the celebration through the weekend :).

Halloween

Rocky Mountain National Park

We took our annual trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday. We sure missed having Pa & Grandma Danna with us, like we did last year! We took a hike (not to cub lake again, a new trail through the meadow). While driving we saw elk, two moose, and a few big horn sheep. One of my favorite traditions during one of my favorite times of year :).

Oh, this lady! There was a group of people observing this elk (from a logical, safe distance). Then she comes along for a close up shot and all of us tense up waiting for the elk to show her whose boss. But he didn’t. A few years ago, Pop and Gram got too close to a bull elk and he started to charge Pop. Fortunately, the elk changed his mind and left peacefully…leaving all of us (especially Pop) a bit shaken up. Ever since then we like to call Pop “elk bait”, but not to his face.

Pumpkins

Sierra’s 9th Birthday

Pumpkin carving! Sierra invited over a few friends from school and church, along with Jay & Grace. We painted pumpkins, made “mummy” snacks, and painted faces.What a fun group of kids. I’m so proud of Sierra. At her parent/teacher conference last week her teacher said, “Sierra is THE MOST motivated, dedicated, hardest working girl I know!” Without a doubt that is true. She is struggling in a few areas at school, but she is so amazingly determined to succeed that she surely will! I love you sie-bear!

Young Women In Excellence: Quilts

I’ve searched around online for ideas for various Young Women activities in the past. We had a great YWIE program this year, so I thought I’d put it out there for other’s to glean ideas from.Our bishop spent several Sunday lessons teaching the girls about modesty. He challenged them to go home, find an immodest item of clothing, cut it up, and make a quilt. So we had an activity for the girls to bring in fabric and we would start sewing. Only a handful of girls brought it clothes to cut, so we had fabric on hand for the others to choose from. Each “log cabin” square represents the Laurel, Mai Maid, or Beehive class. A sister in the ward has a fancy embroidery machine, so she made a leaf, a rose, and a beehive to go in the center of each square. She also embroidered the 8 Young Women values on strips of fabric that matched the value’s colors. We called it the “Eastlake Young Women Modesty Quilt” and had each YW sign it as her commitment to dress modestly.We had another activity to get the girls to tie the quilt. One girl volunteered to braid the boarder and another came to my house to help sew it on. We were (almost) able to get each YW to participate in some way with the quilting process.Then for the decorating for the event we had families bring in quilts to be on display. Several girls made giant sheets of sugar cookies. They were then cut into squares and frosting was used to make it look like a giant, edible quilt. At another activity we had the girls made “mixed media” quilt squares to represent themselves. They decorated with their name, their favorite scripture, their favorite value, their talents, etc. Then that evening we had the dads (if available) present the young woman to the group and talk about her talents and good qualities. Then piece by piece we added a quilt square to our display. We had a speaker talking about the process of quilting and how it relates to the gospel. We talked about unity (something we struggle with). Then in the back of the room we had a display area for girls to present any projects they have been/are working on.We all thought it turned out really well, and now we have a great quilt to permanently display in our YW room.

DIY

Not long ago I was blaming facebook for my lack of blogging…now it is pinterest. But really quick I want to talk about some favorite projects from this summer. We signed up for the CSA through Miller Farms again this year. Here is a typical week’s worth of vegis from the farmer’s market: I can’t tell you how much I love getting this farm fresh food each week. I love cooking it all up, serving it to my family, hearing the children joyfully compliment me on all the delicious food on their plates. Haha, I’m kidding. But we are making progress.I just decided to make two reversible skirts for two sisters in Young Womens. I didn’t have a pattern, just an idea. I haven’t seem them wear them to church yet…either they don’t like ’em or they don’t fit…or it hasn’t gotten cold enough yet (reversible skirts are quite heavy & warm).Our Foof was in desperate need of a new cover (after 7 years of serious wear and tear), so I made one. 7 yards of fabric later (and lots and lots of seam ripping) viola! I love it. Now for the curtains…Gram and I canned peaches together in Aug. Gram’s sister, Kathie, came over when we were in the process. Later she told Gram, “I hope I have a granddaughter someday and that her and I can get together to can peaches.” It was so fun and I really think jars of canned peaches are exceedingly beautiful.

Woodland Lake & Lilly Lake

Labor Day Weekend was a big outdoor-sie weekend for our family. Adam took S&K on their first backpacking trip to Woodland Lake. Those of us left behind (T&R and I) went to Estes Park and hiked around Lilly Lake with our friends, the Warners.
Before departure. Sierra and Kaia were very excited. Kaia didn’t want to go for a while, she was worried about hiking that far. But I’m so glad she went. That girl has amazing endurance, she just needs encouragement. Sierra is steady and strong, always up for adventure.I think they all had a great time. Can’t wait for the whole family to backpack together…maybe next year?

Here are some pics from Lilly Lake:Tristan brought “Mr. T” along from the hike. Each kindergartener gets a turn with this stuffed animal and you have to send pictures back to class to describe what you did with Mr. T.