Happy Halloween!

From Wednesday, Thing and Morticia

The cutest Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader

And these Cowboys

Do they know they're Outsiders?

(Marty commented, "Stay gold, Pony Boy." 

Dan asked what he was referring to and I almost fell off my chair.)

We'll have to add it to our movie list.

My neighbor caught a pic of me giving her kids candy.

Cornbellys

Cornbelly's with the Rigby's is still going strong.

This year it was the kids who called the moms wondering when we were going.

Chris, Luke and Jake with dates.

(Freshmen girls, one who went to school with Nick.)

Will and Nick with dates and Isaac & Jackie.

And the parents.

Our tradition has been going strong since 2010.

And I found pics with just our family as early as 2007.

Youngest to Oldest

Photos from the Kids this week...

Emi dressed up for the ward Halloween Party

Nick bought new shoes and guess what? Dad New Balance are in style.

Chris had a blast at ESPN Game Day but the game didn't turn out so great for the 

Utes, and it hurts too much to talk about yet.

Marty captured a 'stache pic mid-shave. 

Arianne (from Seattle) visited Courtney in Philly and NYC 

and they dressed up to go to a haunted house.

AARP

At 10:30 a.m. the only reason I got out of bed was to let Kershaw out.

And then we lazed around until after noon.

We are noticing late nights (and time changes) really affect our 

body clocks now that we're this age and are kids are grown and we have high

expectations for decent sleep.

I skipped exercise because I'm sure standing for three hours at the concert last night 

definitely rolled over for today's workout.

And we ran errands then went to dinner 

AT 4:30(!) 

at Market Street Grill because we had a coupon. 

Not many people go to dinner at Market Street at 4:30:

I'm starting to get why old people like an early dinner...
You eat early enough to have a good meal,

then can have a yummy dessert a few hours later when you're hungry again,

all before 8:00 and then you don't get heartburn when you go to bed.

Also, we laughed til we cried watching a Nate Bargatze special last night.

Highly recommend. Must watch. Right now. 

U2 at The Sphere

Birthday lunch at Olive Garden for our friend, Sara.

It's her favorite, and quite frankly, the soup, salad and breadsticks can't be beat.

Then left on a day-trip to Las Vegas to see U2 at The Sphere

with Rigby's and Larson's.

We bought Michelle and Brent's tickets they were selling since they went with friends last month,

which meant we were on the floor! Standing for three hours!

We absolutely loved the concert and being that close,

so thanks once again to Michelle for getting me to try new things.

The Sphere is incredible. 

Absolutely out of this world.

I'll absolutely be watching out for new shows performing when U2 wraps up their residency.

We didn't get home until after 2:00 a.m. and at one time 

Steph and I were laughing hysterically on the plane because I couldn't understand what she was saying

("the ribbon store, Knot & Spool")

and clearly, we were punch drunk.

The best way to end a great day.

Around the Corner

This happened today:

Kershaw was on a hike with his dogwalker. 

I was in the sunroom. We got flakes, but nothing stuck at home.

Warmed up in the afternoon,

but was a little reminder that ready or not...

winter is coming.

Good for the Soul

You know what's good for the soul? 

Reading outside from noon to 6:00 p.m. on the last warm fall day.

Kershaw chased the deer that were hanging around, 

I sat on an adirondack in the trees with a page-turner and took breaks only to video the wind and falling leaves and admired all the yellows, oranges and reds and different shapes

and appreciate what a perfect day it was to do nothing but read.

Memes

Spent the day polishing a couple of flash fiction stories for a 1,000 words or less contest

and actually submitted. Very proud of myself.

Since I don't have any photos or anything more to report, how 'bout something to make us chuckle.

More and more Instagram posts that make me laugh are now videos,

but long live the meme:

Mid-Fall

I've had the whole day to myself, which has been a heavenly way to catch up on life after our trip.
Fall is gorgeous with all the leaves changing and the yard covered
and it was perfect weather for a morning bike ride.

I was thinking about the different stages of fall. The first 30 days where the leaves to change in the mountains and slowly the colors make their way to the valleys. 

In our neighborhood, the yellows make an appearance first 

(with the exception of some spectacular orange autumn blaze maples.)

The second 30 days where the leaves fall and the reds and oranges heighten.

The bushes and groundcover start to change too, but many of the summer container plants are hanging on.

(I kind of want to cut away the reds and whites and tell them they have no business being here still.

But then I feel bad and apologize and thank them for lasting through the long, hot summer.)

Then the last 30 from Thanksgiving to almost Christmas when we're ready for any remnants of leaves to be gone from the trees and the yard and the transition complete so the world is prepped and ready for snow.

Also loved this pic Michael sent.

    Looking forward to seeing them next week! 

Dan and I have been talking about how fortunate we are to see our kids a lot 

even though the older two live away. We're so grateful.

Winterizing the Ranch

Marty and Lizzie and cute little Emi left this morning.

Fortunately Dan and I didn't have to leave until 2:45 p.m. so we had plenty of time to

 finish the winterizing chores and clean up.

Smoke from both fires was filling the valley with haze and the oppressive heat and smell.

It's probably my subconscious, but when it smells like fire, it seems like its a million degrees outside.

We feel so fortunate that we had such great weather and clean air for the whole week!

And it's easier to say goodbye when its muggy.

When we arrived home to Utah, I took Dan straight to the airport for a conference in San Diego.

I came home and hung out with Nick all evening. 

We even went to Porcupine Grill for dinner because I wasn't up for cooking.

He's making plans to move out of the dorms and has worked really hard on getting approvals and looking for new digs, talking to agents and figuring out how to sell his contract. 

He's a kid who when he puts his mind to doing something figures out how to get things done!

I've always admired that about him.

I've been sharing the story about the time Nick saved up for an electric Razor motorcycle.

He had to wait months for it to arrive, and when it finally did, Dan was out of town. 

I told him Dad would be home in just a couple of days and would help him put it together then. 

A while later I walked out to the garage and there he was,

instructions laid out and building it all by himself.

He has a lot of confidence in himself and knows he can figure things out.

I found the picture. (I've been telling everyone he was 7 or 8, but I guess he was 11.)

September 2016.

Burgers in Paradise

Marty and Lizzie went on a run this morning.

Emi cried for half a second and then was just fine playing with me and Dan.

I love that she is so comfortable with us! 

We're pretty sure she said Kershaw. But she does say "doggie" and point at him.

We're still working on Grandma and Grandpa.

We went to town today to look in all the shops on Main Street.

(I really think they're missing the boat not having a candy store and a shake shack on the street.

We should try the Malt Shoppe again for shakes and skip the food.)

Emi is such a good walker, but she also wants to pick up every leaf and piece of trash

she passes, so she didn't get to walk as independently as she may have liked!

We tried to eat lunch at the Thai place, but it was closed.

Good thing, because we found the most amazing burgers EVER!

Sage is definitely worth a trip to town for their Smashburgers (one patty is plenty, they're huge!)

and their green chili fries with chunks of thick slab bacon and roasted pork were U mA Zing!

Friendly service, open interior, several picnic tables outside too and clean enough 

that we didn't mind letting Emi pick up rocks under the table.

(They had high chairs too.)

It's between new town and old town and we weren't sure about the location,

but we'll be back. My mouth is still watering!

We noticed a big fire in the mountains east of town and on our way home, another fire just west of town.

Please appreciate Emi's face when I took my phone away from her 

so I could show Marty and Lizzie a funny Reel.

We roped Marty and Lizzie into helping with some chores

to close down camp for the winter (bring in all the adirondacks,

take down the hanging couch,

put away couch cushions and move furniture to the windows away from potential snow drifts,

and Marty helped Dan winterize the ATV's, Ranger and Bronco.

We rewarded them with more leftovers. 😂

But we also had a campfire, s'mores,

and games of Azul and Qwirkle tonight (I won both!) It was a good night.

Leaf Peeping

So fun to have Emi to wake up to in the morning! 

We love any time we get to spend with her!

The girls and Kershaw took an afternoon walk around the loop after Emi woke from her morning nap.

The boys worked out in the gym in the morning then went for an ATV ride while we were out.

The weather has been beautiful all week. 

We went on a drive to see the fall colors around Williams Reservoir--

photos don't do it justice. The yellows were spectacular but falling fast.

Each day we eat leftovers from meals with our friends from the first part of the week.

We've been so spoiled eating great food and not having to cook!

Marty and Lizzie gave Mastermind a try this afternoon and were having similar conversations 

that Dan and I had. Mainly "are you sure you scored that right?" And "are you cheating?" Ha!

We played Azul and Qwirkle all together too.

The coyotes were howling tonight.