Conference weekend

At first, this looked like it was going to be a fairly boring weekend for me.  Little things added up, and Christopher was going to be gone basically from Thursday night until Sunday, with just snatches here and there where he came home and changed clothes to do another fun thing without us.  Bah.  So I did what I seem to normally do, and started crafting.  Ever since I bought my awesome camera, I have sort of lamented the camera strap.  It was very useful, but who wants to be a walking advertisement?  So I found a tutorial on how to make a new strap and went for it.  Lots of people make strap covers, but I didn't want something slipping around.  So I was really happy that I could make an entire new strap.

Of course, I only loosely followed the tutorial, as usual.  I didn't want to make both sides out of fabric.  The original strap was leather on one side, and since I have a large stash of scrap leather in my basement that seemed like a better way to go.  That took care of making it stiff and more durable. 

But, like the blogger, I couldn't make just one.

Just a tad more girly than the black CANON strap.

As for Christpher's activities, one of them was a really cool opportunity.  He got to sing with a choir at General Conference!  They rotate through the areas around Salt Lake for choirs every 10-15 years, but even then you don't get the chance that often.  The next time it is your turn, they could be looking for a Women's choir.  So he was very excited that he got to do this.  You can't take pictures during Conference itself, so these pictures were taken during the dress rehersal on Wednesday night.

What, you can't see him?  He's on the third row from the bottom, to the left of the center section.

Also, you can see him on the videos!  If you follow the above link and click on the songs under the Priesthood session, he made it onto nearly every one. 

Since singing took up most of his Saturday, the kids and I headed up to the cabin to hang out.  I love the fall colors!  In fact, last week, I even headed out at sunrise to get the colors as they woke up for the day.

And on my early morning trek, I met a friend.  We had a staring contest for a while, so I thought I would take a picture.

 In case you are wondering why he is blurry, that's because he took my camera timer beeping as a signal to charge.  While I was taking the picture.  I quickly went a different direction.

Well, once the kids and I got there, we set to work raking up a pile for them to play in.  But of course, I made them smile for pictures in it first.  Goofy kids.

Especially this girl.  I have no idea why she made this face, but it makes me laugh.

I could get them kid sized rakes, but where would the fun be in that?

Once Daddy got there the next day, we had a lot of fun listening to conference, relaxing outside, and playing some Ladderball.

A pretty good weekend after all!

Oh, and I have to share a recipe too!  Conference weekend is a good time for big breakfasts, so we had German pancake one day and a sausage and egg casserole the next.  But my favorite this weekend was the pumpkin dump cake.  It is like pumpkin pie on the bottom, with dump cake on the top - topped with pecans.  Yum.