America

I am so grateful to live in America. I am grateful we have an opportunity to vote. I am grateful for those who are serving and protecting our country. I am grateful for all the freedoms and opportunities America provides. I am grateful for religious freedom. I am grateful for the prosperity our nation enjoys. I am grateful that God inspired the writing of our constitution. A sister in our ward was sharing her testimony on Sunday. She shared an experience when her son asked her if they could go to Disneyland. She said no. He said, "We're poor aren't we?" She then said, "No, we are very, very wealthy." She proceeded to express her gratitude for all the blessings they had. I was touched by what she said and reminded of how easy it is to acknowledge things we don't have instead of recognizing all we do have. I am grateful for my many, many blessings. God bless America.

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. We went to the ward trunk or treat on Thursday. Landon had a party at school and we trick or treated Dad at work (we had to bring the treats). Then we had dinner at the Bingham's and trick or treated in our neighborhood with them. It was quite the experience with Jerry hiding and scaring people. He reverted back to his military days and had "black ops" going on all over the place. It was a fun and spooky night!

Jerry's Costume

Jerry acquired this new hunting outfit from a friend just in time for Halloween. He was a maniac scaring all the poor little kids and adults. He did say this was the most fun he has had in a long time. He even scared us a few times!

Happy Baby

Spinning

So I finally broke down and went back to a spinning class at the gym. Not to be prideful but to be prideful...I am really proud of myself! I have such a love/hate relationship with spinning. I am scared to go because I know how hard it is so that's where the hate comes in but the love comes when I finally make it through the class! I was proud of myself for sticking out the whole class (since half the class was gone before it was over) and for still being alive to talk about it. I am writing this entry to remind myself that I do actually feel good and happy when I am done. I am sure I will need to reference this in the next few days when I am so sore I can't move!

Fire Station

We had an outing today. It was good because I have been in the post trip "depression" since my return on Wednesday. I always have at least one day where I am really sad because when we go home, we have so much family around it makes things really fun and exciting. When we return, I have a lot of laundry and not so many plans. I went to Landon's preschool today as the mom helper. When we dropped Avery off at Jill's I came out to the car and Landon said, "Mom, did you tell Jill not to mess with Avery?" I wonder where he has heard that before....I think his Dad....anyways, I thought that was funny. So we made it to the fire station and the kids had fun. Jerry has been officiating so we haven't seen him this week. We stopped by his work and got some pizza and did some family bonding.

First Haircut

So Avery had this swoop (as I call it) which was this really long hair hanging over tons of shorter hairs. I thought it was acceptable, Nat and my Mom assured me it was not. Nat took care of it in minutes.


Avery has a whole new look!

The Hunt

So the reason why the whole Idaho trip took place was because of Jerry's hunt with the Sherwood's. We decided we didn't want to be stuck at home with Jerry gone almost a week. He had training in SLC and then met up with Landon. Landon and his Dad are great people and friends. They provided Jerry with a once in a lifetime experience. They hunted in Monticello, Utah and the Moab area. Pictures following contain graphic material.....

Jerry shot this poor little buck when he was just "bedding down" getting ready to take a nap. As Jerry put it, "I am sure he was shocked to get a really bad stomach ache!" He did feel some remorse though and wasn't sure how to respond when I asked him if he was happy when the deer died. He said he just stood up and then fell over dead. Poor little guy.
This is Landon, Logan and Greg, Landon's Dad.

We now have a freezer full of meat so if you get a hankering for deer meat...we will hook you up!