Hurricane Sandy

You'd think since we live over 400 miles away from the coast (New Jersy Shore anyway), that if anything we'd get some of rain from the big Hurricane Sandy. Well, did we ever! Holy Toledo! It's been raining for so long, I can't even remember when it started. 

We've had high winds and have been slammed with rain showers. Some areas here are flooding, luckily not us (thankful to be in the heights). Lake Erie had 20 foot waves (see pics below). Many people, including half of my small city of University Hts, is without power. Our friends spent the morning here to get a break from their freezing house, tonight they'll go to a hotel.

The worst of it for us is our big leak. This house is so old and I would say this is probably about our 5th leak, but this one is by far the worst! I'm just cringing at how much this is going to cost.... goodbye Christmas.. goodbye savings for central air....eek. The leak has been leaking for over 24 hours now...and keeps dripping.

 The pee stained, nasty water.

 This was the beginning of it last night.

This morning.

 ARGH! So sad....We don't even know where to start...a roofer? Or are our gutters clogged and sending the water straight down our house, into the leak....?? Replace/paint the drywall?

As Matt was working on it last night he said, "Our next house won't have any leaks!"

Luke said, "Dad, every house has leaks."

Haha. Thanks Luke.

Here are some photos from Lake Erie yesterday.

Crazy!

I'm just thankful that we are warm and safe and that we still have a house!

Patterson's Fun Fest!

I have been incredibly busy with photoshoots this season, so I haven't had any time to blog! I almost forgot that we had this fun outing and I wanted to post these pics.

About a month ago we went out to Patterson's to their fun fest. We got a sweet deal (as always) through HSSA. It rained all day, but miraculously stopped for about 3 hours while we were out there. Yay!

You park and then they take you out on a tractor ride out to the fun fest!

 HSSA is awesome. At most of their events we get discounted tickets and it often includes a meal. 

 There were lots of bees! Poor little Janey, our friend, got stung.

 It's so fun out there! There is a lot to do. A big corn maze for older kids, a small one for little kids, lots of tractors to climb on. Lots of fun slides and little tractors to ride around. Hay bales to climb all over, horse rides...you name it!

 Check out Matt on the stilts. He was having fun...but I think he knew how dorky he looked, especially in front of lots of people. Haha.

 Then back in the forest they have all these fun treehouses you can climb around and a bunch of slides. The kids LOVED it.

 We even went on a little nature hike.

 And a horse ride.

 I love this pic of Devin in the treehouse. But the little stinker climbed all the way up there and then took his shoes off and threw them at me....sounds just like Devin.

We will definitely be back next year!

Happy Fall!

Tootin' my own little horn.

In our ward I am the Relief Society Activity Leader-person (I can never remember the correct name for it). Basically, I'm over all the activities. And I have a lovely and amazing committee that helps me! :)

Well, last night was the debut of our Fall dinner, that has been weeks in the making! 

So much planning and preparation and then....BAMB it's over.

But, it ended up being a wonderful night and we had a great turnout too.

I feel like I am a fairly simple person, so I tried to keep this simple, but I wanted it to be very nice too. Our RS President told us that she wanted it to be a very special night and a night that the women in our ward felt like it was worth leaving their homes to attend. 

The theme was really just Fall and a little bit of Daughters In My Kingdom book.

 It was a progressive dinner. So after each course the women would rotate to another table. Each table is numbered and each place setting was numbered. If you sat at 3, after your course you would move and sit at table 3, and so on.

 For dessert we had 3 different kinds of brownies. 

Chocolate Mint.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip.

Peanut Butter Blondies.

It was A LOT of work, but worth it in the end.
Love the RS and love those lovely ladies. 

Gram'n Gramp came to town!

Mid-September my parents took their annual trip to the good ole Cleveland!

As always, we had lots of fun, saw plenty of sights, had lots of good food, fixed lots of broken things (thanks dad!) and just had a fabulous time together!

Some of the highlights:

-Patterson's Fruit Farm-

Pies. Donuts. Pumpkins. Kettle corn. Fresh corn and apples.

 The Steamship William G. Mather, on a beautiful day!

 There is a beautiful side to Cleveland, when the sun is shining!

 The city that we live in.

 Kirtland Temple

These pictures are terrible quality, but you know me, had to post them anyway.

 Are all these pictures the same?.... :)

 The Quarry.

 Chagrin Falls

 Devin in motion...

 See's the hat. Wants the hat.

 Take's the hat.

 Wear's the hat.

 Looses the hat.

 Thinks he's so funny.

 My dad now owns, a Brown's hat, Indians hat, Buckeye hat....next? Cavs? Lake Erie Monsters?

 Lot's of good nights eating out...So fun! These were at Bahama Breeze. Yum!

The steel drums playing behind us...almost like we were in the Caribean!.....I wish!

 Shopping at the outlets.

 Thank you thank you thank you thank you for ALL the fun!

I love my parents!