If you have not read COUSIN ANTiCS #1, close your eyes (somehow) and skip to the previous post!!!!
Thanksgiving night was at Bob and Lisa's this year. Of course I had to take pictures of the cousins - and since Shane was the first one ready I took his picture all by himself - which led to this series of photos - adding one cousin in to each picture.
We managed to get Tyler and Krista together to take their picture in their costumes. Kristae is "Malice in Wonderland" while, hopefully everyone recognizes Tyler as Waldo.
Krista had these fabulous fake eyelashes, but she couldn't stand them very long.
Then she had some friends over to watch scary movies. It was really funny listening to them scream every time the doorbell rang!
Bob and almost all of his family came over for Sunday dinner, pumpkin carving and belated birthdays. The kids carved 10 pumpkins for me - sadly, this year none of them were from our garden - we had only one grow this year.
The group did a good job of posing for me. And Krista talked them all into going up on the roof. I don't think that any of them were really thrilled to be up there!
I don't just have Christmas lights on my house - I also have Halloween lights, which just happen to be the same color. We didn't take them down at the end of the season last year, so I have to replace all of the bulbs. Certain parts of the roof are easily reached, but the peaks are not. Krista volunteered to do the roof climbing. In fact, she really wanted to do it. When she got up there, however, she realized that it was much scarier than she thought it would be. She did replace a goodly number of bulbs, however.
Tyler came over for dinner witht he cousins and he thought that if Krista could do it, so could he. But as you can see, he is instead desperately clinging to the chimney instead. He'd better buy a house with a much flatter roof!
We have made new friends this summer. The raccoons that lurk in the block to the west of us have adopted out pond for their nightly watering and ablutions. They seem to leave the cats alone, which we appreciate. The other night I was on the phone with Ed - lounging on my chair in the front yard - when they paraded up the stairs and calmly into the back yard. I managed to get this picture of one of htem. So now we hae bats flying above and raccoons in the water!
These are the stairs that we have lived with for the last 19 years - the big chunk broke off the bottom step just before winter 2008. You can't really see all of the cracks and holes and all, but believe me - they were there!
These are out pretty new stairs now. We didn't get them totally replaced - but a gentleman did come in and repair the problem spots and recoat all of them. They are so pretty - and smooth and nice on your feet. And now we don't have to worry about anyone stumbling on the chunk of concrete. Come see our pretty stairs some time!
Audrey is always more than happy to hold Tyler's hand or sit on his lap. That is much better than at Christmas time, when she used to always cry when she looked at him! Her taste has gotten much better.
A few weeks ago we were looking for some way to amuse ourselves on a Wednesday. Mike found word of an authentic old time dining car that had been brought to Utah from back East. Oakley, Utah is where it is - I just enoyed the ride and know that we were somewhere behind Park City.
There was a bit of a wait in the drizzle, but it was well worth it. Tyler wasn't with us - I can't even remember where he was that day! But lots of people kept pulling up, so word is definitely out. I wouldn't want to live near there, but I would be willing to make the drive again.
This was a charming boat that we saw outside the diner. You have to get really close to read the writing on it!
Now that I have your attention - I really just want you to know of the great gift I got Mike for Father's Day. I totally surprised him. He took me to an art show months ago and talked about how much he liked this painting. All of the paintings were based on songs - this one the song "Institutionalized". He went back a couple of weeks later and said that it was still there, but that he didn't know if he should buy it or not. So, I snuck down there, bought it, had it wrapped up adn hid it in Tyler's closet. 
For the 4th - we went to Bob's house to hang out by the pool, eat BBQ and play with Kelli Ann and Will - who brought their parents down for a quick trip to Utah. 
Dessert was partailly hand churned ice cream - pretty much all of the kids took their turn churning.
AndBob and Tom were masters of the grill.
I thought this was a pretty cute picture of the three sisters!
And Rachel is definitely learning some diving skills!
I got another diving board shot of those cousins who were there, but this year no one got pushed off, as everyone was carrying expensive electronic devices!
