Mckinleys Baby Pumpkin

This summer, our vegetable garden was a FLOP. There is no nice way of putting it, it just didn't work out for us this year. I planted everything too early and then things froze...like at the beginning of June when we are supposed to be over the freezing temperatures. So then when I should have planted again, I was out of town for two weeks. Not to mention, Scooby dug everything up when we weren't watching. So those are my excuses for why we only grew dirt this year.
My parents, however, are expert gardeners and their garden was just as successful as it always is. So, they grew tons of pumpkins this year. One of the pumpkins was this really cute little one that we kept showing to Mckinley all summer. She kept wanting to pick it so we explained to her that we couldn't pick it yet because it was sleeping under it's leaf and it was still a baby so it had to sleep longer. (does anyone else spin this type of yarn for their kids?)
Anyway, the day finally came when the baby pumpkin was ready to be picked. So we picked it and took it home. For the last few days, Mckinley has been "taking care" of her baby pumpkin. It has it's own blanket.(a dish towel.) and she takes it on walks in the stroller, she wont go anywhere in the car without it and she lugs it all over the house in it's blanket. She also seems convinced that it enjoys watching her movies as much as she does. Never before has a baby pumpkin been so loved. I will try to remember to post a picture of Mckinley with it tomorrow. This was supposed to be the pumpkin that Mckinley was going to carve for Halloween but I think that could be a little traumatic for her, so we will have to find another one.

Discovering Scissors

Once upon a time there was a very cute sweet little girl, who wanted to cut up some papers with some little purple scissors. So her mommy, thinking this would be a good time to let her imagination soar, let her play with them. These scissors were blunt edged and really were not very sharp, but were perfectly adequate for her paper cutting expeditions.
However, while mommy was practicing her violin, she noticed that the house was as quiet as a mouse, so she went to see what the cute, sweet little girl was doing. Much to mommy's surprize, the little girl had found some different sharper scissors in a drawer and had swiftly cut off the whole left side of her beautiful red hair.
The little girl didn't understand why mommy was freaking out so much, because the little girls hair is probably more in style right now than mommy's. It turns out the little girl just wanted to have an Emo hairstyle. Is there really anything so terribly wrong about that?

Summer memories that are still keeping us warm

Yeah, we're sad about it, but not too sad. David and I LOVE winter! But we figure that we better at least blog about what we will miss about this summer.
Several times a week, we have gone on walks. We are always the only ones out at ten thirty at night but that's when we like to unwind and our walk is the perfect medium for us to talk quietly about our day, or weekend plans or just whatever.
I'm also going to miss Orion. But it wont be the first time I've missed it.
How about I tell the story love! I'll let you in on this inside joke of ours. Orion is my favorite constellation, maybe it's because it's a winter constellation. Anyway, while Abby and I were dating I would always say, "There he is" because I always like to point him out. So the first time I show it to her it was a bit of a challenge, but she finally said "Oh okay, I can see it now". Total and complete bull....!! I have no idea why she pretended that she could see it. Well after we were married for a year or so, she finally let the cat out of the bag and fessed up! I couldn't believe it! We had a good laugh, and now she knows where it is when I point it out....or do you?

Abby says: To be honest, it is a WINTER constellation, so while we were dating, David was nicely bundled up and toasty in his hoodies and beanies and I was still trying to secure a husband so I was wearing a mini....(ok, not really) but it was cold outside when David was trying to show me Orion. And I'm thinking, "oh my gosh, how long is this going to take? " I just saw an iceberg run south because it was too cold. So I just lied and said "oh, there it is." and then after that he just expected me to remember exactly where it was. (K, the big dipper is a little tough for me still.)
So in response to your last question love....Did you marry a textbook, or a really hot babe that is always going to have to have things explained a few times?

Dave says: Well the later, but it's the most obvious constellation in the Winter sky, he's right THERE!

Abby says: David is the brightest star in her sky.

Anyway, we are al...Dave says: That's not a fair response, can't we at least fight fair?
Abby: This is the reason this is my blog.

Dave: Touch`e

We are also going to miss our trips up the mountain and wandering around our property looking for deer and listening to birds and sheep.
This was our bubble tea summer. I think just about every Friday night we drove to St. George to get our favorite treat. (We looked forward to it all week long.)
David was in Hawaii almost the entire summer last year, and this year it was so perfect to have him home.
Dave: She just liked it because she didn't have to mow the lawn!
Abby: what lawn, you killed it?
Dave: LIES AND DECEIT!
Abby: my blog, I win.
Dave: Cheaters never prosper. You ever heard of that one, huh?
Abby: That's getting deleted next time I log in.
Mckinley had so much fun swimming this year, and many days during the summer involved negotiations with her about wearing her "swimming pote." (her floaty suit...yeah, the old school ones. She thinks it's lovely.) She also got to go on the water slide with her daddy this year, and she thought that was so fun.
Dave: She totally wore me out, we probably went twenty or more times down the slide and you had to hike up like six flights of stairs. Okay maybe three or four, but it took a while.

Our camping trip was fun too, soo much better than the first time we went with Mckinley. We also had a fun time hanging out with our friends.

I went to critical care training and got to experience a little bit of Missouri, (and Kansas City BBQ, and the Royals.) And I also got my first taste of firefighting, standing on top of a 70 foot ladder over a burning building.
Dave: My car over heated three times coming back from Vegas. You want some excitement, try that one on for size! 120 degrees, no water or gas station in sight, in the middle of a desert. Then in the middle of a gorge ( which is actually quite an awesome canyon if you ever take a trip down 1-15 from St. G to Mesquite.) with no cellular services. I did make the best of it and read a lot of Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude, so that helped. Good times! Man is it just me or am I just writing negative stuff? I guess I need to read more books! I honestly did have a good time though, Seriously!
We will miss the family bar-b-cues and get togethers where the women in the family talk smack about the men behind their backs. Dave: WHAT!
We already miss little visits from friends and anyone just passing through. You are always welcome for a quick lunch or treat.(it might be a drink of water if we don't know you're coming.) We love all of you. Hope your summers were as perfect as ours.