Fall In A Box

Fall is my tied-for-first-place-favorite season.

(Quiz: what season is it tied with?)

I love the “ideal fall”. The crisp blue skies, the smoky air, the wind gusts, the sweaters, scarves and hats but no coats, the fiery trees. Especially that part- the trees on fire part. It doesn’t happen where I live. We are still green, green, green. Which is nice but really, how am I supposed to fully appreciate the green if it’s always green? You know?

 

Cambry got a package in the mail. A big box from Utah. It smelled musky. It felt damp. It was fall. A big box of fall- fall leaves, fall berries, fall pinecones. We spent the morning playing on the porch with our box of fall.

 

We made bowls of  pinecone sundaes and plates of fairy salad with a side of berry mash soda.

 

And even though it was still 78 degrees outside at 10 in the morning and our coats were just for keeping the mosquitoes off our arms, we made the change from the spring/summer wreath to the fall/winter wreath.

 

Quiz answer: spring

The Cats “Mo-ow”

The cutest leopard/“kitty cat” I ever saw.

Cambry was excited to put on her costume and take pictures. Especially after we showed her the basket was for putting all her candy in.

We took her to our ward Trunk or Treat where, after she figured out that we weren't taking her to the cars to put her in the car seat and drive her away from all the children, she navigated through all the crowds of kids with one thing in mind: get to the person giving the candy.

I tried going every other car so she wouldn’t get too much, but if I missed one she would pull me over. She was so solemn as she held out her basket for the treat, checked to make sure they had actually put something in it and then take my hand, turn away, and guided me to the next car.

Everyone commented on how cute she was and how mild and calm she was being. I guess nobody saw the time when I tried to hold her basket for her. Level four meltdown complete with complete collapsed body weight and a very high decibel screech.

Getting the basket out of her hands to get her into the car seat proved a challenge also. She was content driving home as long as she had the basket o’candy on her lap. She meticulously picked up each piece individually and examined thoroughly it before placing it back and retrieving another. We told her many times on the way home that when we got to the house she could pick ONE piece of candy to eat and the rest was going to “disappear”. She picked a little sucker and held it quiet and content, waiting for us to return to the house.  We let our guard down until the smell of cherry wafted toward the front of the car and we became aware of little nibbling noises. We looked back to see that she had chewed through the wrapper to get to the sucker. She was so proud of herself I couldn’t bare to take it away!

We don’t find it easy to say no to this face!

What We’ve Been Up To

• Birthday was great. Jim and Cambry made sure it was a special day in their own way. Jim lavished me with attention and Cambry sat through an entire restaurant dinner, eating her food and not screaming once! She did go a little crazy after the chocolate cupcakes though!

 

• Blending smoothies, chopping salsa, whipping potato soup with our amazing blender, a birthday present from Jim-boy. It’s amazing really. If you come to my house I make no promises that I will not show it off to you then tempt you to buy one. It’s worth it. We refrain from blending phones, i-pods, light bulbs and crow bars, but we do pulverize whole apples, potatoes, frozen fruit, and peanuts. It’s awesome. “And delish.” (And that is a direct quote from Jim.)

 

• Walking in the rain wearing my new rain boots. They are awesome. And “Just. SO. Cute.” (And that is also a direct quote from Jim.)

• Picking out our pumpkins at the Fall Festival.

• Enjoying the cool weather. FINALLY! And going to the park everyday for lunch.

Remember that one time when I was walking down the street in Houston and met Bono?

Yeah. That's how I wish the story went.

Unfortunately it went more like this: “Remember that one time when I was walking down the street in Houston and I didn’t run into Bono even though that would have been a totally awesome story to write on my blog and probably would have gotten me at least 5 more followers.”

Today I was walking down the streets of downtown Houston on my way to the Quilt Festival (woo-hoo, go quilters) and wishing that I was actually walking down the streets of downtown Houston on my way to the U2 concert.

And then I started thinking… “What if Bono drove by in his limousine on the way to the concert but his driver was totally drunk and they hit me while I was crossing the street and then they would have to invite me to the concert and then I’d request that they send a helicopter to pick up Jim and a super babysitter to watch Cambry because, you know, they did hit me with their limo and I kinda needed some sort of compensation because when they hit me with the limo my quilting hand was hurt and if they could also throw in a limo ride back to the suburbs when the concert was all over and a picture with Bono I’d be perfectly satisfied not to sue.”

Our picture would probably look something like this:

And then I started thinking… “I wonder how much of my imaginary story I could tell on my blog to make people believe that it really happened to me!” (Also, I was simultaneously thinking, "Is that homeless guy peeing on that tree?")

I thought I could probably get away with the whole story until I posted the picture. Because, duh, Bono has short hair now.

Still, it would have been awesome.

Canceling Cable (GASP!)

Yes. We did.

No. We are doing fine.

Colorado

FINALLY some pictures from our Colorado trip. Since my inbox has been filled with queries  about when they would be up, I am finally satisfying the public. (Okay fine, no one was asking to see them…not even my mom…)

Actually this post is out of order with our Utah post. First we were east of the Rockies and then we were west of the Rockies. But who cares? (Obviouslt not the public...or my mom...)

ANY WAY.

We went to Colorado to see what we could see and we saw a lot! Before we left we decided that since this was our first family vacation (since our honeymoon trips) that did not piggyback on extended family visits, we would do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. There was to be no stopping us.

Of course the reality is that when you are traveling with a 15 month old, there is a lot stopping you. Still, we did our best. And hey, if “doing what we want” means finding the public library for an afternoon of reading then hey, no one can make fun of us.

Here are Jim and Cambry being stinkerpants in front of Casa Bonita, a Denver Mexican restaurant. Our dining experience came complete with a Mariachi band, cliff divers, puppet shows, magic tricks, and animatronics. The food wasn’t too bad wither, you know, for being not in Texas (or Mexico, I guess). In Denver we also got to go to the Children's Museum, the city park, the Tattered Cover Bookstore, and swimming.

 

North of Denver, we stayed in Loveland and traveled out to Fort Collins, Boulder, Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Which. Was. Beautiful. Here is Cambry sitting on a bear. What you can’t hear is her adorable little bear noise. It sounds like a cross between a kitten mewing and wind blowing in the trees.

 

We managed a few hikes in here and there over the 3 days we were there. Here is Cambry and Mommy at bear lake. This is after we realized that Cambry would stop crying if only Mommy would hold/carry/talk/look at her. Daddy enjoyed a solo hike the Emerald Lake while Mommy lugged Cambry in the back pack down a steep rocky tail. It was nice until Mommy realized she had to go back up the steep rocky trail.

 

Sprauge Lake. Couldn’t you just live here? I felt like I could always spontaneously break into song and I would be accepted by the locals. Seriously though, I haven’t seen mountains this beautiful since we were in the Alps.

 

In this next picture at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, you will see we had the unique experience of feeding giraffes. Cambry got brave and decided to feed one. I got snotty and bossy and decided to yell at Jim that he better have gotten it on camera. You can’t see Jim when he decided to roll his eyes and tell me to take a chill pill…but everyone around us could. Any way. Feeding giraffes. Cool.

 

Feeding birdies in the aviary. This was one cool zoo! We also witnessed the grizzly bear feeding, the hippopotamus feeding, the monkeys yelling at Cambry because she had cantaloupe and they had eaten all theirs, and the tigers stalking the children observing them.

 

Also in Colorado Springs, we visited Seven Falls. Which, if you can believe it, has seven waterfalls.

 

We hiked up the 224 steps and past the seven falls to Midnight Falls, which would be the eighth fall, and then up to Inspiration Point. Apparently a great novel was written at this point, Ramona, I think, and I’m not talking about Ramona Quimby of Klickitat Street. Any way. We were inspired to dance and so we did.

 

Garden of the Gods was a lot like Moab or other parts of Southern Utah. We saw some fun rock formations and watched some crazy rock climbers.

 

Cambry picked up acorns.

 

Manitou Cliff Dwellings were next. Those people must have been crazy short. My favorite part was in the museum, they showed a skull that had drill marks in it. Apparently they used to drill holes in their heads to “let the demons out”. The demons were either migraines or brain tumors.

 

And of course, we had to go up Pikes Peak, although we drove, not hiked. Here we are at the top of the world, feeling slightly slight headed and a little dizzy. We ate some yummy donuts and listened to Cambry scream.  Not exactly the “glorious mountaintop experience” one would expect.

Still, a nice ending to a nice family trip. I see a Christmas Card opp! 

P.S. Lets vote:

The hat and scarf:

a) totally looks handmade in the “did your grandma make that and so you feel obligated to wear it” sort of way?

or

b) totally looks handmade in the “oh, that’s so cute and you made it?” sort of way?

We Interrupt the Travel-b-log To Bring You…

Pictures of my cute kid.

We need some updated pictures for the living room so we took Cambry to the park yesterday.

Here is what we got:

Once my sister-in-law said to me, “Marissa, I like your blog because you write funny stories. So many of my married friends just post pictures of their kids and houses on their blogs.”

Hopefully she’ll forgive me. And still like me, cause we’ll have to see each other at Christmas (AWKWARD). I am posting pictures of her niece so there’s a good chance she might. She’s since taken up the position as the family funny blogger.

That tangent was to relate the point of “I don’t care if you want funny stories, I want you to look at pictures of my adorable kid.”

P.S. Jesse Jones Park is a great place to go for the afternoon. Fun trails and a great playground.

P.P.S. While I was choosing which pictures to post of my cute kid, my cookies burnt in the oven. I'll take it as the sign that it probably isn't. Fine, I'll post some stories. I hope your happy.