Updates Part I

I have been so focused lately on writing about the subjects for the challenge that I have missed the opportunity to blog about some of the fun things we have been doing.  I need to download the pictures off my camera to share some of the great pictures we took this past month - I promise I will do that in the next few days.  Until then you will have to picture our adventures in your mind's eye:

April 8th Ray and I hooked up the trailer and Jeep to his truck and headed to Beaver, UT for the Turkey hunt.  We were very excited for this adventure and it was looking like we might miss some of the bad weather that was predicted by heading south...NOT SO!

It was pretty nice when we arrived at our campspot and we could hear turkeys gobbling all around us.  It was going to be a productive hunt.  My brother Randy and two of his boys were arriving the next morning.  The actual hunt didn't start until Saturday so we planned to have a day to check things out and make our plan of attack.  It ended up being a rainy day and we were a little concerned about Randy pulling his trailer into the camp area because of the dirt roads.  Luckily he was able to get in the camp area and we had a fun afternoon looking for turkey.  We found a bunch in two different locations and made our plan for the next morning.  Then Ray and I cooked a wonderful BBQ Beef Sandwich dinner with Nachos.  It was great.  I was glad to be in the trailer with all the rain and really glad that we had a furnace.

I was even more grateful the next morning when we woke up to about 8 inches of snow...YIKES!  We got dressed in our winter clothes and boots and headed out on the hunt anyway.  I'm so glad we did because we got to watch a big Tom Turkey gobble, strut, and fan his tail feathers.  We were hunkered down under a tree in the snow and it was great until I lost feeling in my nether regions.  We decided that the Turkey was just too far away to get a good shot (in retrospect we probably should have taken a shot anyway) so we headed back to the trailer.  I was SO grateful to be able to fire up the furnace and warm up.

The rest of the day was really crummy with lots of snow and no turkeys.  We played cards, went on Jeep rides, read, and just chilled.  We decided to turn in early and hopefully the next morning would be better.  We woke up to 18 inches of snow but the sun was shining so we took a walk down through the trees.  It is really tough walking in 18 inches of snow and there was very little movement from any mountain creatures.  Around lunch time we decided to call it a day and head home.  We knew that we wouldn't be able to get the trailer out but with 4WD on the truck we made it out and home just fine. 

I worried most of the week about the trailer and I was very glad when we headed back on Thursday night.  Gratefully we found that all was well.  We were very surprised that the snow was gone and there wasn't much mud.  The sad part of the whole thing was that we didn't see any turkeys.  The strange weather made them stop talking and they are very hard to find when they are quiet.  We did have a wonderful time and enjoyed some sunshine for a change.  It ended up being a wonderful camping and hiking trip.

We have also had Brenden and Bridger start baseball season, MaKayla is playing soccer, and this has been a lot of fun for us to go and cheer them on.

This past Wednesday Bracken turned 3 years old!  WHAT!  How did that happen?  I do have a picture of our little Bracky that I will share. 

 Bracken is such a sweet little guy - he is always happy and has a quick smile for everyone.  He doesn't say much but he is very smart for a 3 year old.   He is good with his hands and can conquer many video games and programs.  He loves to see how things work and he will probably be one of those kids that take everything apart.  LOL!  We are blessed to have him in our family!  Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Like I said at the beginning I will be posting some pictures in the near future and I'll have some additional updates.