Communing with Nature

Austin's been having all kinds of fun this year with his season pass to Brighton, so we thought it was high time that we joined him. We probably picked the wrong day (President's Day...considering they closed the canyon because both resorts - Brighton and Solitude - were at capacity), but it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. So if any of you are wondering why I rarely post anymore, click on the picture below - I have difficulty getting pictures of my children (at least ones I'm willing to post). Threats were involved in getting the picture of them together - and this one was the 5th try. I've considered learning how to snowboard, but I guess I'll live vicariously through Austin. Here's a brief moment in his day...

PS - the snow was AMAZING!

Public Apology

So you may or may not have noticed that I have a tendency toward sarcasm here in the friendly confines of my little blog (really?!?). The target of my "snark" is often poor defenseless Brian (specifically whether or not he actually reads this thing - he's an easy target sometimes... he DID wear flip flops to a rodeo you know). Welllll, my attempts at humor came back to bite, not me, but Brian in the, well...butt.

Back in the summer of 2009 (ahh, memories), I INNOCENTLY made a smart alecky comment regarding the picture seen below where I mayyyy have JOKINGLY implied that Brian MAY have inquired about the appearance of his rear end in his pinstripe baseball pants. In my defense, I believe I was quite clear that I was JOKING (you can be the judge - here is the original post http://nuttall-news.blogspot.com/2009/07/day-finally-came.html).

How could this have possibly gone awry? Well, according to well-placed witnesses, today in Sysco's General Sales Meeting, Brian was honored for having a record sales week (great news, right?). Well, apparently, a story was told during the bestowing of this honor about Brian wearing pinstripe pants wondering about the appearance of his...(slang for butt that isn't appropriate for a "family blog"). Brian endured the jeers of his co-workers and even shook his butt (which looked very nice today honey) in front of the entire sales force of his company.

Much speculation ensued about the genesis of this anectode (I'm using ALL the big words I know in my attempt to make myself feel less responsible) with the suspicion actually falling on one of his work compadres. When he mentioned the situation to me after the meeting, I recalled this post and feared that it was indeed the source. Sooooo...

Brian, I am sorry for subjecting you to public ridicule due to my feeble attempts at humor. I'm not going to stop, of course, but I do promise to keep your rear end out of it from now on.

Hadpy Birthday Austin!

(Heavy sigh!) Austin turned 15 despite my best efforts to stop time. We had a nice leisurely day for his birthday - we went up the canyon for breakfast at Ruth's Diner.

PS - yes, this is Austin. He's been de-Biebered.
We also went bowling. Every time I a took a picture of Austin, he rolled a gutter ball (if he ever wants to be on the PBA tour, he needs to get over that), so here is Caitlin instead (and her new haircut). Austin had to endure many hugs from his sister, but he managed to survive. He seems to be growing up at warp speed. He's driving (while closely supervised - aka "slow down! slow down! slow down!"), he started his first job as a bus boy (this picture is of his first day) so he can earn money for a car, and he's grown a couple of inches in the last few months (we have the notches on Grandma's wall to prove it). Whether he likes it or not, he'll always be this little boy to me.

Sick of the Halloween Picture

Quick post to get the Halloween picture out of there (Caitlin as a brunette still freaks me out). We made our visit to Santa as usual. Caitlin asked Santa for a laptop, he thought for a moment and asked her, "do you know where I live?" She said the North Pole. Her told her that the North Pole wasn't near Japan and asked her what else she wanted. Stunned silence followed, but she decided on a Kyle Korver Chicago Bulls jersey. At least she didn't ask for the hamster. We haven't posted because we went to New York city to see the Rockettes.
Oh - that's right, it was actually West Valley City where we went to see the Rockettes (WVC & NYC are often mistaken for one another.)Caitlin thought the Rockettes were "freakin' awesome."

Caitlin and her friend Mia anxiously anticipating more dancing in West Valley City - the SYTYCD Tour.

I thought SYTYCD was "freakin' awesome." Caitlin finished up her cheering (in winter gear) - the team she cheered for won the state championship.

We remembered the flowers!

More to come later.

This 'n That

Rainy rainy pre-Halloween. We probably should have sent them out tonight (on the actual day of Halloween) since it is sunny and pretty today. You may have noticed that Austin's ubiquitous Yankees hat of the last few years has been replaced with a San Francisco Giants hat this year (he picked a VERY good year to be converted to the black and orange). He dressed up as a Giants relief pitcher this year ("fear the beard") - unless you're watching post season baseball, it probably won't make sense, but it made Austin happy. Caitlin was a Gothic Angel. The black feather wings were quite fun - too bad Mom wouldn't let her wear them trick-or-treating in the rain.This year's pumpkin row. NO Denver Broncos pumpkin this year. If you're watching football, I'm sure you understand why.

We made the annual trip to the pumpkin patch - it gets faster and faster every year to pick out the pumpkins. I think we made it in and out in 20 minutes this year...

...and that included the photo-ops. School's back in - Austin's in 9th grade... Caitlin's in 5th grade.

Catie is back to her cheering - it's been really fun this year because we have 5 girls in her little squad (she is "head cheerleader") and the team is undefeated.

This would be an unsanctioned pyramid (they've gotten better at it since I took this picture).We took an afternoon drive up to Silver Lake a few weeks ago to commune with nature. The kids scaled the rock wall many, many times (Austin had us timing him).

It is quite a beautiful place! Freckle face girl.

Caitlin & I (and Grandma Jessie too) went to see "The Lion King" - Caitlin loved it, but she still thought "Wicked" was better. We're getting a little more culture this week when we get to go see "So You Think You Can Dance." Please please please say Mark is dancing! We'll keep you posted.Can you tell I've been learning to use my new computer program on all the temple pictures I've taken? This one is the Oquirrh Mountain temple. The original is below.

Uh oh...

I may never get off this darn computer now. My new little program might be addictive. Case in point: When I was getting our bags out of the car at Lisa's house last weekend, I looked west and thought, "gee, that's pretty" so I pulled my camera out of my pocket (I'm not fat - it's the camera in my pocket) and snapped the photo below. Here's the same photo after 1 inning of fiddling (that is how we tell time in our house during October).

I think this might be fun!

Cousin-palooza

One of the best things about Caitlin not being on the year-round school schedule is that she and Austin have the same days off school. We wandered down south for their fall recess for a little cousin playtime!

Mattie & Austin worked on capturing lizards and creating a lizard "chateau."

The Scrabble game was so heated that Jaedon had to take his shirt off.

My neck got a workout watching the kids whiz by on their swivel carts. We wandered even further south to Vegas to see more cousins.

It was fun to see Trev-boy play baseball. He pitched a great game!We actually did a couple of "Vegas-y" things while in Vegas. We went down to the Strip to check out the scenery at the Bellagio. Quite impressive!Yeah - I was thinking of decorating my front yard like this for fall. I will always remember the fountains at the Bellagio since it isn't often my head gets used as a tri-pod by the rude tourists behind us.The Volcano at the Mirage.Wait - is that an extra cousin? No, that is TJ's girlfriend joining the motley crew.