YW Standards Night

I was called to be the Beehive Advisor in Young Women's about a month ago. Sorry I forgot to post that, oops! But tonight was our standards night. We did an etiquitte dinner and had a few speakers on manners. I was put incharge of dessert. Apparently, the scouts have used the entire WARD budget so we had no money so I had to do a super cheap, but nice dessert. I made a peppermint dessert with chocolate cups to serve them in. Kyle helped make the cups. He is such a great "helper". He loves to push his little chair over to the counter and stands on it and wants to help stir, shake, or eat what ever I am working on.

Elk, It's What's For Dinner!

Henry finally got his first elk. He got it Sunday night (the 14th), after church. It was a 5 x 5. He was so excited. He saw it about 800 yards away, which is way out of bow range. So he let out a little bugle (that's an elk bull call). The elk looked his way and started walking slowly toward him. Henry thought nothing of it, he didn't want to get too excited. Then he looked a few minutes later and he was halfway down the hill. Henry let out another bugle and the elk started walking a little faster. Henry then let out a cow call (actually an estrus cow call, a cow elk in heat). That was pretty much all the bull could handle and he started charging toward Henry. Henry ran about 100 yards down the hill and set up the pop up elk decoy and ran 20 yards ahead of it. He looked for the elk and he could see rack coming toward him. He said he was shaking so bad, he had a hard time ranging the elk and drawing back on it. He made a good shot and the elk went only 50 yards.

Henry made some calls and we had a few friends come help with the elk. Mike Manning and Aron Snyder who are expert elk hunters, came to help. And then Henry's hunting partners Tim and Brad Laing came too. They were so excited. Luckily Brad had a 4 wheeler, and the elk was kind enough to die few yards from a 4 wheeler trail. That saved everyone a lot of work!

When we took the meat into the processors, we had 191 lbs. of meat, not counting bones. WOW! Since our freezer is full of deer already, I get a new freezer. One of game meat and one for grocery store food (food most people will eat ;)).

CONGRATULATIONS HENRY! Now he still has tags for a bear, turkey, and deer.

1 Deer Down, 5 Animals to Go!

The Ferguson's were blessed with a deer this week. Kyle came up to see the deer up close, he hiked the full 2 miles by himself. Way to go Kyle! Kyle and I went up the hill to meet a friend while Henry was getting the deer ready and Kyle did not want to leave. He actually fell asleep on the decoy for about an hour. We are getting it made into lots of jerky and cheddar dogs. We have a tag for 1 more deer, 2 elk, a bear, and a turkey. So there a lot more hunting to be done in the next 3 weeks. I am really hoping for an elk though. A nice 6x6 would be good. Get to it Henry!

Hunting Season Opened Saturday!

This week we have been getting ready for archery hunting season, which opened yesterday. I had to pull out all the camo and wash it in scent-free soap, get out all the calls and decoys, and get out the hunting accesories. I think Henry is pretty well set for this year. He has been counting down the days till hunting season since the day he got his deer last year. I have a deer and elk tag too, but someone needs to stay home with Kyle ;) Today the whole family gathered at Dad and Mom's to watch the Utah at Michigan football game. Utah tried to loose it in the 2nd half, but despite their best efforts they won by 2 points. GO UTES! Afterward we pulled out the fire pit and made smores. Messy but good! Notice Kyle has no pants on. Once you change a diaper, he won't let you get his pants back on.

Kyle helping make mini hot dogs.

He would eat hot dogs for every meal if given a chance!

Kyle drew all over his face with sidewalk chalk.

It looked like make-up. Henry claims it was war paint!

Root Canal

This past week as been a busy one so I will post things by subject. Be sure to read them all! :) Lucky me, I was lucky enough to have a root canal yesterday! That would be my 2nd one in 4 months. I really hope I am done with those for a while. My tooth had been hurting since last Wednesday and I tried to get to the dentist last week but it wasn't bad yet and they are getting ready to move their office so they were booked until September 9th. Saturday and Sunday I couldn't eat anything because I couldn't put pressure on my tooth (and it was the lower right 4th one back from center front). So I was living on juice, water, and carnation instant breakfast. I will say not being able to eat for a few days is a great weight loss plan! Ha, ha,ha. Glad it is over with for now!

Ballon Festival

Saturday was also the Balloon Festival. We go every year. The State Park by us had a big Hot Air Balloon Festval the last weekend before Labor day. We had bad weather earlier in the day so not too many showed up for the Glow. That is when they set up the balloons at at night light up the balloons with their fire but they don't take off. The wind started to pik up so what ever balloons were there took them down. What a bummer! But the kids had fun looking at the balloons and they played in a bounce house and had cotton candy.

Kyle, Ashlee and Kristen with their Energizer bunny ears.

Ashlee and Kyle in the bounce house.

Kyle and Ashlee eating cotton candy. What a mess!

Daddy and Kyle walking in the balloons.

Then Sunday morning is the Mass Ascention. Usually there are over 75 balloons that paricipate but this year only 30 or so were there. We got up a little late so we just drove thru the park a few times and looked at the balloons when they landed. Kyle got a kick out of viewing the balloons land over the truck through the sun roof.

New Truck

Saturday we bought a used pick-up truck. Henry and his work partner are down sizing their warehouse to storage units. Part of the down sizing is going to be getting rid os the delivery van. They don't use it too much, but deliveries will most likely be to our house or will call at the trucking company so he needed something to haul stuff in. It also doen;t hurt that hunting season starts Saturday too! We baought a 2005 Nissan Frontier with 4 doors so Kyle can ride in it. He loves the new truck. That is the only car he will ride in, when it is home. "Truck! Truck!" Brain will be buying the Mazda 6 wagon from us so he can have a good reliable car up at school.