Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

This weekend was a very Halloween-ish weekend! Friday night I went to Gardner Village with Kate, Mar, Jesse and Addie. Turns out it was 'Witch's Night Out' that night, so the place was crawling with people dressed up as witches! It was fun to walk around and see how it was all decorated, and have tasty pumpkin pie cake.

Saturday night, I went to This Is The Place Heritage Park's 'Haunted Village' with Melissa, Mar, Kate, Dan and Steve. We went five years ago, so I thought it would be the same - hot chocolate and cider and donuts, and then going from house to house listening to professional storytellers tell classic ghost stories. Well, apparently it changed - now it's a "haunted house" of sorts - you walk around the village waiting for things to jump out at you, and several of the homes up there are decked out in cobwebs and spiders and coffins and a teensy bit of gore. It was actually pretty entertaining! I always freak out at those sorts of things, but that was actually not that bad. I don't have pictures of it, but Seesa will probably post some in the next couple of days.

LAST weekend, we all went to ride the Heeber Creeper for a 'Haunted Canyon' train ride. Seesa has pictures of that too, but here are a few I took:

I think it was at Haunted Village last night that Steve or Mar or someone made the observation that our family does more activities for Halloween than we do for Christmas. That seems a little messed up.

Well, not really - this IS the Sloan clan we're talking about.

MWUAAAAAHAAAHAAAAAAA!!!! :)

Sun, Wind, Fire, Sand, and Water

The elements of camping at the beach in California.

Sun... We saw some glorious sunsets, and I got a pretty awesome sunburn - in spite of the sunscreen I slathered all over myself.

Wind... The last day at the beach was super windy, so most of us bundled up in hoodies, but that just added to the adventure of it all.

Fire... Campfire is one of my favorite smells on this earth. Jesse likes fire too - pretty sure he built this one.

Water... I can only describe it the way I describe mountains: Majestic. This was my view when I opened the door of my tent on Thursday morning.

Sand... It gets everywhere, but I love how it feels on my toes. And yes, those are my toes at the bottom of the picture.

The sun was out, the surf was (mostly) up, I ate when I was hungry and slept when I was tired. I also walked to the camp store with my niece, my brother-in-law, and some of his family, so we could all buy ice cream. I tried my hand at boogie-boarding - which I suck at, but loved trying anyway, and I caught a couple of good waves. I went to the Surf Ride surf shop and bought some trendy new "sandals" and a new hoodie, and I went to the 7-Eleven twice in one day.

AHHHH... I love camping at the beach.

San Diego and and Four Main Questions

Wise words spoken by my brother-in-law Jesse, last time I camped at the beach in San Diego with him and my sister Marianne, and his family:

Mel: "Hey Mar, do you know what time it is?"

Mar: "Ummm, I think it's..."

Jesse: "It doesn't matter what time it is! Time doesn't exist in this place. All that matters is,

is the sun out? Is the surf up? And are you hungry... or tired?"

AHHHH... Best... Vacation... Ever.

See ya'll next Monday when I'm back from sun, surf, food, and sleep!

Fall Colors

I didn't make it up the canyon this year to take some shots of the fall colors; I've heard the reds and oranges aren't that brilliant anyway, because of the bizarre weather pattern Utah has been experiencing. But on my way home from work the other day, I turned into my neighborhood and had to stop and take these shots:

I love the mountains! Their beauty and majesty always leaves me breathless. Sometimes I wish my camera could capture what my eyes can see and my heart can feel when I see things, like this, that are so inspiring.

Haunted...

Happy October, everyone!!

Welcome to my fun new blog! Yes, you're in the right place. :) Be sure to enjoy some Halloween tunes while you're here, and check out a few of my new additions. I'm still working on adding more, so every time you visit, there might be something new! Any suggestions on what I should add? I want to add that "What I'm Doing" element but I haven't figured it out yet. But any other suggestions on ways to make my blog more fun are most welcome!

In the meantime... it's OCTOBER!! Even if it IS 85 degrees in Utah right now... But it's supposed to be about 65 degrees on Saturday, and there's a giant orange hoodie in my closet waiting for me, and you better believe I'll be wearing it on Saturday with my favorite pair of Halloween PJ pants!! I love Halloween-time...


Did I not mention that I'm a nerd? Oh. Well, consider yourselves informed.