Annika's New Hair

Annika wanted to change her hair and since it has been a real pain lately to keep it washed, conditioned and brushed I let her. She is VERY happy with the new do and wants everyone to see it. I was happy that it took about 5 minutes this morning. Maybe, she can get to school on time now.

Redneck Chuseok

I used to travel to Korea quite a bit, and the Koreans celebrate a holiday in September called "Chuseok" (meaning Fall Harvest). Everything shuts down, and folks travel back to their hometowns so that they can stuff themselves with food, hang out with living relatives, and then fix food for and visit their dead ancestors (while wearing weird clothes). Kind of a weird hybrid of Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and fermented cabbage.

Anyway, in the spirit of Chuseok, we decided to have our own celebration. No kimchi or bulgogi. Just guns and hostess baked goods.

We traveled west of pristine Utah Lake, to a point where the mosquito density appeared as precipitation on News4's doppler radar, and where mullets, minitrucks, and wrangler butts still reign supreme.

We set up a variety of targets - - cement forms, pop cans, water bottles, and other junk from the garage. Grandpa Ken, Grandma Retta, and Sippy joined us in our little celebration and we all had fun pumping lead into the targets.

Some highlights:
Stockton and Sawyer - 9mm pistol - rapid-fire urban assault on cement-form target.
Annika - Hitting a target with the 17HMR
Lori - Hitting a tennis ball with the 17 HMR
Grandma - Able to shoot both left and right handed
Grandpa - Sneaking a goose load into the shotgun behind a couple of target loads - nearly knocking Earl on his butt
Sophie - Eating dirt and playing with the "Da-Dog"

All in all - a good Redneck Chuseok.

Stockton's Free-Throw Challenge

A couple of times each week, Stockton and I play the "Free Throw Challenge". He shoots 10 free throws and I shoot 10. The best out of 10 wins the round. The first one to win three rounds wins the set, and the first one to three sets wins the match.

Stockton won his first set today - 3 rounds to 1 - despite my best Utah white-boy trash-talking efforts. After the beating, I spent the evening nursing my bruised ego and abusing mildly caffeinated soft drinks while plotting my revenge: I will take him out on the court tomorrow, lower the rim to 7.5 feet and hammer him with the most powerful two-handed tomahawk jam that my four-inch vertical leap will allow.

Consider yourself warned Stockton - - straight from the gutter like cheap butter.

Update: 9/16: Sawyer enters the fray, goes 5/5, and wins his first mini-round!

Mission Accomplished!

Okay, anyone who knows me knows that I have a difficult time sewing. It does NOT come naturally to me. This however does not keep me from trying. A month or so ago, I bought a new machine. My 1st machine came from Ebay and it worked, but it was a pain. My new machine has made a difference, but I still have been struggling. I finally finished a valance for my craft room that would have taken a normal person an hour or so to finish, if that. It took me about 2 weeks! Well tonight I actually finished a sewing project in one evening. Not only did I finish, but it looks pretty good. I made Sophie a beanie blankie. I saw the idea while we were in Idaho. She is already asleep, but I think she'll love it. Check it out!

Labor Day in Idaho

The Stevens have spent most of the summer at home, nursing a new backyard. So we decided to take a break and go to Idaho for the weekend. We stayed with LeeAnn and Mark in Idaho. It was a blast! They were fantastic hosts, I hope we didn't wear them out. We visited Yellowstone with Grandma and Grandpa. There was a great spot where we enjoyed a picnic, we saw some buffalo and of course Old Faithful and lots of hot pots. On Saturday, the Guisingers took us off the beaten path to an underground cave near Rexburg. It was neat, but I must admit a little dark and scary. We felt like real explorers. On Sunday, Grandma made us a great dinner and we were able to visit with aunt Missy and Harry and Brenda. It was nice just ti hang out with everyone, stay up late playing games and eating junk food. Thank you all for the relaxing weekend! We needed it.

Our trip started on Thursday with a visit to the Dinosaur park at the mouth of Ogden canyon. We spent a few hours there before making our way to Idaho. We really enjoyed it. There were a lot of cool rocks and gemstones in the museum, in addition to the dinosaurs. There were even dinosaurs that moved robotically (Sophie was terrified of those...and so was Annika!)This place is worth checking out if you are passing through Ogden.