The Pumpkin Patch

Is anyone sick of seeing pumpkin patch pictures?

 If so, look away. 

Recap: Last years pumpkin patch excursion was a huge disappointment. 

I didn't have high expectations at all, seeing as how pumpkin growing is non existent in the state of Florida, but I had hopes that it would have been a little picturesque. It wasn't.

It started off bad and quickly turned to worse. 

It was so bloody hot and my child, who was 2 at the time, was a nightmare. I pretty much just wanted cry and curl up in a corner.

Lets fast forward to now. And then rewind to 2 days ago. We decided to try a new "pumpkin patch" this year in hopes that it would be better than last years failure. 

One of my friends mentioned one held at a church that they went to last year and had a good review of it. 

We tried that out and it was 10x better than what we experienced the previous year. 

The weather was decent and they had a pretty good selection of overly priced pumpkins. 

I didn't realize how cheap pumpkins were in Utah until I had to pay double out here. 

Evan was so excited to pick out his pumpkin. 

He's been watching Curious George: Halloween and all he can talk about is No-Noggin and how he kicks people's hats. 

You'll only know what I'm talking about if you have young child that watches that show on repeat. 

As soon as we entered, he had to pick up almost every "pun" he saw. It was pretty cute to see him rummage through the piles of pumpkins looking for the right one. 

And well, he never did find the perfect one, so I chose one for him and told him it was perfect. He gladly accepted it and carried it to the car all by himself. 

So far, he's had to show me the pumpkin sitting on our table and tell me how we need 3 more. 

Ain't gonna happen.

He is also so excited to carve it. We haven't ever carved a pumpkin with him before, so I'm looking forward to it as well.

 I'm predicting it goes down like this; We cut it up open, he gets excited. 

I tell him to pull out the guts, he won't. I ask him again, he screams "no" and then somewhere along the road he'll end up crying. 

I'll report back to see if I've predicted correctly.

 

And just because I love to reminisce, here are the last 3 years at the pumpkin patch...

Ladurée, Oui Oui

^I just felt like I needed to throw a little bit of French in there^

Our weekend was amazing! I dragged my husband, okay he semi-willingly went, to the mall in South Beach, known as Lincoln Road Mall. Lincoln Road is a huge outdoor mall that basically has every single store you could think of and also has an over abundance of restaurants.

 It was a partly cloudy day with a slight breeze which made being outside actually bearable.  Had it been a sunny summer day, we probably would have melted and died. 

And because a giant rain storm was just a few hours away, the mall was almost empty. 

Except for the Apple store, there was still a giant line outside their doors. Did those people not understand that they could have pre-ordered the iPhone online? Silly people. 

Our day was filled with Shake Shack and delicious treats.

A day I definitely will remember because we finally made it to Ladurée to try their macarons. And to be honest, I am not quite sure who loved them more, me or my husband...

 (Always sweating)

 

 

The sun did come out for a few minutes...hence more sweat

 (The husband trying to figure out which way to go, because I failed at figuring it out)

I realized that I really need to learn how to read a map. I led us in the opposite direction of Ladurée and when we turned around to go back the other way, we passed it...twice. Which, in my defense I think was easy to do because that store is almost hidden. 

I was expecting a huge door front with giant window displays of french macarons.

 Only being slightly wrong, it was a teeny tiny shop with a store header in a light gold coloring with a small window display. 

Although hard to see at first, once you catch a glimpse, it draws you in.

 It's a beautiful, quaint little store that looks like it's straight out of Paris, probably because it is :) Minus it's size, the store really was one of the most enchanting shops I've been in. 

The colors were soft colors of pink, greens and cream and outlined in gold. Everything was so dainty and perfect and I'm obsessed. 

And the smell...oh the smell of their macarons is a scent  I never want to forget. 

After taking our time on deciding what flavors to choose, we went with the pistachio and salted caramel. 

And they did not disappoint one bit. 

They are all I can think about. 

I am plotting ways to get myself back down there as soon as possible.

 

Have I convinced my long distance family and friends yet that they NEED to come down and visit?

Utah Trip: Part 4

Ah the last of our trip...

 I wish I could go back 6 weeks ago and then freeze time. 

This was honestly the (worst) best trip I've ever been on. 

Now to clarify the worst part. The only reason it was the worst was because we were sick for literally 90% of our trip.

 It started less than a week into our trip when we were all struck with this awful stomach flu. Then when we finally starting to feel 100% better, we were hit the cold flu. 

Fevers, coughs, sore throats, and runny noses. And we all know how long coughs and colds looooove to linger. 

I'm still just barely getting over my cold. It couldn't have hit us a worse time. 

I wanted to cry because I was so mad we were sick for most of our trip.

 It was such a downer, but I didn't let it completely ruin our entire trip. 

As you can see, we definitely did plenty of the things and kept ourselves busy for those (almost) 4 weeks. 

Let's just hope the next time we travel to visit family, we don't get any kind of illness!

Or I will cry and most likely die. Not to be dramatic or anything.

I am here to finally wrap up trip with the last of our adventures: Boating, fishing, amazing Utah skies, waiting in line for the Kingdom & State warehouse sale (never again), saying goodbye to Nanz, grandad and their crazy dog, a failed attempt at getting a decent family picture, and our long flight back to the sunshine state.

Moments after this was taken, he fell into the freezing lake water, whoops.

I hate fish. I hate everything about them. They totally gross me out. It's safe to say that fishing is not my thing. Evan on the other hand, thought it was hilarious. 

This isn't corny at all, is it?

I wish I was a better photographer because the sky scenery  that Utah has to offer is unbelievable. 

First in line for the Kingdom & State Warehouse sale. Didn't matter. Send a herd of woman into a small room filled with discounted clothes...blood shed people. It was pure and utter chaos 

Speaking of, I am trying to sell this bathing suit if anyone is interested. They wouldn't let you try it on before you buy, so it was a total guessing game. And I guessed wrong. Comment/Message me if interested to discuss price, please!

We took a late flight back to Florida. We survived it and Evan flew like a champ.

C'mon. Life is hard.

Well Utah, it was a great 4 weeks. 

I only wish I knew when we'd be back. 

If only you weren't so far away, and if only tickets weren't so ridiculously expensive to get to you.

 It was fun, it was real...until next time.

Utah Trip: Part 3

Guys, we're half way there! 

Does Bon Jovi pop into anyone else  head when someone says that?

Moving on...weeks 3 and 4 were spent with my in-laws in Provo. 

It was a blast. 

I seriously love being surrounded by family. Seeing Evan play with his cousins and get loved on by his grandparents brings so much joy to me. 

And boy, did he get a lot of attention! This kid must have been on cloud 9 for a month straight. 

We did A few firsts for Evan during our stay in P-town; bowling, carousel-ing, arcading, and Swig-ing.

 Everyday he tells me he wants to go bowling and go "far far away on 2 planes" (back to Utah)

I do too Evan...I do too...

Prepare for picture overload

Good ol' Provo. So much beauty. I wish I would have realized that more while we lived there

Reuniting with dad was this kids heaven

Fat Cats in Provo has .99 bowling over the summer. It was awesome. We went way too many times.

Ha Conryd didn't do so hot his first round. His 3 yr old son almost beat him...That's embarrassing ;)

We went to the Bean Museum at BYU. Ev wasn't too crazy about it. He walked through it pretty quickly.

Riverwoods is always a hit. So much to do... Too much money spent.

The carousel was probably Evan's favorite thing at Provo Beach Resort.

 

There's a cute little grocery by my in-laws called Day's Market. They had these adorable little shopping carts that Evan was all too excited for.

And their doughnuts...oh man! So good. Evan went straight for the m & m doughnut. I on the other hand, can't resist a good apple fritter.

Cousins! We love cousin time! We went bowling with my niece and nephew and then hit up Swig. Yes, THE Swig that I've been hearing so much about. And their cookies are just as good as everyone raves about. These copycats that I talked about here are maybe 1/2 as good as the real deal.

And we had to take dad to Museum of Natural History.

Another week gone...one more left to go. Excuse me while I go cry in corner as I reminisce of all it's greatness that it was.