Weekend Fun

Saturday was a busy day for us.  We spent the morning getting ready for the UT game.  Ben's friend Bridger came over and watched the crazy game with us.  Here are some pictures. 

I made potpourri from orange peels and cinnamon-our house smelled so good!

The spread. So much food. Potato salad, wings, chicken salad, little piggies, and chips and queso. Not  to mention Ben's favorite, purple drink. 

I also made a pear pie from organic pears from Washington-yummy!

Later that night we picked up Parker, (Ben's Little) and took him to the Primary Activity at our Ward.  We had a bunch of carnival like games, a chili cook-off and a trunk or treat.  Here's the game we made.

You can kind of see the pig faces that I drew on the balloons.  And the game held up well.  I just have to repaint the  "bird balls" because some of it rubbed off. 

I am the Morton Salt Girl and Ben is wearing a shirt that says I'm a Pepper. Salt n Pepper

Ben and I were not going to make a chili because we were already doing so much, but 3 hours before the event we changed our minds and guess what?  We Won!  I say we because I minced the garlic, Ben did everything else.  (Sorry no picture but it was a Chicken White Bean Chili, I can send recipe if you want it).


We also decorated our car for the trunk or treat.  I'll give Ben all of the credit for this one.

                                       

He wanted to incorporate our costumes. So it is the Morton Salt Girl with "guns" running down a bunch of Dr. Pepper cans.  He even added caution tape, and he had a strobe light going.  

Parker had a good time.  He dressed up like a Vampire and got a good load of candy.

For FHE tonight we are going to watch a Halloween Movie!  I tried to get Mr. Boogedy or Bride of Boogedy Man, but I couldn't get digital copies of them. Bummer.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Gettin' our run on

Ben's sister Shannon has totally inspired us to lace up our racin' shoes.  She did the couch to 5K program and now is going to run her first 10K!  Thanks for getting us excited to run!

Problem 1: Ben hates running

Solution: Introduce technology feature

With the Couch to 5K application on his iPhone, he is actually motivated and excited to track his progress and see how fast he can get.

Problem 2: Steph's shin splints

Solution: Stretching and Strengthening Exercises

I always get terrible shin splints when I run.  I've tried several different types of shoes and ways of running, but nothing seems to help.  I found some great exercises on the interwebs to strengthen my calf muscles and have been doing them.  Hopefully this will help b/c it hurts like nobody's business.  The only time I ran and didn't have this problem was when I ran the St.Jude Half Marathon, the cold weather might have helped with the swelling, plus it was a pretty flat course.

Problem 3: Ben's flat, fat feet

Solution:

We've been doing some research to find the best shoes for Ben because he has super flat feet and they are also very wide.  Introducing the New Balance 880v2

We are motivated, cleared our obstacles and are excited to begin. We will start our program on Saturday, November 3rd, in honor of Shannon's 10K.

 We are also going to run a 5K race after our training is complete.  We haven't decided which one we're going to do yet, but it will be at the end of December or beginning of January.

Please ask us how our running is going whenever you see us.  Hold us accountable for our new found exercise program!

Zombie Hayride

My nephew is a Halloween baby so we normally go out and celebrate with him during the month.  For the past several years we have taken him to Rippavilla and walked through the corn maze, drank hot chocolate and walked through the hay maze.  One year, there was a man there with a large telescope and we got to see really cool stars and planets.  This year we mixed it up a bit and went to Millers Thrillers Zombie Hayride.  We had a lot of family there which always makes for a fun night!  We met early at Jenn and Chad's house where Chad grilled yummy burgers for us.  We got to Miller's Thrillers about 20 minutes before it opened.  We didn't mind the wait because we were rockin' out to Skrillex, an impromptu family dance party is always a blast!  On the ride they separated  you into two teams-Black Opps or Code Red ( I kept saying Cone Head).  You had 75 paint balls and for an extra 10 bucks you got an extra 75-Ben and I split an extra cup full.  The ride was pretty short and the zombies were far away, but it was still a lot of fun.  It was just nice to be out with family.  They also had an illusionist show, a man on stilts and zombies walking around trying to scare you, as well as a trash can drum show.  This was cool and they even invited Ben onto the stage to play the drums and dance for the audience.  He rode the train a bit-it was hilarious!  Afterwards, we went back to Chad and Jenn's and lit the fire pit and roasted marshmallows. It was a great bonding moment-I love spending time with my family and they all love Ben! He fits in perfectly with our family, he cracks everyone up and talks music and football with the men-folk.  Here's some pictures of our adventures....

Man on Stilts and the Creepy Clown

Light Sabers!!

Our paint ball guns

The Band

*If you go, my suggestion is to get there about 20 minutes early.  As we were leaving the line was extremely long, stretched into the parking area. Also, starting at 6pm they do a less scary version for children.

And We're Back!

It is totally my bad that we lost our blog.  I deleted my old email address and unknown to me, it also deleted our blog.  But the good new is, we are back!  And, we have several adventures to report.

Item 1)

Ben has joined with Big Brother/Big Sister and is the the Big to an awesome Little.  He usually takes him out to eat and then some sort of activity. i.e. put-put golfing, bowling, laser tag, etc.  All of these events are meant to strengthen their relationship so that the Little can look up to Ben as a role model or mentor.  Ben's Little lost his dad, Ben has tried to step into that role and has done an awesome job.  When they went to play laser tag, Ben taught his Little from Sun Tzu and the Art of War.  Ben stood at the top of the "mountain" and picked the little kids off one by one.  They played 4 rounds and Ben never got less than 3rd place.  

Last weekend, Ben wanted to work in the garage with power tools.  We had to build an Angry Birds game for my nephew's birthday party as well as the Primary Halloween Party, so Ben thought this was the perfect teaching opportunity. Here are some pictures of their adventures:

Ben and Dad using the jig saw to cut the holes

Adding the felt

This was Ben's brilliant idea to get the felt through the holes

Using the drill to install the easel

Finished product!

We are going to add green balloons with faces for the  pigs and then I bought smaller kick balls, 2 red and 1 blue and I am going to paint the Angry Bird faces on them.  The goal is to throw the ball through the hole and knock the pigs.  It should be a blast.  We were testing it out in the garage and all of the neighborhood kids came up and asked if they could play with us.  Kid Approved!

Item 2)

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

We were able to go with the majority of my family to the Grace show at the Ryman.  We had dinner and then headed to the show.  It was amazing.  Her entire set list was requests.  Her stage manager would come out with a new song list after reviewing the tweets that the audience requested.  I didn't get to hear Like a Prayer, but everything else was amazing!  Ben and I were on our feet dancing the entire show.  We loved it!  Here are some pics:

Grace Rockin' It Out!

Stars!!!!!!

Ben said I had to put my face on this blog post, so here's my face