Wisconsin State Fair

We went to the Wisconsin State Fair yesterday, and it was a blast. Saria went to the fair almost every year growing up, so she has been looking forward to the fair ever since we moved here in January.

The were lots of animals for Rhett and us to look at: cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, geese, rabbits, chicks, piglets, and sharks - and I do mean sharks!

There was a shark show and the two men running the show were hilarious. They jumped in the tank and pretended to play nurse sharks as guitars (apparently if you flip them on their stomach they turn to a hypnotized state). They would also ride them, and all sorts of funny adventures. This was Rhett's favorite part of the fair.

Rhett, Saria and I loved all the animals - it makes me yearn to live on a farm to be with all the animals. I especially want some chickens now.

We had one funny story while we were in the pig building. In all the buildings we went through they were in the process of doing all the animal judging. To return the pigs after judging they would slap the snouts to direct the pigs where to go. Several pigs they were trying to return, but the pigs weren't cooperating. One of them ran off and ran between Saria and the stroller -  and it scared her. It was quite funny watching the men trying to get the pigs back into their pens.

Saria's favorite activity is the pig races. The first two rounds were small regular pigs and they were fun to watch. The third round the announcer said if we missed the first two races, the third would be in slow motion - it was a race of big pot belly pigs. It was hilarious as they slowly trotted around the course. One of them even stopped half way through and felt it more important to take his time to go to the bathroom than finish the race. The guy came and tried to push him to get him through the course, but the pot belly pig just continued to do his business and was big enough that the mans pushing bairly moved the pig.

Rhett got to drive a tractor simulator and loved that. We also took a picture of him and Saria in a cutout driving a tractor. They also played in a corn filled sandbox, and Saria loved dumping the corn on Rhett's head.

Saria's favorite part of the fair are the giant cream puffs. They sell these only at the Wisconsin state fair, and I think it's a yearly tradition for everybody. It was Rhett's first cream puff and he liked them, as you can tell because he got it ask over his face.

All of us had a blast. Can't wait for next year!

Sandwich maker

Saria went to a garage sale and got one of those sandwich makers, so we had to make sandwiches. we had some fresh strawberries, so we made a strawberry-filled pastry. They tasted like really good pop tarts. Mmm!

Gardening

We are renting a house and Saria really wanted a garden. We had talked about doing a raised bed or potting the plants in a lot of pots.

I then found out that my work has a community garden, so I got a plot and convinced my coworker to sign up for one as well.

Yesterday, we spent the morning planting our plot, went home and took a nap, and then spent the afternoon planting my coworker's plot. It all got planted! We have lots of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, broccoli.

Back at our home, Saria has planted pole beans, more cucumbers and tomatoes, fennel, and strawberries (that are already producing).

Saria planted most of it while I entertained Rhett with digging holes and going to a close pile of mulch, shoveling out into a wheelbarrow, taking it to the plot, dumping it out on top of Rhett, and then mulching around the plants.

Saria commented that this is the prettiest garden she has ever had.

It is currently raining, so we should have some happy plants! Here's hoping for a bumper crop. We are rationing our canned salsa and pickles until we get more to can. While in Las Vegas we used a lot of our canned produce.

Hiding Ginger

We went over to Monica's and were playing "Just Dance." While dancing, we kept running into Ginger. She didn't like that and went and hid, but I don't think it was the most comfortable hiding place.

Pot Rack

This is the pot rack that we installed. I've always wanted one of these. It took awhile to figure out how to hang it, but it looks really nice.

Our new bed :)

I've been eyeing my dream bed at RC Willey for some time. I've been waiting for it to go on clearance, but for the last year it did not. Since we were moving, we made the decision to buy the bed. We returned it once when we got the scare that we lost our funding for the house. The second time we list the funding for our house, we had the bed on lay away and decided to go through with the purchase. And then, right as we were going to pay off the balance,THE BED WENT ON CLEARANCE. RC Willey adjusted our balance and the bed was ours. We received it last friday and other than the new furniture smell, I LOVE IT. Last bed we'll ever buy for us!

Halloween Gingerbread House

So I decided to do something wild, I figured out how to make gingerbread dough and brick frosting, and since it's no where near Christmas we decided to make a gingerbread castle. Making it was easy, getting the walls to stick together was the hard part -even with the brick frosting.

Rhett loved decorating it because for every piece he stuck on the castle he got a mouth full of candy! Those are ghost and pumpkin cookies next to it. Can you tell what Rhett decorated and what Saria and I decorated?

5 Years

5 years ago about this time we went to the Blue Man Group as part of our honeymoon, now to celebrate 5 years we are back in Vegas going to Phantom of the Opera

It's a fancy show and an important day, so we had to dress up in our most fancy clothes.

Saria loved it - first time for her - it's my favorite musical, so of course I liked it.

The musical was at the Venetian, so we walked around for awhile after, watched the gondolas, and window shopped the Italian Carnival masks and the Italian blown glass.

Hanging on the Strip

The best part of the Strip is by FAR, the Bellagio water fountains. The night we were there, they were performing maintenance tests in between the showings, and this is the ONLY maintenance that I have ever heard of that is FUN to watch! It was basically the water show WITHOUT the music, which Rhett didn't seem to mind at all!

Mt. Charleston Hike

I had no idea there was anything like this anywhere close to Vegas, let alone 30 min away.

It reminded me a lot of the Uinta mountain range in Utah - violette with bristle cone pines, cool weather, weeping rock water falls and mountain views.

Rhett loved the hike! And so did I! It really showed me that there are other things to do in Vegas like the things I liked to do in Utah.

At the Wide Spread Panic concert

Won tickets at work at went to the concert at the Hard Rock Hotel. saria loved dancing around.

Rhett's first time with a real unrelated  baby sitter - hope she's doing a good job sitting on our baby, and hope he's having fun too

And yes, saria looks drunk in that photo, but she's not

Out was our first date without Rhett in a very long time. We finally had to leave early because the smoke was a little overwhelming, but we had a BLAST!

At Winter Quarters

On the way to Michigan, stop at Winter Quarters.

Mom helped with the stained glass when they were being made in Utah, and she wanted to come and see the done and on the temple.

Since the last time we were here they have added a visitor center and a temple next to the pioneer cemetery

4 Years Ago...

Though this is probably the last year we will go, John and I have made a tradition to return every year to the spot where he proposed to me. It's on an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. While the gnats are always undesirable, this year was particularly bad.

Granted, we were warned by a sign at the park entrance, we thought we had the insect repellent to ward them off... but I SWEAR, these gnats LIKED the repellent! We didn't make it to the exact spot John proposed due to us getting bit up and worrying about how bit up Rhett was getting that we decided to take pictures at a spot that had shade and turn around and head back. We also decided that the gnats were not worth coming every year and having to deal with. However, here are the family pictures from our trip!

The Great Salt Lake behind us. Kind of looks like a wave less ocean... but MORE salty!

I swear this is the ONLY tree on the island.... it's a place we stop and take a break at every year because it's the first source (and only) of shade on our journey to Elephant Rock where John proposed... this was as far as we made it this year!

Disney Land!

We had a blast with our week at DL! All the picture of Rhett at DL will be on his website, but these are the ones that don't really fit him, but some nice shots we got of the family vacationing at DL! DL is my mother-in-laws favorite place to go for family vacation. Probably because it's a park for all ages down to the infants! Here she is below on our first day sporting her pose on King Arthur's Carousel.

And then, you can see the poses run in the family.... (by the way a LOT of Rhett's pictures were snapped at the carousel because it was by far his favorite ride -- well it may have been a toss up between this and Pirates of the Caribbean!).

I guess John's not the next King Arthur.... Sword wouldn't budge!

I had never been on the riverboat that goes around an island in the lake at Disneyland. I was excited to do something I hadn't done in my previous visits there (probably because John doesn't think this ride was the most exciting -- but add kids and there is ALWAYS an adventure! Ours was with Rhett and the stairs!)

We currently own two cameras. My Cannon Powershot that we mostly use just for video since our Cannon Rebel (our nice SRL) doesn't have that feature. However, I think my Cannon Powershot is beginning to fade on me. The picture below was taken with it and it wasn't the first picture that has streaks.... however, the fade kind of made this family picture look cool!

John and I went onto Autotopia and this was John's attempt to snap a picture of me behind him while he was driving. Of all the many tries that he took this is the ONLY one he got of me IN the picture (that is before he took pictures when we were about to get out of the cars!).

He had a better shot once we stopped moving!

Part of the Butler clan at Toon Town

Most of the grandkids with grandma and Mickey (Rhett was fast asleep).

Below was a night shot that I got of Cinderellas (?? - not sure which princess' castle it was) castle, leading to Fantasy Land. We were waiting for the fireworks to start and because it is a night shot that had the shutter open for longer than your typical snap and shoot picture, the people at the bottom of the picture are distorted, but I think it has a cool effect if done just a LITTLE better! Not bad for an armature!

Rhett liked driving the car in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, so we had to get a picture of him "driving".

Grandma and Grandpa Butler chilling on the bench on King Arthur's Carousel.

Sporting the Mickey ears in the teacup. Getting a picture in the stationary cup was the only way we were going to get a picture of Rhett in the teacup. Otherwise, he just gets snuggly put on the bench between us and he doesn't really get scene if any pictures are taken in motion.

Grandpa and Katelynn. If looks could speak, I would say that they are expressing similar emotion because their facial expressions are fairly similar! You can just tell the LOADS of fun they are having at that moment!

Okay, so this IS Cinderella's castle (in the Storybook Land boat ride). I thought all the minitures in Storybook Land were just so darn cute, but this one was my favorite.

Most of the Butler clan on Mainstreet in Disney Land.

Isn't this just an "aw" moment? They were actually celebrating their wedding anniversary this day!

One of the Butler families (minus a few children) on the spinning teacups.

John got a picture of my mother-in-law and me in motion. Rhett's actually in the cup with us, but as I stated before, he cannot be scene.

And here is the 3d model of the original Disney Land Park

I thought the Splash Mountain model was pretty cool too!