I miss being a kid when it comes to Halloween. Nothing quite beats dressing up and trick or treating. Not to mention all the candy. But here is a video that is sure to get you in the Halloween spirit, whether you're wearing a costume or not.
The charming town of Exeter is only a short drive away from us. We spent an almost perfect Saturday afternoon enjoying the place. It may be small in size, but certainly not in personality. This place takes pride in their 29 murals. After lunch at the Wildflower cafe we were off to see them! (Sadly, I'm only posting a few.) I love that I was able to learn so much about the history of the area just from seeing and learning about these beautiful murals. I wonder how much time was spent painting each one.
"Orange Harvest." This mural was the first one painted. This looks like it could be a part of the scenery- when you get out of town this is what you see
"In Our Backyard"
"Men+Mules+Water=Power"
"Hometown News." To Phillip's delight he found a real wrench attached to this one
"Yokohl Brand"
"Golden Harvest"
"Passport to Paradise"
"The People Behind the Label"
"Our Town, Circa 1925"
Dedicated to the veterans- "Freedom Fighters"
We had fun seeing them all from our bike despite the 90 degree weather. Ice cream was necessary!
Rocky Hill Ice Cream Parlor. This place made a fun trip SUPER
This older gentlemen retired and thought he'd try the ice cream business. He made us the best milkshakes we have ever tasted! They were made with local ice cream and milk (Tulare is actually the top dairy producing county in the country, 2nd in agricultural production after Fresno.) I never thought a lemon milkshake and a banana milkshake could be better then anything with chocolate, but they were. We must go back for more!
This ultimate camping trip happened at Hume Lake two weeks ago. There was even some snow up there so apparently they weren't lying- it does snow in CA. Yay for camping! What does your ultimate camping trip have going for it?
*Although fun camping experiences have been known to occur in unsuspecting places such as the back yard, sagebrush infested Nevada, and beneath the Christmas tree.
Oh the glorious breakfast dinner. Can't think of anything to make? Hungry for an omelet? Breakfast dinner to the rescue! This is awesome because 1. Breakfast foods rock. 2. It's easy to decide between say breakfast burritos or pancakes and skip the debate and 3. Breakfast breakfast is turning into too much cereal and as we all know, breakfast foods ROCK.
So the other day I got home from work and I was really hungry. If you know me well, you know that when I get hungry I can get pretty grouchy. So to combat that I made some waffles, cracked some eggs in the frying pan, and pretty pretty please asked Phil to sit in his seat NOW. Phil knew what to do. He sat right down and offered to say the prayer too. (I have the best husband.) Somewhere in the middle of the prayer there was a clatter. This was the clatter of my frying pan falling off the hot plate and my still raw eggs being catapulted into the carpet. And there they sat until I had eaten my waffles.
Sometimes when I ask him to he might skim through a post. But most of the time he has no idea what's on here. But here is a post he will not want to miss. These pictures were taken BY HIM or OF HIM, and today I'm talking ABOUT HIM.
Here's a harbor at Monterrey. Which is an absolutely beautiful place. It's a shame that we didn't have our new camera yet so we only took a couple of pics on Phil's phone. We watched a friend compete in a triathlon, and enjoyed the day at the wharf and the beach. I love vacations with Phillip Montour :)
(By the way our friend is the bishop from this post. He's in his 50's and did an awesome job on his first Tri ever- Olympic distance!)
We rode our banana bike around by the beach and got asked where we'd rented such a sweet bike. We OWN this bad boy. We picked it up about a week after we got to Visalia. Phil saw the FOR SALE sign as we were driving by someone's house. He turned the car around and said "If that's less then $150 I'm buying it." And I'm all like WHAT?! Best $30 we've ever spent.
Phil planted these carrots and beet in a flower pot back in April. He was on a gardening kick. (I think he just wanted me to make him Russian Borscht .) We got nervous at the CA border, but luckily they didn't confiscate them. WHEW haha.
And this is me painting the walls he built on our trailer. Phil loves it when I help him with projects. I swear it's one of his love languages. He's always like want to help me on the car? Want to help me drill some holes? Sometimes I grumble... but I'm trying.
And then I saw this good looking picture of Phil the cowboy and it was too cute to not include. These two are old- from last fall when Phil was working his mechanical bull job. He would travel to fairs or private parties and set this thing up and then buck people off. Whenever I would ride I would beg him not to dump me. Good times.
We're completely surrounded by a pecan orchard so it's pretty quiet. We feel like we're in a forest. It's nice.
We also don't mind the pool and golf either :) The biggest downside is the kitchen- it's not really a kitchen at all. We cook on hot plates and a two burner camp stove. But I'm getting creative!
Hey family, if you come visit we can camp right there on the golf green :)
Phil and I took a weekend trip to Sequoia National Park. It's pretty near where we live, however, we're in the valley (331 ft.) and the park is up in the mountains. These huge trees grow at the specific elevation of 5000 to 7500 ft. They're incredible! Driving up the roads were so windy I thought I was going to be sick. I was glad when we finally found a nice little camp site. The warm temperature and the surprising lack of mosquitoes was nice. The pictures don't capture the feeling you get when you stand beneath these huge Sequoias, but they're still cool. The tree on the top right had a cave and I was reminded of the torture chamber in Princess Bride. The General Sherman tree is the largest tree in there world. There are taller trees, and fatter trees, but by total trunk volume this one takes the cake. I couldn't get the whole tree in the picture until we walked about a 1/4 a mile away. (Picture on the right, tree to the right of us.)
We also did a hike out on "Morro Rock" that we fell in love with.The hike isn't long, just steep and cut out in the rock. The views of the valley and the mountains were spectacular. All in all in was a fun and worthwhile trip. There are so many great things to see here in California. Maybe Yosemite, the Winchester Mansion, and Magic Mountain next?
Phil and I started dating officially in February of 2010. We had met the previous month at the pool. If you didn't read that amusing story you can find it here. After a few ups and downs, such as meeting each other's families and me being gone for a month on Spring Summit, we started talking about marriage a little more seriously. Because the thought of marriage made me nervous I insisted that it was in terms like, "So if we did get married then....". We talked about all sorts of things from who would vacuum to which temple we would get married in (by the way I remember him saying he didn't mind vacuuming and he does it most of the time! His willingness to clean house was one of the things that helped me know he'd be a good husband :)) One day around the beginning of August I asked him "So if we did get married WHEN would we get married?" His answer was next spring or summer. I had always wanted to get married in the summer (what girl wouldn't after growing up watching this), but I thought that sounded like a long time away. I said "I was thinking more like December." Phil told me later that the wheels immediately started turning in his head.
A few weeks later Phil saw that a grand opportunity was coming up (hehe.) Phil and I had both gotten the highest award for volunteering in the Outdoor Activities program which meant we were given the chance to go on any trip (rafting, climbing etc.) with the OA advisers as our guides. We picked climbing the Grand Teton with Scott Hurst. We drove to the trail head and set out with two other guys at 10 pm for the long hike up to the mountain. I won't go into details (partly because I was deliriously tired and have forgotten,) but lets just say hiking all night long was very difficult for me. There were multiple times that I think I would have just laid down and given up if it hadn't been for Phil encouraging me, giving me snacks for energy, and basically taking my hand and leading me up the mountain. It was dark and I was hot and exhausted. Looking down the mountain in the wee hours of the morning you could see the tiny headlights of other climbers. I remember thinking, We must be crazy.Why are we all doing this? The real challenge came though when we actually harnessed up and started climbing around dawn. The sun allowed me to see the thousands of miles down the mountain I could fall if something went seriously wrong. I broke down and basically started sobbing out of fear and exhaustion at the "belly roll" (see video below.) It was only the first of many terrifying moments to come, and only one of many times I thought I don't think I'm gong to make it. Each time I had to muster up just enough strength and courage to keep climbing. This video shows the section on the Owen Spaulding route that was most terrifying to me. It helps explains what I just can't describe in words.
Throughout the climb Phil did his best to make sure I was going to make it to the summit. When I cried because I was stuck on a pitch he consoled me and told me he knew it was scary but he knew I could make it. The higher we went, the colder and winder it got, and ice made some of the rock difficult to climb. At one point we saw dark clouds coming and had to make the decision whether to turn back or not. We continued, and luckily they blew over quickly.
It seemed surreal to me when we actually reached the top. It was now about 8:45 am on August 18th and I felt like I was on top of the world. We had been climbing on the shady side all morning, but now I was closer to the sun then I had ever been! The view was incredible. The Middle Teton looked awesome from above. I was so overwhelmed. And hungry. But Phil said we needed a picture on top of the highest boulder. So we got up on it. I smiled at the camera. I went to put my arm around him, but he was getting down on one knee. I turned to him, more surprised then I've ever been, and he said without preamble, "Lydia, will you marry me?"
I honestly had no idea he was going to propose. I was thinking he would in about 2 weeks, I'm not sure why. He hadn't given me any hints. In the moment he also hadn't led into it with a speech. Looking back though I guess he didn't need to. To me, the process of what we had just accomplished had showed me he loved me and would do everything he could to make me happy, that we could make it through hard things, and that we would have a life full of adventure. I remember thinking before we left when he packed the climbing gear while I bought food, We make a good team. We really do. Now not only was I thinking Yikes! I'm on top of a mountain, but Wow! I'm getting married! It was a big day to say the least. Repelling off the steepest part of the mountain was much easier then climbing it had been, despite the strong chilly wind. However, what the descent lacked in scariness it made up for in painfulness. Hiking downhill that far quickly turned our legs to jello. Burning Jello. My feet felt like lead. I remember talking to Phil about our wedding. It was so strange saying "When we get married..." instead of "If we get married..." Everyone hiked ahead of us but Phil and I stayed together and I felt a new sense of togetherness. The last couple of miles I kept thinking I saw cars back at the trail head, only to find more trees around each bend. In the end we all made it safely home.
Something I hadn't anticipated was how happy and proud I would feel afterwards every time I see the Grand. I've been on top of that mountain. It's not just that I've been there though, it's that I pushed through every hard experience on the way up. I also didn't anticipate coming back with a fiance, but I guess that goes to show that some of the best moments in life are unexpected. It's been a year since the day that I said "Yes" and my life changed forever. The best part though is having that day and every day on to share with the person that means everything to me.
DISCLAIMER: the main character in this story dies. If you're the kind of person that can't handle that,
stop reading now.
Phil and I went to Southern Utah in April. Remember? If not, read this post. Well while we were there I convinced Phil that we needed one of these. A Saguaro cactus growing kit. Phil thought it was pretty ridiculous considering they mainly only grow in Arizona and we were in Moab, Utah. But I had visions of the huge cactus we'd have one day. And we could say we grew it from seed! The thing about Saguaros though is that they grow very slowly. Our kit informed us that this little guy would give us many years of enjoyment, reaching 4-6 inches tall in 10 years. There's no telling how many more decades (or centuries) it would take for it to sprout arms.
Well, I might not have watered it enough... and a couple of the cute baby cactuses died. And then we drove to California with it in the dashboard and it got fried. RIP. I think we might have to get another one and try again. I mean how many people can say they grew a cactus from SEED?
And when we're really old we'll have it planted in our front yard.
Here's a harbor at Monterrey. Which is an absolutely beautiful place. It's a shame that we didn't have our new camera yet so we only took a couple of pics on Phil's phone. We watched a friend compete in a triathlon, and enjoyed the day at the wharf and the beach. I love vacations with Phillip Montour :) 
