Fall Crafts

We had quite a few projects we worked on this fall.  Some we chose, others were thrust upon us by over-zealous tomato plants.  What do you do with 25 lbs of tomatoes? Make spaghetti sauce.  What do you do when it happens again?  Make salsa.  And the third time?  Try to ignore them, they will go away, right?  

25 lbs of tomatoes on my counter.  The bucket on the right was our picking bucket.  

Tomato peels on the left, peeled tomatoes on the right.  This is the hardest part of canning tomatoes

My 8 quart pan full of tomato sauce.  I also got a few pints of tomato juice from the process.

All that work and it was gone so quickly.  Delicious and short-lived, like summer itself.

The other big project this fall was Halloween costumes.  Katrina's was my favorite costume.  I did nothing for it.  I didn't even have to buy it, my Mom picked it up for me at Costco.  

Katrina as Elsa.  We went trick-or-treating with her two cousins who were also Elsa. 

Caleb has told me that his costume was the best.  He wanted to be a Jedi knight.  He already had the awesome sword and my sister found the cloak at the DI.  I made his outfit.  It was pretty easy as it required no fasteners, just an elastic in the waist. 

Caleb is so good at posing.  

Sophie said that because airline stewardesses are scary, she wanted to be one for Halloween.  I was worried about this costume because I really didn't want to make the jacket for it.  So, we went to the DI in hopes of finding something suitable.  Amazingly, we found a jacket and skirt combo that fit.  On another shopping trip to the DI, I found a Boeing, Boeing stewardess bag for her to use for candy.  We made the hat from an online tutorial.  And the best finishing touch was my mom's wings that she got when she was ten on her flight to Holland.

I know she said stewardesses are scary, but she's just cute.  

All of us love Studio C, and watch countless hours of it online or on TV.  Maggie decided to be the shoulder angel.  She printed out a picture and we went from that.  I found great wings and a halo and Maggie fixed up a skirt and shirt for her outfit.  She did almost all the sewing for it.

Aww, angelic.  

Probably the hardest and best costume was Hannah's.  After we saw Maleficent sometime in early September, Hannah knew she wanted to be Maleficent.  She found some horns online.  I have a cape pattern that we thought we could modify for her cape. We found some great material on a major shopping trip with Barbara.   Hannah drew the shape she wanted for the collar.  After some trial and error, I sewed wire into the collar and, lo and behold, it stood up and could be molded any way we wanted.  My dad, a whiz at making things, took my idea for her staff and made it a reality.  It's hard to see in this picture, but he made a wire cage that looked like fire for the ball, painted everything black and put lights in the ball.  She looked AMAZING!   

In heels and with the horns, she's got to be 7 feet tall, scary!

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I spent several days and multiple evenings working on these costumes, to the neglect of the rest of my house.  I finished the costumes about a week before Halloween and spent the next two days cleaning up.  Whew, Halloween is exhausting.  Good thing you get all that candy to keep you going.  (The following are pictures of some of the dirty rooms.  I was too exhausted to even look in the toy room.)

Maggie at the sewing machine.  No, we couldn't eat at our table for at least a week.

Dinner mess still on the counter.  

Ohh look, someone put some of the dishes in the dishwasher.  Must have been the dish fairy. 

Halloween costumes all over the couch.  

Extra table for crafting.  

Yellowstone--First and Last of the National Parks

We started this year of National Parks knowing that we really wanted to go to Yellowstone.  Due to a number of circumstances, we ended up going in October.  I know, you're thinking that's the worst time to go to Yellowstone.  Actually, it was really a great time to go.  We got a hotel for pretty cheap in West Yellowstone.  And the temperatures were cool in the mornings and evenings (think jackets and scarves), but warm during the day (peel off those layers).

Our first day we went to the upper half of the park.  We saw hot springs and mud pots.  We went to Mammoth Hot Springs and saw a lot of wild life.

At Mammoth Hot Springs.  Hannah had a baby from her child development class.
She named it LaFonda.  

The colors are just amazing. 

First bear sighting.  We had two.  This one was a small bear in a meadow just off the road.
You're not supposed to, but people were parked all along the side of the road, out of their cars, and
taking pictures of the bear.  (Yes, me too.)

Oh look, a buffalo right outside my window.  

Our second day we went to the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center.  It was a great way to see the bears up close and learn about them.  

I can't decide if Sophie's afraid of the bear or Maggie.  

One of the bears in bear enclosure.  It's a grizzly.
 You can tell because of the hump above his shoulder.  

Caleb took this great shot of a wolf.

Caleb and Katrina pretending to be wolves on top of the wolf den.  

 Probably the best part of the day was when the three younger kids got to feed the bears.  They move all the bears out of the bear enclosure, give the kids a bucket with fruit in it, and let them hide it for the bears.  It was exciting to hide the food and then watch the bears come out and try to find the food you hid.

Caleb's in the red pants hiding food for the bears under a log.  

The rest of the day was totally lazy.  The little kids played in the hotel's hot tub and the big girls watched a Harry Potter marathon.  We ate dinner at a cute diner style restaurant that night and worked on our junior ranger badges.  

Our last day in Yellowstone was short.  We wanted to drive home by way of Grand Teton National Park, but because of road closures in Yellowstone, we had an additional 2 hours of driving time.  We got up early and drove into the park.  It was foggy and frosty, which made everything look magical.  The one thing we wanted to see was Old Faithful.  

Yep.  It's faithful alright.  We were impressed that it really went off when the ranger said it would.  

Happy Junior Ranger.

After the eruption.  

Grand Teton was beautiful. We spent about an hour there walking around and skipping rocks in the lake.  

The Grand Tetons

Have lake, will skip rocks.

This trip wins for the most comfortable.  Staying in a hotel will always beat camping.  

It also wins for most animals spotted.  As we drove into the park, the ranger gave us a sheet with pictures of animals that are found in Yellowstone.  I was impressed at the number of animals we were able to cross off our list.  

And it wins as the park we'd like to go back to.  We drove all over the place and saw a lot of things, but we still felt like we'd just barely scratched the surface.
Just in case you didn't know, and were confused by my title, Yellowstone was the first national park.  It was established in 1872.  And, it was the last national park trip we took on our national parks pass.

Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley

We still had National Parks to visit in the fall.  We decided to go with my family to Capitol Reef National Park in September.

We had lunch at a nice park in Capitol Reef.  We picked delicious apples from the trees in the orchard there and were visited by a herd of deer.

Deer looking for a little lunch.

After lunch we went for a hike to a natural bridge.  There were lots of cool rock formations that had been carved by water along the way.

Sophie and Katrina rest in a small cave. 

Under the arch.

Maggie gets hand cuffed by the mountain.  

Our next day was a trip to Goblin Valley.  It's not a national park, but awesome none the less.  The main "hike" is just off the picnic area.  You walk down in to a basin that is full of these neat goblins.  There's no actual trail, just a lot of fun rock formations to explore.  

Resting in the shade.

Caleb and Aaron.

Katrina had so much fun climbing all over.  "Take my picture, Mom."  

This one looks like a camel. 

We found a cool cave to climb into.  

Lance and Abbot Junior Rangers.

This trip wins as the wettest.  It down poured on us the last night, leaking into our tent.  It wasn't so bad in the morning, but it was raining as we packed up.  We had to go home and dry everything out.  It also wins for the best hike.  The hike we went on in Goblin Valley was so much fun.  It was just exploring and climbing.  

And this trip wins for the most exciting ending.  As we're packing up, Aaron realizes he doesn't have the keys to his car.  (We had driven up separately.)  We look every where around camp, but can't find them.  We drove out to the town, where we had cell signal, and tried to get a locksmith to help.  It was Sunday, which lowered the number of locksmiths available, and none of the people we contacted could help.  We finally decided to drive out by way of Goblin Valley to see if maybe they got turned in there, as that was the last time Aaron remembered having them.  We finally found them at the gas station we had stopped at the night before for drinks.  They had fallen out of Aaron's pocket.  So, three hours after we started to leave, we actually did leave.  It was a long day in the car.

National Parks: The Grand Tour

Every June, Aaron goes to an audio/visual convention that toggles between Orlando and Las Vegas. This year it was in Vegas.  The kids were super excited to go to Vegas and swim in the hotel pool - always the highlight of any trip with a hotel stay. We also decided to visit three national parks afterwards.
Some of you may recall our exciting adventures in Las Vegas from two years ago (roadtrip).  This time it was blessedly calm.

Treehouse at the Bellagio

While Aaron was at his convention, and when we weren't in the pool, we toured around town.  We went to the Bellagio and saw the indoor gardens, the Chihuli glass ceiling, and the water fountain show.  We also talked to Spiderman.

Katrina was excited to see Spiderman

Too hot! The shade was a little cool.
 I think behind Caleb and Katrina is a wall from the original fort.

Next we went to the Mormon fort.  Did you know that Mormons were some of the first settlers in Las Vegas?  They weren't there very long, but established a fort along the banks of a spring.  It was a super hot day whan we were there, but wading in the stream was a fun way to cool off.  Then we visited Ethel M's chocolates and toured the factory and cactus gardens.  The chocolate was yummy.

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon.  We got there late at night and set up the tent in the dark.  Good times!

Hiking at the Grand Canyon.  

We hiked to a look out point and around through the forest.  The canyon was amazingly huge.  No pictures will ever do it justice.

We stayed at the North Rim.  It's higher than the South Rim and less crowded.

Panorama from the North Rim

Caleb and Katrina wanted to do the junior ranger badges at all of the National Parks.  They had just one day to complete each one.  We went to an interesting ranger talk about the plants and animals on the North Rim.  Probably the most exciting thing we did was go to a star party.  Aaron, Hannah and Caleb all went; everyone else was too tired.  They said it was amazing how much you could see.  They were also impressed with the expertise of the amateurs who were running the telescopes.  You would tell them you wanted to see something, and they would say "oh yeah," and just swing right over to it.  

Our next stop was Zions National Park.  It was quite a hot day.  So we were glad there was several places to get wet.

Maggie and Sophie get their hair wet at the Hanging Gardens.  

At the Hanging Gardens

Wading in the Virgin River.

Caleb ropes cattle.

We hiked to the Hanging Gardens and along the Virgin River.  Then we went to a ranger talk about the people who lived in the area, Native Americans and pioneers. 

The next morning we drove to Bryce Canyon for our last National Park of the trip.  We had intended to get a camping spot and spend the night, but the kids were done camping at this point.

Somehow, this is the only photo I have of our time in Bryce.
I'm glad I could preserve this moment for posterity.

Luckily, Aaron took a few pictures with his phone.

Panorama from Sunset Point (or was is Sunrise Point?)

Waterfall near Mossy Cave

We had been to Bryce the year before with my Dad when he ran and biked 65 miles for 65 years.  So, we went to a ranger talk about geology (it was very hot) and then went to a part of Bryce that is a little off the beaten path: Mossy Cave.  Really the moss was rather disappointing, but the river was fantastic. We hiked all along the river and under the waterfall.  There was a bus load of Asian tourists in the water below a waterfall rubbing mud all over themselves.  I must have been looking in need of a beauty treatment, because one of the men started pantomiming that I should do it too.

Cutest Junior Ranger.

Three Junior Ranger badges in three days.  I think that deserves a super hero pose.

We decided to eat dinner at Ruby's Inn.  Everyone thought it was super delicious after three days of camp stove food.  We got home after midnight, but some people stayed up to take a shower.  Four days of heat and dust makes you disgusting.  

I think this trip wins the prize for most Junior Ranger badges, 3 in 3 days.  It also wins for best star viewing and as the hottest trip.  And it wins for most interesting book on CD.  We listened to Neil deGrasse Tyson's book The Pluto Files.