The Hunt

If we are being honest the only thing the hunt meant for me was sitting in camp with three children while my husband and his friend got to go out and do all the fun stuff. Don't get me wrong. It was fun to be in the mountains and I adore my children so I could definitely think of worse things to be doing but Id be lying if I said I didn't wish I could be out there with them.
However, I was lucky in the fact that Whitney joined me in my sitting around camp so I had help and company. My kids think the mountains are the best thing that God ever created. I tend to agree for the most part. So they were more than happy to just hang out and get overly dirty while we were there. We tried hunting frogs but that was a big fail.
Peps bow was the coolest. It was a stick that had a bungee cord hooked on it. Legit. He loved it and carried it everywhere. AnDee actually had a bow that Dave made for her. It was sweet! And she was getting pretty good at shooting it but it got left behind at the campsite. Some other little kid scored big on that one.

 AnDee was the only one to spot a frog. The things were taunting us with their croaking.

I had to take the kids home on Sunday evening so we could get AnDee to her first day of preschool the next day. We were sad. There were tears shed but Andrew ended up getting his elk the next day so we wouldnt have been up there much longer anyway.
He didnt take any cool pics. You know like you always see in magazines or on the boards at Cal  Ranch or Sportsmans Warehouse? No... instead I got one really high quality one from Dyl's phone that wasnt taken until AFTER they started slicing up the poor beast.

Lovely, isnt it?

This is where I explain why we have goats. Yes my children love them and think riding them is the coolest thing ever but their original intended purpose was this...
Apparently they can be used as a decoy. Andrew said his elk stepped out of the trees 30 yards in front of him and didn't even see him because it was so wrapped up in the goats. The goats follow him everywhere and don't need lead ropes so they were just grazing behind him and the elk was so enthralled that Andrew was able to notch his arrow, pull his bow up, draw and release without her even glancing in his direction. But that's not all this magnificent animals do. They pack. He put every ounce of that elk on their backs and just walked out worry free. He had multiple hunters ask if he would ever let them use his goats. I told him he should start renting them out. They are so much better than horses for hunting because they can go anywhere, you don't have to bring feed for them and they don't scare off the game by tromping around like a heard of elephants. Plus the game animals actually seem to like them.... or at least think they are weird enough that they get curious and want to stick around to get a better look.

Andrew didn't make it home until after midnight Monday night. I woke up Tuesday morning to this...

Gross? Yes. but at least he was thoughful enough to warn me/apologize
We spent a full week cutting and packaging. Between work, school, church callings and soccer I'm surprised we got it done at all. We ended up with a TON of meat in the freezer and about 60 lbs of jerky meat. (which I just pulled off the racks this morning)

Elk steak anyone?

Its done! ... Just in time for Andrew to go out on the deer hunt on Monday and then the rifle hunt (elk) in November. I'm going to do my best to persuade him to take his next kill somewhere else to be cut and packaged. I don't want to do it anymore. (even though if I'm being honest, Andrew did almost all of it by himself)

Preschool

I hate it. I don't want to share my children. They should be at home with me.... forever and ever.

Those are my true feelings on the matter but reality tells me my kids need an education and while I honestly would like to homeschool my kids... I know I wont keep up with it. Im not nearly organized or structured enough to do something like that right now and so school is a must.
The girl doesnt seem to enjoy it as much as I had hoped she would. She doesnt hate it by any means but she just isnt excited about it.
"how was school?!!"
"fine."
"what did you do?!!"
"nothing really"
"did you make any friends?"
"nope."
"did you do anything fun?!"
"not really. We just went outside for a while."

That is the conversation we have every day she goes to school. She seems bored and uninterested. I hope that changes and she ends up loving it, cause with how much I hate sending her there... she may end up a drop out at age 4.

Here are some pics from her first day and again Pep had to get in on the action and wear his backpack as we walked her to school.

I cried. Not like I was a little weepy and shed a tear or two. No. I full on lost it multiple times that day. (I hate this growing up stuff) So Pep and I tried to stay busy and made a delicious pancake breakfast.

Overwhelmed

I am overwhelmed. I just spent 20 min writing a big long post about it but it turns out that it was mostly just me rambling on and on about how guilty I feel. Im coaching soccer again and I LOVE it. But high school soccer is time consuming and I hate the time it is taking away from my kids, especailly with AnDee starting school next week. When am I gonna see her?!
All that is beside the fact though. The fact is that I am crazy busy, really overwhelmed and sucking at this blog thing.
So here is my sad attempt to cram a few of the insane amount of things I need to blog about into one post. Sorry for yet another random post but here goes...
We started cleaning out the few remaining boxes from moving (yes.. a year later) Which mostly just consisted of throwing everything on a trailer to go to a yard sale. AnDee and Pep found a couple of the souvenirs we brought home from Zanzibar. The hat has become one of Peps favorites. 

 The kids like to steal my phone and take 10 billion pictures in 5 seconds flat. I know that seems impossible but I swear they can do it. I end up with a lot of random pictures of Pep mostly. Lots of the ground, the sky, the trees and dirt too.

 Pep has muscles!

 AnDee fell out of a tree. The tree won the fight.

 Pep is very confident in who he is. He pulls off a tutu whilst holding a jar of bugs like no one I have ever seen.

 Ike is a super hero.

 Daddy makes the kids' day when he gets the pit bike out and takes them for rides around the yard.

 We got a new toy

 The toy has now been upgraded with a roll cage and roof over the back seat and a new forward facing bench seat in the back with 3 buckles so all three kids can ride.
Mom is very pleased with this new toy.

 A couple of weeks ago we spent part of our afternoon walking around the temple. It was lovely. It was nice and cool and just relaxing and fun. (Pep is a goober. His pics crack me up)

 Here are some side by side pics of all three of my kids at about 5 months. Pretty sure Ill never have a kid that loooks anything like me. I was hopeful with Pep because he was fat but no one ever looks at him and says "oh you look like your mom!" no... they all say "wow. you look like Andrew's mini me"
Oh well, I guess God knows what he is doing cause they are all stinking adorable

 Pep is still playing around with the idea of the potty but he isn't real serious about it. I am however getting tired of the diapers. Maybe when soccer season is over and we are home a little more we will really dig in to it.... maybe.

 This little man is the best! I had to take him with me to a 5 hour first aid /cpr training. He was perfect the entire time. The nurses teaching the class kept telling me that they hoped he was an awful baby at night because no one should have a baby that good. He's not. He's an angel at night too. He has been sick lately and it breaks my heart to hear his pathetic  little cough but he doesn't complain. Im in love with him.

 AnDee had her preschool open house this morning. She of course had to take her giant backpack with her. She is so excited for school she can hardly stand it. And Im already getting teary eyed just thinking about it. I am in no way emotionally prepared for this.

 Pep had to get in on the action with his sweet batman backpack. He still thinks going to school sounds scary. And Im ok with him thinking that.