That's a Bunch of Bull...

This is John.  We call him Kansas.  Kansas likes to steal my hubby to go hunting.  Sometimes I feel like we are working out custody issues over Jeff.  We fight over whose "weekend" it is to have him.  But, I must say that Jeff was the happiest he's ever been after this hunt.  And here's why...

In the 9 years I've been with Jeff, I have never seen him bring home something this big!  Is big even the right word?  This Elk is huge!  Massive! Monstrous!

But even now, he still hasn't brought one of these home.  This elk was shot by Kansas, but I'd like to think from the stories that he couldn't have done it without Jeff.

See, John drew out after 13 years of trying to get this tag.  They were so excited and eager to get out there this season.  They bought new bows, scouted the areas, and even poured elk urine all over themselves (sounds nice, right?).  Well, they found some really big ones down south by ****(I don't think I'm allowed to say).  There is suppose to be this big spider bull that is a world record roaming the hills down there.  Its so big that the outfitter Mossback has been trailing and scouting it for months, they even follow it with their helicopters.  Supposedly, its going to be worth over a million bucks to whoever shots the thing.  Because this is so big, there have been lots of 'incident's' with fist fights and tire slashing's.  I was a little nervous for them to get in the mix, but they didn't meet up with anyone.  

On their second weekend hunting they ended up with this big ol' boy.  From the stories I hear, Jeff was bugling him for about an hour with the elk calling back.  Jeff said that he was hitting and scraping trees to pretend that he was a mad bull challenging the elk.  I think I would have liked to see that.  Anyway, John was able to get within 30 yards of him and shot him straight through the heart!  It was an awesome shot!  They had a picture of the heart that showed right where the arrow went through.  (TMI?-Sorry).  It was pretty amazing!

And Look at The Rack On This...

These next pictures are a disgusting, so look away if you have a weak stomach!  Kansas is going to stuff the thing so they had to strip it of its coat.  I'll post another picture when it has its face back on.

The boys were so excited to see the elk, they couldn't wait for Dad to get home.

That was then...

Oh boy!  The glory days when I could jump and I 'thought' I was fat.  All of those many many memories have come back to me this weekend.  Great trips to tournaments in Alaska, New York, Santa Barbra, Hawaii, and all our fun bus trips, were such great memories.  It's true, they say you don't remember stats as much as you remember the experience of being together and the relationships you create when you are on a team.   They were some good times-

I haven't seen some of these girls since I played.  So  I was very excited to get together to play with all the alumni this weekend.

This is now!

I'd like to start off by saying I don't think I have any buisness being in spandex, but was peer pressured into it.  Thanks so much everyone-

Okay, now I can move on.  Yesterday was the Weber State Alumni match and I was lucky enough to be able to play against the current WSU team.  I guess I wasn't expecting such seriousness as far as real refs, national anthem, introductions, uniforms, protocol, and everything else that city rec doesn't do.  I was so nervous to play!  Thoughts kept going through my head of playing the Alumni team when I was at Weber.  I remember thinking, 'how sad, did they even have plays when you were here'.  And now, 9 years later, I'm sure those young bucks are thinking the same thing about me.  But I guess what goes around, comes around.  To make things that much worse as far as being old, I threw my back out in the first alumni game and had to make due during the real alumni match.  Old.  That's all I'm going to say.

I'd also like to say how great my boys were.  Yes they were on the court at inappropriate times, and yes they  were into all the equipment, and yes, they were running around like little crazies, but they were champs for being in a gym for six hours!  Max was pretty mad about me playing another game- he was leaving with or without me.  Thanks Mom and Andrew for helping out.

This is a picture of our oldies team after the match.  I had a great time playing and it brought back such memories.  The motions and playing relationships haven't changed, just the ability to execute (I'm speaking for myself of course!)  I knew what Missy and Jo were going to do and it was fun to play that way again.

The old oldies played earlier in the day and that to me was the best part!  We laughed and had so much fun messing around on the court.  Its too bad that I threw out my back on my first serve of the day, but I guess now that I'm old I really should stretch out before I go for the ace.  By the way girls, you all look so so great!  It was really wonderful seeing all of you and your cute kids!

This is our team after we beat the Newbies in the first game of the match.  They came back and beat us in the next three, but hey, one counts!

Wow, I didn't play with any of these guys while I was at Weber, but I did coach four of the five girls and recruited the other one.  I'm pretty sure I taught them everything they know.  Yep, pretty sure.

Liberty Park

We went to Liberty Park on Monday to have lunch and visit with my Grandma Bonnie.  I haven't been there forever and I forgot about all the fun things they have to do there.  

This is my beautiful Grandma Bonnie.  She is a wonderful lady and I'm so proud to be her granddaughter.  

The boys loved feeding and chasing the ducks around the pond.  They got a little nervous about how close the geese were getting, but I guess it just added to the adrenaline rush of it all.

The boys also found this little hill and had to roll down it.   Dang, I should have done it too!

Our favorite part was the Seven Canyons Fountain.  Its a little water area that kids like to play in that represents all of the canyons and creeks in Salt Lake.  They have city creek canyon, emigration canyon, parley's canyon, little and big cottonwood canyon, millcreek canyon, and one other one I can't remember.  

There were lots of families there with their swimsuits on and picnic lunches. Just lots of kids having a great time.  Of course my boys were soaked, but they didn't care!

Max and Boston had such  great time!  My camera died after this, so I didn't get pictures of Boston and Grandma on the Ferris wheel.  But they have so many fun things to do there-we'll have to go again.

I'm on my way!

Here is my little food storage collection.  So far its not much, but I'm hoping it would keep us alive for about 4 months or so.  I have tried to buy the buckets from Costco that are like 275 servings of different foods because all you have to do is add water and cook them.  They also last for 20 or 30 years.  I'm all over that because I'm not very good at rotating.  

Yesterday I had lunch with a few neighbors and we started talking about food storage.  One of my neighbors is just about done with a full years supply for her family and she was very excited about it.  Her enthusiasm passed off on me and I went to Macey's Emergency Preparedness sale and bought a bunch of stuff for us.

Its weird how these thoughts get in your head about something you need to do and then someone else mentions it and its reinforced.  As we were talking, I realized how horrible I would feel if I didn't have the necessary things to take care of my family if we ended up in a disaster or some type of emergency.  I spend money on things that aren't that important, I could put more of an effort into this.

My sister in law told me a story about one of her patients in cardiac rehab whose daughter or niece or someone they were related to was in the temple about to get married.  As they were waiting in the celestial room they were told that Pres. Hinckley was there that day and would like to talk to all the couples.  As he talked to each couple about their plans, he asked them where they were going on their honeymoons.  After they told him, he told them that he would cancel their trips and use the money to start a food storage.  Wowser-that's pretty serious.  (T-if I got any of the details wrong, feel free to correct me.)

So I am really going to focus on being more self reliant and being prepared.  Go to www.providentliving.org for more information.  Good luck to all of you.

Happy 29th Birthday Jeff!!!! (Wink, Wink)

Yea, it was Jeff's Birthday yesterday and to celebrate we went with some friends to the Brian Regan Show at Thanksgiving Point.  We had such a great time and Brian Regan is so so funny!  The place was packed too!  I guess they had to add 2 additional shows because of the demand for tickets, and I'm glad they did-or we wouldn't have been able to go.  

I hope Jeff had a great birthday because he wouldn't let me tell anyone it was.  So I feel bad that it wasn't a bigger deal, but it was hush hush.  I told him that I would keep his secret, but I was still going to blog about it.

Happy Birthday JP, I love you lots!

Surf's Up!

Today we tried something new!  We went with Joel and Andrew to Flowrider in Ogden.  We totally lucked out because we were only there with one other person-so pretty much to ourselves.  It was so fun to watch Boston on the body board, he was just smiles the whole time!  He even smiled after a huge wipeout!

The Body Board was a lot easier than the surf boards, so Boston could stay on them for a long time.  Joel and Andrew had to work pretty hard to stay up on the surf board.

He tried it once or twice on his tummy, but it was too hard to get off the start pad.  

Boston wanted to try the surfing one time before our time was up.  He did really well as you'll see down below.

Yea!  Way to go Boston!  Of course he went down right after this picture.  :(

Here's the crew before the big event!  Max wasn't so sure about participating.  He thought he was going to drown.  After he saw how much fun Boston was having, he promised he would do it next time!

These last three photos are the boys in their best form!  If you are looking for something to do, this was way fun.  Although, I'll have to check with Joel and Andrew tomorrow to see how sore they are.

 

"Are we out of the world yet Dad?"

We went on our first official camping trip as a family to Mirror Lake in the Uintas. Some of our friends invited us to join them on their yearly camp out and loaned us their tent trailer. We had SUCH A GOOD TIME! Who knew that camping could be so fun. It was more relaxing than any of the trips I've taken in a long time. We pretty much just fished and read and ate. The boys had a blast though running all day with the other kids. Their favorite part was when one of the dads carved out knives for all the boys to go bear hunting. That kept them busy for hours and hours!

It was so beautiful up there! The trails are nice and the lake and surrounding areas are so picturesque. I was disappointed that I forgot my slr camera's battery though, I had to settle for my point and shoot.

We lucked out with weather too. It was never too cold at night and it only trickled on us for about 10 min. Having a tent trailer to stay in was what made the difference though-I don't think I could go back to tenting it.