Jason's mad pumpkin carving skills

I have to say that I have never met anyone with as impressive pumpkin carving skills as my husband. He weilds those little plastic carving tools from the grocery store with total precision, creating a masterpiece each time. This year he went a step beyond and actually carved two pumpkins (upping his chances of winning the ward's annual pumpkin carving contest).

The first was of Ronald Reagan. Here is the pattern that he used:To be honest, just looking at this pattern confuses me. Here he is diligently working away:Now, for the end result. Is this stunning or what? In the light, it looks like just a random face carved into the pumpkin. But the dark reveals Reagan' s face perfectly! Now for the second beauty. This one is extremely impressive, because Jason actually designed the pattern himself from a picture. Not bad, huh? He LOVES Ghost Busters (and Ronald Reagan for that matter) so this was perfect for him. Did he do a great job or what?

The Best Saturday Ever

Last Saturday was the best day ever. We had such a blast - and took so many pictures, that I have divided this post into two parts.

PART 1: Gilcrease Orchards

We got up bright and early and headed to Gilcrease Orchards, in order to look for some pumpkins. We thought it would be a fun experience to actually go to the pumpkin patch and pick them ourselves. Boy were we right! But pumpkins were only the beginning... the next thing we found were tomatoes. Not exactly "ripe" for the picking, but that was perfect because, well... anyone ever heard of fried green tomatoes? It's not just a movie you know! They had a ton of perfectly unripe green tomatoes, and Weston had a good time helping daddy find them.

We also found some beautiful okra, peppers, squash, melon, and eggplant (which comes from a lovely plant I thought)

Weston was funny about the eggplant. At first he liked it, and then he seemed afraid of it!Next came picking apples in the orchard... oh what fun! Weston's favorite part was putting the apples in the bag for us. What a big helper!He also helped pick a few that had fallen to the ground He even ventured to taste! They turned out to be fantastic apples - we made a huge pitcher of sweet, delicious apple juice out of them that we have enjoyed all week long. I wanted to make apple pie, but since I can't eat pie and Jason doesn't like apple pie (I know, difficult to imagine) we went for the juice instead.

PART 2: Breakfast and Beyond

We left Gilcrease Orchards happy but hungry! So, we did something we have only done one other time in our married life - we went out to breakfast. We headed off to Denny's, where I snapped a shot of my two hungry men:At last! Food never tasted so good. (Actually, it has. I just felt like saying that.)

I'm not exaggerating though when I say it was Weston's first time trying pancakes.After our divine breakfast (I say divine because I didn't have to make it or clean any dishes afterwards), we headed over to my mother-in-law's house to see their new chocolate lab puppy.

Weston loved Abby (the puppy), but not as much as his aunt Shae-Leigh and uncle Trevor

My cute hubby playing with the dog At this point, we felt like we had already had had such a wonderful, satisfying day. But the fun was not over. We just happened to walk by a garage sale in the neighborhood as it was shutting down for the day. There really wasn't much to see, so we only stopped for a moment. Just as we were about to leave, this man asks if we have a halloween costume yet for the little guy. I answer a little hesitantly because I'm not too excited about the prospect of buying some crusty old costume that has been sitting in a box in his garage for the last 20 years. (This is what I was imagining).

I was totally wrong! This guy had like 10 brand new Disney costumes, still with the tags on them. They were ALL super duper cute. And only $10 - try and beat that. I had such a hard time deciding which one, but finally settled on Nemo. As soon as we got home we tried it on. Isn't he adorable?He was so excited about the costume that I could hardly get him to stand still and get a good shot. Uncle Chris (Jason's brother) had come over for a few minutes. Weston kept giving him little kisses. It was precious. :)

The Nemo costume wasn't the only great deal we got that day. I have been trying to find a grill for Jason since Father's Day. Well, he ended up finding a heck of a deal. This beautiful baby was only $75! Is that awesome or what?

At the end of the day, Jason made us some fried green tomatos, which I must admit were absoulutely scrumptious! I liked them so much that we had them the next day too.

It was an all-around perfect day. I just had to tell someone about it!

Last Weekend

Last weekend, two great things happened. Well, two good things and one annoying thing. The annoying thing is that bright and early Saturday morning I had to go to a boy scout new leader training meaning. The man conducting the training was so knowledgeable and nice and so very earnest about his position as scout leader trainer, but dryer than... um...er... something really, really dry. (the right word is eluding me at the moment) I don't know if everyone else was as bored out of their skulls as I was, but I honestly had to draw pictures the entire time just to stay awake.

Fortunately, as soon as I left, we all hopped in the car and headed to Boulder City to visit Jason's Grandpa and Grandma Glass. That was the good thing that happened. We had a blast! The other good thing is that for the first time since March, it was cool enough to wear a long sleeved shirt!!!! Hallelujah! I do not have words to express the sheer joy I feel at the coming of Fall. There are few things more glorious to me, and more "joyous to the soul" than the END OF SUMMER. I never felt that way as a kid, but then again, when I was a kid my summers were spent swimming, biking, and generally having the time of my life in a part of the country that did not leave me feeling like I lived in an oven for four straight months. But, I digress. Here are some of the cute pictures we took while visiting Grandpa and Grandma Glass:Our little family.I tried SO many times to get a cute picture of Weston with his Great-Grandpa, but sadly had little success. I managed to get them in the same picture a couple of times, but no camera magic this time. I did, however, get some great pictures of Grandma Glass with the munchkin. Weston had a great time dancing with her in the kitchen,

Examining her necklace,Playing outside,And trying out some cool new sippy cups that Great-Grandma had for him. One had water in it and the other had apple juice. He walked around alternating back and forth between the two sippies. He would take a drink from one, then a drink from the other. It was super cute! Weston thoroughly enjoyed Missy too. Unfortunatly, this is the only picture I have of them "playing"This is Jason with his grandpa

Weston was so pooped from all the fun activity that when we finally left at 4:00, he fell asleep in his carseat almost instantly.

Then he did something that he has never before done. He stayed asleep from four in the afternoon until the next morning!! The poor little guy must have been exhausted. It was a great day.