Fall Harvest

Sterling and I went up Provo Canyon last week to see the fall trees. It was really pretty and perfect weather for a walk on the trail. We're officially going to Bowling Green in January for Sterling's grad school, so we're trying to get in all the time possible enjoying the mountains! Sterling will be getting his Masters of Public Administration at Western Kentucky University. We're sad to be leaving family here in Utah, but excited to go experience something new!

We also harvested the rest of our garden this week, as its starting to finally get cold here at night. We've had tons of tomatoes and squash. Thankfully, we got a dehydrator from Sterling's Grandma and Grandpa Weed, so we have been drying lots of our vegetables. The dried tomatoes are amazing in pasta! We also had some onions, carrots, bell peppers, and a cantaloupe. We haven't tasted the cantaloupe yet, hopefully it will be as good as my mom's!

We thought this tomato looked just like the character from Despicable Me (a really cute and hilarious animated movie that came out this summer, we recommend it highly).

To Missouri and Back

We went out to Missouri to visit my family for a couple weeks. We had a great time, such a great time that we forgot to take any pictures until our way back. Some of our adventures in Missouri included a canoe trip, a Silver Dollar City trip (an amusement park in Branson set in the 1800s), shooting skeet, lots of swimming, and making lots of blackberry jam. We went up to St. Louis one day with my sister Jessee and her husband Andrew. While there we went to a Cardinals game. The stadium was gigantic and it had a great view of the Arch.

Jessee and Andrew

Albert Pujols up to bat, he was the only player I had really heard of. He did hit a home run.


Eventually we had to head home, it came way too soon. I was so sad to not get to play with Weston and Rhett (my nephews) all day.

We made a stop at Winter Quarters, and got to take a tour and walk around the cemetery and temple. It was neat to be there because Sterling and I are reading a book about my pioneer ancestors right now and they went through Winter Quarters on their way to Salt Lake City.

Our next stop was Badlands National Park. It was pretty neat to see. There was a motorcycle rally around the area (Sturgis and Rapid City) at the time, so there were tons of bikers at all the National Parks and on the highways.

Next was Mount Rushmore. Sterling had never seen it before and was a little disappointed by its size, thinking it was a lot larger.

Lastly we went to Devil's Tower, where we camped for the night. We had fun walking around it and reading the Indian Legend of how it was created by a girl who turned into a giant bear. Apparently this girl or bear, started killing everybody so they ran to a rock which grew and the bear clawed at it making the columns.

This was the view from our campsite, pretty good. It was a lot of fun and it looked amazing when we woke up in the morning. The only sad part was it was so hot and dry that we weren't allowed to have a campfire.

All in all a good trip back, especially because Sterling drove the entire way, what a great husband! I'm just training him to be like my dad, who drives all day while my mom keeps him awake with her snoring.

Antelope Island

Family outing to Antelolpe Island. I'd never been there before so I was pretty excited. The view of the Salt Lake was really amazing, I never realized how huge it was before.

We brought a lunch to eat, and the seagulls flocked to us. It was a little frightening.

Caitlin, Reece, and Rachel did a bike ride and Sterling and I went on a run. Lots of fun!

Camping

We went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was great because it was only 20 minutes from Sterling's house, but we felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere.

While camping, we went on a hike up to doughnut falls, I have no idea why it is called doughnut falls. Sterling thought it was because after the hike to, you would really want a doughnut...nice.

Sterling's mom had a great idea for smores, using two keebler cookies instead of graham crackers and chocolate.

Rachel making some crystal light in her water bottle.

After a load of smores, roasted starburts, a moose sighting, and a round of the bean game, we were pretty worn out. What a great camping trip!

Stuart Falls!

Kimberly came out to Utah for a few days so to cancel out all the smores we ate we took a girls hike up to Stuart Falls, plus Xander.

Kirstyn even hiked almost the whole way (5 miles rounds trip), minus a couple piggy back rides from Kara. What a great mom.

The falls were really pretty. Fun times, comes back again soon Kimmie!

Gardening!

Our ward has a big garden plot, and so we decided to sign up for a section and to grow some vegetables and fruit. The plot started out with tons of rocks and weeds, so it took a while to get it to this point.

We planted some corn.

And here we have a tomato, bell peppers, and a jalapeno plant (the last one was specifically requested for by Sterling).

And these are our green beans and wax beans. We are hoping to make some fresh succotash at the end of the summer! We also planted onions, spinach, carrots, radishes, summer squash, and cantaloupe. Hopefully they create some good stuff, I have my mom's high quality garden produce to compare it to. Luckily, she has been giving us lots of good tips though, thanks mom!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Baker!

We drove up to Moses Lake, Washington for Caitlin and Reece's reception. It was a lot of fun to see the farm, and to see Caitlin's dress again. It was so amazing, Paula and her friend made it together.

Paula made really cute jewelry for the bridesmaids. Pearl necklaces, bracelets, and rings, very elegant.

We got in a lot of quality time with Rache.

A second bouquet toss...

...and Rachel comes up with the catch!

And lastly, what would a wedding be without a good kissy picture.