Who dunnit?

This year's Halloween party was a Murder Mystery dinner. It was a lot of work to put it all together, but in the end it was worth the effort. The costumes turned out amazing, and everyone did a great job with their characters. 

The hostess of the evening:

Shay's character was Countess Bathory, a 16th century mass murderess.

As usual, Shay went all out on the decor, and it turned out so beautiful:

Here are some pictures from the evening:

 Kaylyn and Shay

 Amber and Kaylyn

 Teri and Kaylyn

Kaylyn, Brandi and Kate

 The guys - Danny, Chaz, Mike, Brett, Ryan and Nick

Kaylyn, Shay, Jen and Kate

The company that we ordered the party kit from was a little disorganized, so a lot of work went into rewriting the clues and the format in which their questions and answers were set up was a bit scattered. I really enjoyed writing the character stories though, and I am seriously thinking about making my own Murder Mystery dinner party business. It would be a great creative outlet. 

Overall, I am so glad that we opted to go with the Murder Mystery theme, and I really do think that we will do it again next year. 

I want to send a special thanks to Chaz and Shay for always hosting these great shindigs!  Maybe next year we'll live closer and I can host so that you two can take a break. 

The evening of the enchantress

It has become a tradition for us to attend Witchapalooza at Gardner Village each October, and this year we actually went on Witches Night Out.

I have never seen so many grown-ass women in costumes in one place.  It was amazing.

If you live in Utah, are a fan of Halloween and have never been to Witches Night Out, I highly recommend it for next year! You see so many awesome costumes, the shops are incredible and if you choose to go to the dinner show, there's also great food and entertainment!

There are some professional witches, who go all out on their characters:

Then you get to see a bunch of amateur witches:



I could not believe the effort that went into some of the costumes we saw this year! I would love to be a professional GV witch! Thanks to Shay for making it possible! Every year she orders our tickets way in advance to make sure that we have good seats for the show. I love that we have found this little gathering, and hope that the tradition continues!

Dearest Shay,

Today is a BIG day!!

Today you hit a milestone.

Today you turn 30!!

I am sad that I can't be with you guys today, but I am happy that you are spending your big day in the happiest place on earth!  I know that there is no where in the world you would rather be today, and that makes my heart happy. A little jealous, but happy none the less.

I know Chaz isn't quite the Disneyland companion that I would be, so I have to apologize for that, but I know that you will be able to forgive me for not being there. There's always next year.

When you get home, as you know, there are great things for us to look forward to in celebration of your new chapter in life, and I cannot wait to experience them with you! You are the best friend that I could have ever hoped for, and I love you more than you will ever know.  I am so lucky to have you in my life, and I don't think that you realize all that you do for me. 

Happy birthday buddy!  I hope that this is your best birthday yet!! You totally deserve all of the happiness in the entire world.

Love,

Kaylyn

You can't hide from her duck feet

When friends converge and there is alcohol involved, it's inevitable that someone will take a photograph.  It's never really a surprise when you flip through the camera the next morning, because you are doing so expecting to find some incriminating evidence. 

Today, while I was examining the contents of my phone, I found a new avenue for capturing some of this glorious content.  Audio.  My phone came with an app, that until this weekend had never been used, called voice memo.  Apparently during the period of time that we were all inebriated, I discovered this app and decided to record my good friend Kate babbling from the bathroom floor.

I must say, most drunk people slur their words to the point that they are not even recognizable.  Kate doesn't have that problem.  She is the type of drunk whose words you can hear clearly, it's just the content and the way that she mixes it all together that makes no sense. My personal favorite was the two minutes that she spent telling us all how we couldn't hide from her duck feet. 

I'd like to send a special thank you to Kate for entertaining me tonight while I sat at work, listening to this new found audio, waiting for my phone to ring.

If the zombie apocalypse happened tomorrow

I was looking back through my archives today, and I have realized that I don't take pictures anymore. I used to have my camera with me everywhere I went, which in turn gave me a lot more to post about.

I used to be fucking snap-happy.

What the hell changed? I still have a camera, so that's not the issue.

I think that I need to try and motivate myself to start taking pictures again. If I do that, maybe the content on this blog won't be so boring or sparse.

In the spirit of Halloween, I recently downloaded an app for my phone that turns people into zombies. Maybe that's a good place to start.

Zombie Scotherns:

Zombie Schlange's:

Music in my soul

Last night we met up with Chaz and Shay downtown for the U2 concert. 

When we walked into the stadium, the stage was so massive that it took my breath away.

Not only was their stage enormous, but the colors on the whole thing changed for every song they sang and the big circular screen in the middle was on tracks moving up and down for the latter half the show. The visual of it all was so amazing.

Mashed Potato

We went on a trail called the mashed potato on our second day in Moab.  I thought that it was a really fun trail, but the ass end of my Jeep would probably disagree with me.  There were so many steep spots to go down, that I had a hard time not slamming my hitch on the rocks as we would come off of them.  I even got a small dent in my tail pipe.  I've gotta tell you, when we bought this Jeep we had every intention of making a rock crawler out of her, but it made me cringe every time I heard the sound of metal grinding on rock.

I will learn to get over it, I'm sure.  

I know that I have said this about twelve thousand times already, but the pictures just don't do it justice!  Watching Chaz maneuver over these massive rocks was purely amazing.  I cannot wait for the day that Millie can do half the shit Culpepper does.  I was in awe the whole time we were there about what these vehicles are capable of.  

A friend of Mike's came down with his girlfriend, Newland and they rented a Jeep for a few days.  He looks just like Dexter, and that is all Shay and I were calling him the whole time they were there.  To this day I can honestly tell you that I have no clue what his real name is.  Is that rude?  Sorry Dexter.

Also, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture with 8 adults looking at the camera at the same time?  It's impossible.  That's why one or more of us is looking the wrong way in every attempt we made.  This was the best we could do.

Magnificent

Brett and I have lived in Utah all of our lives and I honestly don't know how it is possible that we had not yet been to see the delicate arch before this trip to Moab.  It is one of Utah's most well known landmarks and people come from all over the world to see it, yet we have lived literally right around the corner from it for more than 26 years and have never taken the short venture to see it in person.

I think that it definitely proves that we, as human beings, take things for granted on a daily basis.  We think that just because something so magnificent is sitting in our backyard means that we have an excuse not to take the time to admire it.

The arch is honestly one of the most amazing sights that I have ever seen, and I cannot wait to go back.  It's a gorgeous hike, which doesn't take long at all and when you come around the corner and see the arch standing there in all of it's glory it literally takes your breath away.  I could not believe how massive it was and still, as the name suggests, so delicate.

{Brett, Kaylyn, Shay, Chaz, Mike and Kate}

{The delicate arch}

{Indian paintbrush}

I can honestly tell you that I have never been so totally amazed by anything.  Ever.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Rocked My World

One of my favorite trails in Moab is Hell's Revenge.  It was a great mix of hard obstacles and amazing scenery.  There was never a dull moment on this trail, and I can honestly say that there were a few times that I really thought I might die.  Gladly, no one was injured in the making of this blog post.

This is Hell's Gate.  A few weeks before we were set to leave for Moab, Chaz started emailing me links for YouTube videos of various trails telling me how awesome it was going to be to take my Jeep on them.  The first video that he sent me was one of someone trying to crawl up Hell's Gate.  Trying, and then failing and rolling down the hill.  Needless to say, Millie didn't attempt this one. 

 This place is seriously breathtaking!  Everywhere you look there is a different kind of terrain.  For most of our visit the weather was extremely cooperative.  It rained the first two days, and then the sun came out and didn't go away.  If I didn't have any responsibilities in life, I would take my husband and run away to the desert.

Adventures

During one of the aforementioned weekends that I spent hanging out with Shay while the guys were slaving away on the Jeep, we decided that we would go see a movie.

After reading through the list of movies that were playing at the theater around the corner from her house we decided on Arthur.

Both Shay and I are fans of comedy, and especially when it's inappropriate comedy. Who is more inappropriate than Russell Brand, you ask? No one.

We arrived about ten minutes before the show was supposed to start and ordered a smorgasbord of junk from the concession stand then made our way to our seats. We were the first people in the theater, so we had our pick of any seats in the house. After we sat down, we started chatting and shortly after, the previews started to roll. It was then that we realized that we were still the only two people in the theater.

We automatically turned into the equivalent of small children and started talking loudly, running around from seat to seat and, of course, doing cartwheels down the center aisle.

We even thought to make a video:

We had a great time acting ridiculous, and the movie was good.  All in all, it was a success.

The Time We Almost Didn't Go To Moab

Holy shit. 

Moab is amazing!

Millie did so awesome. Seriously. There were some trails that we went on that totally made my butt hole pucker, and I never thought we would make it out alive. But you guys, we did it!  We lived.

I think that the proper way to start out the Moab posts, because there is just too much to cram into one, would be to introduce you to the Sargent.  Sargent Culpepper is Chaz and Shay's Jeep.  It is a loyal Wrangler that Chaz has had since he was in high school

About two months before we were set to leave for Moab, Chaz got a wild hair up his ass and decided that he wanted to take Culpepper's four cylinder engine out and swap it for a V8.  Brett nor Chaz had ever done such a thing, but they both thought, "fuck it, why not?". 

Chaz had purchased an old Durango with some body damage so that he could gut it and replace all of Culpepper's insides with the ones that used to reside in the Durango.  Sounds like a great plan to everyone, and the work begins. 

Here is what it looked like under the hood before they got started:

And here is the progress after removing the old four banger:

In order to get the new engine in Brett had to cut the old engine mounts out so that Chaz's cousin could come weld some new ones in the right place:

Here's the new engine softly nestled into its new home:

And last, but not least, here is what Shay's kitchen table looked like for the majority of the month of April:

I know what you are asking yourself right now.  Why is it so important to share this information with you before I can tell you about our trip and all of its Glory?

Because with such a large project in so little time, two months before our trip, we almost didn't get to go.

Brett and I went up to the Schlange's house every weekend so that Brett could help Chaz out with the engine.  It was all going really well, and they thought that they had given themselves plenty of time. I enjoyed our weekly adventures because I got to spend a few days every week with my BFF.  It was truly refreshing.  Who cares if the drive was monotonous, we had a hell of a time!

When it hit crunch time they started having some issues with the wiring harness. The fucking thing would start, but it was only firing four of the eight cylinders.  Something was wrong, and Chaz didn't know how to fix it. 

Two days before we were set to leave, Chaz decided that it was time to call in the pro's.  He took it to the shop and basically told the mechanic that it didn't matter what it took, he just wanted Culpepper runninig before Moab.  It had to be on the trailer in 48 hours.

I was so worried that we weren't going to go that I didn't start packing because I was afraid that I'd be wasting my time.  I had convinced myself that it wasn't happening, just so that I wouldn't get my hopes up.  I was devestated.  I'm sure that the sadness being experienced by Chaz and Shay was 100 times worse, but it was hard for me to recognize at the time.

After convincing myself that Moab was not going to happen I was at work when I received this text from Shay:

"Hey! He's back in business!"

Relief!! The next day, our adventure began.  Stay tuned.....

Safari

Tomorrow, mid-day, the Scothern's and the Schlange's are heading south into the desert. We will be spending almost a whole week with our two favorite people and laughing a lot.  It's going to be a glorious week filled with friends, some great scenery, and the low rumble of engines.

We are finally going to Jeep Safari.

I have wanted a Jeep since the day I turned sixteen.  It has always seemed like a distant dream that would never fully be realized, and last year I was so insanely jealous that Chaz and Shay would be going to Moab without us. We couldn't go because I had just gotten a new job and was going to be in mandatory training for six weeks. So this year, when we found Millie, I knew immediately that I had to schedule the time off of work. I have been waiting in anticipation for just over a month now, and tomorrow is finally the day! 

It's going to be fucking awesome.

Mardi Gras 2011

Shay and I have decided that Mardi Gras is our new tradition.  It gives us a good excuse to have a party around my birthday, and since Halloween is right by her birthday it works out perfectly.

This year the decorations were more intense and there was an abundance of beads to go around.  Almost everyone came with a mask, and if they didn't Shay had some backups ready.  That bitch is always prepared!

Every time we get together with this group of people, a great time is had by all.  It seems as though each party we have is better than the last, and as a bonus there was no one puking in the sink or bathtub at this party.

Thanks again for the killer party Shaymus!  It was awesome, as usual.

{Kaylyn and Brett}

{Shay and Kaylyn}

{Brett and Chaz}

{Emily and Kate}

{Danielle and Ryan}

{Jen}

{Shay and Kaylyn}