September 2024 Happenings

Here's some of the fun and adventures we had in September:

Birthday Breakfast in Bed

Jac made me breakfast in bed (presenting one of the coupons from last Christmas).  It was amazing!  I ate it on the couch because my back was hurting, but it was still delicious!

Pickin' Peaches

Then we went to a local orchard and picked us some peaches. It was a little toasty, but still a fun, new experience.  Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

We got 10 pounds, and got to enjoy fresh peaches whenever we wanted for the next two weeks. And, we even made yummy peach turnovers a few times. :)

 

 

Birthday Feast
And, if all that wasn't enough, Jac made me a huge Chinese feast which we enjoyed while watching a movie.  What a great day!

 

Rodeo & Fair
In addition to the whole peach-pickin' adventure, I wanted to go to a real, bonafide rodeo!  This Huntington Beach girl was itchin' for a little bit of country.  Luckily, with Utah's State Fair going on, the big, professional rodeo was also in town -- the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) Rodeo.  These guys and gals are the real deal, and I was excited to go see it.  

 

Since tickets to the rodeo included tickets to the fair, we went a little early to chow down on some supposedly delicious state fair food.

 

 

We decided on a Korean Corn Dog for the main course.

 

 

Sounded promising -- interesting and different -- but ended up tasting suspiciously like a corn dog with mustard.

 

 

 

Oh well, at least it was a steal -- just $18. For one ordinary corn dog.  Oye! Add to that our $5 sodas, and we were really splashin' out on this silly little meal.

 

Unsatisfied, we went for the sure thing for dessert.  State Fairs are famous for how DELICIOUS their funnel cakes are, so how could we go wrong with that. Determined, we got us one -- an apple pie funnel cake. 

 

 

This thing was HUGE. And it looked promising. But... 

 

 

Utterly flavorless. Utterly disappointing. And a complete rip off at $12.  Oh well, now we know it's all hype. No more $40 state fair dinners for us! 

 

After dinner, we had a little time to spare so we walked around the fair a bit, checking out the rides and the games.  We didn't partake of any, but it was fun to see nonetheless.

 

 

And then finally, it was time for the rodeo.  Of course, we had to dress the part, so I got me a cowgirl hat and a bull shirt, and I got (made) Jac a bull hat.  Don't we look country!

 

 

Turns out, rodeos are pretty interesting.  Sometimes tense, sometimes exciting, occasionally slow.  Here's some photos we took of the action:

Lots of Dinner Guests
We also 'entertained' quite a bit in September.  Jac's childhood friend Greg Short came to town one weekend, and he and Jac hung out in the backyard and talked for hours and hours and hours.  That's really all they did, and yet they had a great time!

 

Greg brought along his suuuuuper sweet dog Sasha along.  She may look ferocious but she is truly such a sweetie.  I would love to have a dog as sweet as Sasha!!!

 

We also entertained Marlene and her husband Eric one Friday night: 

 

Jac made his delicious Sicilian Meatloaf

 

 
My mom came to dinner one Wednesday:

 

  

And we had photo-op party with my family near the end of the month.  We got lots of good photos for the Wine'd Up in Smoke website, and they got lots of yummy food!

 

 

And here are some random pictures from the month

Billy and Oliver got lots of Jac's famous massages:

 

 

Jac spent HOURS helping our neighbor Larry fix his truck.  What a hero:

 

 

Jac dyed my hair for me.  (He offered).  It was fantastic.  I got to just sit back and let him do all the work. 

 

 And it ended up looking pretty decent in the end. A little beige, but I can live with it. :)

In September, I started walking again along the Murdoch Trail. Gotta get back in shape. I didn't go every day, but when I did I was treated to such beauty. Walking there is good for my body and good for my soul!

We had a hotter than usual end of September, giving the garden enough time to bounce back from that big damaging hailstorm in mid-August. This was just a few days growth in late September!

 

And here's a silly picture. One day we played a flashback game for Jac -- tabletop football.  It's a game Jac and his friends made up when they were kids. And believe it or not, I won!!!!

 

 

And, of course, we ate yummy food all month

 

 

 

 

Near the end of the month, we started our "100 Days of Wine'd Up" Challenge -- where we are trying to eat (AND PHOTOGRAPH!) Wine'd Up food for 100 days.  The intent is to put it all up on the website (photos and descriptions) to show the incredible array of foods you can make with Wine'd Up packets.  So we ate those foods as well.  So...see all the fantastic meals we had in September and October -- in addition to those shown above -- see our website: https://winedupinsmoke.com/blogs/100-days-of-wined-up