Our Little Pumpkin

I took Sam to a pumpkin patch to get some cute fall shots. I used a film camera and a digital camera. I don't know if it was because the film had been in there for a while or what, but the quality of the film pictures is totally inferior to the digital pictures. I'm kind of bummed because while I was taking them, I thought they would come out better. Anyway, here's our little cutie pie!

Our New Tradition

It's kind of hard to get out and do things when your baby goes to sleep at 7 or so each night. (Not that we're complaining; Sam sleeps like a dream.) Dan and I have resigned ourselves to this fact and have taken up a new tradition: MARIOKART.

Pretty much every night for the past week, Dan and I have squared off for the ultimate battle: Princess Peach (Dan) vs. Wario (me).

We don't have the fancy new version, just N64. (As a side note, I bought Dan Mariokart for Christmas like 4 years ago but I really bought it for myself. It's the only nintendo game where I can hold my own.)

We're always the same characters and we always play battle mode. Two games per course. Dan usually comes out ahead but every once in a while, I have this moment of clarity and rip Dan a new one. Dan accused me of practicing while he's gone at work. Not a bad idea!

Dallas

This past Thursday through Saturday, Dan's firm hosted a "New Lawyer Retreat" in Dallas. Sam and I took the opportunity to tag along and see the area. The drive up was nice. It reminded us of Virginia with all the bushy trees.

Dan's agenda was pretty packed, so Sam and I did our own thing. Thursday we went to the BYU vs TCU game with Rebecca, Sydney, and Talmage. It was great to see them!

I was SOO looking forward to this game. What a disappointment! Every time I go to a BYU game, they lose. I am their curse. I'm like Jessica Simpson distracting Tony Romo at the Cowboys game. Not good.

Funny story: I was hoofing it trying to get to Will Call before the game started so I could pick up my ticket. I had Sam in a front carrier. I noticed a pack of 13- or 14-year-old boys was riding towards me on skateboards. There was one in the front coming right at me who wasn't paying attention. I yelled for him to look out, but he didn't hear me. So when he got close enough and was about to run into Sam, I totally stiff-armed him and he went flying off his board. Booyah. I was like a mama bear protecting her cub. I felt very liberated.

Sam was really hungry so I had to feed him at the game. I hiked all the way to the top of the emptiest bleachers I could find. Then a boy came and sat right across the aisle from me. Awkward! So I hiked even higher.

Afterwards we found Rebecca.It was fun to see all of the cougar fans but let's be honest. What a bummer.

When we got to the hotel, Sam flipped on the old flat screen to unwind and lift his spirits. Saturday I went to the Dallas Aquarium because that's the only place the hotel's driver would take me to. He forgot to mention that it was $20!!!! Sam liked the spotted sting rays. I liked the "Goliath Bird-eating Spider." Seriously, that's what the sign said.

All in all, I thought Dallas was a nice city. The traffic is HORRIBLE, but the suburbs looked great but if I were to live there, I would totally buy some land south of downtown where no one lives and take up a recluse lifestyle.

By the way, did anyone watch the 20/20 special with John Stossel? I love John Stossel. He's the best. If you want to catch some clips from his latest special which includes info about farm subsidies, government beaurocracy, etc. Watch it HERE. The video clips are on the right.

Recap.

We went to see the bats under the bridge. Somehow bat poop got wedged between my foot and the top of my flip flop. That was disgusting. Dan got majorly bitten by mosquitoes. There were tons of bats. Here's a video.

Rating of that outing: 6.5/10. I would go again if we had a visitor who was bat-crazed or if I wore a giant mosquito net. A flashlight would have been nice, too.

Saturday morning we went to the temple. It was really nice and peaceful.



Now to what you really want to hear about: The TEXAS RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL.

It was pretty amazing. Before we got there, I pictured a fairground with old canvas tents and oddly dressed people. The only thing I was right about was the oddly dressed people. As far as the land, it's like a huge 30 acre wooded area with permanent buildings. PERMANENT buildings! Permanent shops that look old timin' like "Krazy Karl's Used Swords" and "Cosita's Corsets." Nuts-o. So this place is there all the time even though the fair only lasts for like 6 weeks out of the year. I'll now post some random pictures that I took.

It was very interesting to see what people wore. I mean, when I picture "Renaissance" I picture puffy sleeved silky jacket things for men with big bloomer things and tights. And for ladies, big fancy dresses. Some people were like that, but we saw people who looked like Peter Pan, pirates, goths, executioners, fairies, gypsies, and men who wanted to wear as little as possible so they wore fur loincloths and furry boots. That's it. YIKES! And lots of larger ladies liked showing the skin. I tried not to get any pictures of that.

In this one and the one above, look at the creepy skull master in the background! Look at the girl in all white. If I had taken her picture up close, she would have charged me a dollar.
At the fair they had a wedding chapel where a couple was actually getting married. There were also elephant, camel, and llama rides, belly dancers, jousting, falcon shows, etc. I'll just let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. Sam liked mingling with the fair maidens.

And the Iron Maidens.

The end.

Rating for this outing: 7.5/10. There wasn't much to do that didn't cost additional money other than people watch. But the people watching was out of this world.

Moving to Houston, we were pretty sad that there aren't too many outdoor things to do here - there aren't any mountains and it's stinkin' hot. So, we've had to come up with some activities of our own and I'm pretty excited about them.


First - Tomorrow we're planning on going to see a bat colony emerge from its home underneath a busy bridge. I've never seen anything like that and it's free, so I thought it would be fun.


Saturday we're headed to the temple bright and early and then.......................................................

TEXRENFEST

(That's hip person slang for Texas Renaissance Festival.) Hear ye, hear ye!! Try not to be jealous. I've never been to a Renaissance festival before and I think it'd be a trip. Hopefully I can get some pictures of Sam with some really intense people. My cup runneth over with exceeding anticipation. This is opening weekend so tickets are cheaper. There's a bratwurst eating contest at 4. We'll see if I can talk Dan into it. Good day, fair sires and maidens. Again I leave you from within the shadow of the everlasting hills. May peace be with you this day, and always. (I got that from Music and the Spoken Word.)

P.S. I just googled images under "Texas Renaissance Festival" and I saw far too much chainmail and leather. Oh, dear.

This morning, Dan and I, along with 30,000 other people, participated in the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure in Houston. It was incredibly crowded. We felt like a herd of cattle. But it was touching to me to see all of the people walking and running for friends and loved ones affected by breast cancer. Since we couldn't very well run with Sam, we did the 5K walk. Sam screamed basically the entire time but no one seemed to notice because it was so loud. When we got home he took a 3-hour nap. Awesome.

Some facts on breast cancer:

1 out of 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.

Every 3 minutes a woman is told she has breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women after skin cancer.

We got home right in time to watch General Conference. It was wonderful! I especially liked Elder Perry's talk about living simply and within our means. The Church has been counseling us to do that for years and with everything going on in our economy today, it makes perfect sense. I also loved Elder Wirthlin's talk about dealing with adversity. That man is so amazing. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we get to hear more. I love our church.

In other news, Christmas is coming up... This is my dream car (but in light blue) in case you're feeling generous.