Angry Devil

Happy Halloween! Here is a Halloween Preview. More to come later- I'm too tired tonight and need to go clean up candy wrappers on my kitchen floor...

Is this just the funniest darn thing you've ever seen? That is one mad devil and one happy angel. Colby was angry that I glued fake hair to his upper lip and chin and Kara was happy that I didn't. After I got done with Colby's goatee (sp?) I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. And the camera was shaking as I was trying to take the pictures because I couldn't stop laughing. Poor Colby. I made him go trick or treating to 3 houses while he begged, "Pleeeeease mom, take it off!" before I actually did. I'm evil, I know.

Marathon Playgroup Party

For our October Play group, we went to This is the Place Monument for a little Halloween party. Actually, it was anything but little. Who knew this place has about a bazillion things to do? During Halloween, they have all kinds of activities for kids to do including a trick or treat scavenger hunt, costume parade, petting zoo, witch stories, hay, train and pony rides, crafts, and tons of other things that can keep kids entertained for hours! We ended up spending the entire day there, and then wrapped things up with cookie decorating at my place.

Backyard Hike

Here are few pictures of a hike we took last Thursday. Besides that fact that I almost passed out while carrying Kara on my back, it was so fun to get up into the mountains for a while and enjoy the fresh air and the changing leaves. We went up Adams Canyon in Layton and took a little shortcut hike to a mini waterfall. What a fun little hike just about in our backyard.

Colby's Preschool Program

Last Thursday, October 25th, was Colby's first ever performance. I'm sure this is the first of many more to come whether it is talks in church, baseball games or school productions. I have to admit that it made me feel a little old to be video taping my very own child's school program, but very proud at the same time.

It was a Halloween program consisting of Colby's preschool class singing 10 or so songs while dressed up in their Halloween costumes. It was pretty cute, even though Colby was less than thrilled to participate. In fact, he sat in his chair nearly the whole program and watched the other children sing. But we videoed the whole thing since this captures our Colby just perfectly. Colby doesn't typically choose to perform in front of even his grandparents let alone 25 complete strangers. He did however, count with his fingers during a witch counting song. This also came as no surprise since Colby's loves to count things. It was blast watching a bunch of 3 year olds trying to sing songs, especially Colby's cousins Mia and Katie who love the stage. We enjoyed Mia preparing the audience about how she felt about the song as well as Katie's hilarious dancing that put me into a laughing fit.

A Great Opportunity to Donate to a Worthy Cause

Since Cameron is now based out of Chicago, SkyWest is giving him 3 "moving days" which includes a hotel in Chicago. Even though we aren't moving there, we are going to go anyway. I've never been to Chicago and have a friend who lives there who I'd like to see, and yes, we are going to take advantage of the free hotel. C'mon- have you ever known me to pass up something free?

Anyways, after our latest flight and hotel experience with the kids (see today's previous post), we are seriously considering leaving them home this time. Just think about it. Shopping in the city without kids. Maybe catching a Wicked matinee. And maybe we'll go see Wicked the musical too. Hee hee. Lazy days in the sun. Oh yah, Chicago in November. Lazy days in the bone chilling cold. If anybody is feeling really sorry for us because of our foolish St. Louis trip, we are currently taking babysitting charity. Our kids are really cute and perfectly behaved and we promise to provide a change of underwear for each day we're gone. Please let me know if you'd be willing via comments. And, a world of thank you.

St. Louis Misery

OUR NOT-SO-FUN TRIP TO ST. LOUIS

In stark contrast to my Oregon Post, I feel it necessary to report on our last adventure. Cameron had some training in St. Louis with a little extra time so he thought, 'hey, the family should come with me!' I've been missing the days of spontaneity when Cameron and I would just pick up and leave to a city we've never been to, so I thought, 'Why not? Free hotel, not much to do at home- let's do it!' Our decision was final and we quickly packed up Sunday night for a short 2 day trip. This was obviously not well thought out and I'll tell you why.

Trouble from the Beginning

Our first mishap was when we discovered we left the kids' bag at home. We realized this as we pulled up to the airport. This should have been my first cue that this trip was not such a fabulous idea. We had packed in such a rush after church to make the flight, that the kid's bag, which was fully packed with clothes, diapers, a must-needed stuffed elephant, toothbrushes, etc., was left behind. Cameron decided that they could live without it and we could just buy a few clothes and diapers when we got there. Sure, why not?

Flight Anguish

This is just another reason the trip was off to a poor start, for me anyway. Have you ever been in a plane when you've had fluid in your ears? Oh my gosh. When we made our decent into St. Louis, the tremendous pressure in my ears was more than I could handle. I thought my eardrums were going to burst and that blood would spurt out like an angry old volcano. Sorry for the graphic details, but man did it hurt. It lasted for about 30 minutes and got worse before it got better. Even after we landed, my right ear was completely plugged with lingering pressure which didn't subside until the next morning. .....Please avoid this if you can! If you are congested from a cold at all, I strongly recommend taking cold medicine before or during your flight!

Hotel Freeway

Well, one our first mistakes was not checking to see if our hotel would be near, well, anything. It was not. Nothing to eat, no little shopping area, not even a sidewalk. Just near a really busy road and a freeway. We managed to find a tiny little gas station where we bought some milk and cereal for the kids to eat for breakfast, and thank goodness, some diapers. It didn't take long for both Cameron and I to realize that this wasn't such a good idea after all.

When we decided to go initially, I was under the impression that Cameron only had a little training, and more time to spend with us. This was not so. Turns out he had training from 11:00 in the morning till about 9:00 at night. (Yes, we could use a little work on our communication skills). So I got to try to entertain two small children in a tiny hotel room with no toys. I don't think I need to provide any more details to you moms who know just how miserable that would be. Even if I did want to attempt an outside activity such as playing frogger on the nearby street, it rained all day. Why did I just assume there would be something to do? Of course there was an indoor pool but we forgot the kids bags, remember? Usually I'm up for any kind of adventure and am eager to scope out an unfamiliar city. But for some reason I was really hesitant this time to take both kids by myself to a big city I had never been to. We considered renting a car but declined when learning it would cost us $100 per day.

Finally Some Time Away from that Blasted Hotel

Finally, Tuesday morning, we had half the day to go see the city till we needed to catch our flight. We made our way into the city on the metro. I know I'm in no place to judge since I saw only a tiny part of the city for only a few hours, but wow. Most of what we did see was totally run down, dirty and wreaking of urine. And, a good share of the people we dealt with were just plain rude. Has anybody been there? Did you have a better experience?

The trip wasn't a total loss however. We got to see the massive arch and spent some time in the Expansion of the West Museum. It was pretty well done and was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Needless to say, we never found a place to buy some clothes for the kids which means they did spend 3 days in the same clothes. (Colby spent the 3 days in the very outfit he wore to church on Sunday. Poor kid!).

I'm pretty sure St. Louis isn't on my list of "must visit again cities," but we did learn a few valuable lessons which I will reiterate.

1. Never pack in a hurry, especially if you are packing for children.

2. If you're not renting a car, call ahead to make sure the hotel is near, AT LEAST, a place to eat.

3. Take cold medicine before your flight if there is ANY possibility of an ear pressure equalization malfunction.

4. Being spontaneous isn't all it's cracked up to be when it involves children. Leave that to your single, prior to child rearing or retired days.

5. Little boys can wear the same underwear for 3 days. I'm not saying it's pleasant, but it can be done when desperate. Hey, it could have been worse. Colby could of had an accident... Good job Colbs!

Pumpkin Muffins

I've had a few requests for a pumpkin muffin recipe I made recently. It is super easy and very yummy. I like to make them into tiny muffins which yields 48 mini muffins. Makes a great neighbor treat!

Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice (I used pumpkin pie spice because I don't know what allspice is)
1 3/4 c. four
2 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. pumpkin
1/4 c. milk

Heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, sift together sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and flour. In another bowl, mix together eggs, oil, pumpkin and milk. Add wet mixture to dry and mix lightly just to blend. Fill greased muffin tin halfway and bake 20-30 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes an remove from pan. Makes 12 muffins.

I think I'm in Love

Portland & The Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast. My new favorite place. Nothing but beauty and charm.

Because Cameron is waiting to be scheduled for IOE (Initial Operating Experience), he's had 5 days off in a row. We decided to take advantage of this rare occasion by hopping on a plane to anywhere USA. Because flights looked decent and there were hotel vacancies, we ended up in Portland. I was totally excited since I had just visited Portland in July and missed out on a few things I wanted to do.

The first thing we were stoked about was that we got to buy a new camera. Our old one broke and we decided to take advantage of the Portland-no-sales-tax by purchasing a new one there. We took a million pictures partly because we were so excited to try out our new camera and mostly because the scenery we encountered was absolutely breathtaking. So please bear with me as I am about to post many, many pictures.

Portland Saturday Market

One thing I didn't get to do in Portland in July was attend the Saturday Market. I opted out by going kayaking instead. I was bummed, but knew I'd be back. So, of course it was something I wasn't going to miss out on twice. Cameron had no desire to go and offered to stay at the hotel with the kids while I went all by myself. I love shopping without kids. I love markets. I love Saturdays. I love Portland. This thing was totally me and pure fun. I know, life doesn't get much better than that. I love these kinds of things because everything is so unique and reasonably priced, there are usually street musicians or entertainers and the street food (if that's what you call it) is unbelievable. It was a fantastic couple of hours. And to my credit, I went away with only a cool green dress and a beanie.

One of the things I love about Portland is the public transportation. The above picture is the Max which goes straight from the airport to downtown (among many other places).

This is a picture of just a few of the vendors at the Saturday Market.

And this is of my yummy gyro. I ate it on the Max on my way back to the hotel. I couldn't waste any precious shopping time. I felt just like Elaine on Seinfeld when she grabs a gyro during a stop on the Subway and while she's eating it, the gyro juice is dripping all over the TV Guide issue that she stole from George's Dad. Remember?

The Coast

That day we also took a trip to the coast. This was recommended by a few people but we had no idea what we were going to experience. I'm sure I've been there before since I spent the first 8 year of my life in Portland, but was too young to remember. First of the all, the 2 hour drive there was gorgeous the whole entire way. Imagine endless forests on either sides of the road during autumn.

We drove to a quaint little town called Seaside. This was my favorite part of the trip. The town was so charming and I can't wait to go visit it again.

We played at the beach in Seaside for a few hours. This was the first time Colby or Kara have been old enough to actually play at the beach even though they've both been to Hawaii. They loved it! It was a blast seeing them run towards the water, chase Seagulls and dig in the sand.

We made our way south down the coast passing several little towns and gazing at breathtaking views of the ocean. We stopped to see several sights including Haystack Rock and Tillamook Lighthouse. Once we made it to Tillamook, we headed back to Portland. By this time it was dark, but I'm assuming the drive back was just as pretty.

Haystack Rock. This is on of may favorite pictures.

The Gorge

Sunday we drove to the Columbia River Gorge and saw a few awesome waterfalls. Seeing Multnomah Falls brought back memories that I forgot I had of the many times my family stopped there on our way out of town.

Wahkeena Falls

This is Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous. You can walk up the bridge where you get close enough to feel the spray from the water. Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States and it's only about 30 minutes outside of Portland.

Isn't this a great picture? I can't take credit for it. Cameron shot it while fooling around with the camera.

After Multnomah Falls, we headed to the airport where we attempted to catch a flight that had 4 seats available. Despite our usuall good luck when flying non-rev, we didn't make it. Good thing I packed my iPod and the kids were entertained by watching Cars. We only had to wait 2 hours until the next flight where we were given the last 3 seats on the plane.

We were only in Oregon for 2 short days, but this was on of my favorite trips we have ever been on. Cameron and I already started planning our next trip to the coast, hopefully in the Spring.

Congratulations Captain Richins!!

First off: Cameron, when you read this, I'm sorry if this embarrasses you a little, but I think this event is important to journal! I'll make it short and sweet.

Cameron is officially a captain of the Canadair Regional Jet (better known as the RJ) at SkyWest Airlines. After 6 weeks of 6-8 hours a day of class and/or simulator training, along with hours and hours of daily study and extensive exams, all of his work paid off. He passed his final test yesterday and is officially captain. I'm not sure if many people know what goes into pilot training but believe me- if you are ever fortunate to fly with Cameron as your pilot, you are in good hands. He worked his behind off and he won't let you down. There's definitely been a lot of talk about RJs around our house evidenced by Colby pretending to fly objects around and claiming that they are "RJs".

Congrats babe- you worked hard and Kara, Colby and I are proud of you!

I wanted to get a picture of Cameron in his uniform, but I'm afraid he'd leave me if I were to share that with anyone else. He won't even walk from the airport to his car with his badges on! Something about not liking the attention...

P.S. I haven't neglected my blog as much as it appears. I actually attempted to share a lengthy post involving several pictures and such a few days ago, but it would not publish. I'm still working on it.

Our life in Fall of 2007

I haven't been able to think of anything real significant to post these days so I'll write about a bunch of randoms.

FIRST: Here's the latest project I've been working on. It's amazing how no job and no church calling frees up quite a bit of time.....

Yet another project I've been wanting to do since we moved into our house. It's so nice to be able to cross it off my list. Actually, I really love doing house projects, I don't think I'd be happy if there wasn't always one on the horizon. And have I mentioned how much I love bead board? Do you think it's too much to do it in every room? I suppose there's a chance I could eventually get sick of it.

SECOND: Colby has been singing this funny lullaby lately that I thought I'd share. The other night I was laying on Kara's floor trying to muster up the energy, or better yet.. courage, to begin the night-time routine. He started bringing me pillows and piling everything he could find on top of me including blankets, towels and plastic bags, all while singing the following song over and over-

Rock-a-bye baby

to the sun

we can build you there.

Rock-a-bye baby

to the sun

we can dry (drive?) you up.

I'm not sure what songs or lines he's combined together to create such a masterpiece, but it cracks me up every time he sings it.

THIRD: I just have to post a picture of Kara's spectacular pot-belly. I have no words to describe to you just how important food is to this little girl. Here are few examples.

1) This girl can hear someone unwrapping something (i.e. fruit snacks, package of crackers, sucker, etc.) from an abnormally long distance. Such as... four rows back in our painfully loud sacrament meeting, or all the way from her room upstairs to the kitchen downstairs. And then she comes running.

2) Food is the ONLY thing that will calm this girl down when she is really angry.

3) She can out-eat me. Anyone who knows me well, knows this is quite a feat. This doesn't happen all the time but enough that I am completely baffled when it does. I sometimes just stop feeding her because I think she's going to eventually throw it all up because there's no way it could all fit in her tummy.

4) Her favorite thing to do is to take cans of food out of the pantry, cart them to a different location, stack them, then cart them back. She doesn't stack Lego's, or blocks, just cans of food.

5) Watch out if she is hungry. And yes, she inherited this lovely trait from me. She is one mean chick if she hasn't eaten in a while. We will do everything in our power to prevent any hungry outbreaks.

6) This love of food is not a new occurrence. She drank 4 ounces of milk every 2-3 hours when she was only 3 days old, which steadily increased to as much as 7-8 ounces per feeding. I believe that it is typical for most newborns to eat maybe 1-2 ounces at a time.

7) I can't think of anymore, I just can't believe how much she eats.

So here is a picture of one of Kara's mini pot-bellies. And I'm not exaggerating about it being a mini. I caught a picture of the biggest belly I've ever seen on her while in the bath the other day and didn't think it was appropriate to post. I haven't been able to get a picture of one as big since. Seriously, you'll just have to take my word for it.

FOURTH: Cameron's mom took me and the kids to the circus the other day. It was a ton of fun and the kids loved it. Grandma even let them pick out a circus souvenir. Kara ended up with a stuffed elephant of which she became severely possessive of immediately, and Colby ended up with a pair of binoculars. I think Kara liked the circus even more than Colby. Next to food, animals is Kara's second love. Anytime any animals were out, she would clap, bounce, point and grunt with glee. That was fun. Thanks Grandma!

FIFTH: My mom and I have started a tradition of driving up Sardine Canyon in the fall to see the changing leaves and then have lunch in Logan. We were afraid we were a little late for the optimum leaf-changing period, but it ended up being just as beautiful as ever.

SIXTH: Whoa, this is turning out to be a lengthy post. I just wanted to add how much I love Cameron as a dad. He is just so dang cute with Kara, I can't stand it. She has turned into such a daddy's girl. She gets so excited to see him (in fact, she reacts the same way when he gets home as I described her reacting to the animals at the circus). I always thought Cameron had some animalistic tendencies....ha ha ha.

Thanks for sticking with me. The End.