Random Thoughts

This is my--"I'm-catching-up-with-blogging-post"--which means that it's filled with a lot of pics and thoughts that really don't go together, except that it's all part of our lives...

Sat. night there was a 5th anniversary celebration for Chris' group. His group has grown from one neonatologist to 7 in that time--a pretty amazing accomplishment, one that speaks to the kind of people he works with. We had a great time celebrating!

A professional photographer took pics throughout the evening, but I thought this pose of his group just looked too much like it could be taken at a high school prom. Earlier on Sat. I went to Time Out for Women with a group of friends (I forgot my camera so I don't have a picture of us). I have mixed feelings about my experience. Was it a complete commercial for Deseret Book? Yah, pretty much--I mean, there was a whole bookstore set up in the back of the hall-- but I did enjoy the speakers. I felt uplifted and really gained some good insight, had great belly laughs and enjoyed the company of my friends. And I ran into some friends from our old Missouri stake there. However, if Kenneth Cope had played one more song and I mean-just one more song-I would have jumped out a window. I couldn't take any more schmaltzy:) Would I go again? Depends on who was scheduled to speak. If it were Kris Belcher, I would definately be there. She was absolutely hilarious.

While I was at TOFW, Chris took the kids to Deanna Rose Farm to pick out pumpkins. I truly owe him for this one, because with a lot of other things going on this weekend, it was so not what he wanted to do. We had planned to go last weekend (only 40 degrees!), then on Thursday (pouring rain!), Friday (soggier than soggy). This was our conversation Friday night:

Me: We have to take the kids to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin!

Chris: Let's just take them to Wal-Mart--they're only $4 there.

Me: No, we need to go to a pumpkin patch!!

Chris: Really, I think it's just going to be Wal-Mart this year.

Me: But we haven't missed driving to a farm, going out into the patch and picking out our pumpkins for 13 years! It's our TRADITION!

Chris: Just this once it will be alright. It just hasn't worked out this year.

Me: OUR KIDS WILL BE SCARRED FOR LIFE IF THEY DON'T GO TO A PUMPKIN PATCH THIS YEAR!! THEY WILL NOT HAVE ANY GOOD MEMORIES!!

I'm a little into tradition, if you can't tell-and maybe a few dramatics . So Chris-being the good husband that he is-took the kids to pick out pumpkins. And although it wasn't actually picking them out of a patch, they still got to go on a hayride, walk through a corn maze and had a grand time! Chris even took pics for me!

We've figured out a magical way to get the kids to help with the dishes. Two little words that have made all the difference: Towel Fight. Once the dishes are dried, they can flip towels all they want. It's been so much fun. Not holding my breath, but I hope it lasts!
Chris flew out to Denver earlier this week to visit his Mom and Dad. Since rockhounding with his parents this summer, Chris has turned into a rock geek (and really, I shouldn't talk, since I like rocks a lot, too, but hey, it's my blog so I can give him a hard time). I think that every time I called he was polishing rocks with his Dad. He had a blast.

What's the excitement about rocks, you ask? Why in the world would you ever go rockhounding? (Yes, I know some of you thought that when I told you where we were headed this summer, but were too nice to say it!) If you don't like rocks, well, I guess you just don't like rocks. But if you do, you know that it's thrilling--almost like a treasure hunt--to find an amazing piece of rock (O.K., who's the rock geek now?). I have some pics I took earlier in the year from what we collected. Maybe this will give you some idea of why we like it.

Here's Chris deep in concentration,cutting open wonderstone on our deck with our neighbor's tile saw:
It is one of my favorite rock. Completely amazing-- I want to go back and collect more!!

The best piece. Ever.

Jasper Chris cut. He took this piece in his carry-on to Denver to polish and it turned out beautifully. Would you believe security didn't even bat an eye when he went through with a box full of rocks ("we see it all the time"). Azurite and chrysocolla. Two of my favorites. And yes, I have tons more pics of rocks, but seriously, if you aren't into them you are just scrolling down right now so I'm not going to post them--but if you are into rocks, you can just come on over to our house and look (if you haven't already).
Kierst started playing the cello this year. She wanted a pic taken to show her cousins because she's really excited about it. Somehow she's finding time to practice.

A few weeks ago there was a party at Chris' partner's house. They live on 10 acres about 15 minutes south of us--it is absolutely beautiful and amazingly peaceful there. If I didn't like being close to neighbors I would love living on a lot of acreage.

They held a few team-building activities that if nothing else are good for blackmail. For one activity they had to dress up and ride around (and over jumping posts) in the horse arena. Yeehaw! You can tell Chris is totally thrilled.
After all the team building stuff, we enjoyed the best brats and smoked meat in the area (from Fritz's), good conversation and great people.