Why I love Utah

Here's my long story: Chris and I moved to Maryland for a couple of years, back in 1999. Maryland is gorgeous, huge tall trees everywhere, and during the fall, dang man, the trees were absolutely incredible. However, being a desert girl who loves the wide open spaces, and the never-ending blue skies, I felt a bit claustrophobic. While on the long road back home to Utah in 2001, when we came up to the Rockies on I-70, I lost it. I never realized how much I need and am completely and utterly attached to the safety of my mountains. I love the security that being surrounded by huge towering mountains on all sides of the valley provides.

So I started a tradition this last spring, every Sunday morning-as long as weather permits, I either roller-blade up the canyon, or find a new place to hike and discover. Well, Carson is going through a really difficult time right now. He's extremely angry at the smallest things, and can't quite figure out all of his emotions that are going on inside him. We tried to get to the heart of the problem, and he just broke down. He really misses Grandma and Grandpa, specifically Grandma's laugh. I think the fact that they couldn't attend his baptism hit him quite hard. Since the older Carson becomes, the more I realize he is so much like me, I felt like he was due for some one-on-one therapy time. We took this wonderful hike just honestly minutes above my house to Battle Creek Falls. My neighbor's been trying to get me up there for months, but it didn't seem to ever have water when I tried. We were absolutely amazed, around every corner there was so much to discover-absolutely and completely gorgeous! I think the therapy worked (for at least a day-because Carson was so happy all Sunday).

I think the most ironic thing about the whole hike, is that we just went to Steamboat Springs Colorado, and they bragged about this gorgeous hike up to these falls. They were beautiful alright, but these falls at Battle Creek were just as beautiful and literally took just 60 minutes to drive there, make the hike, and return back home.

My sad attempt at some fall foliage pictures down at the base of the falls in Kiwanis Park. It's been so great discovering all the great things Pleasant Grove has to offer. I remember always making fun of people who attended PGHS and what hicks they were. I've decided they just knew how to keep a great secret. Once again, I love where I live.

Trick-or-Treating in High Style

We were lucky enough to be invited to Olivia's 8th birthday party on Halloween this year. It was so much fun-we went trick-or-treating in this huge limo. Carson was so impressed that it was the same limo that Hannah Montanna rode in a couple of years ago. It was a fabulous party, trick or treating was definitely second to the party inside the limo. Chris put on his Micheal Meyers and in typical Chris fashion had all of the kids eating out of his hands. He is so fabulous with kids. I loved listening to all of the trick-or-treaters around us when they saw the limo-it's really fun pretending like limos are just part of your everyday.

Ashley's family had the cutest costumes, she found this darling Captain Hook costume (that's her with the crocodile hat), Shane was Smee, Olivia was a pirate, Kale was Peter Pan, and Ryder was the crocodile with a clock around his neck. They are so much fun and we are incredibly lucky to be their friends. We are so excited for our new calling and that we get to work together so closely, we are all on the Activities Committee.
A quick little note about Carson-he really thought the vampire girl was cute.

Carson's Baptism

This weekend we baptized Carson. We appreciate all the close family and friends who attended. It was a glorious day that Carson will remember. How cool that he was baptized on Halloween! Both sets of grandparents were definitely missed, but we felt their presence despite their absence. (In case you are seeing this for the first time-yes, I cut my hair and colored it, definitely to the dismay of my husband-but it is nice to have a change for a bit. I'll be going back to blonde and growing it out once again in no time:)

Some quick highlights of the baptism-the water was freezing, and Carson definitely let everybody know it. When we got there, the bishopric hadn't filled the baptismal font and unless we wanted to wait for 3 hours for warm water, we were stuck with the cold. What am I saying? Like I was in the water at all.

Hunter said the closing prayer, and Connor gave a darling spot light on Carson. He was quick and witty and did an excellent job. We tried to keep things informal but I don't think the Bishop had the same idea. I tried to talk Chris into wearing his dark underwear but he didn't take the bait.

He was baptized with our closest neighbor's daughter-Olivia Richins. Check out facebook and you'll see some great pictures of The Richin's family and ours.

A Fabulous Halloween Season

If you know me at all you know that my favorite holiday is Halloween. I love Halloween because I'm selfish and I like the fact that I can do whatever I want to do. Decorations are optional, celebrating it in general is optional-that's what I love about it. I must admit that the season started out slower than most years for me. I started the month off with a case of the swine -flu. I was out of it for a week, but due to the fact that I have an over eager 5 year old-I was a bit forced into decorating and getting into the spirit of things. After a day and a half of decorating-I have way too much Halloween stuff-we were ready to start the festivities. Here's a quick peek into some of the festivities.
I call our family costume theme this year the Walmart Family. If the costume wasn't at Walmart than we weren't it. I was a gothic fairy, Connor was an evil guitar player, Carson was Snake Eyes from GI Joe, Clayton was Optimus Prime, and Chris was Micheal Meyer from Halloween-he had the boys pick it out for him.
You can attribute it to our great parenting skills. We took the kids to what is now the Scariest Haunted House in the country-Nightmare on 13th street. It was great, over an hour and a half long! Can you believe that? This is a picture of Clayton after he "Made It" and "Survived the Terror". He hid behind his Optimus Prime mask during most of it. Before we began I told him that I would be with him through the whole thing and I wouldn't let anything happen to him. He said, "I'm going to stay with Daddy, he's the toughest!" Chris loved the feeling of having his son have complete faith and trust in him-that as long as he was with Clayton nothing would happen to him. Needless to say Clayton slept with us that night.

Of course we had to hit our favorite Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It's a great way to get you in the spirit of Halloween. Thanks to Shayne and his all seeing eye for great coupons, we were able to take the kids to CLAS Ropes for their Halloween Boat Tour for $12.50! Citydeals.com is a great place to find spectacular deals in the area.

Sorry it's been so long...A quick catch-up

So here's the story-Basically something happened to my memory card that had all my best photos of the summer on it. I've tried to download the pics onto every computer I have (which is a lot considering I have 19 student laptops and my own, not to mention Chris's) I can see the pictures but I can't download them. So here's a quick run down of the Ecalono events from Brother's Day to Halloween.Carson and Connor were both on the Pleasant Grove Swim Team this summer. This is their last meet. We saw some serious progress in their swimming-not to mention they both got ripped-this summer. Carson won 1st place in a couple of races and Connor won third place. I can't remember which events they were.

Chris took Connor to Maryland with him for a week. (Unfortunately the Maryland pics were on the memory card.) I took Carson, and Clayton to visit my Grandma Hunter. It was honestly, one of the best weeks of my life. She is an amazing women, who makes me look like I have absolutely no energy in comparison. It's crazy the amount of work she can complete in one day.

Once again, we enjoyed Mom and Dad's Worldmark Timeshare and took the kids for a week to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Tons of fun, we went hiking, biking, and basically had to figure out how to vacation with just our family. It was definitely strange not having any extended family with us.
Sparta Cup-Connor's awesome X-league team took 1st place in their division. They are so much fun to watch.


Our first Pine-wood Derby. Chris and I are Webelos Den leaders (one of our 3 callings). We participated in our first derby this year. Quite the undertaking for parents that are tool-challenged. With the help of Oak Canyon's shop teacher, we were able to make two great cars for the boys. Carson's took 2nd place. By the way, Connor's car is the little red one, second in line on the track.


Carson turned 8. We took all of his friends to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Lots of fun!