Halloween

 Happy Halloween! I love Halloween. Possibly because I feel it is the kick off to the holiday season or because it is a holiday that lets a grown up play dress up. This year we decided to get Baxter in on the dressing up. Our library offered free pictures for pets dressed up in costume. Here is Baxter as the Headless Horseman's Horse outside the library. The costume came with a headpiece but he did not like it at all! He laid down and wouldn't move until we took it off, but he didn't mind wearing the rest.

 We had our ward Halloween party the Saturday before. It was out at a ward member's farm in their barn. We enjoyed some tastey chili and cornbread, games and dancing (though it was to country music). Luke had a good time showing all the young men how to swing dance. Our "trunk or treating" consisted of the adults sitting in a big circle on hay bales while the kids walked around and around until all the candy was gone. Plenty of superheros to be seen this year. We also dressed up for work on Halloween day. Everbody had a difficult time guessing who we were. I thought we looked pretty great as Mary Poppins and Bert.

Happy Anniversary

 Yesterday we celebrated our fifth anniversary! It is hard to believe we have been married for so long. Time flies when you are having fun :) We were married on Saturday October 13, 2007 in the Logan, UT temple.

 Many of our family and friends were able to join us and help us celebrate.

We have been very blessed in our lives. We have both graduated from college and started our careers and have had many adventures together in the meantime. We have not been blessed with any children yet but we are so grateful to have our Baxter bug to keep us busy and entertained.

We kept yesterday pretty low key. The day before we had gone to see Taken 2 and got to go to Target (which is a big deal when you live somewhere with no shopping!). Saturday we slept in and made each other breakfast. Then we played some Frisbee golf with some friends. Then we went out and enjoyed a nice dinner.

We are really celebrating in a few weeks when we are going to cruise to the Bahamas! Hooray for warm weather and a week off of work!

I am married to the best husband ever. He is so kind and patient and a lot of fun. So glad he married me 5 years ago and looking forward to eternity!!



Conference Project

 This weekend was conference. I love to hear the messages of President Monson and the apostles. This conference I felt that the messages focused a lot on strengthening testimonies and overcoming trials. This could be because it was what I needed to hear personally. If you ask someone else they might tell you something different. I like to do something with my hands to help me concentrate on the talks while I listen.

Since Halloween is coming up I found a felt flower wreath to make on Pinterest. I cut about a hundred of these circles, then cut them into spirals to make the flowers. 

If you roll from the inside your flowers will be skinnier and if you start from the outside they will be fatter. I went with the skinny flowers. I didn't notice when I started that they used a grapevine wreath, which would have worked much better. I don't live anywhere near a craft store so I went with a foam wreath that I already had.

I ended cutting the wreath in half so I didn't have to put so many flowers on to cover up the wreath. Luke drew the pattern for the bats and helped me to finish up some flowers. I glued the bats to some wire and stuck it into the foam. I just tied on the bow so it can be changed for Thanksgiving.



 The finished product!

This was one of my favorite talks which was given by Elder Perry. A beautiful message and I love his smile!

Wedding!

This weekend we went to my Aunt Char's wedding. Yay! It was lots of fun to see her so happy and to get to see all the family.

The girls.

 All the siblings.

 Family picture minus the missionary.

 The happy bride and groom.

 Eric brought his new puppy Gambit to the party.

After the wedding we had the luncheon which was a delicious waffle and omlete bar. The reception was at a park that Char got a grant to create. It was a great weekend.

Labor Day

 This Labor Day weekend we met my family in Jackson Hole. Saturday was pretty rainy so we played some games and watched movies. Sunday after church we went and drove through Yellowstone and enjoyed some of the pretty sights.

 Here we are stopped for lunch.

 We saw a bunch of buffalo, elk, and a couple of black bears.

Here is Eric being suprised at the Suprise Pool hot pot.

 Baxter had a pretty good time except for all the car time. At the Suprise Pool we ran into a group of Chinese tourists who thought that Baxter was about the best thing ever. One of them said "shake" which is one of the two things he knows how to do, so Luke had him shake, and they all ooed and awed. It was pretty awesome.

Monday after we checked out we went for a bike ride and then headed to the alpine slide. 

 Mom and Dad racing.

 Luke got a little carried away trying to beat Eric down the hill. He overturned coming around a curve and tried to slide down on his skin. Ouch! It took off a lot of skin and melted holes in his shorts.

 A better shot of the loss of skin.

A fun weekend with family. Always makes it hard to head back to work!

The Deck

 Our deck was in desperate need of a makeover. The original stain was worn off and the wood was getting weathered and starting to crack. I spent one day sanding all the old stain off. We rented a big floor sander for the big stuff and did the rails and bench with the hand sander.

We decided to paint it with an enamel paint instead of a stain because Luke's friend who works at Sherwin Williams told him it would last at least ten years. Here I am putting on the primer coat.

I plan on repainting the house at some point a light gray. We painted the deck a darker gray so it will match someday. It has taken so long to paint the deck that it may take a few years to work up the motivation again.

 Almost done! The paint turned out looking blue not gray which was a bummer. It looked nicer stained but live and learn.

Blue Angels

(Written by Luke) We went to the air show to see the Blue Angels.

What a show! Every time I see these awesome jets I want to fly one.

There was a long wait before the Blue Angels came on and they had several stunt pilots do spirals, flips and spins etc. Courtnie is sure she would throw up and probably pass out if she rode on that flight.

The Jelly Belly plane landed on a platform on a moving truck. We had to look between the parked jets to see the truck (just between their wings) and it took the plane 3 tries down the runway to get it down and stopped on the truck due to the variable wind.

One of the coolest stunt pilots flew this old twin engine that they said was factory built with no upgrades. He did some cool barrel rolls and loops.

When the Blue Angels got rolling then the real fun began.

They had an announcer telling us about their formations and maneuvers because if you didn't know they were coming you might be looking the wrong direction and totally miss them. They fly at speeds up to 1000mph with as little as 18 inches between planes.

They did formation rolls and loops and this one where they broke apart in different directions.

My favorite was when a formation of 4 jets flew by and the announcer said "as you watch them fly out to the right" and a 5th jet came screaming by unexpected. A lot of the crowd jumped and laughed realizing the announcer was distracting us, but then the 6th jet came screaming by from behind the crowd even louder than the last and really startled us. We felt bad for all the kids who started crying from being scared.

You can see the 6th jet coming straight at us. Being a pilot I know these maneuvers would be difficult; even to turn precisely 45 degrees to the side to create even spacing, let alone the rolls and inverted flight etc.

This was their last move where each plane peeled off along the runway. 

Here is one of their cool formation maneuvers. I hope the video works for everyone.