Goat Hunt 2010

This year, Nate drew out for a once-in-a-lifetime goat hunt on Willard Peak by our house. He took me and the kids there a few weeks ago to scout out the goats, which were everywhere, and the hike wasn't too bad, so I decided to go along hoping to get some good goat photos. Nate's friend Mat and his brother Andy also came along.

It was so rainy and foggy we couldn't see much, and some us us are not equipped for outdoor activities (me) so I was sloshing around in soaking wet sneakers and drenched Levis the entire time. But as long as we were hiking I stayed warm at least. And Nate gave me his army poncho so at least my upper half was dry. After a few hours I was wondering why I ever agreed to go along because I hate being cold and wet and falling down hills and rocks. Twice we had to sit under trees waiting for the rain to let up. But then just as we were about to head back to the truck, we found some goats.

This one posed for me so perfectly, but it was so foggy I was afraid none of the pictures would turn out. If it was clear, you could have seen the view of the whole valley off to the right. But I think the fog looks kinda cool too.

As I was taking pictures, Nate was getting ready to shoot. I was standing behind him when he shot, and it was so loud, I felt it hammer my chest. I couldn't tell which one he shot at first.

The second after he shot, the fog started to lift and I could have gotten some great pictures, except that all the goats were gone. This would be a good picture if the goat wasn't bleeding all over the place out her nose.

The saddest thing was when these 3 little baby goats hung around crying for their mom. I had thought about this already, and I thought I was prepared for one baby to be orphaned, but 3?!? And just look at the sad looks on their little goat faces! I almost cried, but I knew Andy would make fun of me, so I held it in.

Proof that I was there! The goat looks so much smaller than she did up on the cliffs!

Nate carried his goat all the way down the mountain, climbing down rocky cliffs and over trees. If I had known he could do that, I would have made him carry me up!

Here little skunky, skunky, skunky

Several weeks ago, as Nate was getting ready for work one morning, he heard the chickens outside making a huge racket. It was still dark outside (5am) and they never usually make a peep until after sunup, so he knew something was wrong. I was in the kitchen packing lunches and was a little shocked to see him go flying outside wearing nothing but a towel around his waist yelling that some animal was trying to kill the chickens. When he got outside, he could see something standing by the chicken coop, but he couldn't tell what it was because he had left his glasses in the house. (At least he remembered to grab a towel!) So he scared it away and as it ran up past the back door, I saw that it was a skunk. It ran back down past Nate and into the night, and it's a really good thing it didn't spray him because I was fully prepared to lock all the doors (towel or no towel) and pass him some tomato juice through the window. Ever since that day, he has been setting up his animal trap out by the chicken coop every night. He was so excited the day he found he had caught the skunk...until he realized that he had to figure out a way to get the skunk out of the cage...without getting sprayed...

So his brother Andy came over, and they snuck up really slowly with the garbage can tipped on it's side, and with some long sticks they scooted the skunk cage into the garbage can, shut the lid, and ran. They were sooo lucky, the skunk didn't spray until after the lid was shut. I was up on the porch with my camera, expecting them to get sprayed. Once again, I was prepared to run inside and lock the doors. But the whole thing was pretty uneventful. They went back later and tipped the garbage can up, and filled it with water to drown the skunk.

This is the nasty dead skunk being flipped back into the garbage can for a proper burial.

The chicken whisperer

That's Evan's favorite chicken, who Ashton has named 'Little Red Robin Hood'. We have 4 others; Marley, Clucker, and the twins - Millie and Vanilli. Evan is very good with the chickens as you can see. Amazingly enough, he hasn't been pooped on yet.

The chickens all run for cover when Ashton enters the yard. He just loves them a little too much sometimes. I have also caught him trying to ride them, trying to make them fly, and giving them rides down the slide. But he is the champion chicken-herder since they run for the coop whenever he comes near.

My sister's kids loved playing with the chickens when they were here this spring. They sat there playing with them for hours...

Tick-ed Off!

Poor Evan, he got a tick right in his armpit. On his birthday too! It's times like this that I'm glad he likes bugs and creepy crawly things because he wasn't freaked out like I would have been.

So let's review how to remove a tick, since it seems to have changed since Nate was a boy scout. It is no longer recommended to burn the tick with a match or smear it with Vaseline or any other substance because this will only aggravate the tick, causing it to burrow deeper and release more saliva, increasing your chance of catching diseases like lyme disease.

While Nate was busy doing all those things you should never do, I hurried and looked online at about ten different sources that all said to just grab the little bugger with tweezers as close to the head as possible and pull it out. If the head gets stuck, it will work it's way out.

Ya kinda gross. Now let me tell you MY defense against ticks: NEVER go into nature where the ticks are and they can't get you!

"Mom, you gotta see this!"

My kids never miss an opportunity to gross me out. For some reason, every time they find something slimy or wiggly the first thing out of thier mouths is "Mom! You gotta see this!" They often forget in thier excitement that anything alive or dirty isn't allowed in the house. And one of thier favorite things is finding a rubber snake or insect of some kind in a toy store and throwing it at me. I don't know how many times we've had the talk about how we shouldn't scare people with things that they are already scared of. Usually they say "but Dad told me to."

20010 Ogden Marathon

On May 15th, Nate ran the Ogden Marathon (That's 26 miles) His time was 3 hours 49 minutes. This is a picture of Nate coming up to the finish line. You can barely see him, he's the second person behind that GIRL.

Nate mentioned to some people at work that he was going to run this marathon and before he knew it, they had a big team of people signed up. Then most of them dropped out. So it ended up being just Nate and 3 of his co-workers. This is Roger and Wayne; the other guy had never ran more than 3 miles in his life...ya we didn't wait for him to cross the finish line to take pictures. I think he finished about 5 hours later.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Evan's second grade class did the shakespeare play "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Narrator #5 stole the show! Way to go Evan!

It was very impressive how all the kids learned to say thier lines so well. And Shakespeare isn't easy to understand. They spent months preparing and it showed. Thanks to the fabulous Mrs. Hull for getting it all put together! We couldn't ask for a better teacher!

Goblin Valley

In May we took a trip to Southern Utah to go camping with Ben and Mikki.

I know you're thinking, "Wow, what a barren wasteland to camp in!" Anyways that's what I was thinking.

It only took about 10 minutes for Ashton to fully experience the joy of being dirty.

And get to know some of the local wildlife.

(Just so you know, lizards don't have eyelids so it's no use trying to win a staring contest)

Yes, the lizards were the highlight of the whole trip for the boys. Especially when they discovered that mom doesn't love lizards. They named the first one they caught America, and then every time they'd catch more, they'd say, "America? Is that you?"

No, we are not finished with the lizard pictures yet...

Nate found his dream home...(that's right...in your dreams, Nate!)

On our second day in hell...oops, I meant camping...we drove to Goblin Valley and did some hiking.

That's when we realized it was probably a bad idea to dress Evan in camouflage...

Then we went back to camp and Nate and I killed everyone else playing ladderball.

We all know I hate camping, but I love seeing my kids have fun. When we were packing up, Ashton stomped around saying, "I don't want to leave! I want to stay here!" I don't think they'll forget this trip for a long time. Knowing how much they love it makes it all worth it!

My funny 3 year old

Tonight for family home evening we had a lesson on habits. We asked the kids to name some bad habits and Ashton immediately raised his hand and said "Poking people's eyes out!"

Big huge long update

Well, it's that time of year again. That's right, the semi-annual downloading of pictures from my camera! It's been so long since I've blogged, I'll try to catch up on everything that's happened since we got home from Taiwan...First is Ashton's 3rd birthday, which we celebrated at my sister's house in Idaho.

Next is Evan's first day of school (Yes, I'm one of those camera-happy moms!)

Now, THIS is how you celebrate Fall!!

One of my favorite thigs about Fall is canning...There's something really satisfying about all those jars of yummy goodness lined up neatly on the shelves!

And of course, it wouldn't be Fall without Nate bringing home some dead things. Ashton's face says it all. Sorry about the graphic nature of this picture! (turn away, kids!)

This is my favorite mountain. I took this picture from our street. Ever since we got home, I can't stop staring at the beautiful mountains that are everywhere in Utah!

Nate put a chicken coop in our backyard with 5 chickens, one of which died by the hands (well, teeth, I guess) of the neighbor's dog. Ashton loves to tell the story.

My dad passed away in October. My aunt took some pictures at the graveside service.

This is Jared, my sister's brother in law, and my dad's good friend. He came into the funeral home and branded my dad's casket with a homemade brand that he and Nate and Joel and Mathew stayed up all night making. (my dad is a cowboy from Texas, and he always put his brand on everything!) It set off all the fire alarms in the funeral home, and the fire truck was halfway there by the time they got the news that it was a false alarm. I know my dad had a good laugh!

And this brings us to HALLOWEEN!!

Evan wanted to be Harry Potter again, and Ashton wanted to be a 'ticken' (he loves having "tickens" for pets) This is our neighbor, who dressed up and stood really still in his driveway, so I thought he was one of those statues that people put by thier doors...and just as I was walking by thinking "where did they plug it in?" he jumped at me and scared the life out of me. This, of course, was the hilight of my kids' night.

And of course we had our traditional Halloween meal eaten out of pumpkins...

Sometime in November we ran a 5k together. Nate pushed Ashton in the jogging stroller, and I ran with Evan so that people would think I was being slow on purpose to stay with my kid. But the truth is that he could have left me in his dust. He kept saying "Come on, Mom, let's go faster!" and "Can't I go run with dad?" Then, when we got sort of close to the finish line, he said (with a little disgust in his voice) "I bet dad's finished already." I would like to point out for what it's worth, that I had been used to running at sea level, and the altitude here is really hard to get used to!!

Which brings us to CHRISTMAS!!

The boys got to put up a tree in thier room and decorate it how they wanted, and I got to do my tree in the living room!

We had fun decorating a gingerbread house...

But what do you do with all that extra frosting? Mmmm, yummy...too good to waste, right? It started with this...

Then this...

And ended up with this!

Next we have ice fishing in January

Chinese New Year is way more fun in Taiwan, but we did try!

Well, that's all the update we have for now! Whew!

Here's Evan and Ashton blowing you a soapy kiss!