Short post until I find my camera...

Hello! We are all alive and well, and super busy. I have lost the camera in the house somewhere so a much overdue photo blog will be coming next with pictures of Aaron's birthday party and Tanner and Lisa's visit! I will leave you with a ridiculous trailer for New Moon. Courtney, Ben and I have already purchase our tickets for the midnight release. Woot! Please don't judge us.

Suavie Island

So Ben and I decided that this year we were going to go and pick our own pumpkins. Suavie Island is about thirty minutes away and is an agricultural community with lots of you pick it farms and wildlife reserves. The day that we went there was a great view of Mt. St Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams AND Mt. Ranier. Crazy.
Ben and I were a little snotty about the corn maze. We thought it would take us fifteen minutes tops and would end up being a waste of time. However. it took us 45 minutes to an hour to complete the maze and by the end of it I developed a healthy fear of corn fields and we had a bunch of fun trying to figure out the maze and dodge the adolescent boys that were running through it.



I don't know if you can see Ben's face very well in this picture, but this is right after we had been in the maze for twenty minutes and had just discovered that we had ended up at the start of the maze again.
We took a hayride out to the pumpkin fields!



Hooray! All in all it was a really fun date. We ended our visit to the pumpkin patch with a carmel apple and some kettle corn. delicious.

MY what a busy week we've had.

This is what we come home to every day.
Is that your ridiculously expensive calculator you had to buy? Look at that smile!
Keep up the good work Court! Only a few more years and you'll be a physical therapist and able to pay for all of our rent. Hooray!
Look how long Ben's hair is?
This is my FAVORITE headband ever. Stevie and Kate got it for me.
Although, we don't have cable, ESPN 360 has been a God send for Ben this football season. Now he can watch two games at once! Oh goody.
Ben's been (hee hee) really busy with Farmer's basketball recently. In the two on two tournament he won second place! We decided to put the trophy on the mantel...for the week.
He really really loves me taking his picture.
The perfect way to end a week is to eat some awesome Thai food with friends.
Kasey and Ben, generally awesome. They will be more awesome if Kasey brings me over the pecan pie they made yesterday. Next post, Lindsay and Ben's trip to the pumpkin patch.

The Halls Butternut Squash Recipe.

WHY does she do this?
This is a butternut squash. Lindsay and Josh sent us some squash seeds with our letter and this recipe. Since my cooking expertise is pretty limited to frozen foods, Courtney decided to give the recipe a try.
This is our lovely chef. I was the lovely sous chef that was mainly in charge of keeping the cats off the counters.

Turns out, this soup was AWESOME. Like liquid pumpkin pie awesome. I lucky to have such great friends.
Here is the recipe if you guys would like to try it out!

Butternut Squash Soup
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-Cut 4-6 butternut squashes in half, remove the seeds. (we used 3 large squashes) Place each half face down on cookie sheet with thin layer of water
- Bake for 30min-1hour, until inside is soft
-Remove fruit from skins and puree
- Place pureee in pot over medium heat, and add cream until soup reaches desired consistency
-Add 1to 2 tablespoons of butter while still heating and stirring
- Add a handful of basil, half an onion, and 2-3 cloves of garlic (we sauteed these first)
- Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg to taste. Stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- While heating soup, toast bread, cut into small squares, at 250 degrees until crispy. These will be your croutons. Shred a dry cheese with cheese grater (we used parmesan)
- serve soup in bowls when ready, add croutons and cheese to taste.

Thanks Lindsay and Josh!

This animal is slightly terrifying.

This is a bilby. Who knew they existed? It's like a mix between a rabbit and a rat/mole. Now we have all learned something today.