Oktoberfest!

Its that time of year again

Oktoberfest!!

I know its still September and that our Oktoberfest may be the smallest festival ever to be called Oktoberfest but we still love it!

They hold it every year at Brian Head a small ski resort about a half hour away from us.

They had a Polka band.... who doesn't love Polka music ;) Dewey and the boys got to have their brats and apple strudel. We (along with the 5 other people watching) clapped and danced to the band. It was such a fun lunch.

It was perfect weather so we took a walk to show the boys the ski lift and runs. (hoping to get Luke skiing the year)

This was our "practice" lift ride. I can just imagine these three in a few years all in their ski gear tearing it up coming down the mountain.


Brian head was so pretty with the tree's just starting to change colors.


On the way home we took a side route and found that lower down the mountain the leaves have already changed. Gorgeous colors, bright fire red and orange, sunshine yellow. We stopped and gathered leaves, the boys loved finding all the different colors.

Another perfect Sunday!!!

I love the fall, but it seems like every part of it is so fleeting, I hope we can go up and see the leaves again before its to late.

Ghost towns and Wildfires

We love to find and explore new things. Since we have lived in Southern Utah we have heard about the many mining Ghost towns in the area. We also bought a rock hounding book that lists all the gems and stones that can be found in the state.

A few weeks ago we decided to go exploring. About an hour to the NW of us is the remains of the mining town Frisco. We did some research before we left to learn the towns history. At its peak a little over a hundred years ago this town was populated by 6000 people.

We were able to find some amazing remains, these are the furnaces used to make charcoal for the mining equipment.

These are in remarkably good shape for being neglected and left to the elements.

With Kolby running by you get an idea of just how large these structures are.

And is it just me or isn't the brick work amazing?

We took a bunch of dirt roads looking for the rest of the town but were not able to find much. We did come across the old town cemetery. Very very strange to walk through a desert ghost town cemetery, with markers over 100 years old.

Our rock hounding adventure although fun for the boys to dig with shovels and buckets led to no huge discoveries. Mainly because I saw no polished gems lying on the ground so other then that I didn't know what I was looking for. Apparently we need to do a tad more research on rocks and what they look like in there natural state, before we find some good ones.


On our way back into town this was our view

A lightning strike fire started about 20 minutes to the South of us. It was left as a "controlled" burn but as soon as the winds picked up it quickly become out of control. Thankfully the fire is now out but we lived for a solid week in a smoke haze smelling like campfire.

Luke's first day of Preschool

Luke's first day of preschool was Monday, to say he has been excited is a huge understatement. This morning he was up at 5 am (as a side note we are never up at 5am for any reason, we are happy if we make it out of bed at 6) He fully dressed himself, shoes and all and was sitting on the couch waiting for us to take him to school.

This is one little by who LOVES school, he loves everything about it, the kids the projects, the teachers. He asks every night what he is doing the next day, he is none to pleased on the weekend when its mommy daddy time :)

As I'm dropping him off and seeing kids crying begging not to go I feel so lucky to have found the right choice for Luke.

This is his first day outfit picked out by Luke himself.

With Luke in School it leaves more Mommy and Kolby time. So far I seem to be fun enough for Kolby he doesn't seem to mind not going to school with Luke, but we will see how long I can stay entertaining and hold the little guys attention :)