Adventures with Katie and Kenny!

Here are some pics of recent adventures we've had - just a fun montage of our life:

Our "pet" black widow spider, Flossie, who I found just outside our front door as we were leaving to have our last shaved ice of the season.


Flossie sitting next to our kitchen sink. You can see the hourglass marking on her underside.


The bachelor buttons in our garden. Their color is even more vibrant in real life!


Pumpkins outside our front door all ready to welcome fall!


The delicious pork loin and fuji apple recipe I tried out. It was awesome!


Spooky clouds drifting down the mountains. Kenny pointed them out as we walked down Center Street in a slight drizzle.


Another view of the lowering clouds.


Friday afternoon I headed up to American Fork to meet with the owner of The Dreaded Grove, a haunted maze opening for its second year in the Utah valley. No one was there when I arrived, so I parked my car in the field behind the spooky "Dreaded Grove" sign and drank in the early fall beauty all around me. It was so perfect there in that field, right next to the marina on Utah Lake - the mellow autumn sun filtering through the trees, dappling the flattened straw and grass; the piercing blue sky that seemed almost tangible; the stillness of the afternoon interrupted only by the breeze through drying leaves and crickets chirruping. Did I mind having to drive all the way out to American Fork and waiting for a half an hour for someone to show up and talk to me? Absolutely not! The man who talked to me was the hiring manager and the owner's go-to guy, "Big Bryan." Pulling up to my car on an ATV, he chatted up his business and laughed with me over needing to train his haunted maze staff to hide and scare people properly. "I'm in the Guard," he told me, "so I'm in professional concealment, and you'd be surprised how many people have to be trained how to hide. I'll go hide, right in the middle of the trail, and still be able to scare my employees, but some of them can't even hide decently in the trees! And you wouldn't believe what can happen when we scare people - I had a girl run up to me and hit me a couple of times, and one girl even kissed me last year!" We had a good chat and I certainly hope we'll be able to work with The Dreaded Grove. Heck, I was really tempted to accept the job he offered me - I'd sure love to work at a haunted maze evenings in October!

The entrance to The Haunted Grove:


Looking out over what will become the bonfire pit, concessions stand, and zip line of The Dreaded Grove:


I wasn't sure what the bus was doing here, but oh, well!


Peeking through the trees into a secluded meadow:


On another note, check out what I saw at Walmart today!


I guess he didn't want to spend the money on a van....