Tales of a Shoebox Princess

For once in my adult life, I got an idea for a Halloween costume BEFORE the day of a Halloween party. I got to spend a whole week prepping my costume, which was good, because it involved ordering several items from Amazon and sewing a dress. And I got an idea for a matching theme for the trunk or treat (which was moved inside, but we got a couple days advance notice and I was able to adapt my plans) which I was able to execute mostly the way I wanted to. That's a green wig. You can't see the holographic properties of the material of my dress in this photo, but trust me, it was trippy. I kept the batterypacks for the light strings in my pockets (YES MY DRESS HAS POCKETS) and in my bra (for the neckline lights). Firefighter Jackson Viking Kate Elsa Emma, holding a piece of cornbread that she actually ate (she doesn't usually like bread) Viking alien Christian Picking a cake pop for winning the cake walk Twinsies that's how you feed a...

I thought Minnesota was essentially a caveless state, other than a few holes in the limestone in St. Paul and a manmade one (Wabasha Cave--also in St. Paul), but when Jim and I started on this State Parks kick, we learned that there is a cave system in MN, south of Rochester. We had to go, and picked the last weekend it was opened to hit it up. Forestville/Mystery Cave state park. Two thumbs up, would recommend. The Mystery title comes from the mystery of why there are no lakes in that area and it has to do with the cave. The tour guide pointed out clues to the puzzle and pointed out basic geological cave formations. We learned about flowstone, dripstone, drapery, domes, pockets, floods, limestone, carbonic acid, fossils, mudstone, etc. armored squid fossil Happy cavers, soaking up the education low ceilings, all natural. the floor is not natural, however. I wanted to squeeze through a few cracks drapery these little pools were s...

Matt leaves today. He's flying to Provo this evening to enter the MTC tomorrow.  Is the Arkansas Little Rock mission ready for him? Is he ready for his mission? I don't know. But he's going.  Going to the temple for the first time. Goof. We just can't be serious Katie and Christian came along Funning I try, really I do. birthday/mission in Arkansas Boggy Creek 2 cake, courtesy of Kate Takes the Cake Matt and 2 good friends. Both have served missions already and I'm glad they were both at church for Matt's farewell talk (the one in the blue jacket gave his homecoming talk, he just returned from his mission. He's the one responsible for getting Matt into robotics) He is officially Elder Evans Matt and the Stake Pres I don't know yet if I'll do a mission blog. I sort of forgot about that until recently.