Monday, October 26, 2009

Fall Catchup

Blogging has just not been on my to-do list lately. It's not that we haven't been doing anything, we've been so busy that I haven't had time, and when I do have downtime, there are so many other things I need/want to do.

I got crafty one day and pulled out the tissue paper and printed some pumpkins up online. The kids had fun making Halloween pictures. We also made bats to hang in near our door entrance. Cole is fascinated by them and will sit and stare at them.

We've had fun hanging out with friends. Mike and Leah and their girls came over one evening and Addy and my kids ran wild and finally settled down for some ice cream. Then, it was back to running and playing.
We went up to the cabin a couple weekends in a row to help my Grandpa install a new staircase. My brother's family came up one of the weekends and the kids had fun playing in the trees.
The "girl" cousins.
Building the stairs. For those of you that have been to the cabin before, you know how bad the stairs were. They were 40 years old and rotted railroad ties. These new stairs will be awesome and a lot safer!
Tucker had his first field trip to Hee Haw Farms. Here, Aubrey and Tucker's cute classmate and our neighbor, Kali, are going down the big slide.
We went on a hayride - and just happened to get on with 5 other families from our ward.
Each kid was able to pick out a pumpkin from their pumpkin patch.
Tucker didn't want to cooperate at the end and pose on the pumpkins. Oh well, these are the cute neighbor kids we live by.
This past Saturday we drove up to Logan for the day to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. They live by Utah State and the roads are covered in leaves. We don't have a yard, and only 1 little tree, so Tucker and Aubrey had a blast running around on the grass and playing in the leaves.
Aubrey always wants to dance and asks me constantly "Dance with me Mom". It's really cute!My parents came up as well. Aubrey is wrapped around my Dad's finger and he showers her with love and attention.
Cody and Dan spent the day doing just what they wanted. Watching football. It was fine with me cuz I had my Mom and sister to hangout with.
Heather bought Tucker goldfish for his birthday and he loves them.
Well, I think that's about it for now. We are happy and healthy at the moment. The kids had a 24 hour bug last week but are doing well. Cody's practice is picking up and we are actually finding ourselves with some extra money! I was accepted to do a booth/craft table for Swiss Christmas with my friends and so I've been busy making things to sell. Cole is 9 months today - still has no teeth, but is as cute as ever. He pulls himself up on everything and sometimes pulls everything down on top of him. I think he'll be an early walker like Tucker was. Life is great - enjoy fall!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Clarification from Elder Oaks

Elder Dallin H. Oaks recently gave a wonderful address about free exercise of religion. I urge you to click on the link and read the entire address. It is a wonderful read. After he gave this speech, a storm of complaints rained down from critics of the church. He does a wonderful job in this short video of answering many of the unfounded criticisms of his talk and explaining his position. Thanks Deon for the video!

Hopefully as Americans we can look past our differences and above all else be respectful. As he said in this video, there is no place in a democratic society for intimidation and trying to silence the opposition.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Elk Hunt '09

This past Friday we headed up to go elk hunting with my parents. I love being back in Utah and around the awesome fall colors. I also was really looking forward to being able to hunt for more than one day before flying back home like the previous 5 years.
We got a beautiful campsite in some pines and aspens and the kids were in heaven. We had several mule deer that kept wandering through our camp.

That night we built a fire and let the kids roast marshmallows and make smores. Again, heaven for the kids.


The chocolate all over Tuckers face says it all. Cole was such a happy little baby all bundled up in grandmas arms.


These next two were actually taken before the evening fire, so, sorry they are out of order. Anyway, Friday evening my dad, Tucker and I went back up to where we were going to hunt to scout it out a little bit more. The views were gorgeous and really made me grateful for living in such a beautiful state.


When we got there and got out of the truck, we told Tucker he had to whisper so we didn't scare off the animals. He was hilarious because he began whispering and continued whispering even once we got back to camp.


The next morning we got up and went out to our site. To make a long story short, on opening morning my dad essentially shot and killed a spike after a group of road-hunting red necks were firing at us trying to hit an elk that ran between us and them. They made it over to the elk first and were claiming it as their own. My dad and I decided it wasn't worth the fight and to let the morons keep it. After that, the rest of the day was very slow and quiet.
We headed back down to Midway to go to the priesthood session at conference. My cousin Jaron met up with us there. He and my parents went back up that night while Lisa and I stayed home with the kids.
Lisa and I headed back up on Sunday afternoon to continue the hunt. Jaron and I went out that evening and hiked through some amazing country, but didn't see any elk. We did hear a bull bugling, but a huge snow storm rolled in and caused all the animals to hunker down. As we hiked back to Jarons truck the snow was flying horizontally and it was a white out.
The next morning we got up, it was FREEZING! The storm had left a few inches of snow on the ground and we mentally prepared ourselves for the cold.
As the sun was coming up, we heard several bugles. What a sound that is by the way. For anyone who has never heard a bull elk bugle in the wild, you need to experience it at least once in your life.
We had a hillside full of elk and we ended up killing a spike.


You'll notice in this photo that the spike is still in velvet. I thought it odd that he hadn't shed the velvet this late in the year, but I guess it's common for spikes.


We gutted him out, quartered him, and the began the arduous task of packing him out from the bottom of that canyon back up to where we could bring the four wheeler. I quickly realized how out of shape I was as I huffed and puffed up that steep hillside. Jaron was a beast and actually did most of the hauling as I couldn't keep up with his speed.
Here is a photo of me hauling the spikes hind quarters. The hardest part though was the rib cage. At least I got covered in blood from that and looked very hard core afterward.


Once we had hauled all the meat up and taken it up to the truck with the 4 wheeler, my dad drove me and Jaron up an dout. For any of you who have seen the movie Red Dawn, the saying, "Wolverines!" was going through my head at this moment.

Back at camp Tucker was so excited that we got an elk. When we went to take this picture, he wasn't so excited about touching it, thus the grimmace on his face. He did tell me though that he thought the elk was too big, and that he wanted a smaller elk.

It was a fun trip this year and I really enjoyed being up there with Lisa and the kids, my parents, and Jaron. Oh yeah, and the colors weren't quite as vibrant as in years past, but it was still a beautiful weekend.