Non-Wedding Summer Fun

Between all the wedding festivities, we managed to fit in some other vacation-type things; meeting Liz, visiting our families, Yellowstone, and Bryce Canyon.

Dinner with the kids. Jake's a Party Pooper sometimes.

Chipper LOVES Dan. Too bad the feeling isn't mutual.

When visiting from out of town, it's always a good idea to check the Temple schedule before showing up.

When we headed to Cedar, we helped Deb with her children which included a stop in Scipio to visit a petting zoo:

Bryce was beautiful. It was fun to reacquaint Dan with the canyon I heard so much about growing up.

While in Cedar we enjoyed an evening with The Bard at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

The Green Show

Before the Performance of "The Comedy of Errors"

We joined Mom and Dad at the Cedar City Cemetery. I got to see my grandmother's new headstone that had been completed earlier in the year.

We took some of my nieces for an outing at Classic Skating. I roller-skated too, what was I thinking?!

Our time in Yellowstone was quick but great to be back in an area that played such a big part of our courtship. We saw a couple shows at the Playmill (Les Miserables and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat), we went on a hike, drove through the North entrance of Yellowstone, and visited Old Faithful at night. 

With all we did, planned and unplanned, it was tough to return to our "normal lives."

Fall Colors, Our Car Brutally Attacked, A Funfilled Return Home

The fall colors in our area were B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. It was so wonderful to drive around and see the leaves change; they even seemed to last late into the season which added to the enjoyment. I took several snapshots around town to try and capture the beauty of the season.

The colors weren't just in our area either. We took a trip to the Washington DC Temple and captured colorful pictures there as well:

Earlier in the summer I noticed bird doo doo on the doors and scratches on our outside rear-view mirrors and windows. We couldn't figure it out for the longest time. One day I was upstairs and happened to look out and see a male cardinal flitting about on edge of our window attacking the competition he saw in the rear-view mirror! It was such a funny site. As time went on we caught the cardinal on the car but as I pulled out my camera, it would fly away. Finally my patience paid off and I was able to catch the bird in action by still shot and video:

We'd even try putting our car in slightly different places and it still came and attacked. We even saw it on our neighbor's vehicles a time or two. Now we have to try and figure out a way to keep the bird from breaking it's beak and our window or mirror next year. But at least we have proof for the insurance company, if the need arises.

As Thanksgiving drew closer we looked forward to having the whole break off. Since it was time for another Horrocks Thanksgiving, we purchased tickets and flew home for a visit. We spent a couple days with my sister, Lynette, and her family. One of the days the girls kept themselves busy with our camera and our iPad taking pictures of each other. As a result I have lots, I mean LOTS, of pictures similar to these:

Then there are the goofy ones we took and they took, playing around with Photo Booth on the iPad; LOTS of those as well:

While there we met a new niece, had a violin & dance performances, and saw a cutie run pose for her modeling shoot,

 

After our time with them, which included a quick trip up from the southern part of the state by my parents and lunch with my Grandma B, we headed up to Amanda & Jake's for a couple days. Sid came down for our time there and we spent our time purchasing gifts, opening a few, visiting, "befriending" Amanda & Jake's dog Chipper, helping Amanda decorate for Christmas, and a little traditional Mario Kart competition:

The gift we opened from Amanda & Jake-tickets to a Weber State/Utah State basketball game.

Chipper loved Dan, as you can see, the feeling wasn't mutual.

Ideas and help Sid and I gave Amanda for this wall.

 

Our time with Amanda & Jake quickly came to a close. Dan, Sid, & I headed up to Pocatello for Thanksgiving with Dan's siblings and their families. Dan joined Sid for part of the trip and they picked up "tarts" along the way. Then we met about half way and I joined Sid in his car and Dan finished driving our rental to Pocatello. As I was in the car alone, I had stopped for a Dr. Pepper and decided to open it as I drove; that wasn't a very good idea. I managed to spill it, all over, the rental car:

After having the same challenge driving to Girl's Camp a couple years ago you would think I learned my lesson, but no, I had to do it again and do it worse!

 

All of Dan's siblings & siblings-in-law were in attendance for Thanksgiving, as were the nieces and nephews not on missions, in Hawaii, or with in-laws. It was great to be together. There were some fun memories made playing a game of football Thanksgiving day, capturing an Idaho sunrise, playing games, visiting, watching movies, planning black Friday shopping, puzzle putting together, and eating, eating, and eating some more. So good to be together again!

 

 

 

 

So, Dan & Sid's "tarts..." The morning we left for Pocatello we all had breakfast together. As we were visiting about our food assignment, desserts, Jake suggested that we should take pies from McDonald's. The more Dan & Sid thought about it, the more they liked the idea. So as they drove up from Ogden, they stopped at 2-3 McDonald's along the way to purchase 22 of their pies (so long as they were ok with the price). In the mean time, I was at Costco purchasing REAL desserts.

 

Along with the presentation was the desire to keep talking up these fabulous "tarts" they were going to make. With a few minutes to themselves, they quickly opened all the boxes and got the set out on a cookie sheet to reheat them. Good thing the Horrocks are known for humor, everyone got a good laugh at their contribution to the Thanksgiving dessert choices. What a couple of wingnuts!

 

 

Quick as the trip was it was great to see so many loved ones. We loved our time together and look forward to the next gathering!

 

Visits, Potatoes, Volleyball, Homecoming & Kisses

Amanda had a conference in Pittsburgh for work in September. Thankfully, Jake and Sid were able to join her at the end and the three of them headed our way for a long weekend. It was a short trip but we were so glad they made the effort to come.

Our agenda included a stop at the school for lunch. We were there for a couple Senior High lunch breaks and the kids were able to meet a few of the students we've interacted with in the few months we've been in Hershey.

From there we headed to Chocolate World.

Chocolate World has the largest and widest selection of Hershey chocolates you'll find anywhere. YUMMY!!! There's even a ride that tells how Hershey makes its chocolate and at the end, everyone receives some chocolate!

 

The next day we headed to Gettysburg together. We took the auto tour and since we had bought a tour on cd on our previous visit, we gathered in the same car and went from stop to stop learning more and more about the critical battles that took place there.

 

 

 

It was fun to show them around where we live and let them see more of what we are doing. Overall it was too quick of a visit but better than no visit at all.

While preparing for dinner at a student home I noticed the following:

An Idaho brand of potatoes! Then a few days later I saw this:

It was fun to have these two touches of "home" here in Pennsylvania, especially after the kids had left recently.

After attending a couple football games, we decided to support the girl's volleyball team. We managed to attend a couple of their games too. It was even more exciting and nail biting than the football games since we knew 75% of the team and were much closer to the action; we cheered ourselves hoarse.

Eventually, we spent a couple weeks at another girl's student home. There was the possibility we would be taking over for a period of time since the housefather's mother was ill. So we were  assigned there to shadow and learn the regular routine. We even ended up covering a few days that the houseparents were off which happened to fall on Homecoming weekend.

At 7:30 am the Saturday morning of Homecoming we were awakened to several of the students knocking on door letting us know that the power was out. We gathered together in the living room with pillows and blankets to visit and wait for the power to return. As the morning progressed, we began trying to figure out how we were going to eat breakfast and all get ready for the tailgate party and game. Eventually we decided on McDonald's for breakfast and by the time I returned with the first van load of girls, the power was back on. Dan took the remaining girls who had slept through the excitement and they got breakfast while we quickly got ready. The girls were troupers despite concerns about how we were going to eat breakfast and primp for the afternoon's festivities.

We made it to the decorated van contest and game with plenty of time to spare.

This game ended with a win for us! YAY!

As Dan and I left Founder's Hall, we saw this parked right outside the porte cochere:

 

Not sure why the Kissmobile was there but we decided to seize the moment.

Another fun-filled couple weeks!

The Prodigal Blogger's Departure

I'm going to attempt to do a quick update on some comings and goings so that I don't feel so far behind. Here goes...

Before planning Dan's Big Birthday Bash, we decided to do a combination Father's Day & Birthday trip to Yellowstone with Amanda, Jake, & Sid. Thankfully we had perfect weather and we all enjoyed the time together in one of our favoritest places:

Dinner together

What a SHOCK! Their favorite book store; CLOSED!

Dan sure knows how to "blend in."

(Some tourists were walking by and started laughing at his ability to hide.)

Sid kept passing this flyer back and forth to Dan. Dan stuck it in Sid's hood and Sid continued to walk around with it there for awhile.

Yay to Mark & Amy for letting us borrow their van so we could go through the Park together. It was pretty funny to watch Dan try to get out of the back seats.

 

Well, I'm out of space for pictures. So much for getting all caught up in one sitting. :(  Better these few than none at all...