Witches' Night Out

A whole bunch of us ladies in the ward attended Witches' Night Out on Saturday, the 25th. It was so fun! There's a cool village in West Jordan called Gardner's Village. It was originally a working mill and still has alot of historic houses that have been turned into shops, boutiques and restaurants. Every October, Gardner's Village hosts a Witches' Night Out where women come dressed up as witches and to enjoy all the festivities. Before we went to the village, there was a Witches' Tea at Emily's house.





Tea parties are Emily's specialty. I was invited to the last tea party she had - very fancy and very fun. I even had tea for the first time!







After the Witches' Tea we all gathered in the front yard for a picture (Emily is the only blonde witch!). Then we all jumped on our broomsticks (and SUV's) and flew to Gardner's Village. There was shopping, a witches parade, "cackling" for coupons, and various witchy things to see and do. I've never seen so many pointed hats in one place! Everyone was really into it. I saw all kinds of witch costumes - classic, creepy, fancy, Victorian, flowery...you name it. Most of the witches hats I saw were handmade, I think. There was a D.J. set up in the village square playing songs that I used to dance to at the Saturday Night Dances. I wasn't in the mood at first, but when all my fellow witches (from my ward) started dancing, especially when YMCA started playing (classic!), I got into it. After we danced a while, we were ready to head home. What a great night! And I love spending time with the awesome gals in my ward!

Falling for Fall

Until now, I've never lived anywhere that has seasons. The leaves are changing here in Utah, and I think I can say that fall is my favorite. Well, technically, winter hasn't arrived yet, but I feel pretty safe in saying that winter is NOT going to be my favorite. For now, I love the colors of the trees and the mountains. The mornings are brisk, but the afternoons are sunny and cool. I'm making soups and stews for dinner. The fireplace has been on once or twice. It's good weather for hot chocolate and cider. Our front porch is covered in pumpkins that we grew. Perfect.

The following photos are of the mountains just east of our house (taken three weeks ago and two weeks ago, respectively).

Conference Sunday we took a drive through Little Cottonwood Canyon. It had snowed in the mountains the night before and combined with the exploding fall colors, it produced an amazing effect!

Henry just barely escaped this one!

Later in the evening, we drove through Millcreek Canyon. It wasn't as vibrant and it lacked the white snow, but we took some family photos anyway. Those will be posted later.

I love fall!

Field Trip

Today I went with Elliot on his class field trip to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. Cornbelly's is a pumpkin patch with a corn maze, hayride and lots of various fall activities. I wish the field trip would have been yesterday when the weather was nice. Today it was AWFUL! It was 45 degrees and overcast - not to mention to 30-40 mph winds slamming tons of hay and dirt into our faces. Can you say allergies? It was so miserable, that my little group and I mostly stayed huddled up inside a little candy store to keep out of the wind. I was hoping that the teachers would call it a day and let us take our lunches back to the school to eat in the classroom. No such luck. We did leave Cornbelly's a little earlier than planned, but it wasn't enough - I'm beat! I'll probably think twice the next time the school asks for field trip volunteers!

Pumpkin Festival

We went to The Great Pumpkin Festival last night for Family Home Evening. We went with the Summerhays, this great family in our ward that we love hanging out with. We watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown outdoors and ate donuts and drank hot apple cider that they press right there on the farm. Yum! After the movie, we decided to go on a hayride. After we took our seats on our straw bales (it was actually straw and not hay, so technically we were going on a strawride), the tractor driver told us his name and proceeded to inform us of the hayride safety rules. After a moment or so, Nathan recognized the driver as his first district leader from his mission in Detroit! The driver also remembered Nathan and the two of them had a fun time catching up after the hayride. How cool is that? We've been passing by this farm and buying cider and produce for months, and it turns out that Nathan knows the owners! It was a fun fall event (not to mention the fact that the farm is 2 miles from our house) so we'll be sure to make it an October tradition.








After we left the farm, all of us came back to our house to decorate sugar cookies. The kids (and the adults too) got really into it, and soon we had all the cookies looking "Halloweeny". It turned out to be a great FHE!



When Max saw the stacks of cookies on the table, all he wanted was a glass of milk!

Halloween Preview

We went to a Halloween party at a friend's house on Thursday. I had to scramble to get everyone's costumes put together earlier than usual, but I think they turned out cute anyway.

In case you can't tell, here's what they are (left to right): A High School Musical Cheerleader, Captain Jack Sparrow (yes, a repeat), Indiana Jones and a Sparkly Green Witch.

Mama Mia!

Who remembers this costume? I was going through some Halloween boxes the other day and I found this costume that I wore when I was about sixteen years old. Hailee and I hosted a Halloween party that year and we decided to dress up as the Mario Brothers. Hailee was Mario and I was Luigi. My mom made us these awesome costumes, complete with black moustaches and eyebrows. I remember the party being a lot of fun and tons of kids came. Well, 17 years later, the costume still fits, and my kids thought it was cool - especially the boys. They couldn't believe that I knew who the Mario Brothers were when I was younger! Who doesn't know schmooney mooney mooney?

"I Did My Dishes"

This is Henry's new thing. He likes to wash dishes - he's actually pretty good at it. I'll let it continue until something gets broken!

Donuts and Apple Cider

Last night was the priesthood session of General Conference. My extended family back in AZ usually celebrates by sending the guys off to their meeting while the girls and the kids stay at my mom's house to make homemade donuts. I must be used to this tradition, because after Nathan left the house last night, I got a hankerin' for a donut. I don't know how to make donuts (nor did I feel like trying - that's mom's job), so the kids and I looked online for a good donut shop. The closest one was in Orem - what, people in Salt Lake County don't like donuts? So we settled for donuts from the Smith's Bakery. But what made our treat better was the fresh pressed apple cider that we picked up from a cider mill 2 miles from our house. That cider tasted just like October! Yum!

Wanna know the quickest way to get a headache?

Just sit down at your computer and open up Photoshop. Simple as that. Oh - reading a book about Photoshop will also do the trick nicely.


Hailee, don't laugh.