Family Hunting Trip

This month has been a typical September except for the end when we took the boys to join Weston and his family on a muzzle loader hunting trip. Me, being the overly sensitive toward animals type, would never be found holding a gun myself. But, I can appreciate the sport and reality of life and death. More on that later.



These kids had a great time together and our campsite had this giant rock that soon became base headquarters. They were able to create, mostly with their imaginations,  numerous "weapons" out of the plentiful sticks (it was like we camped on a used up logging site) and for the most part stay out of trouble.

The weather was beautiful for the first two days so we enjoyed the pretty fall color and peaceful location. Although we ended up camping higher than we'd planned, it was still quite mild until Friday evening when it started to rain and didn't stop. Luckily (no offense guys), Jared and Weston were able to get their 4 point deer on their first real hike Friday morning. They were also fortunate to hitch a ride back to camp with two very knowledgeable men who had a map and helped them figure out the best way to get back to their kill.  If you want to see photos of the deer, a good sized one, talk to Weston. In order to post them here I'd have to SEE them and I just couldn't do it.  Jared will tell you their success story below.

Overall it was a very enjoyable hunt.  Weston got the first shot of the hunt, but luckily he missed it and when I had a chance to shoot at it my action wasn't pulled back so the gun did not shoot. Weston then saw a 3 point but didn't get a shot at it. The next group of deer we came across had multiple bucks in it.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a shot at the largest one. My instinct was to run after the group of deer so I could get a shot, but I told myself to slow down and not chase them and maybe we would come across them again.  Moments later a 4 point emerged and I took my shot.  I hit him in the back leg.  I radioed to Weston telling him to go over the little ridge where the deer had just gone.  A minute later Weston made the shot of his life and killed the deer. Unfortunately it took us about 7 hours to get the deer back to camp between figuring out where we were and dragging time. Note to self....if you don't know the area very well, take a GPS with you!!!  We also saw a nice sized bull elk while trying to find our way out.    

Continuing on with the grim subject of death, our lambs have gotten about as big as they are going to get. They haven't been invited to stay for winter. So these lovely pictures show them sharing the field with a neighbor's horses while we were all out chatting about their demise.

If Bennett had realized how close this horse was I doubt he would have stayed standing there. Sometimes he's even afraid of the sheep but other days he jumps around and roars at them. He's pretty pleased with himself when they run away.

This is a snapshot of our garden, the tiny peppers are ornamental plants. There are shorter ones with darker leaves and peppers and I grew the tri-color variety from seeds. These were pretty slow to grow but finally turned out how I'd hoped. I have taught the boys how to collect some flower seeds and some of the ones they planted in various locations have started to grow. We've been gathering seeds to start some low water plants to beautify the front of the empty lot.

It's been a decent year for our vegetable garden except the previously mentioned tiny tomatoes. Currently we have way too many cucumbers and we have been giving away cantaloupe right and left.  Thanks to my Dad's very productive apple tree, we have been bottling some delicious applesauce and I've started on tomatoes from his patch. We had the usual blackberries, raspberries, and peaches. I tried a new variety of butternut squash and we have a dozen or so huge ones, like 20 lbs each. So we'll be handing out some of those next month.

Last, and least, Jared and I painted my art studio at the beginning of the month. It is now "dolphin fin" gray, a good neutral tone. So I used one wall to display artwork of previous professors, local artists, and some dead people like Edgar Degas. I have been invited to exhibit some of my pastel paintings with several other artists for a show at Dixie University so I'll be getting back to work.

August...gone already!

The occasion was sad but turned out as a lovely family reunion of sorts, like funerals some times do. We lost Jared's Grandma this month.  She had a quick onset of medical problems that only left enough time for family to visit before she passed away. There were a couple of incredible talks that reflected perfectly the life of Garna.  We love you!

Pictured above is NOT that grandma, but Jared's father's mother who we had the chance to visit while in town. She ended up with a front room full of grandkids and great grandkids and it was another enjoyable time with family. We love you too Grandma Fawn!

We had already planned to go camping before the funeral and so kept that plan afterward. This time we were lucky enough to camp with Weston and his family and their friends. Our boys loved it, especially playing with C & C and the other kids near their age.


We did some canoeing, some catchless fishing, and plenty of eating.
All these boys braved the cool water. Paxton was shivering and still continued to slosh around. He found a log to use as a boat and had a good time.


This shot is why Amy doesn't fish. Because it involves sitting and waiting. And more sitting and waiting. In what other scenario do we CHOOSE to sit and wait for entertainment?

We left Chula home this time but Weston had their good looking dog Dex so they all went for a canoe ride and dropped a line in here and there.

Bennett could be singing here or telling a joke or who knows what. When he wants to eat, he puts it away pretty quick. But he is getting more stubborn about what he likes and asks for the same narrow range of food each day...peanut butter sandwiches, or bagels, or, more recently, toaster waffles. When he was younger he didn't care much for bread or breakfast food but now he's hooked like the rest of us.

Our boys - mostly Paxton - love to dress up. This day they arrived at this combination to reveal their true identity as "mountain man superheros". Paxton went through a stage of loving socks on his hands and now Bennett likes to. They do have a good time together and we're so glad they have one another. Paxton is now in 1st grade so he goes to a full day of school. He has a few friends from his kindergarten class in his current class, and he manages to find the others at lunch and recess. And yes, play instead of eat. We had a talk about that the other day and I'll be joining him for lunch soon to see if he'd prefer to eat on his own : )

It has been the year of the zucchini and tiny tomatoes in our garden.  I have about 10 tomato plants which are producing but the tomatoes don't get too large. The 6 zucchini plants, which I did not plan on (surprise seed), have grown many monstrous squash. We will be making a lot of Grandma Davis's zucchini bread. Or chocolate zucchini bundt cake, about as far from a recognizable vegetable as you can get.

July

We had a lot of fun this month. I am sad to see it ending since school is coming soon. This photo is from the zoo, an excursion that the boys enjoy and I'm just along for the ride. Grandma Leslie came with so it was even better.

The boys are on the train here, but it 's such a short ride that Bennett cried when he had to get off. I wouldn't have minded staying on for another trip or two myself.

 The 4th of July was great, although I didn't get many pictures. We saw the local fireworks besides lighting some of our own.

Our lambs are growing, getting taller and fatter for sure. We are trying to manage the pasture by dividing it into two sections; one grows while they eat the other half down. It's worked so far.

These two love to drive the Gator at Grandma's house. They are both good at it, Bennett only occasionally runs into trees or other fixed structures : )

Family reunion! Thanks to a couple of Jared's sisters in particular, the whole bunch of his siblings and their spouses and kids got together for a couple days. This inflatable rental was a surprise from Gma and Gpa in the Philippines. It was really fun, it kept nearly all the kids occupied all afternoon. Here are the supervising adults. Jared sported swimming trunks and went down the slide. It caused a tidal wave in the pool at the end.

Thanks (I think?) to Jen for supplying the water guns. I did not exactly appreciate my own 6 year old soaking my back pocket but hey, I am an easy target.

Part of the inflatable was an obstacle course. The thing really is pretty safe, except for some scratches, no one was seriously hurt (not even the lawn) so I'd definitely be up for doing it again.

This turned out to be one of my favorite things, having all the kids coloring on this giant roll of paper, thanks to Machelle. This work of art may make a trip across the sea : ) Jen and I decided we need to spend more time together doodling. 

Jared was able to make our own corn hole game. It didn't take ridiculous amounts of time to do and turned out really well, maybe not quite as perfect as Grandpa D's but close. 

Paxton loves his goggles. I had to pry them out of his hands to show him it is possible to swim without them.

Bennett is not always a huge fan of the pool yet but he did start to get more brave and really didn't want to leave by the end. His favorite part was swimming with Carter.

Machelle brought this fun idea to make boats for a racing tournament.

Here we all are doing what we do best at these gatherings...feeding our faces some tasty dutch oven cobbler from made by Shane and Dennette.

June

As part of our town's celebration we attended a parade and were blessed to have Jaylene and Ellie with us. Ellie is a happy and beautiful baby. She laughed at our dog Chula a lot, and didn't seem intimidated at all. We even got Jared to come with us (those knees in the corner are his). The candy throwers must have been stingy earlier in the parade because when they got to us they had A LOT left to give out. We ended up with a big bag to take camping.

You can see Jaylene's latest haircut, very cute. She's had it for a little while if you haven't been following her on face place or whatever you call it : ) My hair needs help; I got a trim recently to fend off the permanent ponytail. At my appointment my hairstylist also curled it with a flat iron (this is probably an ancient idea to some of you) & showed me how. I'm considering getting a soft perm.  Jared has been asking me to get a perm from the beginning of our marriage but now that Jaylene showed me a picture of a friend of hers, it I will consider doing it.

Welcome to our ool! notice there is no P in it? Keep it that way.

Gma Leslie made this great teepee for our boys. Growing up we had one at my house and loved it so grandma "needed to make one for the boys to play with at home". Yes, I'm quoting her. She's got mad sewing skills. That's Ellie sharing some adorable drool.

We took a little camping trip which turned out great. At least until the ride home. This is our pretty campsite between the turn off for Potter's pond and the road to Cottonwood, an area familiar to the deer hunters in the family. We saw many deer, one that was buck and one that was a very young fawn. On a little hike we came within 3 feet of the new fawn. It must have been born recently because our dog basically tripped over it before she realized it was an animal. Our neighbor says that when deer are first born they don't have a scent. Luckily Chula left it alone after we called her off.

One of the fun things about camping these days is that Bennett is big enough to go on short hikes. This timer photo was the best we could get with a dog, two boys, and a rock crawling with giant ants.

Paxton asked, where's my bubble?  As he reeled his line in he discovered he had a fish.  This was Paxton's first fish he caught by himself.  When asked what we should do with the fish he said to throw it back.  Grandpa Davis would be proud.

Besides canoeing and fishing on Potter's pond, we also got to watch the pond get re-stocked with fish. The ranger said they do it about every two weeks.

The boys had both wanted to swim so we stopped on the last day of our trip at Huntington lake which is low enough to have warm water temps. Bennett lost his footing and started flopping around, refusing to let Paxton help him, so Mom ran in with jeans on to get him back to his feet. He said "Mommy you saved my life!"  He repaid the favor to us all later on.

Thanks for taking the photo, Jared, to prove that I am not aquaphobic. 

This here is a picture of underneath our trailer. The metal part hanging is supposed to be attached to the end of the other part curving away, but it is cut in half. On our way home, near the top of Soldier Summit, Bennett said he needed to go to the bathroom so we stopped at the gas station there. As we pulled back onto the road Jared said something didn't feel right as a motorcyclist zipped by pointing down at our tires.  So we got off the road and found the two trailer tires were touching (and rubbing and probably smoking while moving).  If this had happened at full speed it could have been ugly. Thanks B. We had to leave the trailer there and have a neighborhood mechanic go up to fix it the next day. Luckily it was far enough off the road and the Highway Patrol didn't bother with it so we got it home okay.

Paxton played coach pitch baseball this year. It's been fun to watch him improve and be proud of himself. He has a silly habit of pounding the plate twice before each pitch, which got a few laughs from the people sitting next to us at his last game. Probably because it appears to take more effort to get the bat up and down than it does to swing at the ball.









Bennett entertains himself running up and down the nearby hill and sliding into the blanket. He also loves the sunbrella we put up sometimes.

Some good friends of ours got us into going to the Hidden Garden tour each year. We (especially me) love it; each year there are over a dozen gardens in different areas that are open to the public to see. Usually there's a wide variety, big or small, formal or cottage, and some very eclectic ones too. It's apparent some have hired help, but many seem to be the pet project of the homeowners. So I threw a few photos in from this year.

This last photo is an exception to the usual tour, the homeowner is an artist who has used her skills ALL OVER  her house. She is very good, and very ambitious.