Alright! Who put Miracle Grow on the Christmas Tree?

It wasn't that big when we cut it down!!!

Autumn Activities

A Slide show of all our activities during October & November

From Movies

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yS8rd0wMwVa3t7OFt0HP3g?feat=directlink

November Stuffings: Part 1

Okay, so it is a little late, but, I just KNEW that y'all wanted an update on our adventures.

November found us busy traveling:

Dad/Grandpa Mark's Surprise 60th Birthday Party

(pictures anybody? I have gotten in this awful habit of bringing my camera but forgetting to take pictures)...it was a cold weekend.

Mindy's attempt at wogging a 5k (how long has it been?) in Heber City took us out in the cold to a "Fun Run".......

Jaina decided I needed help stretching afterwards.

Soon, they all joined in...

....and the Heber Valley Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Freezing Our Patooskis Off

The past few days, I have often mused to myself the following:

"It sure is cold out here!"

(For the 1st time in my adult life, I have considered getting long-underwear!!!)

"After almost a decade in North Carolina, we have moved to Winter Wonderland!"

"Hmm....this snow is so pretty! I should take some pictures of what a cute, quaint Christmas town Vernal has turned into..."

Then, we got more snow. Actually....we got hammered!

We really did shovel our driveway last night, you just couldn't tell when we were done... the snow just kept coming. We finally stopped around 9pm when another inch had accumulated after Cam and I had shoveled the entire driveway once and then Jason and I did it all a second time.

I really do need to get some pictures of our snow....

I thought we got a lot on Halloween.

Then, I thought we got a lot last weekend over my birthday, we got around 4-6 inches.

Then, last night, we easily got over 1 1/2 feet of snow and it is still coming.

Ever been snowed in? Well, guess what?!?!? When a snowplow comes through your neighborhood and plows up the road, its really nice. However, they leave behind a wall of snow so high, that you need to use a pick-ax to cut through in order to try and dig a path. Well, since we don't own a pick-ax, we tried knocking some of it down with our little shovels....it didn't work. We ended up digging a path down the side of the road until we found a spot low enough that we could get our poor van over. We were late to church and Jaina and I were pants and boots under our skirts because the snow was so deep.

So, here is a list of a few things Winter in Vernal has taught us so far:

1. I am already tired of hearing, "You think this is cold? Winter hasn't even started yet!" (this during our -teens temperature days)


2. FACT: Did you know that Vernal tied with Siberia last week for the coldest inhabited place in the world? The only colder locations were uninhabited places like the North Pole.


3. We are excited when we see the forecast calling for "Warmer temperatures around 8-10 degrees" (below freezing, yes but positive #s!!!)


4. 4-wheel drive vehicles at every house is NOT the luxury we previously thought and that has been hyped about in newspaper articles discussing the financial demise of Uintah Basin. Winter so far has illustrated that evidently, every household needs a 4 wheel drive vehicle to just get out of the driveway! If both adults work, you need two vehicles with 4-wheel drive to enable both parties to get to work in this weather. Not an over-indulgence in fun grown-up toys...a necessity for this area that nobody ever hears about.


5. During the winter, women wearing boots to church back in NC was a fashion statement. Women wearing boots to church during the winter in Vernal is a necessity or you legs will fall off. Here, it's not vanity or fashion, if you want to get through feet of snow on your way to church, you need to wear boots or get frost-bite.

I need to go shopping!

LOL!!!!! What a game it was.......

And the winner is.......

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Another fun and adventurous Halloween this year!

Our annual FHE of pumpkin carving resulted in lots of goop everywhere

(FYI: guinea pigs do NOT like pumpkin guts--we checked) and some amazing creations of art.....

The kids and Daddy all dressed up this year. Mom/Mindy's Mrs. Weasley outfit is missing, fess up! Who took it?!?!?!?!?! I can still do a good impersonation :)

BumbleBee--the Transformer

Zombie Cheerleader

Scream Freak

Alfalfa (with rotten teeth)

We attended the Ward Trunk-or-Treat Party at the church and enjoyed the games there and then handing out (mom) and getting (everyone else) candy. Then, Alfalfa took the gang and some friends out trick-or treating around the neighborhoods while mom went home to hand out candy to anyone who braved our closed road. Nobody came, more for me!

Next day at church, Jason won the best overall costume award for not only his outfit, but for his "campaigning". All night, he would gather groups of kids, young, impressionable minds, and tell them not to eat all of their candy at once, or their teeth would end up looking like his.

Poor kids, they were terrified and just stared at his mouth and solemnly promised that they wouldn't. One little girl even insisted later that night that she brush her teeth again, because she didn't want to look like Bro. Saari! Parents were grateful, maybe Jason should have been a Dentist.

(click on collage to see larger images)

It's beginning to look a lot like.....Halloween?

SNOW!

We woke up Halloween Eve to over 1 inch of snow on the ground with continued snowfall throughout the rest of the day. The kids were all excited and Jaden even got to play in the snow while Jaina suffered through getting her hair brushed.

The snow was gone by the end of the day, but it was pretty and very cold!!!

Don't worry, Halloween Day warmed up quite a bit and we only needed jackets that night for trick-or-treating.

Weird weather!

(see the mountains in the background? Aren't they gorgeous?!?!?!?)