Apple Orchard

A couple weeks ago (so maybe like a month ago), we went with some friends to a local (as in an hour and a half away) apple orchard. I got this great deal on Groupon, and our admission was more than half off. The orchard advertised an apple cannon, which Brad was more than a little excited about due to his previous experiences with an apple slingshot.

The apple cannon was a bit of a disappointment. Okay, a lot bit of a disappointment. We waited in line for probably about an hour only to shoot 15 mangled apples. The boys working this over advertised attraction weren't too careful when they were stuffing the apples into the cannon. Several times they mashed the apple as they were shoving them as far as humanly possible into the cannon head with their huge metal poles. So when you pushed the button to shoot said apples, a ginormous mess of crushed chunks flew out instead of a nice whole fruit. Oh well. Such is life.

Next we made our way to the petting zoo/farm, where we saw the cutest thing since baby Killer.

A four day old baby goat. Which we got to hold.

 After the boys had finally gotten tired of Kacee and me awing at the cuteness of the kid, we left to go pick us some apples.

We also visited the orchard's old country store and had about a gizzlion "take one free samples" of fresh apple cider and apple slices straight from the trees. I decided I wanted an apple tree in my future backyard.

Love, Brad & Courtney

Bugs

One of the things I hate about the south is bugs. I grew up in Tennessee, where I'm certain that there were just as many bugs. But I seem to have completely forgotten all about them after living in Utah for 4 years, where it's either too cold or too hot to support the creepy crawly lifestyle. Most bugs I really don't mind too much, but there are a few in particular that I can't stand. Roaches are definitely at the top of the list. Gross. Coming in at a close second are these lovelys, which seem to think our home is their home.

Brad is trying to hold his finger up close to it, so you can see that it's just as long as his pinky, but if you get too close to them they run away, so that's as good as it gets.

Say hello to the House Centipede. Here are some more pictures from google, just so you get a good idea for what we're dealing with.

 Please pray that we never get one this size. I'd probably pass out then it would come eat me.

These little boogers could outrun a cheetah. No doubt about it. But how could they not be fast with all those legs? Ewww...I'm shuddering and nervously looking around my house while I'm writing this. The first glimpse I got of the House Centipede was right after we moved into our new apartment in the middle of May. One morning, while Brad was still sleeping (of course this would happen when no one was around to help me) I was sitting on our living room floor unpacking some boxes. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye I see what at the time looked like a monster running toward me. That's right, it was running toward me. These aren't your normal bugs who are more scared of you then you are of them. Oh no. They're brave. I quickly jumped up and yelled for Killer to get it (one of her favorite things to do is chase bugs and bark and bark until we kill them). Well, she scared it under a box. I told myself to breathe, I built up some courage, and pushed the box over. No centipede. Where had it gotten to in such a short time? Killer and I spent a few more minutes looking, but to no avail. When Brad woke up I told him all about this other-worldly bug that had almost attacked me. He thought I was over-exaggerating, and I can't blame him. These bugs do lend themselves to dramatic stories. Well, guess who was waiting for him on the wall right outside our bedroom door? My monster. Gasping from sheer surprise and quickly realizing I was not exaggerating, Brad got a paper towel and eventually killed the thing after it gave him a good run for his money. 

That was only the first of our many encounters with said monster. One afternoon I was sitting on the couch (most likely writing a blog post...HA!...not so likely), and I see one scurry across the wall in front of me. I run to grab a shoe (I'm not as brave as Brad, who trusts only a thin paper towel in between his hand and the bug). I come back to the bug only to see it bury itself in between the carpet and the baseboard. Once again, Killer and I diligently search for it. We give up (and I keep my bare feet off the floor). Next thing I know it's running for me. When I look at it, it quickly hides under a magazine laying on the floor. When it thinks I've relinquished my gaze it comes back out. I chase it around for a while and eventually squash it. Stealthy little things they are.

We've also killed several babies, who are just as stealthy and just as fast. Killer has gotten really good at catching them and injuring them enough so they can't run so fast and keeping them trapped in one spot until we can come finish it off. They always get flushed. I don't care that they're squished inside a paper towel. I just can't help imagining them crawling one after the other out of the trash can. Drowning is always my go-to with these bugs (and almost anything else I catch).

We also get some gnarly spiders and lots and lots of mosquitoes. Moths are puppy favorite. Since they can fly and never come down to her level, Killer has a grand ole time chasing them all around the house. Yesterday we had a lizard. Brad joked that we should have kept it and let it run around and eat all our other bugs. 

Now that the weather's cooling down I'm hoping the bugs are dying, and we'll get fewer and fewer greeting us on the inside. 

Love, Brad Courtney and the Bug Catcher

Fourth of July

Oh hey there blog. It's been a while. I thought it would be so easy to keep up with posting on you everyday or at least every week when I first started, but then I quickly learned that it's much easier to fill my time doing other things. And, well, I'm not that great at scheduling extra things into my allotted 24 hours each day. But from now on I will try my darnedest to post something, anything a little more frequently for anyone out there wanting to read about our crazy awesome and exciting life, but mainly for me so that I can remember all the wonderful things that happen in that life.

Today I'm reaching WAY back into my arsenal and pulling out our trip to Wilmington for the 4th of July. My aunt, uncle, and cousin Noah live at the beach, and since we had a few days off of work and school we decided, "Hey, what the heck, we should drive the 7 hours to the beach and hang out with them." Little known fact about yours truly: I have a HUGE lead foot. Like really really bad. Whenever I drive anywhere by myself, Brad kindly reminds me before I leave to not drive too fast. I think part of the problem is that our little car doesn't have cruise control, so it's really easy for that lead foot of mine to start getting heavier and heavier and before I know it I'm going 90 in an 55. Which is exactly what happened in the last half hour of our drive to my aunt's house. (Well, let's be honest, that had been happening pretty much the whole 6 hours before that, but I hadn't gotten caught - big difference.) Well, before I could even think twice about slowing down I saw blue lights flashing behind me. Luckily, the police officer was the nicest person I've ever meet. I feigned being lost at 12:30 at night, and he took pity on me. All I got was a warning.

It was Killer's first time ever at the beach, and she didn't know what to do with herself she was so excited. She LOVED the sand. She'd never had so much sand to dig in. Heaven.

She also had a great time chasing her ball and laying on her grass mat. She liked the water, but the waves kind of scared her a little bit. They were 2 or 3 foot waves, so to little Killer I'm sure they looked like tsunamis.

Killer also had a great time playing with her cousin Mimzy and all her toys.

We went to a Wilmington Hammerheads (professional soccer team) game with Ron and Noah and watched their fireworks afterwards. A funny thing happened actually, we were sitting in the front row of the bleachers waiting for the fireworks to start and all of a sudden these huge sprinklers that shot out a TON of water turned on and started spraying us. The first time they sprayed us, and we got soaked we thought that the landscapers (who were down on the field) would quickly turn the sprinklers off, so we stayed in our seats. Well, we were wrong. We got sprayed a good three more times before we finally moved. They eventually turned the sprinklers off, but by that time we were dripping. Quite the night, but so fun!

Saturday morning their ward had a pancake breakfast in celebration of the 4th. Then we went to the beach again. Brad and Noah had a blast covering each other with sand.

 Brad turned Noah into SpongeBob, and Noah and Susan turned Brad into a beautiful mermaid.

  Killer graciously volunteered herself as a pillow.

Sunday night we shot off fireworks and enjoyed the last few hours we had with family. When Monday rolled around we sadly packed our bags and vowed to make going to Wilmington for the 4th a new tradition.

Love, Brad & Courtney