Pre- Halloween Hype

I love Halloween.

  

We all love Halloween.

It's an unordinary chance to be with family to do unordinary things and look unordinary while doing them. (And yes.  I do realize that "unordinary" is not a word.  And that I shouldn't start a sentence with "and" but this is my blog not yours, right?)

Also it's the time of year.  Cooler outside.  Fresh.  Crunchy underfoot, sometimes squishy. :)  Pumpkin is my favorite seasonal ingredient.  And squash, all varieties.  Soup time.

Also it's all the hype that comes before the actual holiday.  I guess all holidays are like that.  But pre-Halloween hype is extra fun.  Decorating, planning costumes, reading Halloween and other fall themed books, baking, sniffing, enjoying it all.

Once again, now that we are in Utah, we get/got to celebrate with both sides of the family.   

With the Meyers side, we got to go to 2 pumpkin patches with all the fixin's.  Fixin's being hayrides, slides, corn mazes, etc.  Haylee actually went to the same farm with her kindergarten class so she got to do it 3 times. 

Oh, and just a note about how cool these mazes were!!!  Aren't you soooo jealous?  Yes, I walked through the "golden" tangles of Edward's hair!!! Ha!

Also with Meyers cousins, we had a Halloween gingerbread house making party!  Complete with frosting fight!

A Saari House

 A Hatt House

An Edwards House

Being in town (or in state rather), we were able to attend the annual Edwards Family Halloween Party.  I regret to say that I could not include all the pictures of everyone bobbing for apples.  But it was fun.  So fun.  All the "traditional" games plus some with a twist or two.

BINGO

Charades

Bobbing for apples

Donut "Bobbing" with a partner

Treasure hunt for spare coins in bloody brains spaghetti

This pic I just had to include because I think it is so funny.  Ha.

A Farewell to Summer

Goodbye hot and lazy days,

Goodbye pool and catchin' rays.

Goodbye bubbles and carefree messes.  

Maybe next year, there'll be less(es).

Loved those sweaty morning hugs

and sticky kisses of afternoon.

We'll sure miss you Mr. Summer 

but we'll see you again soon!

(I know you're all jealous of my poetry skillz!!!)

Oh Cabin! My Cabin!

We Edwardses count ourselves very lucky to have 2 family cabins to call ours.  (Well ours and a whole bunch of other family members.)  We are counting ourselves even luckier that we have had the opportunity to visit both this summer.  Yeah!  We took so many pictures that I've decided to divide our visits between 2 posts.  

My (Julie's) family cabin is right in Cedar Breaks National Park in southern Utah, near the delightful little town (village?  settlement?) of Parowan.  It was built by my great grandfather and open to all of his descendants...so actually, we share it with a lot of other people.  Growing up, when my family would vacation in Utah during the summers, we always spent some time at the cabin.  Then, when I was at BYU, I would visit with my sisters.  I have countless memories there.  But it's been years since I've been back.  

You ever notice how memories are so often linked to smells or sounds?  

As soon as we got out of the car and I smelled that mountain air, I was overwhelmed with all the memories from various trips to the cabin as well as the people with whom I associate  them.

Here it is.  Our humble cabin home.  

And here's the view.  No one else in sight.

It's just one room with a cute little outhouse out back. When I was little, there was no running water and no electricity.  We took turns fetching tin bucket-fulls of fresh, ice cold water from the spring.   We also wore bonnets to keep the sun off our faces as we churned the butter.  Ok, just kidding about that last part. Now, however, it's a bit more modernized with an outdoor pump and electricity.  But it is still so very rustic and that's part of what I love about it so much.

We did a couple hikes while we were there.  Fun, gorgeous views, but my kids about scared the you-know-what out of me getting so close to the ledge!

Below is a picture of an area right near the cabin where my great grandfather spent his summers as a kid.  They called it "Little Ireland" because it was so green.  We walked around searching for the remains of their home but unfortunately, all we found was a nice collection of old sheep bones. 

 I LOVE this pic (above) of Bree!  She looks so sweet (and innocent)!

We sure had fun with these crazy folks (below)....

 ...and my parents! No pic of Grandpa this time.  He was hiding behind the camera as always. :)

Below is another shot of Little Ireland and Brian Head (the peak) in the back.  I ran to the very top one day.  Ok, just kidding.  BJ did.