Labor Day

For Labor Day weekend we were lucky enough to have my parents drive up for the weekend to visit us. They left early Saturday morning and arrived around 4:00 in the afternoon. We spent most of the evening just relaxing at our house. But we were able to walk to The Chocolate and get one of our favorite desserts ever, the cazooki (my own recipe version coming soon). 

Sunday morning we went to church and then right after we packed up and drove to Tabiona, to spend a night in the wild, camping of course. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the company was even better. We enjoyed chatting, fishing, picking wild raspberries, campfire sitting, water balloon launching, cobber eating, air rifle shooting, picture taking and more. 

Don't mind the few hiccups we had, with some charcoal falling in our cobbler and mom being a little worried about her restroom facilities. But it all worked out, there was a campground close with bathrooms, and we picked out the big pieces of charcoal and enjoyed our cobbler anyway.

It was a perfect weekend. Thanks for coming to visit, Mom and Dad. We always love you and our time together.

The start to our cobbler, with fresh peaches from our tree and peach sauce for the liquid.

Aspen loves to sniff fish, whenever we catch them. Nate caught 3 which he, Mom and Dad ate for breakfast.

What is this picture?! The cover of our water balloon launcher.

Aspen loved trying to catch the water balloons across the street.

Gorgeous Tabby.

A hummingbird. I was able to get really close.

And finally we took a few pictures using the car as a tripod and my camera remote.

And one with the pup for good measure.

A feather I found on our rifle shooting adventure.

gorgeous Tabiona again. One of our favorite places in the world.

The tiniest fish, caught fly fishing. Aspen, as always the investigator pup.

lighting - long exposure

About a month or so ago, Nate and I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed to the park across the street. We wanted to catch the lightning in a picture. Although our picture attempts weren't great, we got a few fun ones of us in the meantime. Check it out.

This picture makes it look like its day.

movement.

 And finally, our only captured attempts at getting a shot of lighting. Not so great, but we'll get it next time!

Virginia Vacation

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I've been blogging a lot more over at our food blog, and kind of forgot about keeping track of our life on here as well.

About 3 weeks ago we got lucky enough to be able to go to Virginia for a few days to spend time with Nate's family.

Thursday we arrived in the afternoon and just hung out for the first bit. Thursday evening we decided to head down to DC so we could see the monuments lit up in the dark, and enjoy walking around in the cooler weather as well.

Friday morning the whole gang headed down to Virginia Beach. After some awful traffic and some hotel miscommunications we finally checked into our rooms and headed to the beach to play. We found a parking spot close to the beach, and were able to enjoy playing in the waves and the sand for a few hours before it got dark.  We spent some time trying to catch seagulls, and finally caught one with the help of some chips, a towel and team work. And played a game trying to keep a beach ball of the ground as long as we could by hitting it to each other (this wasn't very easy with the strong winds). After dinner, even though it was dark, the board walk had enough lights to keep the beach lit a bit and we enjoyed chatting, and enjoying the cool ocean breeze as we became entranced by the crashing waves. We also enjoyed some delicious Hershey's ice cream too.

Saturday we headed down to the beach a little bit earlier, after an on the house breakfast and some time relaxing in the hot tub. The beach was more crowded but after renting a raft to play with in the water we were able to clear some people away from us (because they didnt want to get hit). The raft was so much fun, bouncing over the waves. And even after the boys got out Sandi and I enjoyed using the raft as a 2 person boogie board. Around 2 or 3 we decided to leave the beach and head back to Sterling. Although we were stopped by some traffic we made it back in time to see Planet of the Apes along with some popcorn.

Sunday was a more relaxed day. We went to church in the morning, lounged around the house in the afternoon and ate a family dinner in the evening. However, I was so happy because Anthony, Jana and Zoe were able to come over for dinner. Zoe was such a doll, and I couldn't believe how grown up she has become since I last saw her at Christmas. I enjoyed playing outside with her and Strider (their dog) and we all also played a game of Scrabble.

Monday was also a relaxed day. The boys went to the church to play basketball, the girls went on a 4 mile walk. Then we went to get blizzards from dairy queen and sent Dain home to SLC. That night we went fishing, and caught tons of blue gills by dropping in a hook with bread attached (no pole was really needed, only string - haha). Nate and I also treated the family to some delicious homemade pizza (seriously might be the best we've ever made).

Tuesday morning we all headed up to Baltimore to spend some more time with with Anthony, Jana and Zoe. We went to breakfast, and all got stuffed with some amazing food before heading on a little tour of some of Baltimore's best places. We went inside an amazing library and music conservatory and then headed back to their place to visit for a bit before we had to head home. Nate and I went straight from their place to the airport and were happy there was no traffic so we were able to get there in plenty of time. Instead of getting food before our flight we decided to splurge and get some on the plane and split a meal of crackers and dip and a sandwich wrap.

We were happy to come home and be reunited with our favorite pup and even ready to get back to real life and our jobs. I seriously missed my students while we were gone, especially my night students (since I missed 2 full weeks of class with them).

We were so happy to have spent so much fun time with family. And hope that we can make it back for Thanksgiving!