Utah Adoption Council Day at Boondocks

I can't even describe how much fun this day was! Because Mr. Smee and I are hoping to adopt, we went to the UAC's (Utah Adoption Council) sponsored day at Boondocks. Each family donated $5.00 and got 10 arcade tokens per person, unlimited miniature golf, a pass for one big ride (laser tag, go-karts, etc.) and lunch from Wendy's (including chocolate cake donuts and chocolate milk - mmmm.....my dream come true!). Obviously we don't have kids so we invited my sister and her family to join us on this day of fun, and fun we had!

Big hug from Katie

Not a very attractive photo, but I'm loving my donut!

And so is James.

I think this was a hole in one for Nate.

 Cute Jack



Everytime Jack bent down his little crack showed, so Julie insisted I get a photo of it. So cute!!



Mr. Smee making a very energetic shot. I don't think it went in.



McKay's shot was successful.

  

Success!



Funny Suzie Cutes.

Love the Skeeball. Just don't look at my awful score.

I think Mom did a lot better than I did.

Even though it was cold, we still had a blast playing miniature golf and especially riding the go-karts, which we have no photos of due to a dead camera battery. Idiots.

There was a sort-of unpleasant incident, though. Mr. Smee, McKay and I were waiting in line for the 4D theater ride and only 10 people can go at a time. When we got in line, we made 10. After about 15 minutes in line, a kid came up and joined his sister in line. So now we had 11. Well, I wasn't going to stand for that kind of injustice! If that kid had been in line from the start, we wouldn't have waited! After fuming for a couple minutes, I let the operator know of the injustice going on. He took our side because they have a strict policy  that you must stay in line the entire time and you can't save spots. The guy let the older sister know so they got out of line - all eight of them. Whoops! It wasn't hard to overhear their complaint of the injustice of their situation. Sorry about that. The good thing was because they left, we got the best seats on the ride. Justice was served!! 

And, the entire time we were waiting in line for that ride (about 30 minutes) Julie and Katie were waiting in the mile-long line for ticket redemption. Katie did end up with a cute stuffed bear and some candy. I hope it was worth it!

Needless to say, we will be attending again next year.

O Hallowed Halloween

Halloween at the Smee house was unlike any we have experienced before...in a good way.  As most of you know, Halloween is by far my favorite holiday and as mid September arrives, the Halloween containers come out of storage.

This is my haunted village. Tea lights flicker in each of the windows at night.

Now this is a true Halloween tree. I'm sorry but those black Christmas Halloween trees are stupid. An authentic Halloween tree should be creepy branches, not a want-a-be Christmas tree. Come on!

So, because sometimes we are big losers, we didn't really document our crazy Halloween with photographs. But I did get a picture of Miss Priss in her glow-in-the-dark bones costume. I'm usually not too keen on dressing up my pets, but when I saw this I couldn't resist.

In a nutshell, here's how it went down:  We strung yarn through these sticky eyeballs (seen below on my model) and hung them all over in our front entryway. We had black lights on so all kids could see were these glowing orbs. There were plenty of grossed out screams as the eyes stuck to them as they came to the door.

When the doorbell rang, my mom (hiding behind the door) would open it and all the kids would see is Mr. Smee dressed in a grim reaper costume directing them to our garage. Once they crossed the threshold, my mom would slam the garage door shut so they wouldn't come back that way.

Inside the garage we had a fog machine pumping out smoke, and a lone red light shining eerily on Mr. Briggs, who was sitting at a table wearing a really creepy mask. After various cheap scares (slamming the table, my dad or Mr. Smee's dad skulking behind them) and a cheap treat (see below) the kids were then directed to exit the premises through our side garage door. There I was waiting with silly string and their real treat - a treat bag with a full sized candy bar and various other delectable sweets. We have to really spoil our trick-or-treater's because we live in a private neighborhood where the houses are a bit farther apart. If they come to my house, then by golly they will be rewarded!

So, after they got their real treat, then they got their real trick, heh, heh. My brother (dressed up as my Halloween nemesis, Michael Meyers) would come out of hiding and chase them down our driveway with his killer weed eater. Okay, so we didn't have a chainsaw, but it sounded just like one!



The mad dash to set up, hoping kids won't show up yet.




The ghetto-looking exit where I waited with their real treat.




Mr. Briggs in position, but no fog.





Spooky garage in all its glory.




Dan in Michael Meyers attire messing with the fog machine.



So, after they got their real treat, then they got their real trick, heh, heh. My brother Dan (dressed up as my Halloween nemesis, Michael Meyers) would come out of hiding and chase them down our driveway with his killer weed eater. Okay, so we didn't have a chainsaw, but it sounded just like one!



Haunted village on Halloween with tealight lit. I love the flying ghosts.



The next day at church one of our neighbors said all they could hear were screams coming from our house all night, and they wondered if we were killing people :) Based on the feedback we received, as well as the fact a couple groups came back twice, our house was by far the best Halloween house in the area. Get ready kids, because we're already planning for next year! HA HA HA!!!!!!

Welcome to the 21st Century

Not you. I mean us.

Here I am, sitting at my computer wracking my brain on how to start this wonderful, enlightening and hopefully somewhat entertaining blog (are you sensing my sarcasm?). I must admit I have been waging an internal battle with myself as to if we need to do this or not.  Needless to say, guilt, pressure, and wanting to impress Suzie Cutes (my dear, red-headed mother) have won out.

So....where to start.....

For those of you who don't know us, we are the Smees (not really our last name, but close, and what our friends and family like to call us).  We have 0 children and 1 cat, Miss Priss.  Mr. Smee is a stop-motion animation filmmaker and I am his production manager/accountant/whatever else. Yes, we do live and work together, and we love it!

Mr. Smee has 1 brother, 2 sisters, 3 nieces and 2 nephews. I have 1 sister, 3 brothers, 4 nieces and 6 nephews. He grew up in Highland, UT while I grew up in Holladay. Here's an interesting tidbit: Both of Nate's sisters married guys from Holladay. Weird.

So, have I completely bored you yet? This is all I care to do right now for intros and for blogging in general. My next post will relate to Halloween and all the tomfoolery that went with it. Wow, did I really just use that word?

Again, welcome to the 21st Century Los Smees.