the end of september

The end of September brought a few more adventures.

My friend and I had decided to take our families on a joint camping trip in Idaho, but as the days progressed, the weather forecast continually predicted rain.  And truth be told, I am a fair weather camper.  I think you've all heard stories about me crying when it's too cold outside or about our tent ripping when it was too windy or leaving early because it was too hot outside.

Oh wait.  That last one has never happened because it has NEVER BEEN TOO HOT OUTSIDE.  My family only loves to camp when it's frigid.  Bring on the heat, I say.

But I digress.

I didn't really want to camp in the rain.  Tim and I ultimately decided to wait on camping and just go up for the day on Saturday.  My friend's family still went, and of course, it never actually rained.

But hiking on Saturday was awesome.  There's something about being out in the middle of nowhere that brings so much peace.  Breathing deeply somehow seems a little more possible.

And although it doesn't look like it from the picture, Ellie was a huge fan of sitting in that pack.  She kept sporadically yelling, "Hike!" every few minutes.

Later that week, we spent a great deal of time cleaning out our cars, resulting in a few forgotten treasures.  Behold this wig from our first Halloween together:

[Don't tell Tim, but it's probably safe to say that Ellie looks way cuter wearing it.]

The following weekend, we drove down to St. George for Swiss Days.  There were few things that could actually be considered "Swiss" except for a select group of children wearing clothes that looked vaguely Von Trapp Family Singers, but it was a lot of fun.  The best part, of course, was seeing Tim's sister's family and his parents.

My favorite part of the picture below is that our photobomber looks like he is practicing for his next modeling audition.

We spent a great weekend with them, and I especially loved having Tim's mom and sister to watch the LDS women's conference with.  Usually I just go by myself!  I am so beyond grateful that I married into such an amazing family.