Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Fall has arrived

and you know what that means...Football! More specifically, University of Utah and MSU football! It's been fun to wear our red and green (separately of course or that would resemble Christmas) and put out our new game day flags (picture coming soon).

We finally attended our first MSU game a few weeks ago and about froze our bums off! It may have been the first game of the season but it felt like the last, especially in the nosebleed section. But hey, can't beat free tickets :)


With fall here that means summer is done but we had to squeeze one more camping trip in before it gets too cold. After several helpful suggestions from friends we decided on the Lake Michigan Recreation Area Campground which was fabulous! It was very forested, hardly anyone there, large sites and best of all...a 2 minute hike to the beach!

We bought a new tent so we can take the dogs and are quite pleased with it. What I like most is the screened in porch, works well for keeping dogs in check. When they weren't in the tent though we had to tie them up and Baby was none too pleased about that. This is her attempt to free Norris (not sure if he would return the favor).

After getting our camp all set up and feeding the beasts

we were off to the beach. had a great time as usual. It was wonderful to walk over these dunes with the cool soft sand. These "hidden" beaches are the best!

The dogs of course thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as did their mom and dad.

Despite frequenting Lake Michigan beaches, I am continually amazed by the beauty

It was nice to be able to just sit and enjoy the time together as our little family


After the beach we enjoyed our campfire dinner, smores then off to bed. The night was kind of rough. It was pretty cold and we learned our lesson about not bringing the dog beds because Norris and Baby were uncomfortable which meant they woke us up 3 times before 7am...at least I got a beautiful view of the stars on our 3am walk :)

Before we left we attempted a family picture. I thought option A (see below) was pretty good
but of course I needed to take another "just in case" Not sure that this one turned out better :)
I love Norris's smile but we caught Baby mid-way through catching a fly. I promise she is not nearly as mean as she appears (unless you happen to be a great dane...she doesn't get along with them).

On a different but exciting note I'm very happy to announce that we finally made up our minds and re-booked our flight to Brazil today! (For those of you who don't know, this trip is years in the making. We had one completely planned and ready 4 years ago and had to cancel it THE DAY before due to some emergency surgery.) Ryan served his mission in the southern most state so we are going to spend a week driving 30+ hours to see the old territory then a few sweet, sweet days on the beach in Rio! We are so excited and can't wait! Not a bad way to celebrate 10 years back from the mission and a 30th birthday huh?