Hunting Traditions

I grew up in a hunting family. From the time I was little, it was just something that was normal. When I was quite young, I just figured it was something that EVERYONE did. I remember many pictures of my sisters and me as little girls, holding antlers from my dad's hunting adventures... dressing up in his bright orange jackets and hats... there's even one really funny picture of three of us when we were pretty little. My dad had taken us out to look for deer, and we are all wearing little orange vests... I'm holding two sticks up to my head like antlers, and Jess and Jodie are holding sticks like guns. It's really funny! My mom even hunts, so my dad taught us from an early age that even girls can go hunting. In fact, having no brothers, we had the understanding that girls can do anything! It's been a really long time since I've gotten anything on a hunt... since before we had kids. I went last year, but didn't get anything. So I kinda figured this year would be the same. I went out with my dad on opening morning when it was still dark, and as we were hiking in the cold before the sun came up, I had many memories. Here are a few things I was thinking during this year's hunt.

1. I LOVE being out on a freezing cold mountain with my dad. There's no better place to be with him, in fact. He is in his element, and you can tell he loves to be there too. (If you know me, I hate being cold, but it's different when you are walking to the top of a mountain with your dad. It's almost worth it. And I know when it's the coldest, that the sun is about to come up and warm things a little bit!)

2. I'm not the most quiet hiker. I try. I really try hard, but just when I think "yeah... I'm sneaky" I step on a stick and I swear it's the loudest noise ever!

3. My dad amazes me. He can see a deer from miles away without binoculars. He has to give me very detailed instructions in order for me to find them WITH binoculars. I remember as a kid, riding up the canyon and he'd say "watch for deer" and within minutes he'd have some spotted. He'd try to tell us where to look, and I couldn't see them. Not wanting to disappoint, however, I would lie and say "oh yeah! I see them!" Eryn was quite disappointed in me when I told her that story.

4. There is nothing like fall in Utah's canyons. It's so pretty! Reds, yellows, oranges... even the browns are extra pretty in the fall. And seeing a forest of stark, white Quaking Aspens that have already lost their leaves is quite a sight!

5. Even when we don't get anything on the hunt, it's so fun to just be outdoors. Seeing Does and Fawns, a big bull Elk, and even a Coyote makes it worth it to be there.

6. The hike back to the truck always seems longer than the hike to where you shoot your deer. It's just L O N G!

7. It's fun driving your dad's truck on a bumpy dirt road. I don't know why... it just is.

8. ...however, driving near the edge of the roads in the canyon still makes me nervous.

9. I enjoy shooting with my camera as much as I enjoy shooting a rifle. I have to say, however, that my rifle shooting was a bit rusty. I hadn't shot in over a year, so of course, when we finally did see a buck, my first shot was a miss. Good thing he stayed there, because my second shot was a hit! (Yep, I got one this year!)

10. The most fun phone call to make is from the top of a mountain, telling your husband who is home with the kids, that you just got a deer. It was fun to hear him whoop and holler. He was pretty excited. It made me smile.

I've had friends who think that it's weird that I hunt. Like I said, it's just something I grew up with. We always loved it. It just seemed normal to me. I guess it's tradition, and I'm definitely a traditional kinda girl. Here are a few pictures to remember this fun 2009 deer hunt. We took Eryn with us on Saturday night. She thought it was fun looking at deer through the binoculars, and she was determined that she'd find them. She was not going to be a liar like her mom. Good girl! It was funny, though, watching her with my dad, trying to find a deer miles away. She did end up seeing all of them, though. I think she had fun with PapaBob and me!



Eryn looks much better in "hunter orange" than I do!


Some of the beauty... up where we were, most of the color was gone. The really pretty stuff was down further (of course I had my camera put away at that point!)

I really messed up tradition this year, however, when I failed to bring my camera on the day I actually got my deer. What?! So we had to do the "trophy" (haha) pictures back at home. That was fine with Hayden!

Thanks for taking me, Dad. You are the best! Thanks for teaching me to love the outdoors and hunting. I hope my kids love it just as much.

A Day at the Beach

So apparently there is this really cool beach... in UTAH! In Herriman, they have built this fun little beach next to their pressurized irrigation reservoir. They put in sand for the beach, then it extends half-way out into the water (to a wall, where the bigger kids can still touch - then on the other side of the wall, it's just dirt and rocks and much deeper). My sister Jana invited us to all go up and play! Our kids were so excited to go. We stopped and grabbed a pizza on the way there, and it was so funny, because the whole way there it just looked like typical Utah landscape, and suddenly you go over this little hill and there you are - at the beach. (Well, there is still typical Utah landscape around it, but anyway... it is this cute little beach!) The kids couldn't get out of their seatbelts fast enough. We threw the towels out onto the sand, quickly ate some pizza, put on sunblock and life jackets, and the kids were in the water. (Okay, most of us got sunblock on. I forgot until it was a little too late, and my back got a bit fried.) The kids could have stayed there ALL DAY. The swam, played in the sand, swam some more, played in the sand some more... they had a blast! And I loved watching them have so much fun. All my sisters and their kids came, along with my sister Jessica's sisters-in-law and mother-in-law (who my boys think is their other Grandma! - and who was the best life-guard ever!) It was such a fun day, we can't wait to go back and take Jared. The kids missed him and said "We GOTTA bring dad here!" Watch the slideshow below of some of the fun pictures. (And for my sisters, I actually have a ton more pics of your kids... I'll send them to ya!)

My Dad the High Priest!

My Dad's bishop has been trying to convice my dad that it's time he became a High Priest. Of course my Dad didn't feel he was old enough for that (HEHE! We had to tease him about that since Jared is one!) Finally, my dad decided that he'd accept that "call" and said ok! He made sure that it happened while Jess was up from Arizona. My Dad is a great guy and I look up to him. We got to go to my Grandpa Grace's, who ordained him. It was SO awesome. My Grandpa has always been my spiritual hero. He's amazing. His testimony of the Savior and His gospel are very inspiring to me. The ordination was so neat. I'm so glad we got to be a part of it. We love ya, Dad, and we are so proud of you!

A few pictures from the day - Left: Dad and Mom with Grandpa. It's so good to see Grandpa up and around! Top Right: Mom and Dad with all their grandchildren! Bottom Right: "Great" Grandpa Grace with a few of his great-grandkids!

A Visit from the Arizona Gang!

We have been counting down the days for Jess's family to come up from Arizona to visit. It is so hard to have them live far away, so we were super excited to see them. Mom flew down so she could help Jess drive up. We were sad that Matthew couldn't come up, too, but we were happy to see the others. We did some fun things together while they were here. After we visited the Oquirrh Mountain temple, we got together at Grandma Cheryl and PapaBob's house to BBQ, play, and hang out. The kids always have such a fun time together. There was only one injury noted... and that was my kid! Bryson was pushing Kaitlyn in one of those little Cozy Coup cars, and pushed her right off the edge of the cement. She is too big for the car, so her head was hanging through the front and hit the ground, and her hands got crushed a bit. She had some bruises on her fingers, but she seems to be okay :) We only wish that the Young Fam could be here for more than a week. Hurry up and move back to Utah already!

Finally!

My poor sister Jodie. I think she was starting to feel like she was going to be pregnant forever! (And honestly, so did the rest of us). We were SO excited for her to have her baby, that everytime her number came up on the caller ID, I would get my hopes up real high, then answer to find out that she had just called to tell me that "There is this cool game that Jared would like at Cal-Ranch. Mayberryopoly!" or "Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?" at which point I would sigh this huge "That's-not-what-I-was-hoping-for" sigh. Don't get me wrong. I love to talk to my sister, but seriously! We just wanted that baby here, dang it! Well, finally on the morning of July 2 we got a phone call saying that they were at the hospital. I would have gone over right then and stayed all day waiting... except for the fact that I am a mom and have other responsibilities. We did go over later on to take Corey a Dr. P and check on Jo. Waiting... waiting... waiting... That's the hardest part. Finally just a bit after 6 that night (just after we got there for the second time) Harlie Grace Murray was born. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and measured 18 1/2 inches long. She is PERFECT! She's just as gorgeous as can be, and you can't even tell that I'm a proud aunt, can you?

Here are some pictures from the big day. (And the next day, because we just had to go back!) And if you notice that there are no pictures of the new mommy with her baby, well that's because when we were there, we were hogging the new baby. She never even had a chance!)

Oh and by the way, Jodie. I love you and I'm so proud of you. You are going to make a wonderful mom!! And I WILL get a picture of you holding that baby at some point.

Fun 4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. Jared's sister Marie and her fiance Jeff came down to hang out with us. We started the festivities on Friday night by doing some fireworks. The kids LOVE sparklers.

They loved watching Jared and Jeff light ground flowers and fountains, too. We only had one tiny incident which caused us to be a bit more careful, leaving a small burn on one of the blankets... other than that we had a fun time.


On Saturday, we went to breakfast at the home of some friends. It was a bit early for us after being up late the night before, but it was great! We ate breakfast casseroles, waffles, fruit... all kinds of great tasting stuff. The kids played forever in their huge backyard, and Jared played a little Ping Pong. Later on, we went to Jana and Brad's for a BBQ. Yum!!! It was fun to be with the family and eat great food. Jodie and Corey came home from the hospital with their new baby and even made an appearance at the BBQ. (I'll post some pictures of their new little cutie soon.) Then we went to the fireworks in Pleasant Grove. I was hoping for a little bit bigger show for our Virginia family members. Utah really does have some great fireworks, but PG must have been on a budget. They were still good, and we had fun! I love the 4th of July. I'm a very patriotic person. I love the country we live in, and I'm proud to be an American!

Happy 4th of July!

Memorial Day Fun

We had so much going on in May, that it is taking me forever to get it all posted. Let's go back in time a couple of weeks to Memorial Day. We had a great time with family over Memorial Day weekend. Sunday afternoon, we visited the cemeteries and placed flowers on graves. I love doing that! I remember doing it every year as a kid. It was fun to tell our kids about the grandparents and aunt whose graves we were visiting. Then Monday we all got together at my sister Jana's house for a BBQ and games. We played Bocce... Bryson was really good at it!



This is what the little guys were doing while the rest of us were playing Bocce. These two are best buddies and love to play together every chance they get!


Then Jana zipped Bryson into the game bag. He thought that was pretty funny.


We had a great time. It's so fun spending time with family!

I Love to See the Temple!

We had an awesome day on Saturday! My sister, Jodie, and her hubby Corey went through the temple. I was able to be at the Endowment session, and then Jared came so we could both be at the Sealing. It was such a neat experience to have my whole family there. We are so proud of Jodie and Corey and how far they've come. The spirit was so strong in the temple - it makes me want to go much more often!

Backyard Project

Well, we decided to take down our old ghetto fence and put up and new one... and put in a rock patio where we just had a patch of dirt where nothing would grow, and the dirt would just follow us into the house. Jared took down the old fence, and DeMar Young came by and helped him set some new posts. Saturday, Jared's brother, Matthew, and our friend, John Ortiz came over. They helped put up the new fence, and started setting the rock... yes there is much more to do, but maybe next week we'll have some "After" pictures of the finished product. It was fun, hard, busy, hot, crazy... we were exhausted afterward (and a little sunburned).