Chili Cookoff

My ward has a lot of fun ward activities, one of them being the ward chili cookoff. What they do is have whoever wants to-bring chili (and salads and bread items). There are judges that pick the hottest, most creative (which I won last year...yeah. I think), and the best tasting. This year, the judges were the ward missionary couples. I didn't win anything, but we sure had a good time eating some good food. My family came to hang out with us and that was nice to be able to see them. The girls had a blast running around (yeah, now that Ellie can). playing volleyball, soccer, football, and Ellie, just learning how to walk down the hill and then back up the hill (very cute to watch). She only face planted it about two times. Ha, ha. Emma getting ready in her singing outfit. She sure entertained us while we were eating by singing her little heart out for all to hear-waving her arms in the air and everything. So cute!

It was fun to be able to relax, not have to really cook dinner, and visit with friends from the neighborhood. We had a fun night, which ended with something scaring me on our front porch at about midnight...I was the brave one (okay, I just didn't want to wake up Andrey), I turned off all the lights quickly and ran to the window. I saw something running down the stairs. I hurried and flicked on the porch light and looked out the window in the door and what was there trying to break into our little house? . . . . "Phew," it was only a racoon. A RACOON!!!! I have never seen one alive around our place (always dead in the rode) and he/she was sure enjoying something on the grass. I tried to get video of it (yes, I'm easily entertained) but it was too dark to come in clearly, so use your imagination on what I was seeing. It was kindof cool, and a relief that I didn't have to learn to use Andrey's gun on someone.