this one's for Steveinsky

They have these "pansy time" signs up all over town and it makes us think of Steve! Sorry the pic is blurry, I took it while driving so I couldn't hold the camera super still!

Boo at the Zoo

Last night Craig had a business dinner so we got "Chick-a-Fil-A" and went Trick or Treating at the zoo! It was fun. The weather was nice and cool(60's)and we played at the park afterwards and came home in time for bath and bed! The only thing that wasn't so great were the smoking people at the playground. Actually not just AT the playground but actually ON the playground! I was irate!

Who would you rather have coach your kid?

This guy may be an awesome coach, but his coaching "uniform" always made me giggle! Would you rather have slightly scary pirate guy as your kids soccer coach at the YMCA or good old whitey whiterson Coach Craig? I think Coach Craig won out. A bunch of parents were asking if he'd coach next season. Unfortunately I don't think Katie'll be taking up soccer again next season, but he'll probably coach Taylor's team in the spring. He got a plaque and some gift cards as "thank you's" and one kids' dad even wants to take him out to lunch on Friday!

Grandfather Mountain and Chimney Rock

Here are some of our pix from our trip up to Grandfather Mountain (NC) and Chimney Rock (NC). We had such a great time. It would have been alot more fun if I WASN'T pregnant, but it was still really cool and I'm so glad that Steve suggested Grandfather Mountain. The weather was gorgeous. I was certainly a little too warm by the time we got to the top, but it wasn't sweltering. The colors were just beginning to change and the view was spectacular. We would have liked to have driven more of the Blue Ridge Parkway but with a car full of kiddos, we felt the need to make it a more direct route home. Thanks to Craig for driving all the tiny, curvy roads that made even him carsick. Thanks to the people at Goodyear for replacing our brakes before we left, we really tried them out on this trip! Thanks to Steve and Hailey for handing back all the snacks and switching over the movies. The cabin was so fun and had Craig I wising we were close enough so that we could all go in (in our dreams)on a family cabin on a lake with a hot tub and kayaks and canoes and rocks to throw in the water all day and a fireplace and a nanny to put the kids to bed (I did say in our dreams). To quote a great soundtrack (of a movie filmed in NC)"I... had....the time of my Liiiiiife!". Hee hee!

Good Times had by all

I have good reason for not updating the blog for the past week or two. We have been out having so much fun! Hailey, Steve and Jack came into town for a visit Oct 1st. We had such a great time celebrating my birthday with them! We also rented a cabin up in North Carolina for a weekend. I think we may have convinced them that a term spent in the Carolinas may not be to horrible! Steve was able to stay almost a whole week and we made good use of it. We also got to keep Hailey and Jack until this past Saturday morning. We took the boys to the pumpkin patch one morning and then the kids painted pumpkins(they can do that again now that the rain washed it off). We had such a great time that I'll include our pix of Grandfather Mountain and Chimney rock in the next blog. We are so glad they were able to come and are looking forward to the possibility of Steve's Post-doc being conducted in NC.

Camping in the rain

Katie and I were talking last weekend and we decided it would be fun to go camping this weekend. We made our list and checked the weather forecast, made our reservation, talked to Craig and we were all set. Then the weather changed and we were stuck camping in the rain (or being out the $30 we paid, since you can't reserve the site for one night you have to do two. What Mormon has two nights in a row to camp without taking vacation days??????). Anyhow we decided to go ahead with our plans and it went surprisingly well. I could have done without Katie walking in the lake in her only pair of shoes and then refusing to wear them (she spent alot of time sitting in a camping chair) and I really could have done without super whiny, crybaby Taylor in the morning, but other than that it was picture perfect (well, as perfect as the weather would permit!). We invited some friends of ours along and it was fun. We left Friday afternoon around 3:30pm and got up there around 5pm. Craig and David set up camp while I made a fire! I was super impressed that I made it so seamlessly in the rain no less! I ROCK! Instant light coals at the bottom, kindling, newspaper then a teepee of split logs over the top! I guess I really am a camp director! We had foil dinners, hot dogs and brats for dinner. Then we walked down to the lake to throw in rocks. Then we came back up to the sight to make s'mores and cocoa. The kids went down really well. Taylor did wake up a couple times at night and yelled "yes" in his sleep for some reason. I slept well except the need to visit the restroom way too often(I had forgotten I was prego when I planned all of this). In the morning I rolled up the sleeping pads and sleeping bags and craig made fantastic pancakes on our campstove. Then we broke camp and cleaned up just as it started to rain again. We got back in time to clean up, eat lunch and take a nap before soccer. It was a fun weekend!

Happy Cows make better milk (or so they say)

Last Thursday afternoon Katie, Taylor, myself and some friends of ours from Katie's classroom toured a local creamery. It's called Happy Cow creamery. They have developed a system where they keep green grass in the pasture 12 months out of the year for the cows to graze on and this makes the cows happy because they like to eat grass the best and so their milk is better. They call it "12 Aprils" and have different grass planted each season so it stays green year-round. Pretty cool. Pretty great milk too and cheese. It was a fun little tour. Taylor really like riding on the tractor.