Creature Crawl and a Chili Cookoff.

The girls had the week off last week.  I had to work the first part of the week.  They decided to drive to the store and pick up pumpkins one morning.  I came down for lunch to see them in the middle of their pumpkin carving escapades.  How did they grow up so fast?

They were in the festive spirit and even decided to dress up the dogs.  Bailey looks absolutely thrilled.

These puppies definitely deserve 'pet of the year' awards for putting up with these girls antics.

Here are the finished products.

Kendall's dance studio celebrates Halloween all week long.  The girls dressed up each night for dance.  I did not manage to get the white lies costume.

The grand finale was the Creature Crawl (trunk or treat) on Saturday.

Hannah decided to hang out with them for the afternoon.  My dad and I went down to visit.  Each team puts together a booth.  Our favorite was the Revive Team candy booth, of course.  Our second favorite booth, was the golf booth, complete with two putting greens.

Kendall has a strange obsession with carrying me around.  I really do not like this, as I feel like she is going to drop me any moment.  I humored her on this day.  It was a party, afterall!

Saturday evening, we made our way to the Eagle foothills for the Eh Capa chili cookoff.  It was awesome.  They had a roaring bonfire that kept me nice and warm.

I was terrible at taking pictures, because there were some fantastic costumes.  The funniest part was that several of the people dressed up as each other, it was super funny.  One girl dressed as the coach, Brandi.  She blew her whistle the whole night and won the award for 'scariest' costume.  Needless to say, Brandi is doing an excellent job!

So here it is, Halloween night.  I am handing out candy while my daughters and their friends just took off to roam the neighborhood, beg for candy and scare themselves in the neighborhood haunted house.  Aren't they a bit old for this?  I saw this recently and thought it was perfect. 

“Teenagers who seem to old to trick-or-treat, choose childhood over partying. Be happy and hand over the Snickers.”

I remember one of the kids in our neighborhood would get dressed up every year and trick or treat, until she left for college.  I thought it was awesome.  Not sure if my girls will stick it out that long, but here is to each year they decide to be a kid and enjoy it. 

...and the bartering begins.

Happy Halloween y'all!

Dates with My Ladies.

I had scheduled a few days off work last week.  The first one was cancelled, due to Pigeon's injury.  The second day, I spent with Sidney.  She needed a haircut, so I decided to get a facial at the Aveda Institute.  It was amazing!  Afterwards, we went to Sidney's favorite restaurant for lunch - Ling & Louie's.

I decided to try something new and was not disappointed.  The Asian Nachos were a flavor explosion!

Sidney stuck to her favorite, the kids bento box.  She is only slightly embarrassed to ask for the kids menu.  Though we do really enjoy playing tic-tac-toe while we wait for our food.  Oh and do not forget the crab wontons (not pictured)!

After lunch, we decided to go to the North End Nursery and visit the Re-use craft store upstairs.  Kendall and Abby had told us about it.  There was everything you could imagine, and it was all very aesthetically pleasing.

There were also a few funky, fun items displayed for inspiration.

On Friday, I had set aside the day for Kendall.  There is a back story on this one.  Several weeks ago, Kendall came into my room to tell me her passenger car mirror had started 'wobbling'.  I started to laugh.  Mirrors do not just start spontaneously wobbling.  After a few minutes, she came clean.  She had hit one of the garbage cans while backing out.  Ah, it makes so much more sense now.  She walked me out to show me her solution. 

Duct tape fixes everything!  after a brief discussion, she had a few assignments.  She had to schedule an appointment for an estimate to get it fixed properly.  The first quote came in extraordinalrily high.  I told her to schedule a second quote and go back to the first guy to make sure there was not an error.  Sure enough there was an error.  He had accidentally put in 5.0 hours of labor instead of 0.5.  Phew!  She had him order the part.  Well the part arrived, and Friday was fix it day.  I drove her over there and we decided to go to lunch and hang out.  Kendall and I are the worst at remembering to take pictures.  When Sid is not with us, we just end up with the Be-Real picture and nothing else.  

It was a fun afternoon.  She did ask me if she could drive while we were going about town.  It entailed a trip on the freeway.  I decided that my nerves were not up for it that day.  She reminded me that she drives on the freeway all the time.  I reminded her that it was great that I was not a passenger in her car when she does that:).  She is a good kid.  I love her to pieces!

Eagle Island with Friends.

 Last Sunday, Lydia asked Sidney if she could go on a trail ride at Eagle Island.  Sidney had been begging me to go for awhile now, so was pretty bummed that Pigeon was hurt.  Brent offered to bring a second horse along, if we were up for it.  Um...yes!  It was a very cold, crisp, windy Sunday morning, but nothing was going to stop these girls.

It was way too cold for Brent and I to sit and wait, so we decided to take a nice brisk walk behind them.  It was so beautiful and good fun.

I did mention that it was incredibly cold.  When we arrived at the river, neither of the horses had spent much time in the water and were not too sure about going in.  

So what does any crazy horse girl do?  Jump off and lead the horse into the water.  Are you kidding me!  It was freezing!

I think this may be the first of many trail rides for these girls and their horses.

Stall Rest for Pigeon.

Last Saturday Sidney turned Pigeon out with another horse for some play time.  When she went to go get him, he had a nice size cut on his leg that was bleeding pretty bad.  He was favoring the leg pretty badly.  I sent a picture to our vet, and she said to clean it really good and keep an eye on it for swelling, heat or drainage.  On Sunday, he seemed to be favoring his leg less, so we thought we were doing pretty good.

When Sid went out there Monday, his leg had swollen pretty sizably and it was a bit warm.  Our vet was able to make it out on Tuesday to take a look.  She showed Sid how to clean it out really good and started Pigeon on antibiotics and pain meds.  Sid had instructions on how to wrap it each night. She also would need to take the wraps off each morning.  Worst of all...no riding for a couple weeks.  EGADS!

Needless to say, Pigeon did not like the antibiotics at all and tried to spit them out each time.  Just like a toddler.  I love this picture of him giving Sidney side eye and raising his head as high as possible.  Did he forget she has a stool?

He started feeling better pretty quickly, and the swelling has subsided.  Now the hard part, being patient enough to wait until he is fully healed up.  Sidney was pretty disappointed as we had all kinds of plans with Pigeon this past week.  One of those plans included a trip out to One Mane Ranch to participate in the jackpot challenge.  Another life lesson, things do not always go as planned.

SpongeBob 'The Musical'.

The girls and I have season tickets to a local music theater.  They do about six to seven productions each year.  I look forward to each of them.  One of the shows they had scheduled for this year was SpongeBob SquarePants (musical).  Despite all of the good reviews, I had VERY low expectations.  We grabbed Dutch along the way and headed to the theater.  

I have to tell you, it was AMAZING!  The costumes and sets were over they top.  Photography of any kind, was strictly prohibited.  So, we opted for some photos with the balloons in the lobby.

The Music Theater of Idaho does a top notch job.  This show was no exception!

Yoga 'Figurine' Obsessed.

It all started last Halloween.  Sidney surprised me with this yoga skeleton for my office.

After that was Christmas, and who can resist a yoga Santa?

So when Kendall was at the plant nursery and sent me a picture of this yoga frog, who could resist?  My dad for one.  He could not believe that I would spend $25 on this cute little thing.  I tell you what, if it was a new golf club, he would have spent ten fold on it.  I was sure to tell him that:).  The smile that this frog brings to my face, every time I see it on zoom, is worth every penny!

The Sweetest Things.

Here are a few of my favorite things....

I love that my parents are living closer.  They have really started to relax and enjoy retirement life.  My mom has taken up driving the golf cart for my dad.  I love that they are growing old together.

I love that my daughter has found something that she truly loves.  Her confidence has grown so much, and she has made some remarkable friends through the process (young and old).

I love that Sidney has the confidence to show up to a clinic filled with complete strangers and jump right in.

I love fresh cut flowers...in every way.  So when Abby brought Kendall flowers, I openly stole them and put them in with a few of my hydrangeas.  The result was pure beauty.

I love that my independent daughter asks me to meet her at the studio and could I bring a smoothie.  She has a car.  She has money.  Really, she just wanted to see me and for that I am thankful.  This picture says it all.  When I saw this on my phone, it melted my heart.  

I love pretending I am Edward Scissorhands.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn't.  In this case, it was a win!  My ugly overgrown evergreen is now a beauty that no longer blocks the sprinklers.

I love our dogs.  I love that the girls love our dogs.  I love that my book loathing daughter is reading a book and secretly enjoys it.

I love our dogs (again).  I love that they love the sun as much as I do.

I love Pigeon.  Pigeon love potato chips.  He is a goofy boy.