Let's Go Chuck a Pumpkin!

 Apparently, Pumpkin Chuckin has been a tradition in Moab for at least the
last few years - no idea when it started here.  But Evan, who had been here for the festivities two years ago, was pleased to see the big guns out for the day.   It was a full day affair, held at the old airport a few miles south of the city.  We parked on the runway and walked in past activity booths to keep children happy and food booths to keep everyone happy.  At the end of the runway the huge compressed air guns were lined up for the launching of pumpkins, some capable of sending them 1,000 yards into the air.  Looking beyond the guns, I can't imagine a more picturesque location for such an event.

A Quilt Show in the Dark:

As soon as I received information about the quilt show "Everything in Between:  Art Quilts, Fabric Collage and Embroidery" being shown at Southern Utah University in Cedar City I tried to see how we could add this on to the family trip to Moab for "Pumpkin Chuckin".  Add an extra day to the travel schedule and convince Roger he really wanted to see this with me.  It worked!

What's Happening in Utah:

 Roger was driving to our cabin by-way-of Kamas (where we stopped for
groceries on our way to Moab) and was stopped dead in his tracks.  Sharing
the road was a herd of 30-40 cattle making their way to their winter range.
He was stopped for about 15 minutes while the "cowboys" tried to hurry them along.  To one side of the road was a fence which helped keep them going straight, but on the other side was a grocery store and parking lot.  A few cows tried to make their escape via that route and it took a concerted effort to move that back to the road.

Alan and I continued to notch up parks, when we visited Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Glen Canyon Dam

The second part of my US holiday, was doing a road trip with Alan, to Southern Utah.

 Goblin Valley

RETURN OF THE COVEN!

This may look like a scene from Love Story, but in fact it was the moment when The Coven finally met up together in over a year.  All together now, ahhhh!

 This past weekend, Roger and I decided to once again head up to the cabin. It's such a pleasure to have it so close and available to us.  Roger wanted to try and finish up some staining of the rails before it got too cold and I'm always up for a get-away that provides for some great walks.  Before we headed up, we stopped by our local Home Depot, Roger's equivalent of my JoAnn's, so we could say hi to Rob, Ana and Livi.  Rob periodically takes the girls to Home Depot's Saturday morning "Kid's Workshops".  This workshop involved building and painting a toy fire engine.  Both the girls love  these activities and Allison told us that Ana had laid out her apron the night before so they would be right on time.  I guess the store's philosophy is "if you start them young, they'll spend money when they're older".  No matter what, it provides a great hands-on learning experience.