Birthday Snow

 After many years of being an unsuccessful hunter, I got my first elk last weekend. Thanks Corey for tipping me on the late season cow tag. And for taking me out hunting so many times.

 We got a little more snow this week. After we took this picture it snowed another 3 inches. So maybe that was a lot more snow.

Robert turned 3 this week. Whenever we asked what he wanted for his birthday, he always said "A Flash birfday cake!" Well he looks like one happy kid with his flash birthday cake while wearing his flash shirt.

Life Goes On

Here's what we've been up to.....

James played soccer this fall.  There were some cold games this year, and I kept thinking, "Is this my future? Did I really sign up to be freezing under piles of blankets while little ones cry for food and James runs on and off the field scoring goals."  Well, so it is.  James wants to be a soccer referee when he's old enough to be hired on by the parks and rec department.  Which means many a seasons of outdoor sports in unpredictable weather for out family to cheer and support our team player.

Halloween is always great fun.  James and John were hunters...they sported wooden daggers dad made, a homemade bow and arrow set from their finds at Spud Day in Shelley, Idaho, and hats and vests mom made. Grace is wearing her piano teacher's high school kimono and is accessorized with her parasol, her Spud Day souvenir.  Anne designed her gown as Queen for the Day.

The girls joined a Vaudeville production this fall for a few weeks.

Grace sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow with a friend. 

Anne was the unsympathetic nurse for this poor patient.

We love our local library and especially the librarians!

What does a preteen need more than anything else for her birthday?

A sleep mask of course.  She uses every night without fail.  

Whatever it takes to go to sleep at night without an argument with sister.

Thanksgiving Star Wars party with Uncle Joe. We love having family come visit.

We were glad to have snow for Thanksgiving weekend so everyone could get on the hills for sledding. Good times!

We love making gingerbread houses.  Baking gingerbread makes me happy.  Designing the pattern every year and assembling the houses is Edwin's joy.  The kids obviously love the candy, frosting and friends who spend the day with us and decorate!  We are so grateful for friends wherever we live.

We love putting on our Grandma Peggy pajamas Christmas Eve.  

When the temps are -22 F our furnace creates beautiful frost on the basement entry way.  We are happy the weather has warmed up.

We must crazy adapting to the climate....it was -13 F when we arrived and stayed for hours catching fish and enjoying our time together.  Looking forward to many a years of family Ice fishing trips yet to come.  (Just a side note, this is one of those things I never knew I committed to when I said "yes, I'll marry you."  However, I think I can find joy in this crazy adventure too.)

September Travels and Excitement

We love visiting family, and this was one exceptionally good weekend.

Edwin had some clothes shopping to do, so we decided to have dinner at Mongolian Grill. Uncle Scott and his girls joined us there.  Kids all enjoyed eating food they got to throw together.

Cribbage is a must when we get together with my side of the family.

Spud day kicked off with the parade.  This entire line of kids is our family.  Cousins from both sides were there to enjoy the parade.  

The cousins put together a spud tug team.  The little lad in the mashed potatoes is not a relative, but we were sure glad he was on our team and happy to fall into the potatoes for us.

All the years Edwin lived in Shelley, he has never participated in the spud tug. 

We ended our fun-filled day with a demolition derby.  Uncle Joe suggested it for a date, but date night turned into family night and our kids loved being there together and with their cousins as playmates.  John and Robert now crash their bikes and trikes outside playing demolition derby,  The kids also run head-long into each other and roll over in fits of laughter with their new demolition derby body slam games.  Certainly a highlight for the boys.

Our last photo at Grandma's house. We are looking forward to seeing her new digs when we visit next. 

We snapped a few shots of the kids in the fall colors on the way home through the mountains. 

I love everything about fall.  I love the colors on the trees, and donning sweaters again.  I get a thrill knowing that I can bake bread and make soup every day if I so desire because the weather is changing.  I know that I dread the work of canning, but even that isn't so taxing now that the kids are getting older.  Oh, how I love the fall!

We all love this handsome guy!

James turned 7!  Grace helped decorate the Pokemon cakes.  When you can't decide what kind of cake to design you just make single layers and make more designs!

We enjoyed a day off school to attend the Star Valley temple open house.  It is a small temple, and still far from us, but well worth the trip to be together and show the kids where their parents go when we say "we are going to the temple."  I still vividly remember going through a temple open house when I was in elementary school, and I was very happy to share this same experience with my own children.   

The love of my life.  I am so glad have him for all of eternity with our beautiful children.  

God is truly good.

Unplanned family reunion

Ben got some time off and came up to Lander to go backpacking with Rohan and Bruce. Everybody that was nearby wanted to come and see him and Shanna and family. We had a great trip up Silas Canyon and made it all the way up to Upper Silas Lake one of the days.

It takes a bit of planning and a bit of packing to take twelve people up in the wilderness.

One of these times I would like to continue up past Upper Silas Lake. It sure makes a beautiful backdrop for our family picture.

All the kids liked playing with uncle David the best.

Before the hike we went to check out the sinks before heading underground to see the river.

We ended up taking sixteen of us into Boulder Choke Cave. All that partook in the some of all of our activities included: Ben, Shanna, Rohan, Bruce, Savitri, Maria, David, Joe, Ethan, Malcolm, Daniel, Becca, Gordon, Rachel, Devin, Tyanna, Anton, Zackary, Isabel, Amelia, Jennifer, Edwin, Grace, Anne, James, John, and Robert.

Epic Horsepacking Trip

My friend John and I have been talking about taking a trip in the wilderness probably since medical school started about 12 years ago. To celebrate John finally finishing his fellowship we planned a horse packing trip into the Gros Ventre Wilderness with our new friend Jimmy and Wyoming Country Outfitters.

Funny how lazy doctors get over the years. It took 12 horses and mules, 2 dogs, and 3 people to take care of us for our six day trip. The night before the trip Jimmy was good enough to let us sleep in the hunting cabin at base camp and even fed us breakfast.

We headed up the crystal creek trail and made it 13 miles the first day. The second day we continued up the crystal creek trail to head over the pass. On the way up we had a little bit of an eye-opening incident we will call horse crash gulch. I'm glad the horses were OK and that we got to continue our trip.

We had some stunning views at the top of the pass above the treeline.

We saw a lot of watermelon snow up that high. We discussed a lot about what makes it, but it turns out it is red because of an algae called Chlamydomona nivalis which works like a laxative if you eat it. I'm glad we decided not to partake.

We camped about a half mile downhill from Shoal Lake which was full of cutthroat trout.

The first rain of the trip hit us, but it only lasted long enough to give us a small rainbow.

The next night we made it to Chateau lake and ended up spending two nights there. Jimmy and John caught a mess of fish. Including the biggest cutthroat of the whole trip.

We made a day trip out to Ouzel Falls and back and did a little bit of breaking our own trail.

It was quite a view.

The last night we slept at Jimmy's base camp on Jagg Creek and got to stay in one of his teepees. 

I spent 5 out of the six days atop cowboy. He was a pretty good horse. John split his time between a couple of horses.

The Tetons were beautiful on our way back to civilization.

And we had to check out the sinks.