Pumpkin Guts

October 20 & 26, 2014

#47 - Carve a Pumpkin

Carving pumpkins when you have very little artistic ability is tough.  I prefer to carve a pumpkin when I can tape a picture from a book onto the pumpkin and carve around it.  The trouble with relying on this method is when the book isn't available.  Our ward hosted a POD activity (FHE with 2 other wards) where we carved pumpkins along with a contest for the best design.  I had no book to help me through this one.

With a little planning ahead I might have been able to produce a semi-decent pumpkin. Unfortunately there was no thought of what to carve until the pumpkin was in front me.  I decided to keep things simple and just carve the word "BOO".  A friend pulled up a picture on a cell phone for me to copy.  Off I went creating my masterpiece!  I completed my work of art and proudly showed it to the people at my table.  They asked me why I had carved 1300 into my pumpkin.  All I have to say is carving the letter B is hard!  It was no real surprise when my pitiful 1300 pumpkin didn't win one of the coveted prize ribbons.  I definitely deserved an A for effort.

Pumpkin carving round #2 wasn't quite so stressful.  We had a family Halloween party at my brother Ryan's house in Logan.  Along with dinner and some fun Halloween themed games, my nephews got to carve pumpkins.  They have come a long way in the past year.  At last years party, the adults ended up being the ones doing all the carving because they had chosen difficult pictures from the book.  This year my nephews skipped over the book pictures and decided to create their own masterpieces.  I was okay with this because I got to spend more time supervising while they did the actual carving portion.  My only real job was to help clean out the pumpkin guts so the nephews could get to the fun part of the activity.

He was so proud of his tail!!

Cutest guys around

Lesson learned....I will not be quitting my day job to become a pumpkin carving professional or really for any job that requires artistic ability.

-Em

I fell in LOVE with......

October 17-19, 2014

Boise!  I fell in love with Boise and more particularly, Boise in the fall.  For our Fall Break adventure Whitney, Susie, and I decided to spend some time visiting Whitney's family in Boise, Idaho.  We began the five hour drive after Susie got off work on Thursday evening.  There was a pit stop for dinner at the Arby's in Elwood and then we were on our way.

Due to a late arrival Thursday night, our Friday morning didn't start quite as early as we had planned. But we were on vacation so there is nothing wrong with being a little lazy and adjust the schedule of things.  Once we got up and moving for the day we headed to a session at the Boise Temple.

One cookie + 3 fortunes = Lucky Me

After the temple and a quick wardrobe change, we ate some yummy Mongolian BBQ and headed to Camel's Back Park for a little hike/stroll.  This is when Boise really showed off how amazing it is in the fall.  The area around the park is residential with lots of trees.  All of these trees were in varying shades of fall colors...yellow, orange, and one beautiful dark red.  We spent a far amount of time taking pictures along the way.  Many a jump picture was taken due to some technical difficulties with a scarf.

#7 - Farmers' Market

Saturday morning we spent wandering around the Farmers Market in downtown Boise.  I sampled delicious guacamole, added a spoon ring to my collection, enjoyed delicious african food (can't remember what it's called), and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

#45 - Ride a Bike

One of my favorite parts of the entire trip happened when we rented cruiser bikes and spent a couple hours seeing Boise.  McU rentals hooked us up with some great bikes for the afternoon...mine was green.  Off we went to ride along the Boise River Greenbelt bike paths.  In our adventures, we crossed over the river a few times, rode past the zoo, had a photo shoot while riding, laughed, and had a fabulous afternoon exploring beautiful Boise.

#43 - Play at a Park

During the bike adventures we rode past a couple parks.  I convinced Whitney and Susie to stop for a bit so that I could play in the park.  Confession: My "playing" in the park consisted of me having my picture taken while sitting at the bottom of a slide I didn't go down.  Since this felt like cheating, we found a spot on the grass to play a few rounds of Heads Up! before leaving the park and continuing the adventure.

#74 - Create a Pinterest Craft

This adventure item was a surprise addition to our trip.  Whitney's mom, Gina, hosts a Witches' Night every year at their house.  Our visit coincided with this year's party and ended up being a lot of fun. We all dressed up like witches for the occasion.  Our costumes were made more authentic with the $4 brooms we purchased at Target the night before.  There was a perfect field in their neighborhood that we were able to use for some prime picture taking.  As part of the party, Gina had planned to make some Halloween crafts that she had found on Pinterest.  The craft was making silhouettes of Halloween related items (bat, witch, crow, etc), mounting them on cute scrapbook paper, and framing them.  I chose to make a bat silhouette and put it on fun paper that looked like an old newspaper. 

#115 - Play the Bagpipes

It's a little hard to believe that I forgot to include "Play the Bagpipes" on my original list when I created it back in August.  Clearly that was an error on my part because who doesn't play the bagpipes on a regular basis.  :)  Thanks to Whitney's little brother, Samuel, I completed this adventure and then added it to the adventure list.  Samuel is a legit bagpiper who wins international competitions each summer.  He was kind enough to play a few songs for us and then graciously taught me how to play (after I assured him I didn't have Ebola, that is).  Man is it hard work!!  The breath control they need to play is incredible.  Samuel assured me that I didn't do too badly because I was able to make it squeak.  Pretty sure that was him just trying to make me feel good about my meager attempt at playing the bagpipes.  Lucky for you my entire bagpiping performance was recorded so you too can be awed by my pure beginner's talent....

Fall Break went way too quickly but we made the most of our time in beautiful Boise.  We were able to finish the roadtrip with the best surprise ever.....a Primary program.  It just happened to be the Primary program sacrament meeting in the ward we attended.  The Sunbeams that sat on the front row (we were on the second row) were my favorite part.  The whole thing was like herding cats trying to get them all up to the stand for each of the musical numbers and then back down to their seats.

YSA wards really need to look into borrowing a Primary or something so we too can enjoy the awesomeness that is the Primary program sacrament meeting!

-Em

This is what happens when you give Samuel your phone to take pictures :)

America's Favorite Cookie

October 4, 2014

#114 - Oreo Night

Every wondered what some of the specialty Oreo cookies taste like?  I can tell you from personal experience that not all flavors should be made into a cookie!!  Whitney and Susie were the masterminds behind this little adventure but I gladly jumped on this bandwagon because who doesn't love Oreos.  When they had come up with the idea to do a Oreo night and taste all the different flavored cookies, the hunt began for all the different flavors we could find.  It took searching and trips to multiple stores but the collection ended up being 13 different flavors of Oreo cookies.

It wouldn't be an Oreo party with out some milk.  We each had a small cup to use for dunking or washing down the cookies.  When it came time to start taste testing the different flavors, we went around the table and each round a new person got to pick a flavor.  Everyone around the table took one cookie and prepared to try it.  I like my Oreos dunked in milk so I would let it soak while I waited for everyone else to get their cookies.

Once everyone had a cookie the process began...

1. Smell the cookie - pretty accurate indicator on what was to come with that particular flavor.  
2. Express thoughts on cookie smell
3. Take a bite of cookie
4. React to the goodness or awful taste of cookie
5. Throw remaining cookie into the communal pot
6. Determine cookie ranking
7. Repeat

Communal Pot for unwanted cookies

Results: 

Fruit Punch - Most Disgusting Flavor

Banana Split - Worst Smell

Cookie Dough - Worst After Taste

Mint - Best Tasting

Golden - Classically Good

My favorite part of the night was to see how differently everyone reacted.  There were a few cookies that some found disgusting while others quite enjoyed.  I guess that is probably why Oreo keeps on making these crazy flavors.  Somebody somewhere is buying them even if it is just for an Oreo Night.

-Em

Run or Dye

October 4, 2014

#15 - Run a 5K

Confession....I was going to let my Dirty Dash count for this adventure item.  It was a 5k and I completed it so that counts, right?  Well this plan changed when my friend Whitney's school got a promo code for the Run or Dye 5k in Salt Lake City making it pretty cheap to participate.

The Run or Dye 5k was a color run that started at the Energy Solutions center.  Our course took us through the surrounding neighborhoods and then we got to run inside of the Energy Solution center. We ran around the top of the arena (where all the concessions are located) and then back outside for a bit.  At the very end of the run, the course went into the arena and we actually ran across the floor where the Jazz play.  Obviously they didn't have the basketball floor down for use to trash, but it was still pretty cool.  During the race there are color stations that you have to pass through.  At these stations, there are volunteers whose sole responsibility is to throw colored chalk at you as you run past.  This guaranteed a colorful finish line because you couldn't get out of it without color.  As we crossed the finish line, each runner was handed a bag of colored chalk to throw on each other.  Every so often they would even have a synchronized color throw like at the Color Festival each year.  All the chalk in the air made breathing a slight problem but it was still fun.  

Before - Looking all bright eyed first thing in the morning

Orange Chalk Angels

Pink haze from one of the color throws

Not only was this adventure a fun experience with great friends.  It also helped my coolness factor shoot through the roof when I ran into one of my students along the way.  His face was priceless as he said "Hi Ms. Merrell?"

-Em

Sing to Me

October 3, 2014

#16 - Go to a Concert

Thanks to some amazingly talented people in a pool I was able to complete this item before I ever used the concert ticket I purchased back in August.

There is an awesome group of girls in our ward who live in the Pool House.  It was fittingly named this because they have a pool in their backyard.  I'm sure there was water in this pool at one point in time but I have never witnessed that phenomenon.  My only experiences in this pool have been watching movies.  I felt privileged when I received an invitation to the Pool of Music concert.  The Pool House girls invited local musicians to come and perform in the pool.  All of the artists were able to play a couple songs to a sell out crowd.

Pool of Music stage

My friend Cameron rocking it! 

People all over the place enjoying the music

After the performances were done, the pool stage turned into a dance floor.  There was an appearance by Taylor Swifts (yep, plural) performing "Shake It Off" and then everyone joined in the party.  We left the comfort of our couch and headed to the pool.  I'm not usually big on dancing (at least when there is a large crowd) but I joined in the fun and was glad that I did.  Music was loud, upbeat, and I couldn't help but dance.

One can never attend too many concerts, right?  The Pool of Music technically completed list item #16 but I already had a concert ticket to see Parachute perform at the Venue with my friend Jenn.  I have been to a few concerts at the Venue and I love it.  It's a smaller venue so you are right in the action of it all.  Jenn and I made sure to bring our IDs so we could stand up in the balcony area (must be 21 to go up because alcohol is served) instead of crammed in with all the people on the floor.  

Parachute put on an AMAZING show!!  They barely stopped to breathe from the first song until the end.  The concert was made better by the fact that I had been jamming out to Parachute for the 2-3 weeks leading up to the concert and was able to sing my little heart out during the show.  

Concerts are becoming a favorite activity for me!  Looking forward to the Vance Joy concert coming up in November.

-Em