Happy Halloween!

I'm going to slip this post a little early, since I'll be gone all day on Saturday. It is our annual Make A Wish Foundation fundraiser out at the barn. So, from our house to yours, Happy Halloween!

Even though there are just the two of us, we still carved pumpkins. It seemed too strange not to! I'm not sure exactly what Bruce's pumpkin is supposed to be, but he seemed happy with it.
I even got Xena to pose with the porch decorations! I think she is staring at the neighbors across the street.

In honor of an actual day off, I treated myself to a trip to Gardener's Village. I spent some quality time in the great stitching store, Pine Needles, being overwhelmed with all the cute projects and fabric!Then I wandered around, taking a few pictures of the witches on display for Halloween. They put me in the Halloween mood!

Wysocki is Wonderful!

Charles Wysocki is one of my favorite artists. I bought his yearly calendar for a long time, and had a frame made that I can switch out those calendar pictures to match the seasons. Shannon and I visited his gallery at Lake Arrowhead, CA when we were at Big Bear one summer. I love this witch picture! It is so spooky! Perfect for Halloween!

Spooky Stamps!

Shannon and I tried our had at a few Halloween cards last Sunday, I was inspired by C's stamping, so I've picked a few new spooky stamps along the way. We had fun, and made some pretty cute cards too!

Halloween Bags

I was determined to be at least a little crafty for Halloween this year, and I was inspired by the stitching project we all did up at C's cabin. I found this cute Halloween bag pattern at Sweet Lavender, (the cranky lady fabric store), and made a bag for each of my married couple's Halloween gift boxes. The kids might like the Count Chocula better, but I think these bags are kinda cute! My bag is partially stitched- not sure if that one's going to get done this year!

Stanley, Idaho

I'd always heard of Stanley, Idaho- at least I had heard that it was a beautiful spot. After our visits to the lakes north of Sun Valley, we drove a little further north to see Stanley. Traveler tip: there is not much to see there. The drive was beautiful, winding down next to the amazingly rugged Sawtooth Mountains. I didn't take mountain pictures because the light was a wrong and I wouldn't have done them justice.

Stanley has one stop light, some motels and the best vault toilets at the rest stop that Bruce has had the pleasure to recommend! One of the motels had the BEST old, rusty, shot-out advertisement signs on their little cabins and I just had to take pictures of those:

I've Been Swined!

Yesterday I worked at a school in South Salt Lake. At 12:10, during our scheduled time for younger siblings of the students at the school, a lady comes in with her two boys. They were in 2nd and 4th grade. They didn't come through with their classes because they were home from school, sick. How did I know they were sick? Maybe it was the masks they wore over their mouths or the hospital admission tags they were wearing on their wrists. Anyway, this mom drags her kids in because they HAD to get their pictures taken on picture day. So, off come the masks, (now they are spewing their flu germs everywhere), and I take both pictures. The youngest boy was coughing, but I still went up and positioned his head where it needed to be for a decent picture. After they left, masks back in place, I disinfected my stool as best I could. I'm thinking I should have gotten that lady's address and so I would know where to send my upcoming swine-flu-related medical bills. Does anyone else think that what she did was outrageous??

My Lance Armstrong!

Bruce had big plans for our 2nd Sun Valley day. He's been road biking again lately, and wanted to test his mettle on the 8000 ft. Galena Pass, north of the city. He left the house at 8:30 and headed north, while the rest of us had an excellent waffle breakfast and did a pre-leaving cleaning of sheets and towels. We packed a lunch and leaded out to find him at about 2 hours later. After passing several bikers, including one old lady that we were sure was Bruce, we caught up to him just in time to cheer him on to the top! We were all very impressed with his Lance Armstrong-like achievement.
Shannon and Ben had to freeze outside while Bruce changed out of his biking clothes.
We decided to keep heading north to some mountain lakes shown on the map. First we found Alturis Lake, where it turns out my sister's stake goes for girl's camp. It was pretty much deserted in the 50 degree temperatures. Bruce and Shannon tested the waters. COLD! Ben showed off his rock-skipping skills.Further north was Pettit Lake. I was hoping to find a lake that looked like this. This is my idea of a mountain lake!Trip Highlight- This Red-Neck Houseboat!

We entertained ourselves at Sun Valley in lots of ways- the house had bikes and scooters that we played with:
And I took a walk down the road to see what I could find. There were chipmunks and actual warm springs at the Warm Springs ski lift:
There was also this fence- with it's clever use of recycled skis. And ski boots.
While the guys went golfing, Shannon and I did some exploring of our own, checking out memorial to Hemingway, who seems to have hunted, fished, partied and drunk his way around Sun Valley for several decades.
We putzed around the resort lodge, then stopped in at a few shops, then drove out to the most visible of the world-class stable in the area. :)

Sun Worship

If I were a ga-zillionaire, I'd have a house in Sun Valley. It would be next to a river, hidden in the trees and would be my own little sanctuary. It would also have several rock fireplaces, huge windows and heated tile floors! There would also be a beautiful barn for Rocko.

It makes sense that the folks in Sun Valley are crazy about the Sun. When the Union Pacific Railroad was planning the resort, they measured where the sun lasted the longest in the valley, and that's where the built the Sun Valley Lodge. Sun symbols are everwhere! Here are just a few we found in our wanderings:

Livin' Large

We are pretty lucky that Bruce has a client with an amazing 2nd home in Sun Valley. He and his wife have let us stay there twice now- once over President's Day and again last weekend. It's a beautiful place with heated floors (!) and views of the ski runs right across the valley. I could SO live there! Here's the outside from our last visit in February:
The master bedroom, complete with sheepskin bed throw:
The 2 other bedrooms:
The living area from both ends- the big screen tv is tucked around the corner:The deck, (that's a ski lift chair swing!), with views of the Warm Springs side of the mountain:
Yep, I call this livin' large!

Is He Less Smart Now?

Peter is less 4 wisdom teeth after this morning's trip to the oral surgeon. He seems to be ok in his semi-conscious state. When we were trying to chat him up after the surgery, in the moment of ulitimate truth telling, the nurse asked if he liked being the baby of the family and he said that we really didn't care what he did- he pretty much did whatever he wanted. This is true. He's always been a good, trustworthy kid. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!

Reception Pictures

Finally, here are some of my favorite pictures from the reception- almost 3 months late, but still so cute!

Lindey's brothers make me smile, not to mention that Lindsey is so cute!:
Here's the now-legendary Rifle Pose:I LOVED how the cookie bar looked so cute with C's hand-lettered labels!In the background, you can see that Peter has stripped to his swimsuit to catch the garter:
And a few more that I really liked: