Ruby Bucket Retreat!

My good friend Esther and her friend, Stephanie, have dreamed about hosting a scrapbook/craft retreat for years. They finally made it happen, and it was AWESOME! They did such a great job! I attended the 1st Ruby Bucket Retreat, and I got so much done! I started at 10:00 on a Friday morning, and I scrapbooked until 1:00 the following morning. I went back to the hotel at 8:30 on Saturday morning, and finished up at about 10:00 that night. I got 33 scrapbook pages done! They had awesome welcome gifts, door prizes, classes, treats, a craft boutique, a PJ party, and more! So fun! I'm already looking forward to the next one!

I love cute Esther!

Fall Trail Running!

Mark and I have been LOVING trail running. I'm pretty sure Mark's addicted, which makes me pretty happy! We got a couple good fall runs in before the snow hit. 

Big Burns/Black Canyon:

This was our favorite run of the season. It was a 13.5 mile loop in the Kelly Canyon area. We hit the fall colors at just the right time. The pictures don't even begin to do it justice. So pretty! There was so much variety. Lots of fun water crossings, lots of uphill, and plenty of downhill. We would be a lot faster runners if I didn't stop so often to take pictures, but I really can't help it!

Steam coming off the river.

I loved the beginning of this trail. It looked magical!

There was about 10 of these water crossings. So fun!

I think we got Nate hooked on this too!

So pretty!

A big tree came down right across the trail.

Big Elk Creek:

We squeezed this run in right before the snow fell. We ran Big Elk Creek on a Friday, and woke up to 6 inches on snow on Saturday morning. This one was an 11 mile out and back trail. We ran along the creek the whole time, and it was beautiful!

Mark was standing in 2 states at the same time!

We're crossing our fingers that the snow melts, and we can get one more run in before winter. If not, we'll be breaking out the snow shoes!

Bonneville Homecoming!

Bailey had a great time at her senior homecoming dance! She went with Riley Baird, and said he was a perfect gentlemen, and lots of fun!  Here's the story:

The asking:

Riley left a poster in her room that said, "It would be FLIPPING awesome at HOCO with you, so I'm POPPING the question." He left pancake mix, a spatula, and popcorn with it.

The answering:

Bailey wanted to answer in a similar way, so her and Andrew ditched a poster at his house that said, "You DONUT know how EGGcited I am to ROLL to HOCO with you!" She left donuts, eggs that spelled YES, and cinnamon rolls.

The day date:

Bailey had so much fun on the day date. First, they went to Riley's house for games, and a pumpkin carving contest. Then they went to The Zone in Rexburg and played all kinds of fun games. The went in the battle balls, and played archery combat. Bailey came home with a huge bruise on her arm from the bow snapping her. It got bigger and uglier as the night went on. 

Bailey and Riley carved the winking pumpkin, and they won the contest! Brad and Julie were the judges via Facetime.

Archery Combat! Angel, Kendall, Riley, Bailey, Jakob, Marlee, Andrew, Parker, Emma. 

Enjoy her face, and her big bruise! :)

Here's a close of of her battle wound. It got so much worse the next day. It turned a dark purple color and spread around her arm.

She cleans up good!

Looking beautiful for the dance!

The boutonniere.

The corsage.

Riley and Bailey

 They went to dinner at Johnny Carinos, and then headed to the dance. Bailey loves the dances! She always wants to stay the whole time. She said the music, DJ, and set up were really good at this one. She danced so much that her calves were sore for a couple days.

This is the only group picture they took the whole night! Hannah, Dallas, Riley, Bailey, Marlee, Andrew.

After the dance they played games at Riley's house. I'm glad she's enjoying these moments, and making the most of her senior year. She's gonna blink and it will be over.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was great! I kicked it off a couple days early celebrating with my friends. Michelle, Becky, Misty, Lesa, and I had a dinner/movie night. There is nothing like laughing with those ladies!

 I spent my birthday doing my favorite thing....watching Bailey run a cross country race. That night my family took me to dinner at Johnny Carinos, and then I had my annual birthday scavenger hunt. It was hilarious like always! I forgot to take pictures of everything, so the next day I took some of my presents. I'm pretty spoiled!

My friends got me fun fall crafts for my house!

Bailey got me a yummy smelling pumpkin-apple candle, and Sawyer got me a gift certificate to a scrapbook store!

The theme of my scavenger hunt was 'running,' and it was pretty funny! I got loads of candy, a plant, my traditional Barnes and Noble gift card, and a smart fitness watch! I'm so excited about it!

Mark is a huge researcher, and likes to look into every detail of something before he buys it. So, the last present of my scavenger hunt was an envelope. When I opened it up, it had 3 pages. There was a picture of a smart fitness watch on each page, with all the pros and cons listed. I had to read through them, and pick the one I wanted. It didn't take me long to choose the Garmin. He went to the cupboard and pulled out the watch and gave it to me! I asked if he had all three of them in there, and he said he just had that one, because he was pretty sure that was the one I would pick. So funny! We planned a trail run for that weekend so I could try it out. I'm happy to say that I love it, and it's prefect for what I do!

The next week, my neighbors and church friends took me to lunch for my birthday. I'm surrounded by a lot of really great people!
I don't like getting older, but birthdays are sure fun!

Devil's Staircase/Alaska Basin Run

Mark and I, and one of Mark's coworkers, Nate, had planned to do the Devil's Staircase/Alaska Basin loop for a trail run. It's a beautiful 17 mile loop by the Tetons. The weekend we were supposed to go, there was terrible weather in that area. There was wind, snow, and really cold temperatures, so we had to postpone it a few weeks. That 3 week difference sure made for an adventure! It was 29 degrees when we started, but once we got running, it felt perfect. We ended up with a beautiful day in the upper 50s, low 60s. We ran the first few miles to the start of the Devil's Staircase climb. We walked up the hill for the next mile. When we got to the top, we came across snow. We thought we'd see snow, but we had no idea how much there would be! We are talking FEET of snow! We fell through it with each step we took, so it made for some slow going! We thought if we just pushed through until the Alaska Basin junction, we'd be fine! WRONG! It got deeper! We walked through 7 miles of snow, and in some places we could no longer tell where the trail was, so we had to guess and make our own. Good times! It was actually pretty fun, but it took a lot longer than we thought, because we couldn't run, so we were starting to stress out that we were gonna miss Bailey's cross country race that evening. Once we got through that 7 miles, we were able to run the last 7 miles back. It was still muddy, and a little snowy, but that made it fun. We ended up running about 9-10 miles of it, and walking 7-8. We were really sore from pulling our legs out of the snow with each step. It was rough on our lower back muscles. I'm happy to say that we made it to Bailey's race, mud and all! We are already planning on doing it again next year, but not so late in the season!

At the Devil's Staircase junction.

Not a bad view!

Getting into the snow....

Mark and Nate with the Tetons behind them.

This is what the trail looked like most of the way. Sometimes it wasn't that easy to find, and we would lose it for awhile.

This was only Nate's second trail run! Good thing he's a good sport!

We lost the trail at this point, so we made our own down a mountain!

Hahaha, look how deep it is! You can't tell from the picture, but this area came above my knees!

This gives a good view of the trail we made.

Refilling water.

So pretty!

This was the only wildlife we saw!

So much fun! Mark is loving the trail running! We have a few long ones planned for next season, so we're both pretty excited! I wish fall could last forever in this area, but clearly winter has already hit the mountains!