Christmas Pets 2012

We got the cats their Christmas costumes for 2012.  Trout hated his costume and seemed pretty miserable in it.  Inku didn't like him wearing it either and she got a very fluffy tail while he was dressed as Rudolph.  Inku liked wearing her Christmas bow.

Teasdale

Daniel and I are taking a much needed/wanted vacation in the mountains of southern Utah after finals week. It's been mostly snowing here and it is beautiful. We had a break in the weather today and we were able to go for a walk up the mountain in the snow.

Christmas Lights

We finally got the lights up today!  

Trout seemed to find it curious that Dan was up on the roof....

Self-Portrait

It's pretty difficult to take a self portrait with a cat. Right after the camera clicked, he licked my face. Dumb cat.

Bed Hogs

A queen size bed is not big enough for two humans and two fat cats.

Snow Storm 2012

It's been an awesome weekend with snow non-stop for three days now. These weekends are the best: warm food, warm drinks, blankets and movies.

Mornings

This is how most of my weekend mornings begin...

Halloween

This year I decided to get Inku a costume for Halloween.  

She was dressed up as a fat hippo, because that's what she is. 

34th Birhtday

Pictures from the last birthday party at Grandma's house.  

Grandma cooked rolled chicken and egg rolls. Yum!

2 Cakes

This weekend didn't offer much for me in the way of Halloween celebrations.  

However, I did make 2 cakes for 2 family parties!

One chocolate cake, one white cake, both with chocolate frosting. 

My mom requested that the white cake have a special portion with only white frosting for her.  Daniel wanted me to write "Brat" on the white frosting part for her.

Pictures form the 1st family party today, Daniel's mom's side of the family: The Miller, Gnade, Carling, & Lewis families.

Opera

The 1st opera of the season was Il Trovatore. I took my friend, Katelin & we really enjoyed the performance. It's always a good thing to get out of the house, especially if it is a means to enjoy something amazing & different from everyday life.
Nothing quite like having a soprano's voice ringing through your body.

Sweet pumpkin cuppencakes!

Dan requested pumpkin cupcakes for his 34th birthday, so I decided to try my new mini-cupcake tins that I got for my birthday in August. They worked out great, needed to bake for only 10 minutes & they were super moist & delicious! Made a ton of them. I don't know what to do with them all!

Fall hike

The colors are still pretty in Salt Lake, but they are fading quickly.  I went on a quick hike to Mt. Aire from Lambs Canyon and caught some great views.  

Whenever a breeze would move through the aspen trees, bright yellow leaves would tumble slowly through the air to rest on the trail.  Beautiful display.
I am sad to see fall go so quickly!

Hopefully I will be able to sneak in a couple more hikes before winter brings different adventures.

Green Beans

The hippies at the neighborhood farmer's market have been producing some incredible green beans this year.  I figured that I would give pickling a shot for the first time!  

One of the booths was selling a red-skinned variety that I thought would add some nice color to the batch.  They were beautiful!

Beans turned out flavorful and spicy!  Used a variation of the Blue Bell recipe.

Canning Season

Autumn means that it is time to get canning for the winter!

All fresh, local ingredients.

Made 19 - 1/2 pint jars of salsa

I learned a difficult lesson: do NOT chop jalapeno peppers without wearing gloves!!  Really damn painful for about 14 hours...

Fall is pretty

This is why fall is my favorite season.

Trail in Neff's Canyon

Sunset was ridiculous

Helpful cats

This is how Trout helps us with our homework.

This is how Inku helps me can salsa.  

Some pictures from our trip to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.  

Canyonlands National Park

We had weather in the upper 80's for the entire trip, sunshine every day, and great sunsets every night.  We went on a couple of short hikes and one long 4WD back-country trail in Lavender Canyon.  Great trip!

Shi Shi Beach

It was rainy and grey, but great company can make even the greyest of days seem brighter.  

Banana slug on a mossy log near our campsite.

The view from our campsite was beautiful; the grey skies, ocean, sand, and trees added a different sense of beauty to the beach scene.

 

 

Packing out.

Fat cats

Fat cats need a bigger kitty cat condo.

Venice, CA

Blue skies and a quiet beach in the morning. 24 hrs in Venice, CA is pretty great.

Another Victim

Another hand-crocheted pillow of mine falls victim to the cat and becomes another cat bed.

Trout staking his claim over the pillow.

Inku staking her claim.

If we give them all of the food that they can possibly eat, they get along fairly well.  

From our recent trip to Tucson, AZ with Daniel's family.  This was taken at Saguaro National Park.

This was taken at Picacho Peak State Park.  They have a lot of cacti in AZ.  Who knew?

Sleepy

She's a good little sleeper.

  

Inku still loves the ball that her foster mom gave her when we adopted her.

Sewing

Trout likes watching me craft.  He's a good supervisor.

Sombrero Gatos

My co-worker brought some tequila back from Mexico and it came with a cat-sized sombrero.  I couldn't resist... 

Trout in a sombrero.  He handled this pretty well, actually!

Inku preferred to wear the sombrero on her back.

She is clearly unhappy about having it on her head. 

Snow? Yup, that's SNOW!

Teasdale

Love it here.

Cohab Canyon

Spanish

El Gato

Daniel and I started our Spanish class last night.  
The class seems like it's going to be challenging and fun.  I'm enjoying the instructor so far and am looking forward to some new experiences.  

Daniel has been putting index cards on everything in the house with the Spanish word for it.

Paper Bag is my new home

Inku will make anything into a bed if it's possible. 

 

Trout can't figure out what she's doing in there.

And later in the day they took a nap together in my pajama drawer.  They must be getting along better, right?

Snow!!!

Finally, after an incredibly slow start to winter, we get some snow!

Now it feels like winter.
This it Trout's paw print.  He doesn't particularly care for the snow, but he tried it out briefly before sprinting back inside.