Western Halloween.

Halloween around these parts, to me at least, means getting down and dirty with some local farm festivals. I have an unhealthy obsession with pumpkin patches, corn mazes, barbecues and pig races, and in October it is out of control. Like, those around me should be scared for their lives if they try to get in the way of me and my farm festivities -- I will take you down. Eventually Kendall had to cave and appease my compulsion, and willingly took me to my all time favorite farm, ever.

SCHNEPF FARMS.

I seriously used to go here every year as a kid, and then we became long-lost friends through my teenage years. Last year, our love affair was rekindled and now all I think about all year is the dusty manure filled air, the surprisingly scary roller coaster, the fluffy goats, and of course, the delicious farm fresh food. I just think that Schnepf embodies everything that I love about October, and brings me back to my roots.

The highlight of our night was sitting behind this boy and his dad on the roller coaster. After the first drop, Kendall exclaimed appropriately that it was a pretty rough ride. The little boy turned around, laughing, and said "that drop made my stomach feel funny!" After the third time around the track, Kendall turned to me and said, "what a great dad. I bet this ride is killing his body, but he's doing it to make his son happy."

Just another reason why I love Schnepf Farms, and will continue to wish every month is October until it comes back to me next year.

Can you hear the people sing?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those stereotypical musical theater nerds who grew up singing all the soprano solos for Les Miserables and dreamed of one day being able to sit in the front row while listening to real live singers belt those beautiful lyrics and tug my heart strings with those unbelievable chords. Not to mention that Jean Valjean is the musical man of my dreams, and Javert is the musical man of my nightmares. Not enough imagery for ya? Well here are some pictures of my amazing night seeing Les Mis with my wonderful family...before my camera died.

That last one is supposed to show the rest of our family...and that was the best I could do before my camera took it's last breath.

But on a serious note, Les Mis was the bomb dot com. I wanted to go every single night after that to watch it again. I'd probably rank it as my 6th best experience of my life, and I cried at least 53 times, but who's counting?

Highlight of my night: Kendall expressing confusion until I related the characters to Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Of course as soon as I related it to a movie a received a huge "OH!" and he was immediately interested. Instead of calling them their stage names, he continued to call them Hugh and Russell through the whole musical. I love my movie nerd of a husband.

The little things.

This weekend was one of those weekends that you look back on and you're just happy. Of course we've been watching the Olympics, which is one of my favorite things of all time, so that boosts my mood a bunch. But on Friday we had a mini-date at Tempe Marketplace which is really what made my weekend.

We didn't do much, but that was the best part. We ate at my favorite cheap pizza place, Axxio, then got some cookies down at Paradise. After feeding my craving, we walked around looking at stores, finally stopping at Barnes & Noble. We probably spent about 2 hours there, just looking around, and we were completely content. It always amazes me that Kendall and I can be completely content with little things; whether it be exploring a store or reading together at home. Just being together is enough.

I love us.

Small factoid.

FACT. I've been looking a lot like this lately.

Hair in buns, ponytails, braids, glasses galore, and no makeup. Basically, this week I haven't really wanted to show my face anywhere. Why, you ask? I think I'm superwoman and can take on any task that anyone throws me. Go to work? Sure! Feed the dogs twice a day for a week? Sure! Type up two journals by Thursday? Sure! Go running every night? Double sure! Get bit 8 times by ants, which you happened to be allergic to, and puff up like a balloon? You betcha.

Oh, and it doesn't stop there. Tonight, Kendall and I have tickets to go see the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises with Katie and her man Isaac. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited as heck, and this movie is going to be off the heezy fo sheezy (I heard that cool kids say things like that), but it's TWO HOURS AND FORTY FOUR MINUTES long. And you know what time we have to get up for work in the morning? SEVEN. If you did the math right, we're only getting about 4 hours of sleep tonight. Awesome.

But seriously, The Dark Knight is going to be awesome and you should be jealous that I'm going to go see it.

The end.

The days of the week.

Hey hey hey!

So, we just got back from a huge adventure up in San Clemente, California. Ok, we didn't just get back.. We've been back like a week. But I'm a blog slacker and we all know that. And my camera wouldn't charge while we were there so all of my pictures are on my phone, and I honestly didn't feel like I had time in my busy schedule (ahem, watching 4 hours of Dateline yesterday) to send each picture one-by-one to my e-mail. Today is the lucky day that I finally got off my bloggin lazy butt and decided to write a post about it so I can get on with my life. Our adventure begins on a Sunday, when we left with the family we work with for a week long vacation in beautiful California.

Sunday - We left hot hot Mesa for beautiful, sunshiney San Clemente. We arrived and headed straight for the beach to watch the sunset and play a little bit, but the beach was sucky and rocky. We made a mental note not to go back there for our beach day.

Monday - We went to Legoland! Which was so awesome for the kiddos. Best part? Guessing how much time it took the Lego nerds to build those things out of Legos. Seriously, who has time to put together a structure out of 5 million Legos? I'd like to meet him.

Tuesday - This was my favorite day, because me and Kendall got the night off to do whatever we wanted. We headed down to Laguna Beach for a date night.

Wednesday - Happy Fourth! I'm definitely glad we decided not to go to San Diego. Even though the San Clemente pier did catch on fire, it was nothing compared to the excitement of the 5 second firework show there!

Thursday - The kids we work with are obsessed with science, so this day was dedicated to the Discovery Science Center. I'm not gonna lie, the science center was awfully close to Disneyland. And I mean awful. As much as I loved nerding out, my heart was romping through the temple of doom with Indy just a few miles away..

Friday - Beach day! Oh how I love thee, Oceanside!

And that was our week, well, last week! I adore the family I work for and I'm so glad we got to go with them on all these fun trips! Now, just to convince them to take us to Disneyland next time.. ;)

A day in the life of a newly wed.

Can I just say that being a newly wed rocks? No seriously, it does. I don't mean to brag about being married all the time, but I'm going to brag again. I get to come home from work and hang out with my best friend every single day. The best part? Endless sleepovers. And that's basically the motto that we are living by right now, literally.

If anyone is wondering what a day in the life of a newly wed is like, that is it. It starts with a movie, like most sleepovers..

Then, there's the popcorn. It makes it even more fun when you pop it yourself with the popcorn popper you were given at your bridal shower.. Pop!

...and then you goof off a bit.

Yeah, we do this everyday. And yes, that's a Capri Sun in my lap. I have no shame. Also, we're planning on gaining at least 15 pounds this summer, no big deal. Anyone want to let us borrow P90X?