Camping!

This weekend we went camping with some friends to a place called Valley of Fire. Much more pleasant than it sounds, it's named that because everything is red- the sand, the sandstone cliffs, etc. It's a lot like Moab and Arches Natl. Park in Utah. The girls had a ton of fun playing in the sand and climbing all the rocks. You can even see petroglyphs from the Indians who used to live there (from 300 BC to 1150 AD, to be exact). There's lots of little caves and nooks for the kids to climb in and play house. Caitlin was especially bold and adventurous, she was a regular boulderer by the time we left! Between us and the other two families, there were 7 little girls- no boys! It was sort of a Princess camp out! Unfortunately, our camera battery died after only a few pictures, but it was still a lot of fun!

This picture I took after church last week. I love Elizabeth's smile! I made Caitlin's skirt she's wearing and so I had to photograph it, I thought it turned out really cute (she thinks she's showing off her bubbles she got at a birthday party). Soon I'm going to make Elizabeth a dress out of the same fabric, so they can match. I'm finding this irrepresible urge to dress them in matching clothes! I hear this is normal with moms of two cute girls...

My boys in white!

Here's Dev and Troy before he got dunked! Devon has been reading his scriptures alot, I think he likes having his name on them, he keeps pointing it out to everyone.

A good place to eat and a funny office episode....

Hello Family!! i miss you all and hope you are all doing well. So my new favorite place to get treats is Great Harvest, they have a little store in downtown Rexburg and my friends and i like to make trips to pick up a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin or something like it, everything in the store is amazing! I'm sure you have all heard of it before, but if you havn't been there, i really recommend going and trying anything from there, you will be hooked! i went to lunch today with my friend Kyle and i tried a bubble ice...it's a smoothie and you can get it in any flavor, and in the bottom it has tapioca pearls. They give you a huge straw, which is kinda fun, so you can slurp up the pearls. It's really cool and pretty tasty. Well i didn't mean for this whole blog to be about food, but i guess you see what my days revolve around!! I think it's a problem that us Crowley girls have a problem with!! haha, well other than that life is great, i played in a 3x3 basketball tournament last weekend, it was so much fun!! I should be finding out about Europe soon, within the next couple of weeks, i'm pretty anxious!!
Tonight's office was hilarious. I loved when Dwight was explaining how his bed and breakfast is not classified as one, even though you stay and sleep and then have breakfast....Andy catching Angela that stray cat was also funny. I feel sorry for Michael that he had to work and second job; it made me laugh when he told the Indian man that medical school back in his country is only probably $40...and that he (Michael) would probably be chief of his country.....all good stuff!!! A great night of the office!!!

Halloween sweets!

Here are my spooky eyeball cookies I made for a Halloween potluck. I dipped vanilla wafers into melted white chocolate then dyed the rest blue and put a little in the middle and topped it with a chocolate chip. The blood shot lines were just a toothpick dipped in red food coloring. It was fun to make! What are everyone's costume plans?

WAshington!

Here are a few pictures from Washington this weekend. (We missed you Emily and Carrie). It was great to see the Whittles and everyone!

I ran into Darrell and Diane at the grocery store today- they seemed to be doing well and it was fun to see them.

Sushi and Black Widows

Why do I take pictures of my food? Rod and I love sushi. There is a restaurant here, Osaka's, that has incredibly good sushi. The best. But it's also expensive! So, when we need that sushi hit (and we find that sometimes a little sushi just hits the spot), I make some. It's really easy and a lot of fun (we leave the raw fish to the professionals, though. We love it in restaurants, but at home it's veggie, shrimp, crab, or cooked fish). So tonight after our date night, we picked up the girls from our friends, put them to bed, and put some sushi together.
Just some random info on our life in Vegas: this past summer, sometimes Rod and I would go in the backyard after dark to go "black widow hunting" as I call it. See, we spray for bugs like everyone does here, and it's been effective for the past few years, but this summer we noticed we'd spray and it wasn't making much of a difference in all the widow webs in the backyard. So the best way (and most environmentally friendly way) is to go out after dark with a flashlight, see them in their webs, and smash them with a shoe. In one night I did four. That's just a small dent in the number of widows actually around, but it's a little bit of rush just the same!

more napa ride pics

more pictures