My Life Snow Far

It's snowing today, hard. I'm on the BYUI campus avoiding the drive home on the icy roads. I came across these pictures from the summer, I love them. So beautiful don't you think? I feel so blessed to have the life I have. Wow, what a life!

Goodbye Wipeout, Hello Coco-Motion

It's October. Can you believe it? The summer went by way too fast and I am already longing to go back and take one more swim, have one more barbecue and watch one more episode of Wipeout. We had a lot of fun with my family this summer in Utah, here we are all together.

But, with the fall comes other wonderful things. Yellow leaves on my green ash tree, a garden FULL of pumpkins and gourds, and my coco-motion taking it's perma spot on my kitchen counter.

A lot has been happening here in the Burg. Dan is back in school, graduation in April! Can I get a couple WOOT WOOTS from ya'll at home?

I know you thought about doing it, and those of you who did do it, I high 5 you. He's doing great. He is enjoying the new material in class and playing on a intramural soccer team. Undefeated so far! It's fun watching him play keeper, he's not afraid to jump and dive for stuff. He even runs up and grabs the ball from the other team, it's awesome. His nickname on the team is BearClaw, nothing gets past him people, nothing. Pics to come soon. . .

We also have moved into the basement here at the Maple house, it's different from the upstairs but we have made it our own. I do really miss all the cupboard space up there, especially the three drawers I had for my tupperware. I know, it's ridiculous to have three drawers just for tupperware. Let me just say, it was FABULOUS. Now it looks like this:

Lids, containers and randoms all together. I've already had a few of those moments where I was murmuring quite intensely under my breath about the situation.

"Where is that dang lid that goes to this dang container?"

"Hey! I have been looking for that forever!"

"If I have to move this one more time. . ."

"FORGET IT! I'll just use a zip lock bag! So much for going green."

Very troublesome indeed.

Summer literally stayed until last week. We had 80 degree weather the whole month of September. If you know this region of the globe at all, you understand that normally around this time of year there are 3 inches of snow on the ground. Not only are the pumpkins perfectly orange, but we are still getting tomatoes, check it out. . .

I hope your fall has started off as good as mine!

At the Top of My List: TOP HAT

You can't help but smile while watching this movie. It's just delightful. Filmed in 1935, this film protrays Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at their best! I have seen many of their other films, but this, THIS, is the most wonderful. Everything is perfect. Nominated for four Acadamy Awards including Best Picture, I love love love this movie.

The humor is subtle and silly.

The costumes are beautiful.

The music is joyful. You might recognize the famous song "Cheek to Cheek", which originated in this film. It was nominated at the oscars for Best Original Song.

And the dancing, OH the dancing! Nominated for Best Dance Direction. . . look at this picture!

If anything, watch this movie for the dancing. Fred and Ginger are stunning in the gazebo dancing to "Isn't it a Lovely Day", and Fred dancing for Ginger as the sandman is so romantic!

Did you see Hugh Jackman host the oscars last year? His intro contained a musical number based on this movie!

The story begins with Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) trying to impress his producer Horace Hardwick with some new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel. In the room below, Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers), is awakened from Jerry's dancing above. She hurries upstairs to confront him and they are immediatly attracted to one another. Dale soon mistakes Jerry for Horace, which causes all kinds of confusion.

This film is one of my favorite musicals, so please watch it! You can't help smiling throughout the whole thing. All the best to all you readers out there, and Happy Friday!

Seen any 3D movies lately??

WE have. It sure is fun with these awesome glasses. Thank you movie theaters, for improving from the paper frames and red and blue lenses to these show stoppers. Classy right?

It think I'm about due for a friday night movie this week, stay tuned...

Wonderful Oregon

Our annual trip home is over already, and I didn't take enough pictures. We love going to Oregon, mostly because it's home for both of us, and we had the absolute best time. Thanks to both of our parents for their hospitality!

The trip was full of work and play here's what we did:

1) A rousing game of dodgeball (pictured below). Basically, it was Dan versus all the neighbor kids, totally hilarious.

2) A night of Shakepeare at 'Twelfth Night' in the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre with my husband

3) Replaced a hot water heater at the Zimmers

4) Swam everyday in the back yard and bbq-ed lots of delicious food with Joe and Kelly

5) A VERY musical night of fireworks and 4th festivities

6) Window shopping and hat buying in Jacksonville with my awesome Mother-in-Law

7) Lots of golfing

8) Painted the Clason house

9) Painted and replaced light fixtures in the bathroom there too

10) A night out with my sister to the stage production of 'Pride and Prejudice'

11) A day of boating at Emigrant Lake, a fabulous day (pictured below)

Backseat Photo Shoot

It was a fun drive to ikea. . .

Red Cliffs

On our last day in southern Utah we went to a really neat place called Red Cliffs, just outside of St. George. It was a short walk to an amazing spot with swimming holes, natural rock slides and narrow pools to hike through. The cliffs were amazing. We had a blast climbing them and finding all the unique places to stand and look down. Beautiful.

That's us climbing to the jumping rock, and that's Heath in midair! Kinda scary but worth it.

This is a great pic of Heath on one of the cliffs

Slidin'!

The perfect spot

This is Daniel jumping off one of the best rocks, the falls in the middle was an awesome waterslide. I rode that a few times . . .

We will definitely be returning to this little gem next time we are there.