It's Beginning to Look A Lot . . .

Like Gingerbread Houses!

Holly pinged me at work today to tell me this was the last night of the gingerbread festival. It's usually at Thanksgiving Point, but they had it in Orem this year, and closer is always better, so we went. Here are my favorites for this year.

The Three Little Pigs (the pigs had friends in the backyard in a hot tub)

Notre Dame - Quasimodo is between the towers in the front

The UP House. Open this one big and look at the detail. It's incredible! The weather vane, the birds, and around the outside edge are a bunch of merit badges. The Boy Scouts put this festival on every year. And best of all, guess who made this house? Inmates at Utah State Pennitentiary! I guess they do have a lot of time on their hands.

"Sorry Santa, I peeked". I just thought this was cute.

Christmas at Falling Water. Katie Grierson once made this at our house. This one was incredible!!!

And my favorite of all - Candy Land! Yeah, this is what Gingerbread Houses are all about!!!

A Farewell to the Queen

Today we had to put Dolly aka "Tiny Spicy Kitty" down. She was the queen of the backyard and the basement, and pretty nice for a cat. I will miss the neck rubs.

Just so you know, she was not the retarded one. We are pretty surprised that Molly outlasted her, but apparently age caught up to her a little faster.

This is a poem Tara wrote, I think about Dolly. I wil call it

Dolly's Pride

A majestic figure, so quiet, serene
Strutting about on soft silken toes,
Enter the kitten, nay, The Queen!
To grace us with her stately pose.

A simple cat, but to her eyes,
(Bright crystal gems of emerald hue)
A lioness of strength and size,
Ruling her castle, her domain, her due.

A rolling purr and swiftest glide,
The very sound her beauty gloats;
She lies with grace upon her side,
And mockingly preens her velvet coat.

Thus vanity will be her fate,
This tiny cat so proudly vain!
To which some mortals can relate,
Is wisdom's loss, but beauty's gain!

Mark's India Excursion

Mark decided to go to India without me. He got home last week, and got Giardia. I think it's payback for not taking me to India. That wasn't very nice!!

Here are some cool India pictures. He says it was a very scary place, and if you look up scary India drivers there are tons of videos to prove that it was pretty scary. But mostly it was India, so it was just cool.

India Friends.

Just about the coolest tree ever.

The topiary garden

And the scary monkey that tried to take Mark's camera.

No, this one is the coolest tree ever.

Mark at the Hindi temple. Notice he is barefoot. Funny!

A monkey statue. He might be one of their gods, Mark isn't sure.

Fall Fun

Tonight we went to Hobble Creek Canyon to look at and collect leaves. It's a tradition, and with Tara here now I am not allowed to break any traditions. It's a pretty fun one, anyway.

Well, there is a ranch in the canyon right near the campground. We have actually been camping there during a cattle drive and it's quite an experience to be right in the middle of it.

Tonight they were driving the cattle back to their ranch, and again we were right in the middle of it, although this time we were inside a car so it felt less threatening. Here is the video Tara took:


AND, here are a few leaf pictures. We love them!

We like to gather them and bunch them about the house. Mostly above the coat closet. Pretty!

Jeny's day to celebrate

We won't say why she was celebrating, just that she did. On September 11 I was able to sleep in as long as I could because it was a Saturday. Beautiful! I slept in until 8! Then I did a whole bunch of laundry and did the grocery shopping so that could get out of the way. Mark was out doing a bit of shopping of his own, and look what he got me!!!

Yep, that really is a greenhouse. It's a little one, so the neighbors shouldn't be too upset (we do have some picky neighbors) and just right for my needs. Now we get to move the shed, put down a concrete pad big enough for the shed and the greenhouse, and assemble this. Such a great idea! I love it!

Tara and her friend Casey hung out with us for the rest of the day. We went boating on Utah Lake, Geocacheing until the mosquitos got so bad Mark was about to use a bad word (maybe darn, or something like that), then we went to dinner and came home for a rip-roaring game night of Rumoli. What a great bir . . . uh, day of celebration for me!

Jeny on the boat.

Tara gave me a great puzzle of fantasy like creatures. Maybe she likes it enough that she will help me with this one? And that's Casey in the background.

A Day at the Races

Mark had a guy from the Bonneville Speedway come to his work yesterday to help with some radios he had purchased for the Speed Races this week. He brought along several tickets and other goodies for the races. Since we are responsible adults with jobs that rely on us to get things done, we took today off and went to the salt flats. I have driven through there, but I have never gone to the state park (woohoo! flat salt land as far as the eye can see.) and certainly never to see the fastest cars in the world zip by.

We did not have much time (it tool 3 hours to get there, and Tara didn't get up until 11) so I didn't get the pictures of everything I wanted to, but here's what I got.

A really fast car. I think this one went about 180 MPH. It was not the fastest car we saw. We saw several that went over 200 MPH, but they were too fast for me and my camera.

Our feet on the salt. All that white all around us is just a big field of salt.

Tara's favorite car.

Jeny's favorite car. We didn't have time to get Mark with his favorite. It looked like a giant red bullet.

Now, don't laugh too hard. I was trying to get a still photo but apparently the camera was in movie mode. But it was the best movie of fastness that I got.

I love going back to work. :(

When I got in to work today my desk was all nice and clean. The basket on my desk contained only 2 requests - please get some dusting stuff and packing tape. There were a lot of time cards to enter and that is all. I was so excited! I thought, "Wow, maybe they really don't need me here."

About 15 minutes after I got settled reality hit. Clare (my boss) put a rubbermaid bin on the floor next to my desk filled to overflowing with paperwork, mail, more time sheets, bills, etc. Seriously, it overflowed. I think it's gonna take me a week to get through the bin. Then I can start on the real work.

I just thought I would tell my family that this is how much I love you. I still felt like singing even after 10 straight hours of working my way through the top 3 inches of my bin. Seperate Ways kept me going all day long, and our many many strange family songs. Even Kites are Fun. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a short break to eat something for lunch!

Thanks for all the fun! I love you all!