I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Where the treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write. May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white.

Sick

+

Snow =
Yuck

Someone save us.

Lazy, Lazy Days

Tyler and I have been incredibly lazy this week, and I do not have anything worthy to blog about. It comes from any of the following:

a) Summer has ended; the sun comes up later, thus we wake up later.
b) It's getting colder, so it's easy to stay cozy in our blanket cocoon.
c) McKay has started school and work on a regular basis again, so we don't have another adult to motivate action.
d) We're still recovering from our trip to California.
e) We like lounging around and watching Dinosaur Train on two different channels, even if it is the same episode.

In any case, here are our ingredients for a very indolent week:

Favorite Sweats: Check



Good Reads: Check




Teddy Bear Chair: Check



Kill Bear Chair: Check



Lots of cuddling: Check

Fall in the Mountains

Last Monday, we drove up the mountains to Alpine Loop for a picnic. At the beginning of October, just before winter hits and turns everything gray, the mountains are all orange and yellow and red and gold and beautiful.

As soon as we set Tyler down on this path, he put his little head down and just marched.

Tyler found some other hikers during our dinner picnic. After this picture, he ran to ambush them.

We got there a bit later than we wanted to, so we missed the sunset on all the colors, but it was still fun to get out and see the beautiful changes that fall brings to our neck of the woods.

Reds in L.A.?

As I was dashing through the front doors of the grocery store, a nice looking man stopped me and proceeded to start the strangest conversation I've ever had.

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"Why do all these people treat us like we're from Los Angeles?"

"Um...Los Angeles?"

"Yeah! They take one look at you and treat you like you're a communist! Can you believe that?" And with that, he rode off on his bicycle.

So hear this, all you Commies in L.A! You may think it's a party, but Weird Bike Guy is onto your game.

Black Friday?

My good friend Tiffany agreed to be my partner in crime at 5:00 AM this morning outside of the Provo Robert's Crafts. The first 50 customers got a free $25 gift card! Since most of Provo is poor college students, we figured we needed to get there extra early to be in the first 50.

Here we are, #1 and #2 in line! I think it took at least another hour and a half for the line to get to 50 people.

Tiffany and her well-earned gift certificate!

Here's my loot! I was really into all the Halloween and Thanksgiving decor for some reason. We don't have a lot of decorations for this time of year, but I think that celebrating the little things in life like season changes and the first day of the month and silly holidays like Pirate Day and Pi Day makes everyday life new and exciting for your family.

At any rate, I bought more than I should have. I think sleep deprivation may have been a part of that decision making process.

This actually says "Give Thanks," although we do love us some Tom Hanks.

There were a few smaller things, but the minute they entered our home, they disappeared.

I think he knows something.

PS: Our lovely neighbors are hosting another party tonight. I'm really glad they're making a habit of this. And just to shake it up tonight, they've been honking their car horns and they've played "Gimme Gimme More" three times already. Love it.

Fall's a coming.




(pictures from last fall)

I get more excited with each season's passing this year, because we are one season closer to being finished with school. But it does make me a little sad. I really love fall in Utah.

This will be our last fall with:

orange and yellow mountains
crisp evening walks through campus
hot apple cider from the creamery
cool mornings at farmers market
perfect afternoons at the neighborhood park

We're excited to move on with our lives, but I'm starting to think I'll miss our old life here. I'm going to savor it this year.

Tyler will watch its passing with a bag of chips. And a protective scowl.

Family "Onion"

At our 1997 Eatough Reunion, my younger sister Kristen (who was four) called it the family "onion." We just had another this past weekend, and there were Eatoughs coming out of the wood work. There were about 100 of us from three generations, all descended from Richard II, my Great-Grandpa Eatough.

Here's out lovely family (minus Kim and Lauren, who couldn't make it). EVERYONE stayed at our tiny little apartment. We had two toddlers, two teenagers, two grandparents and more, if you can imagine the chaos. Oh, and our apartment does not have A/C, and it's July. Hurray for more body heat!

Uncle Gordy, Aunt Mel and Robin.

My uncles (who planned the reunion) rented Jolly Ranch on Friday for everyone to hang out at. There was a wading creek, a park, a huge pavillion, big fields and a camping area.

Tyler and Adam wore themselves out inspecting every inch of it.

We're glad so many were able to come spend time with us, but we're also pretty relieved to have our house to ourselves again :)

And a big thanks to Aunt Kristen (the onion sister) who stayed with us for a week before the reunion. We miss you! Yard sales won't be the same without you!

Real Workaholics

There's some witty similarity to be noted between this story and the one about the boy throwing the starfish one by one back into the ocean, but it's late, I'm tired, and I can't think it up.

Mt. Nebo

Before Katie comes home from California and steals my thunder with her report from California, I figure I better log my hike yesterday up Mount Nebo. May as well do it now while my aching body recovers. For those those of you not from around here, Mount Nebo is the highest point in Utah that's near civilization, basically. Anyway, with Katie out of town, I decided to join up with my friend Devin, whose wife was, interestingly enough, also out of town.

We left at about 5am, and hit the trail around 6. It started out pleasant enough. I mean, this looks nice enough, doesn't it? Very green, scenic, not terribly steep.

We saw some deer on the trail.

This was cool. We saw some glaciers (snow fields, technically) up on the mountain, then in the valley you could see a path of destruction that the avalanches leave behind in the winter.

The first couple of hours were pretty tough, but the views were great.

Finally, after some exhausting climbing, the end is in sight. I'm tired and ready to be done. We just need to get to the top and we can finally rest. What you see here takes about an hour to climb- it really is about as steep as it looks. I feel like I'm dying.
We finally get to the top of this, and here is what we see:






There is another peak to climb. We pretty much just climb up the ridge here, which takes about another 45 min. or so. Fortunately, there are no more peaks- we're on the top:

Me and Devin here- lucky Devin's wife happened to have left this lovely wool knit jacket in the car that he was able to grab before we hit the trail. Rest assured, he is a very manly man. Unfortunately, it was freezing up there and the wind was blowing.

Some clouds rolled in with the wind, and we could see it raining all over the valley.




We even got pelted with some freezing rain (little ice balls) for a minute up there.



Ever wonder where ladybugs come from? They all hatch on Mt. Nebo. All of them. In the world. There were thousands of them, tens of thousands, crawling all over the rocks, concentrated in one particular spot on the peak.



Finally came the descent. Getting down from the highest 1/2 mile or so of the peak itself was almost as difficult as getting up was exhausting:


I had to check out these rocks on the way down. Where's a good lake for skipping rocks on when you need one?


It was a fun hike to do. The views were spectacular and it was great to get out. Would I do it again? Not a chance. Not in the kind of shape I'm in, anyhow. I've done a lot of mountain hiking, but this was a killer. I'm afraid me and mountain hiking are going to have to part ways for a while. Maybe I'll go back and hike Timpanogos and probably Angel's Landing again one day. In the meantime, though, I wish the mountains the best. We've had some good times. I hold you in high regards, Nebo, but I think this is for the best for both of us.