Summer Recap

So, I think it's about time we update our blog. I thought I'd list some of the fun things that we've been up to this summer since it's now pretty much over.

1. We finished our front and side yard. I had the wonderful job of the "rock collector". Once we got the yard done, I thought I wouldn't have to do that for a while. I was wrong, Greg thought we needed to clean all the rocks out of the horse area. So, we're still collecting rocks. This is not just picking the ones up off the surface. There are some that are half way buried, and half exposed. We've unburied some monsters. Greg even taught me how to drive the bobcat. That sure saved a lot of back ache. All the work was worth it. I love having grass to sit and play on. Sometimes in the evening we'll go play out there. Hunter especially loves to play catch with his dad!

2. Participated in all the fun Oakley 4th of July festivities. I always love to go to the parade, I think mostly because I love to see how excited Hunter gets....espcially when they're throwing candy. We had a barbeque with our family and attended the rodeo as well. It's always a lot of fun.

3. Greg was in the wild cow milk at the Days of '47 Rodeo at the Energy Solutions Arena. We joked with Greg that he hit the big time. He was in a pro rodeo, even if it was the entertainment in between the events. It still requires a lot of skill. His horse Strompe did really well for not being trained for that sort of thing. Greg was a little worried that Strompe would be scared around all the other animals and all the noise, but he wasn't at all. We were all excited to see Greg there in action!

4. Went camping...a lot! Trip 1 was to Sand Hollow near St. George. We rode 4 wheelers on the sand dunes and Hunter made sand angels. It was still a little chilly because it was so early in the year. Trip 2 was to Strawberry Reservoir over Memorial weekend. It was cold and even snowed while we were there, but still fun. Trip 3 was to Goblin Valley. It was really sandy and really windy. Greg was wearing his goggles to walk around outside because it was so windy. You could hardly keep your eyes open when the wind really picked up. We kept all the windows and doors shut on our trailer, but somehow sand still got in. I would wipe down the counters and twenty minutes later I could write my name in the sand that had collected again....already! We had quite the cleaning job after that trip. Luckily it wasn't that windy every day, but there were one or two really bad days. Trip 4 was back to Strawberry. More fishing, but this time the weather was much better. Trip 5 was to Soapstone for the annual bow hunt. We always go for the whole week with ALL the Marsing clan and some friends as well. I think this year there were 8 trailers up there. We had our own little city. The kids love to play outside all day and get really dirty. This year they played "beavers" almost every day. They would just collect dead sticks and branches and pile them up and say they were beavers. Doesn't sound like much fun to me, but it was cute to watch. They have great imaginations. I tell Greg he needs to remember what a supportive wife he has because I go along with all his hunting stuff even though it's not really my thing. I'm vegetarian, tender hearted (hate to see animals killed), hate the cold, and I'm not a morning person at all. But, what did I do....on the opening morning of the hunt I got out of my nice warm bed at 5:30 in the morning, put on about 4 layers of clothes because it was so cold, and drove around with Greg on the 4 wheeler to find a buck to shoot. That goes against all the things listed previously. The things I do for love! We'll probably be going on one last camping trip in October, to you guessed it, Strawberry. It's close and easy. Hopefully it won't be too cold.

5. Greg and Hunter participated in the Francis Frontier Days festivities over Labor Day weekend. Greg was in the wild cow milk again. I think he roped a cow on his second or third try. Hunter kind of rode a sheep in the kids rodeo. He did a lot better last year, I think mostly because he didn't know what to expect. This year he did, so he was scared and didn't really want to do it. It was a short ride with dad running by him most of the way. We waited a long time for that short two second ride. It was supposed to start at 10:30am, but when we got there they were no where near ready. It had been raining all night and the arena was pure mud. We had to wait while dumptrucks brought in sand and saw dust to help with the mud problem. Then it had to be spread out. All the while it was really cold, and started raining again. I think quite a few of the kids that would have ridden were taken home. Parents got tired of waiting in the cold for it to start.

6. Greg just got back from another hunting trip. He went to Wyoming with some friends for the rifle deer hunt. They had to pack in on horses about 6 miles. He was gone for 4 days. We really miss him when he's away. I was helping him unpack a few things today and he said to me that he thought it would have been fun if we could have left the kids and I went with him. From the stories he told, I'm glad I didn't. It sounded more like torture than fun. They were up at 3am, hiked for three hours up steep and rocky terrain just so they could get to their hunting spot by 6am. Then, of course, they shoot something and they had to pack it all down themselves. The terrain was even to steep for the horses, so they couldn't have the horses pack out their dead deer. Greg had to gut and de-bone his on the spot. He then put the meat and the head in his backpack (he guesses he had about 100lbs on his back) and hiked back down to camp - remember this took them three hours to get up. On the way down he went down a wash. He said at times it was so sketchy that he actually thought he might die. Yeah, definitely glad I was not there! Sorry Greg!

7. Hunter started preschool. I can hardly believe he is that old already. Time flew by. He's really starting to grow into a boy now, and not just a little toddler. It seemed like all of a sudden all his pants turned into floods. He's growing and learning so much. Some of the things he says catches Greg and I totally off guard. I don't know where he's learning some of these things, but he's smart. Kids are sponges!

8. On September 12th Norah turned 1 year old, and on September 13th Hunter turned 4 years old! We celebrated by having a double party at Chuck E. Cheese. Hunter see's commercials for this place when he's watching cartoons. He wanted to go last year for his birthday, but Norah decided she wanted to join our family early, so we were in the hospital on Hunter's birthday. Too bad he had to wait a whole year to finally go. It was worth the wait though. Hunter was on cloud nine. We could hardly get him to come back to the table to open presents and eat cake. It was so fun to see him have so much fun. Norah, of course, could have cared less. Thanks family for coming. It wasn't really a place for adults, but they still all came. Although, I think the dads with little kids had fun. Greg and Eric won so many tickets from all the games, I think they totalled somewhere around 2,500 tickets. At one point Greg was playing a shooting game and tickets were spitting out of the machine. A little kid came up to him and said, "Wow, you must be a hunter. You're really good at this game"! He was in awe at all the tickets.

That pretty much brings us up to date. I will post some pictures of all these fun events. I'm still not very good at this blogging thing, so I didn't really know how to insert them in between. You'll just get a lot of pictures and then a lot of reading!