OUR ROCKIN' HALLOWEEN

Here they are: the Gordon family costumes for 2008!

C the ninja, P as Snow White, A as Will from the Ranger's Apprentice books, and my unfestive husband and me at the Trunk or Treat.

 

C and my cute little sister at the Trunk or Treat.

We had a fun, but busy Halloween, like most of you, I am sure. I took photos of the students in their costumes at the Middle School as a PTA fundraiser. It went well and we were able to make it to the Elementary parade too. That night we went to the Trunk or Treat in the church parking lot. It was fun, but not as crowded as it has been is years past. I was a little disgusted by the lack of Trunk or Treat etiquette this year. There were lots of people that parked their cars on the street and came to get candy. Is that slimy or what? It just boggles my mind that people would do that! Okay, enough venting...

S and her friends had a rockin ' Halloween party on our back porch that night. They had a DJ and let me say the music was LOUD! You know that saying: "If it's too loud, you're too old"? Well I am definitely too old!  It shook our house and throbbed the whole night long. Sam had gone to the neighbors to warn them and they were okay until 11 pm. One of them had finally had enough and called to ask if we could turn it down, so they were good and did. We made through our first major high school party and things went well. I am still glad it's over. Halloween in fun, but it's great to move on too.

S (in blue) and some of her friends from the party. I missed taking a photo of D this year.

HIKE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Baptist Draw- Upper Chute Canyon in the San Rafael Swell.

I knew going in to the hike that there would be rappelling and so we left P at home with my little sister, but took C. My husband and the older boys had done part of it before with the scouts, so we knew what to expect. But we forgot the rule of "expect the unexpected!" We hiked in and enjoyed the beautiful slot canyons and I even made it through the rappels okay, but as we headed up into Chute canyon surprises awaited us. Slimy, filthy water holes about 20 ft. long and chest-deep in some places! C got carried across, but D and A had to SWIM it. It was the coldest water I have ever been in and also the smelliest. It was quite an interesting experience and one that my kids haven't quit talking about. We had to run through the rest of the canyon because we were freezing. As a result, we missed a lot of the beauty of Chute canyon. I am bummed about that. I have always dreamed of doing a slot canyon and feel cheated I missed the second half of it. My husband says we can go back some time and just do the Chute canyon part. I am looking forward to it...

My cute, little, 8 year old doing a 75 ft. rappel! He is amazing!

Me, experiencing hell freezing over. My shirt tells the story (and by the way, it still does. It won't come clean).

Soaking up the sun after the hole of liquid manure. (That's what we decided it was full of). 

Teamwork was a major part of this hike. I don't know that you could do it alone.

For more photos look on my hiking blog.

DESPERATE DISNEY HOUSEWIVES

I just had to throw this in. I found it while blog-stalking and loved it. We have lots of Princess discussions at our house and so it just clicked with me.

PUNKIN' PATCH

  
  

  
Here we are again. Our 2nd annual Beck Family Farms pumpkin patch visit. We went with all the Gordons last year and had lots of fun, so we decided to go again. The pictures aren't as cute as last year and it was very stinky with lots of flies to gather in our car, but it was still fun. Who can be grumpy in a pumpkin patch in the crisp fall weather? 

SPOOKY BLOG

I know I am a weirdy (as my kids would say), but I just had to do a Halloween theme background. There is just too much fun stuff out there not to use it! We are getting very excited about Halloween at our house, watching Nightmare Before Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I am getting as bad as my Halloween-obsessed little sister. (By the way, Scuz, the Ministry song's for you)!

WE'RE EXCITED FOR THIS YEAR!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

C'S BAPTISM

The invitation photo. What a very handsome young man.

Two very handsome men in white.

The traditional baptism family photo. 

My youngest was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today. We had lots of family come for it and had such a fun time. I was worried about the weather because it was supposed to be so cold and even snowy, but my in-laws let us have the lunch at their cabin. It turned out great. We had soups and my mother-in-law made lots of rolls. My kids define a good meal by how many rolls are present, so it was a success. After the lunch some of the kids went with my brothers to the Snow College Homecoming game. They had a great time with all the cousins, but then it started to snow (very fitting at a Snow College game) so they wimped out and came home. It was such a fun day to visit with everyone and we really enjoyed the company. We are so proud of C and his decision to be baptized. He was so excited and happy. We sure love him!

YUMMY YUMMY PUMPKINS

My older sister informed me that to be worth reading a blog should be informative, so I am trying not to include only journal-type stuff but to be informative also, thus, my book recommendations. I am also going to start sharing some of my favorite recipes. Since it is October and officially the harvest season I am going to give you my favorite pumpkin recipe of all time. I actually like a lot of pumpkin stuff (except pie, weird, I know) like pumpkin bread, cookies, and trifle. My absolute favorite one, however, is one I got from my sister-in-law whom my kids have deemed a "great cook," which is amazing praise coming from my picky kids. So, thank you Jessi, we love you...

PUMPKIN DESSERT

3 beaten eggs

1 can pumpkin (30 oz.)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 box spice or white cake mix

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix eggs, pumpkin, milk, and spices and pour into 9x13" pan. Sprinkle with dry cake mix, brown sugar and nuts. Drizzle melted butter over the top and bake at 350 for 45 min.

After it cools a bit cut into squares and top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.