Halloween

I'm finally getting around to posting Halloween weekend photos.  Our only camera was my cell phone, which doesn't always take the best photos.

Here we have Ava as a Greek goddess.

Ashlyn was Princess Tiana.

Grace was Storm from X-Men.

First we went trick-or-treating at the Thompson's local LDS church, then we went to Steph's work, then we came down to my neighborhood.  We spent about 3 hours trick-or-treating and the kids would have kept going all night if the adults had let them.

Sunday morning we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

At the head of the table is Jo's boyfriend, Josh.

This weekend I celebrated my birthday in style by ordering a gluten-free pizza from David's then going to bed early.  On Saturday Brian came over and put a new roof on my patio.  He replaced the old nasty light green fiberglass with new dark green steel.  I like the new roof, but I haven't taken any pictures of it. 

Saturday night Denise, Tori and Megan took me out to Rodizio Grill for a delicious dinner.  On my way home I stopped at Kohls and bought myself some new cozy jammies and a couple of cardigans for church.  Since the only temperature settings in my church appear to be only roasting and freezing, I was in need of something to keep me warm.  Even with the cardigan I was a little chilly today.  I might have to sacrifice fashion for warmth and keep a parka on during meetings.

Nothing much exciting has been going on around here, so there hasn't been much to post.  Mom is coming up for Halloween, so hopefully there will be a little more excitement this weekend.

This is my dog's Halloween costume.  She is going as a hunting hound.  Pretty original, huh?

Here she is in her more natural state.

The leaves have been really pretty, but were about done with that now.  It snowed earlier in the week, and that made for some really slippery hiking.  It finally forced me to order some winter hiking boots which I am anxiously waiting for.

I loved this orange tree.  It is so bright, especially next to the dark pine.

I did go to see Thriller at the Oddysey Dance Company a couple of weeks ago.  It was really good, but I was disappointed that they didn't do the real Thriller dance.  How can you dance to Thriller and not do the original dance?  Oh well.

Big Hike

I love it when I can combine church with a big hike.  I think we should have General Conference at least once a month just so I can listen to church while I hike.  Today I took the Fernwood trail straight up the mountain.  According to my handy-dandy gps unit I hiked a 7 mile round trip.  The elevation at the trailhead is 5228 ft, and we made it up to 9449 ft.  When we reached the "top" we were actually in the middle of a saddle and there were peaks on either side.  The trail didn't appear to go to either peak, and since we could see both Davis County and Morgan County I considered it good enough.  Here are my pictures in no particular order.

I liked the green and red leaves contrasted by the white, dead trees in this photo.

This view is near the top looking down into Layton.

Here we are almost at the top of the saddle.  At this point the trail actually heads south across the hill toward the trees at the back of this photo.  I wanted to continue east, so we left the trail here and struck out on our own.

Here we are at the top of the saddle looking into Morgan County.

Another view into Morgan County.

Coonhound perched on a rock.  This poor animal was very hot by the time we got back.  I brought several dog biscuits for her lunch, but she insisted on sharing my jerkey, peanut butter sandwich, and apple.

This is the view from the saddle of Davis county.

This is a little valley toward the top of the mountain.  This photo doesn't even come close to showing how steep it was from where I was standing down to those trees.  This was the most nerve-wracking part of the trail for me, because I do not like the steep places.

I loved the colors of the lichen on these rocks.

Another picture of the coonhound on her way back down the mountain.

This photo is about half way up the mountain looking south.  I just liked the colors.

Here we are near the bottom looking up.  You can't even see the top of the range from this point.

I am sunburned and sore, but we had a good day.

Ava's Birthday

Okay, so the Diva's birthday party was 2 weeks ago, but I did finally get the pictures posted.

It was a well attended party at the Castle Park on Nichols Road.  The kids got hats and fancy pink mesh gloves, and they got to make their own necklaces.

Steph and Jamie put some gorgeous make-up on their faces. 

The kids enjoyed playing tether ball and swinging on the big tire swing.

The adults enjoyed sitting in the shade.

After dealing with a sick dog for several days a few weeks ago, I started looking into what she might be eating to make herself sick.  I discovered that the berries on my Virginia creeper are poisonous to dogs.  I don't know why the stupid dog would be eating them, but I do know that the 2 little neighbor kids were picking them and throwing them to her.  I decided that as a precaution the vine had to go.  Because I don't enjoy looking at my neighbors, I needed to plant a new vine on my fence.  Clematis, Boston Ivy, trumpet vines, and honeysuckle are all poisonous to dogs, so I settled on the silver lace vine.  I can't find any evidence that it is poisonous, so let's hope it is not.  Regardless, it does not produce berries, so hopefully she won't try snacking on it.  It does produce masses of white flowers which attract bees, so maybe it will keep the neighbor kids away.  After I planted my new vines this morning I was driving up to the trail head with Shady for our evening walk when I noticed this vine covering a fence and the power lines above it, as well as a couple of trees.  This is the silver lace vine, and this picture frightens me.  I wonder how long this vine has been growing, and how many they planted.  I planted two.  I can see that I will need to be aggressive at pruning it! 

Call Me Suzie Homemaker

While the Barnes family was enjoying the Peach Festival in Canada, I was busy canning peaches.  I canned my first batch last weekend.  After boiling the jars for twice as long as the instructions called for, I finally called mom and asked her why my lids weren't sealing.  She explained to me that the lids don't seal until the jars cool.  Ooops!  Needless to say, those peaches were seriously over processed.  Armed with my new knowledge things went a little smoother this weekend. 

I now have 25 pints of peaches from my little tree. There are still a couple of dozen peaches left on the tree, but I think I am done with the canning for this year.

I also spent a lot of time doing yard work this weekend.  I have been really disappointed with the performance of my annuals for the past two years, so I've decided to go perrenial.  I ripped out all of my petunias and snap dragons, and in my front flower bed I have planted columbines, lupines, asters, mums, bell flowers, and dianthus which I moved over from my park strip.  It is probably way over crowded, but that's how I roll.

I also moved some of the flowers around in my park strip.  Some tall plants were blocking sprinkler heads from reaching other plants.  Hopefully all of the transplants will survive.  I also planted more mums and some yarrow in my park strip, and more asters, mums, and lupines on the south side of my yard.

I just love asters! 

In other news, Shady has been sick all weekend.  I was worried enough Sunday morning to call Eric, and when I told him her symptoms he recommended that I not wait to take her in.  He couldn't see her since he had the kids for the weekend, but he was worried that she might have an intestinal blockage or intestinal twisting.  I took her to Dr White and he thinks it's just a case of the flu, so hopefully we will not have any more problems.  I took the day off of work to keep an eye on her just in case we have to go back to the vet.

Labor Day Festivities

I was talking to aunt Debbie a few weeks ago and she said, "How are your sisters doing?"  And I said, "I don't know, I don't ever see them."  That's pretty sad since we all live fairly close to one another, so I decided that Labor Day was a good excuse to get together for a barbeque.

The hammock was the hit of the night.  These three even ate their dinner in the hammock.  There was one disasterous incident when Ava got bucked out of the hammock, but there was no permanent damage done.

Here I have put my fabulous brother-in-law to work assessing my patio roof.  The roof has needed to be replaced for several years now, but last week the wind ripped one of the panels off so it really has to be done now.  I need to decide whether I want to replace it with polycarbonate (plastic) or steel panels.  I am leaning towards the steel since they are sturdier and actually cheaper.  The only plus with the plastic panels is that they do let in more light.

Here we have most of the family in attendance, minus Brian who was taking the picture.  Why we are huddled in the corner behind the hammock for this I am not sure, but somebody wanted us to be by the trumpet vine.

Here we have me and Denise again posing in front of the trumpet vine.

  

Here we have Colton and JoLyn striking a pose, and below a picture of me. 

All in all I think a good time was had by all.  We should do this again some time.

End of HCG Round 2

I finished my second round of HCG yesterday.  The last week has been pretty worthless.  I went up almost two pounds at the first of the week, and it took me the rest of the week to take off those two plus another one.  All in all I am down 18 pounds this time around. 

I am pretty pleased with the results.  I went out today and bought a pair of size 6 jeans.  I have  never before in my life fit into a size six.  Granted, it is a misses size 6 and not a juniors size 6, but I will take it.  I may have also purchased a bikini.  Quick, get me to a beach while I can still fit into it!

In other news, I have survived my first official week back at work with kids.  The high school kids started on Monday and the little kids started on Wednesday.  Wednesday and Thursday were extremely hectic, but by Friday things had calmed down considerably.  Here's hoping that it just gets better from here on out!