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.

Odds and Ends

No, I'm not talking about a practice involving a psychologist and proctologist. I am talking about some more photos from my cell phone. We don't have a pocket sized camera, so there are times I have to use my cell phone to capture some pictures.
Back in August we went to a mustang show on Main Street in Park City with my parents. There were some sweet cars there.

Here we are outside of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory eating some of treats.

Over Labor Day weekend I was busy, busy, busy with Swiss Days. Here is a view from inside the pavillion where we were making the Swiss Tacos. You can see the many crazy people lined up waiting for their plate of their weeks supply of calories.

This is inside the pavillion with several of the ward members working the assembly line. I think we sold around 10,000 tacos in two days. It's insane.

On Labor Day we went behind our house with my parents to do some dutch oven cooking. It was a tasty lunch and a fun afternoon in the mountains. Tucker loved climbing that tree by the way.

This is the view I see out the front windows of my dental office. Not too shabby. Its the North end of the Park City Mountain Resort.

Party on in PC

Last Friday we were able to go out to dinner with some of our dental school friends, the Jergensens. They moved to San Diego the year before we graduated. We ate at Squatters, which is right by Cody's work.Carly and Aubrey became instant friends and it made me miss living in Maryland with all of our friends. Us mom's were always getting together and our kids played all the time. It's just too bad that most of us moved from there with kids too little to really remember any of it.

Cole and Tyler are our babies. Tyler just turned 1 and Cole is 8 months.

Oh and to document the day - I turned 28 last Thursday. My friend Karen dropped me off a cupcake with a candle in it, so Tucker was my photographer and Aubrey helped me blow my candle out. Cody received 4 caramel apples from an Oral Surgeon the day before my birthday, so those became my birthday treat. They were delicious and we didn't have to make a cake! I was spoiled with breakfast in bed and flowers.

I bought my birthday present from Swiss Days and I love it! It looks great on our huge walls and came in an awesome frame. The best part is we got the 2nd print below for only a few dollars more. Now I can switch it out around the holidays.

Preschool and Party

Tucker had his first day of preschool last week. He loves it, I love it - nuf said. Tucker made a killing for his birthday this year. Not in money, but in animals. He is obsessed with them. He loves to line them up and play with them. Here he is with his loot.

His party was fun. We had the relatives over and he received more animals and a fishing pole. It was great because this was the first birthday party that we've actually had family around for.

Opening presents.

Here is the giraffe cake. I decided I wasn't going to attempt to really make a giraffe shaped cake, so I left it to Cody to do the artistic work. He drew an awesome giraffe in church, so we thought that would transfer over with frosting. We'll let you be the judge of that. Personally we think it looks like the lochness monster. Tucker didn't seem to care and it still tasted good.

Tucker is 4!!!

Tucker has been counting down the days until his birthday for quite some time now. Thursday finally arrived and he's 4! We love this boy. He wanted to wear his favorite outfit - his Colorado shirt and his navy blue sweatpants that are size 18months. Silly boy. I did make him change his pants when we went out during the day. I'm a lame Mom and didn't have 4 candles in the house. We had 2 pink ones. He blew them out in his waffle. When I asked him what he wanted for breakfast on his birthday he told me "green waffles". I made our waffles green on St. Patrick's Day and he asks for them that way every time we eat waffles. We also decided to dye his milk blue. Love the mustache.

Tucker got a sweet razor scooter for his birthday. Funny story with this - I actually won this 6 years ago, after we were first married. We've lugged it all over the country wondering who we would give it to. Luckily scooters are still in style and he loves it!

If you know Tucker, you know he is obsessed with animals. He LOVES them and asks for more every day. He has informed me that he wants to build a boat and be like Noah. He is always lining his animals up on the ground and telling me his needs more. I have a feeling he won't be completely satisfied until every inch of our floor is covered in them. : ) We bought him this huge animal poster for his bedroom.

We had an awesome rainstorm on his birthday and a double rainbow appeared across the street.

We set up our backpacking tent in the living room for Tucker and Aubrey to sleep in that night. They giggled and had fun playing together. I'd say Tucker had a great birthday! We celebrate with extended family tomorrow and I get to attempt to make a giraffe cake. Hopefully it turns out!

Oktoberfest and Swiss Days

Our past two weekends have been very culturally enhancing! This weekend we went up to Snowbird to attend their annual Oktoberfest. My brother served his mission for our church in Germany, so he invited us to go with him and his family. I took 4 years of German in high school/college and was able to sort of be an interpreter when I went to Austria back in 2001. This juggler/balloon man comes every year to entertain the kids.

Look at Tucker's face. He was totally enthralled!

The cousins with their balloon creations.
Uncle Spencer and Cole.

For a buck the kids were able to enjoy the bounce house and slide. Us adults thought the slide was crappy because you weren't able to really slide down it, but the kids had fun bouncing and rolling.

We took the Snowbird Trail out to the overlook. Here is the Foster clan minus Heather and Dan.

You gotta love the polka/chicken dance music that they continuously play. Aubrey and my dad partnered up for this song.

Cute German couple in their lederhosen.

While we ate lunch my parents participated in an egg dance. You had to dance to the music with an egg between your foreheads. The couple to win, won 2 passes on the tram. Unfortunately my parents came in 2nd.Tucker and Mckenna

Now on to Swiss Days. We absolutely LOVE living in Midway and Swiss Days is huge here. The whole community gets involved. It's awesome! Cody was asked to be in charge of our wards Swiss (Navajo) Taco booth for this year and next year. He probably put in 40 hours of work during the Labor Day week and weekend. They have everything down to a science though and it turned out great.

Although I saw very little of my husband during the week, I was able to see one of my best friends from dental school. Hannah's sister lives a street over from me, so I get to see her whenever she comes to town. We were able to eat lunch and browse the booths together.

There is a parade that the city puts on Saturday morning and I walked my now triple chariot over to Main street to enjoy the events. The kids got tons of candy and it was so fun to watch and actually know people in the parade.

Last thing. Tonight is the finale for America's Got Talent. Tune in from 7-9 Mountain Time on channel 5. The Fab Five are cloggers from Utah that are awesome! One was my clogging teacher, another I danced with in college and they all are great!
Vote for them after the show!

Colors are Changing

Remember my cute little maple tree that Cody bought me for Mother's Day? Well look at her now! Fall has arrived in my front yard!
And look how big she's gotten in just 4 months! (Yes, my tree is a girl.)