Fishing and More

On Sunday we took it easy. We tried going to church, but the Stake nearby was having Stake Conference.  We had a relaxing day.


That morning we went fishing at a park near the Carters neighborhood.

The kids had so much fun catching and releasing the fishes.  At one point, Arden had a crowd of kids around him, totally interested in his narration and what he was doing.

They had so much fun playing and fishing together.

That night, Newel grilled some meats and we had a feast.  Chris had gotten a grill for his birthday and it was put to work.  Most of the days we had eaten out, since the Carter's gas line had a leak and we were unable to cook or take warm showers at home...however, their neighbor was super nice and let us shower at her house.  

I forgot to mention that the previous night, Abbey and I went over to an Asian massage place and it was dreamy.  After our fabulous massages we were so relaxed, we were giddy.   We laughed at the dumbest things.   It was the best massage I've ever had.

We tricked Maya into a sleepover with Kevin

The following day, (Newel had already gone back to UT) was our final day and we headed over to Fort Worth, to an Old Western town.  It was pretty fun.  It was our last morning there and we enjoyed what little time we had left.  Kevin and Ellie went back to school that morning, so we hung out with cute Matthew and Leah.   What a grand time we had.

The Texas Fair

There's only one word to describe the Texas Fair...HUGE!

Yes, it was.

And it was loads of fun.  We practically spent the entire day at the fair and we didn't see and do everything there.

Kevin not happy about the ride. 

At the Ferris wheel

We limited the amount of rides the kids went on, but it was loads of fun for them.  Unfortunately, the adults had to go on some of the rides with the children.  Some of the rides were okay.  Others were not so great, specially the Vortex...that crazy spinning thing.  Wow, talk about wanting to throw up...I guess that's a clear sign that we're getting old, when we can't hack it on these spinning rides anymore.

Of course, you cannot attend the fair without checking out the animals...and so we did. We petted them and fed them.



We also ate a lot of unhealthy and greasy food, including fried Oreo cookies...YUM!  The Texas State Fair is infamous for its fried foods...they fry pretty much anything that's edible and each year they have a specialty fried dish.

At the fair, we also hit a couple of shows...The puppet show, where Kevin was picked out from the audience.  Then, we went to the dog show, but that show wasn't as good.




GAME TIME!

The following morning we got dressed in our Longhorn gear and headed back to the Fair grounds to watch the Texas and OK game.  We had a lot of fun.  I also learned that BYU vs UT fans are weak sauce, compared to these football fans.

Sadly, Texas lost.  Nevertheless, it was a great game.  It was a lot of fun for just the adults to hang out.  The kids stayed back home with babysitters.

The game

Enjoying fried food

Texas Here We Come!

It was our turn this year to visit the Carter family.  The previous year we had met in Florida for our annual reunion and the year before, they visited us in Utah.  So it was our turn to visit their home town, Dallas, Texas.


This was our first time in Dallas.  What a big city!


The Carters live in a cute, way cute neighborhood.  It's a city, within the city of Dallas and it kind of has a small town feel to it with really cute houses.   It's so cute and lovely, I could imagine us living a couple houses away from the Carters and hanging out with them all the time and doing all kind of fun things, like we used to do when we lived in California...

Well, that would happen in my dream world.

Back to reality.

Reality is also great.  We had so much fun hanging out with them.

Our first day, we hit the zoo.  It was a blast.  It's always fun when hanging out with friends that are like family.  


Well, I'm not going to say more...the photos speak for themselves.



Okay, may be I'll write this.  The zoo has a trading post where the children can bring things from nature, like leaves, rocks, dead insects, etc.  Then, they take those items to the trading post and earn points for the things they bring.  The gentleman on the photos gives them points, but also talks with the children about what they brought in.  Later, with the points they've earned the kids get to select and bring home other items from the Trading post.  If Arden and Ellie could have spent hours there, they would have.  They actually spent about an hour talking to the trader and in selecting their goods.  They were in heaven!

The zoo was tons of fun!

Camera Thief and Hiking to Conference

Yes, there was a camera thief...


and these are some of the photos it took...


Can you guess who is the thief?

I'll give you a clue...

That's right, you got caught!

Conference Weekend!
On the first Saturday of October, we got up early, got dressed, met up with Grandma, and headed off to the mountains.  We hiked and we hiked.   At 10AM General Conference started and we were prepared to listen to it.  We brought a small radio and listened to conference as we hiked up the trail.  Once we arrived to our final destination, we sat by the lake and listened to the words of the prophet of the Lord. We ate snacks and enjoyed the view, until the end of the first session.  After the first session ended, we headed back.
 It was really nice to be outdoors, listening to conference.

Perhaps we should do this again at the next General Conference and make it a tradition.