Tristen's Engaged

Woot Woot!  My sister is going to get married.  She got engaged on 9/28 and 2 days later we were shopping for the dress.  Here's a picture - isn't she pretty?  This is not THE dress so its OK if I post it.

She's getting married on January 3rd in the Saint George Temple.  And, yes, her last name will also be Butler because she's going to marry Dan, Jeff's cousin.  Funny how things work out.

A Real Dress

I finally made a real dress for Lily - not a dress-up dress.  It turned out really good and I am very happy with my work.  I even made the flower on her sash!  Feel free to admire.

Claire's New Word: Hat

Claire has added another word to her vocabulary: HAT.  Unfortunately she likes to demonstrate what a hat is using things that should not go in hair.  Today she used her pears from snack time.

Jeff's Morning Market Call

RS Broadcast and Football Game

I got tickets to go to the RS Broadcast at the Conference Center so I called and invited the mother-in-law to come with me....knowing that then they would have to come and visit us.  Since I was going to the broadcast, I wouldn't be able to use my football ticket, but my father-in-law was happy to use it for me.  So we all ended up having a great time - besides the fact that BYU lost the game.

Visit to Thanksgiving Point

I had never been to Thanksgiving Point so I called my friend, Naomi, and we went to the farm area together.  Lily and her son, Spencer, are great friends and inspire each other to be adventurous.  It was really cute to see the farm animals.  Claire loved the ducks and Lily loved riding in the horse-drawn carriage, like a princess.

After we left, I wanted to take some pictures of my girls by the pumpkins and hay bales.  When I got there, I realized I didn't have my camera and had to drive back to my old parking spot to find it.  It had a few new dents, but fortunately it still works and it didn't get run over.  The pictures turned out cute, but I'm not sure if it was worth the damage to the camera.

Labor Day Camping Trip

For Labor Day we went camping with my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend, Dan.  I had been urging my parents to plan a camping trip for us all because I don't feel like I get to see them often enough.  We went to Dead Horse State Park, which is right in between Arches and Canyonlands near Moab.

The trip was fantastic, except for a few minor problems: Jeff forgot our tent poles so we all had to cram into my parents tent, it was REALLY hot so we'd have to go to the visitor's center to get a little dose of AC, and the wind was relentless.  The wind was so bad that it blew the tent (the one we were all sharing) down in the middle of the night so we had to sleep in the car.

I love camping with my parents.  Its fun to see them, but its also nice to have someone more responsible than you there to help you if you run into problems...and we always seem to run into problems camping.  :o)  It was nice to have some babysitters too so Jeff and I could go off and have some some adventures.  We went on a couple of hikes that were really beautiful and we tried out a mountain biking trail.  It was a little bit scary, but REALLY fun!

Here are some pictures I wanted to share.

Oh, and did I mention that Dan is Jeff's cousin??