A happy fall season

It's been a few months since I have posted or even really had time to think much about it. Fall is always one of the busiest times of the year, and also one of my favorite! I love the crisp air, the crunchy leaves, the beautiful colors, the smell of spicy candles, and peach cobbler, mmm.... I have made the before-mentioned item twice now, and everyone ate it, so I consider it a success.

Here are a few of things we've been up to:

My First Hunt.

As I said, I love the autumn air and colors, and even though I don't exercise often.....well okay, hardly ever... I decided I wanted to go with Justin on one of his first hunts. I preferred to think of it as an early morning hike/nature walk.

I discovered I'm a trail girl. Otherwise, I hold on really tight to my hunting partner and need to be carried up the mountain. Thus tiring my partner more quickly and successfully decreasing amount of exercise time.

Autumn, the dog, not the season, ran up ahead in pursuit of some sort of bird whose species I cannot remember. Justin ran after her, gun in hand. I stood there admiring the amount of distance I had been carried at this point and the cute little bubbling brook by my feet.

Bang!

Rustling of trees and branches then occurred and giant ball of feathers flying through the air directly at me. I proceed to scream. Giant ball of feathers lands exactly at my feet and flops around. I was done. I run screaming up the mountain side away from feather monster at my feet. Justin runs back down, happy he got one, and laughs at the coincidence that the thing would land right in front of me. Then he proceeds to make me carry it down the mountain.

Here are photos:

Justin and his two big happy dogs resting at cute bubbly brook.
















The hunter
















The bird that tried to take me down and it's final resting place (I couldn't decide if I was more sad or grossed out at it's little feet sticking out of my jacket)
















A field that for some reason reminded me of vampires.
















The first fall leaves.
















This is about where (in the middle of my thoughts about very large wild cats and their mountain territories) Justin, who had just finished telling me we wouldn't be seeing any more birds, shshhed me and ran, pulling his gun out and chasing after Autumn. Here is where I stood wondering which tree I needed to attempt to shimmy up in order to prevent being dragged off into a small den.

It is a beautiful place though.

















My Birthday:

This year my birthday was really a great day. First of all it was on a Saturday, can't get much better than that. Second, I got almost everything on my list and then some, and third, we went to the first haunted house of the season. Can I say awesome? Yes.

Here is my present from Justin. It is called a kindle and is basically like a electronic book, with free internet, and almost every book you could ever want available with just the click of a button. I love this thing. I am currently reading "The Undaunted" by Gerald Lund. And I am not fighting with the pages of a 500+ page book. Instead I just get to click the next page button. Wonderful.








































Completion of Patio:

Still has a few more items left (such as the shiny sealant), but overall, I'm getting pretty excited for next year's warmer weather.

















Halloween:

Honestly this is one of the best holidays invented. Who can resist all the scary movies, and the idea of magic and broomsticks, and the punch with hand-shaped ice-cubes floating in them? My mom makes us "mummy dogs" each year by wrapping rhodes dough around hot dogs and then giving them eyeballs. Genius.

Stefani bought my costume the day of Halloween, so I had no idea what I was going to be until I showed up at my parents house. I was greeted by Kylan, looking no different than his normal self...until I realized it was my dad dressed up as Kylan. Freaky. I can see where Kylan gets his body from.

Kasi carried on our tradition this year by sitting on the porch dressed as an ugly scarecrow monster who would slowly turn her head when the big kids came along... great fun, great fun.















































As for right now? I am currently procrastinating what could be my very last final taken at BYU (crossing my fingers), and eagerly awaiting Black Friday.....one of the best days of the year.

I stole this from another blog, but it was so funny!

"I wish Google Maps had an, "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much; it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in. (Justin is totally guilty of this he ususally ends up with 15 on each arm and slowly makes his way towards the door, haha)

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem....

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this, ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darn-it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How do I respond to that?

I think the freezer deserves a light.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel fat before dinner. "

My new toy

Justin was given a gift card from his parents for his birthday. While I was still at the Conder reunion he went out and spent it on me! I couldn't believe it. I was mad at first that he didn't spend it on something he needed or wanted. Mind you this was a Sportsman's giftcard too, most men's dream. But he assured me that there was nothing he needed or wanted right now. Guess what he bought me? Yup, a Gun. He said he wanted to be able to do something he loved with me. I don't like guns, and I especially don't like killing things. But he made sure that this one was tiny and had no kick. It doesn't even hurt my ears when it goes off. A couple days after he bought it we drove up to west mountain and found a beautiful sunflower field just as the sun was setting. We brought some empty cartons to practice on. I must admit, I like the little gun. Now, I'm just waiting for my gun charm to arrive. Hey, I had to make it pretty somehow.....:)

Flying by!

It seems like there are so many things I wanted to do this summer and it's just flying past me. Where has it gone? Oh, right, I watched it pass through the office window (we've got to pay those bills I guess :S). We have had some fun though. Here are some of the few things that were actually documented.






1. Freedom Days

2. Hiking up AF Canyon (poor Autumn ran through the burs, she was so happy she didn't care that her ears stuck together like velcro).

3. Our work-in-progress patio. It should be pretty when it's done though!

4. Our Conder family reunion last Friday/Saturday. This place was beautiful, but it was run like a prison camp. If you look in that third picture down there is actually a lady up in the tower on shore with binoculars watching our every move...creepy. I think she was in love with her whistle. But those paddleboats were sure fun :D.



I'm hoping to get a few more trips and hours outside spent before it gets cold again. But, I absolutely love Fall, so I guess it's alright that it is the next season in line. I just hope it drags on a little before winter gets here :)

Summer Update

The summer feels like it is flying by! In just a couple of days we'll hit July, the prime of Summer. I have been waiting for warmer weather for so long and now it's here.....Let's just say I am happy inside :).

Here's a quick update of our summer so far....

Rain, Rain, and more Rain (could not believe this, most of my June was spent with jackets and soggy pant legs).

Daurie bought a house! and look how cute it is!!! I am so excited for her.















Our anniversary was a couple of weeks ago. These last two years have flown by, and they have been great. I love my husband, I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to him as I never get tired of being with him and I have to find things for myself to do if he's not around. He's so good to me, seriously spoils me in every way, and I am grateful that I get to keep him. We didn't plan anything too spectacular this year. We thought it would be a fun reminder for us if we went up to the Salt Lake Temple where we were married and did a couple of sealings. Then afterward go to the roof to eat because we have never been there. After we made the appointments, but before we left, we realized that our recommends had expired just two weeks earlier....talk about a happiness burster, haha. We still went to the roof for dinner but we'll have to renew our recommends before we can head back to the temple. My boss also gave us a free weekend up at the Zermatt resort that I think we'll use as our late anniversary getaway in the next couple of weeks.















We are growing our very first garden! Watching those little plants grow bigger every day is the best. I'm not sure which of us is more excited to get home and spend some time in the backyard. Justin's got some big plans in place back there-- I'll keep you updated as they occur ;). He also finished our fence. Those dang puppies are officially locked in.















Last night we returned from a week in Lake Powell. Truly a magical place in my opinion. It's just beautiful there. Here are some pictures.



































































































































































































































The puppies were very excited for us to get home.