Lately...

It is so good to be back in St. George.

After months of unscheduled life, it's great to be back in a routine. We've been so busy in fact, that blog posts stack up just like my pile of laundry.

The weekend before school started Ben and Sheridon came up to St. G for their 5 year anniversary. We are taking full advantage of the spare room, with my parents staying with us after the move and then Ben and Sheridon right after that.

We went to Thriller last fall for Sheridon's birthday, but we weren't crazy bout that so we decided to put a better taste in our mouth with Grease.

Oh my gosh do I love Tuacahn. Can't wait to see Little Mermaid, Hairspray and Wizard of Oz.

After Tuacahn we went back to the house for Italian sodas. Jason's only ever made them once or twice, but let me tell you they are GOOD. Little did I know he learned his skills from Ben who made plenty of Italian sodas on his mission.

Raspberry. Mmmmm!

So glad Ben and Sheridon came up to play. :)

The first day of school was the launch of WOW week (Week of Welcome), so we headed to the Encampment Mall for the back-to-school carnival. I'm so excited Larissa, Leana, Matt and Nick decided to come to Dixie. Our convincing has finally paid off!

Little Ollie even came to the carnival!

Matt was all over the rock wall.

And Lean was all about the cotton candy.

Jason liked the games. Can you see the dice falling?

Friday night was the Foam Dance- seriously the best dance of the year. It is OFF the chain. I swear more people come to this dance than any other school activity. Can you see the guy peeking his head into the picture? Haha

Recent lightning storms caught a couple mountains on fire, so we headed out to the AZ strip to check it out. 'Cept the TL just ain't cut out to off-road. :/

Check out my little bro in the New Era! I was in a 2008 issue of the Ensign so slowly but surely we're getting the whole fam in church magazines. Haha

Oliver is as good as ever. I'm sure if he could talk he'd say how much he misses my dad though. They're best buddies. :) Everytime we Skype the fam dad has to see baby O.

I love this pic. Jason put him in his bathrobe pocket one morning and he just hung out.

Hanging out with Chris means plenty of tennis, so we've been hittin' the courts to get our talent on. ;)

Speaking of talent, we went to Open Mic night last week to see Nick perform and Jason joined him up on stage. They are so good! Seriously you need to see them when they actually practice.

Since Jason went camping with a mission buddy last night, Riss and I took advantage of girl time and got busy making cookies, crafts and watching Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Then this morning we headed out to Tuacahn for their Saturday Market. Can you tell we love Tuacahn around here??

Apparently it's held every Saturday from April- December. Can you believe it- December?! Up north markets are over mid-August since the weather gets so cold. Just one more reason why I love St. G. I'd never been to the Saturday Market and Larissa's never been to Tuacahn at all, so we went off to see what it's all about.

I guess I expected a farmer's market, but this was all crafts, no produce. But that's just fine with me- Riss and I were immediately drawn to the jewelry and we spent most of an hour at one booth. I was surprised to see booths selling crafts that I've done myself.

The jewelry booth we loved sold safety pin watches- an idea I actually made money off of when I was in middle school. I had a shoe box full of pins and beads, and I kept a running list of all the girls at school that wanted one of my bracelets for $5 each. I made pretty good money off my bracelet business!

One recycled booth was selling Capri Sun purses and starbust wrapper bracelets, two crafts I was obsessed with when I was a teen. I didn't sell those, but maybe I should patent my ideas! ;)

The best part of the market was by far the authentic tamales. I dated a guy from New Mexico when I was at Dixie a few years ago and he got me hooked on these little babies. I've been disappointed ever since though, because he had hookups to the good stuff and I've only found them at Walmart or Cafe Rio- sadly not even close to authentic. So when I spotted a tent of $2 tamales today I jumped on it and scored the very last one they had. Riss and I sat by the water to share it and I've been dying for more. Next week I'll be back for tamales in bulk!

We had to stop for a photo op of course.

That's it for now. Our busy lives pretty much consist of homework, classes, decorating the house and catching up with friends. Like I said, it's good to be back in St. George.

:)