Merry Christmas!

From the Evans to all our friends and family, Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We started out Thanksgiving Day at Freeman Park in Idaho Falls where Mark and his brother Mike ran a 10K for Feed the Hungry. We chased them around town to get pictures, and then went to Mark's sister's house for turkey. We made turkeys out of pears and gumdrops, and pilgrim hats out of marshmallows, chocolate and shortbread cookies. Just a fun day.

Giant Tumbleweeds!

Run for your lives! The evil, wicked wind has brought them in to take over!

Oops!

I hate it when I do that.

Happy Halloween!

We had so much fun! After going to the school to get the kids ready and watch the "spook parade" we went home to get things ready. I wanted to make sure the kids had something in their tummies beside candy, so I made some spooky snacks for after school.




Then we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Evans house, where I scared Mike's dog, Pete, to death! He would not stop barking at me, and Mike finally had to take him away so I could get in the house. Then we hurried to the church for the trunk or treat, which was surprisingly not busy like it usually is. At about seven, we headed up to Mom's where we had dinner with Travis, Sarah, Sydney, and Macy.



While I made dinner, the kids went trick or treating around the neighborhood with Grandma.
Our menu was Bones, Marrow and Blood, Bony Fingers, Eyeballs, Bats and Cats, Creepy Caterpillars, Mold and Mildew, and Primordial Ooze. Fun!!!



After dinner, we decorated cupcakes. Can you tell which ones are Sydney's? We had a few spiders, Travis and Mom made witches, and then some just for fun.



It was such a fun Halloween! I hope y'all had a spooky one, too!

Carving Pumpkins and Frosting Cookies

I am really bad when it comes to getting holiday stuff done; something usually gets left out, like frosting cookies or we never get all the pumpkins carved. This was a good year, though! Mom came down and we did it all in one day.

Just getting started.



Mom carving her pumpkin.



Zach and Mom cutting out sugar cookies. We had a whole lot of cats and bats!



The final products:


I was really proud of my Frankenstein monster and mummy.

Flashback!

Kimmie was helping Mom clean out and organize her garage yesterday, and when she came back to my house she brought stuff with her. I turned around and said "Holy $#!%*&@!!!!" I haven't seen these clothes in a really long time, and I had no idea Mom had them. Especially the floral one; I wish it had died a long time ago. It's so embarassing! However, all three of these dresses have a story.

The ugly floral one was, as the time, totally in style, and I wore it one night when my best friend Deana and I were taking pictures of each other to send to our boyfriends. What I couldn't believe was that Mark actually remembered it, how I was sitting on the fence in one of the pictures. I guess I made a better impression than I thought!

The navy dress is the one I wore in our engagement pictures and to the temple the day we got married. Again, very popular at the time; darn those early 90's!

This is my favorite of the three, and I will always love this dress. I wanted a dress like the one Elizabeth Shue wore at the beginning of "Adventures in Babysitting", and we almost pulled it off. We just couldn't find the black plaid taffeta for the skirt. Other than that, though, it's the same. Black velvet, white taffeta, a bow (because it was the 80's), *sigh*. I had so much fun in that dress....I realized last night that I was actually wearing it the night I met Mark for the first time! We were on dates with other people at a dance, and he was with a friend of mine.

Happy Birthday Jonathon!

I am so not old enough for this! Today Jonathon turns 16. Here's a brief flashback to cuter, sweeter days.

Don't you love Mark's mustache?

Helping Kimmie make brownies.

"When I grow up I want to be a cowboy!"

Or Batman!

We tried baseball and soccer, but he wasn't crazy about either.

Hanging out at Disneyland this spring.

How time flies.

Hooray!!!!

The first day of school!

New York, New York, it's a Wonderful Town

Wow, what a week! I was able to go on an amazing trip to New York with my mom! We saw some amazing shows, ate lots of really good food, had a couple of adventures, and really had a wonderful time.

We flew out early Tuesday morning and spent Tuesday on the Gray Line bus tour of the upper part of Manhattan.
We got off at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
Grants Tomb, and the Guggenheim Museum where we saw an interesting(?) exhibit. I had high hopes for the work of Louise Borgois after what little I had seen online, and while this was not as bad as the Matthew Barney exhibit I saw the last time I was there, it was still not my cup of tea.
That night we went to Serendipity's for dinner, had an amazing sandwich and shared the Cowards Portion Banana Split; still plenty for two!

Wednesday morning was spent in Midtown; the Empire State Building, Macy's, and the Museum of Modern Art.


I have been to MOMA before, but this time I was with Mom, and it was so much fun walking around with her. She recognized lots of paintings from her humanities classes in college, and was able to tell me lots about them. And I have become a HUGE fan of Picasso; especially the sculptures I saw this time.

That afternoon, we went to the matinee of "Wicked! It was better than the first time I saw it.

Then we had the BEST pizza at John's Pizzeria, and went to see "Gypsy" that night. It was an amazing show.

Thursday was wonderful; breakfast at Sarabeth's, wandering through Central Park, hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and going to the Madame Alexander Doll Factory! Mom was like a kid in a candy store!

That night was the aweome, awesome, awesome show "Jersey Boys". It was so much fun, despite the profanity, and I now love The Four Seasons.

Friday was spent at the temple,

walking around the upper west side, and lunch at Gray's Papaya where I ate the best hot dog ever!

Then we took the subway to the Cloisters at the north end of the island; so beautiful!

Then, we went to find The Little Red Lighthouse at the base of the George Washington Bridge. You'd think that with a bridge that size, it wouldn't be too hard to find a lighthouse by it. Wrong! With bad directions, we set off, found ourselves between two parkways, went through a tunnel that looked like someone was living in it, eventually found the right path and the lighthouse! And then, of course, a huge storm blew in as we're standing down by the river and by the time we made it to the subway, we had been walking uphill in the rain for a good hour and we were completely soaked. All we could do was laugh! (There are no pictures for good reason)


That night we went to see "Mary Poppins". I wasn't really expecting a whole lot, maybe a cute show, but this was literally so magical, I felt like I was 6 years old. I love the books, and it was so fun to see so many of the things I've been reading about on the stage.

Saturday was spent walking all over downtown and the lower east side. We went to an ancient cemetery at the Trinity Church; Mom is a huge fan of cemeteries, so it was fun to go to one this old with her. Then we moseyed on down Wall Street to Pearl Street and had lots of fun at a street market. We walked over to the South Side Seaport to see the Brooklyn Bridge, and we got to see the Waterfall exhibit.


Then we took the subway up to Canal Street to have dim sum in Chinatown on Elizabeth Street

and canoli in Little Italy on Mulberry Street.

And of course, we absolutely had to go to The Strand bookstore, where I managed to keep myself to two books and a new bag. After a very long day of walking all over, we got ready for the theater that night, and went to dinner at Alice's Tea Cup. It turns out that tea isn't exactly my cup of tea, either, but the dinner was divine. It was an adorable little restaurant with yummy food.


Afterwards, we sauntered our way to Lincoln Center where we saw the most amazing production of "South Pacific". Kelli O'Hara was amazing as always, and Paulo Szot made my cry when he sang "This Nearly was Mine".

This really was the most amazing trip. I was so blessed to be able to go with Mom.