Happy Early 7th Birthday Stephanie!!

On Halloween night I brought Stephanie back to Sandy with me to spend the night. Since I will be in Arizona on Stephanie's birthday I decided to have a sleepover. We slept in and then went to breakfast at Ruth's diner. It is this cute little diner up the canyon. We got to sit outside under the heat lamp and had a great view of the mountains and trees. Afterwards we found Steph a new outfit and she had to pick out a new toy. She went with the Barbie Zoo Vet set. She told me to go into the other room while she played so I couldn't hear her talking to the doll. Later when I picked up my camera this is what I found. Stephanie's very own photo shoot. Oh how I love my little niece. Happy Birthday Stephanie Marie!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Payton!!!!

After trick-or-treating we had a little birthday party for Miss Payton. It is hard to believe that Amanda brought Payton home from the hospital Halloween 2 years ago. How time flies and how fast kids grow. I love this picture of all the cousins together.

Amanda has this rule of no characters allowed on Payton's clothes except for pajamas. Taunya took that literally and provided Payton with a full set of pajamas complete with slippers of Spongebob. I think she looks so cute here. She loves her strawberry milk or as she likes to call it "strawberry cake". Since she loves strawberries so much I got her a strawberry ice cream Dora cake. MMM...it was yummy.
Here is Payton still in her PJ's but with her Dora mermaid play dress over the top. What a sight.

Grandma and Payton playing together.
I love the party hat over the wig.

Amy, my dog, had to be in the center of it all to make sure she wasn't missing out on anything. She looks so cute curled up on Taunya's lap. She is waiting for someone, most likely Patyon, to drop cake on the floor.

I love, love, love this picture. Patyon loves her mommy and you can tell.

Here is Papa and his little girl. They really do love each other and are great buddies. Happy birthday Payton Jade!!!!

Trick-Or-Treat

Other then a few raindrops the weather was perfect this year for trick-or-treating. Heston had to be the first one to the door and the first one gone. Steph took her role as older cousin well and made sure Payton made it safely up and down the stairs. The funniest thing was that Payton would drop her bucket on the ground after she said "trick-or-treat". The people handing out the candy would have to bend down to put the candy in the bucket. I think she finally got the hang of it at the end.

Boo at the Zoo

The Utah Hogle Zoo does trick-or-treating ever year for kids. The kids get dressed up in costumes, trick-or-treat and see the animals. The weather was so nice this year which made the zoo very crowded. Nephi and I met up with Taunya, Heston, Stephanie and Lexie, Stephanie's BFF, at the zoo. We had a really good time. Afterwards we headed to Pier 49 for some yummy pizza.

Here is Steph giving me her best "Bat Princess" face. MMM...does that wing taste good?

Heston and Taunya posing for a picture.

Heston, Stephanie and Lexie are posing for a picture on the elephant statue at the elephant exhibit. You can't tell but they were squishing each other. I think Lexie had it the worst. They were so determined to get their picture on the elephant that they were all smiles despite the pain. What good sports.

I love this picture. Heston is giving his best "Batman" pose.

Stephanie as cute as ever as a Bat Princess.

Batman is taking a rest in the car on the way to pizza. He loved his costume and we could only convince him to take off the mask to eat, not the costume.

Arizona, Here I Come...

I bought my plane tickets today for my trip to Arizona. I will be down there the week of November 10Th. I am just like a little kid at Christmas time when it comes to my trips to Arizona. Once it gets closer to my trip I can't stop thinking about it, I count down the days and then it is gone before I know it. Since this year I am only going to make it down once I want to make the most of my trip. I have made a list of things I want to do and this is what I have come up with so far...

*Visit family and friends.

*Day trip to Sedona if Jen is up to it. I still have never been.

*Play with the Bauers' cute little Yorkie puppies and kids.

*Eat yummy food (i.e. Bahama Bucks, In and Out and a good Mexican restaurant)

*Watch Quantum of Solace (HP...want to come?)

*Session @ the Mesa Temple (anyone in?)

*Relax!!!!

Thank You Jen and HP

My mom asked that I do this post especially for Jen and HP. Jen is my cousin and we are just 3 months apart. She is my dearest friend and I would rather call her a sister then a cousin. HP is her husband and I have enjoyed getting to know him over the years and I am glad to call him family. They have three wonderful children that keep their lives busy and entertaining. I need to come and visit soon before I can't recognize them. Hopefully November!!

Last summer Jen, HP and the kids came to Utah to visit. While visiting Jen and HP told my mom about a tree that Jen had helped her mother-in-law make. My mom loved the idea so Jen and HP set about to find all the materials to make the tree. They went to the store a couple of times, stayed up late and worked really hard to complete the tree before their journey back to Arizona. The final result was a very unique piece of art that displays my mom's angels and fairies. My mom loves her angels so it makes her very happy to be able to display it in such a way that the angels seem to float. Her two granddaughters, Stephanie and Payton, love Grandma's tree. Stephanie has two of her own angels on the tree and know that she can touch those ones. Patyon has been really good about just looking and not touching. I think Mom is going to have a very hard time putting away the angels to replace them with Christmas Ornaments for the Christmas season. So from my mom to Jen and HP...Thank you very much for my amazing tree!! I love you guys.

Women in the Outdoors - Camp Wapiti - Tooele, UT

Michelle, Taunya, Kat and Dana

My friend Kathryn, my sister Taunya and her friend Michelle had ourselves quite the adventure at this years WITO in Tooele. Man, we really had to rough it. Just kidding, we stayed in cabins so there really wasn't much roughing it. For those of you that have been, it reminded me of Kamp Kenyon.

August 22

2:00 - Got to camp and unloaded.

2:30 - My first class was self defense but the instructor was a no show. Instead I made these cute coasters. Just the night before I was saying that I needed coasters. First klutz alert of the trip - I hot glued my finger. Still hurts...

4:30 - My next class ,which Kathryn and Taunya were in as well, was knot tying. The class was so large that I really didn't get much out of it. Instead Taunya kept hitting me with the rope trying to give me a welt. Then I look over at Kat and she is covered in dust from head to toe. Apparently her first class, handguns, was up the hill and she had to ride in the back of the truck to get there. What a sight. I felt like the disruptive kid in class.

6:30 and on - We had dinner and a pj contest. Afterwards was an absolute blast. I have this game called Werewolves. Some of you may have played a similar game called Mafia. I have never laughed so hard in my life. We had about 9 of us playing until about midnight. There were these two older ladies, Sima and Jenny, that were a riot. They were trying so hard to get the hang of the game.

August 23rd

Bright and early we were up and at em.

8:00 - All four of us had the same morning class of hiking. It was very informative. The ladies teaching it went over things to carry in case you are stranded or hurt. The part that cracked me up was the poo tasting. Actually, they were trying to teach us what animal has been around by the poo they left behind. To demonstrate they brought chocolate that matched the size and shape. For example, we at whoppers as they were talking about deer.

10:00- Off to nutrition. Goodness knows I needed the reminder

1:30 - This next class is one of my favorites. It is called Mountain Womaning which consists of loading and shooting muzzle loaders. There is something about loading a gun with black powder that is thrilling. Okay, here is klutz alert 2 - My hand was smashed between the barrel of the gun and the ram rod. The instructor was trying to show me something and smashed my had in the barrel. It didn't hurt but it cut enough to where I got a tetanus shot once Monday rolled around.

3:30 - My final class of the day was archery. There was only 3 of us in the last archery class so we got plenty of time to shoot. I found myself competing with Kat although she just laughed at me. All in all I hit 18 targets. That is so much better then my whopping zero the last time. The instructor was teasing me the entire time for getting so excited but I couldn't help it. They say things come in three so here is the final klutz alert. Just about every time I let the bow go it would hit my left arm. I had such a big welt when I was done but I didn't really care. It was too much fun.

5:30 and on - More eating, skits and chatting. We had a raffle to raise money for the National Wild Turkey Federation. I won a camping chair and table out of it and Taunya got a sleeping bag. Then Sima and Jenny stopped by with treats and said they were calling for a rematch of werewolves. Again we were up until about midnight. Taunya kept taking me out in the first round. I think she was having a little too much fun.

The next morning we packed up and headed back into town to drop off Taunya and Michelle. Then Kat dropped me off in Sandy and I rushed to get ready for church.

If anyone is interested in finding events in their neck of the woods check out http://www.womenintheoutdoors.org/. I promise there is a good time to be had for everyone. Events usually run early to late summer.