Kennedys First Dance Recital

Wednesday was Kennedys first dance recital. We had to be at Newgate Mall at 6:00. That day I had to work so the night before I put her hair in 'marshmallows' as she calls them so it would be partially curled and then I could just recurl it before we left. Well she woke up that morning and one had fallen out and gone straight. Dance mom fail!

 Second Dance mom fail of the day was she needed to have on mascara and lipstick.. I own neither! Im a lipgloss girl and I have really long eye lashes naturally so mascara makes them fall out so I dont wear it. We got her hair all curled up. Some pink lipgloss on and light makeup and she was ready to go. She was SO excited and looked so dang cute.

 They had one dance on stage. I dont even remember what song they danced to. It was adorable though.

 Grandma Chris, Kinlie, Grandma Jana, Grandpa Todd, Grandma JaNeale, Grandpa Jimmy and Uncle Hunter were all there to watch her. She felt like a little star. Daddy came straight from work and brought her flowers. It made her cry.

She did so good! 

Taylor and Okis swan hunts

After we got my swan Friday night we finally slept in Saturday morning. It was wonderful! We told Taylor we would take him out Saturday afternoon to get him a swan. We had no idea if it would be any good but we figured what the heck and went to the same spot. His mom had text me that afternoon and said I will trade you Kennedy for Taylor. You guys take him hunting and I will take Miss K to lunch and to the ward Christmas party. Kennedy was super excited about that and so was Taylor! 

When we got out there the ducks were flying pretty good. We ended up missing 3. Chris got one. Rue was all over retrieving it. Shes got it figured out and just loves it. 

 She sits and watches out the boat for ducks flying. One flew over head us and Chris says theres one! She jumped her front paws on my lap and puts her head sky high to try and see the birds.

 We had swans start flying over us. None wanted to come and land in our decoys. Again we had hunters to the south east of us and ones to the west of us. We had a few decent flocks fly over and circle us several times. Then we had a BIG group come across. 4 peeled out and circled us probably 10 times just not close enough to shoot and landed by the guys to the west of us. After a few minutes all but 1 took off. The one swan sat there for a while. It started to pick up and take off and I started calling it. It liked my call better than the boys and was responding to it. It was flying low and DIRECTLY at me. Taylor was just off to my right. Its almost at us now and starts to veer off towards the left. Chris yells shoot it and Taylor jumps up and dumps it with one shot. Rue was out of the boat and on the swan before you could blink.

He shot a nice juvenille swan

After he shot his the skies FILLED with swans! We had them coming in like crazy. All you could hear was their constant calling. These are all different groups we took picts of that were actually a lot closer than they appear. We got some on video too of huge flocks coming in

 If you look to the right of the pict all those black dots are swans

That next morning we were going to take another group out swan hunting but they werent able to go til that night. Chris, me, Kennedy, Hunter and Todd all went out to the same area for the duck hunt. It started looking promising. Todd shot two ducks to start off with. Both cinnamon teal

 and that was about it. It stopped after that. A bunch of swans were still flying. Miss K had brought her duck call and had been practicing in the truck on the way out. Nothing was coming in so we let her try and call in some. 

 We headed back in by 9. It was starting to snow. Kennedy and I went home and took a 3 hour nap. Chris, Todd, Hunter, Taylor, Mike and Grace left at 1 for an afternoon swan hunt. Kennedy and I stayed behind because there wasnt enough room. They were out there less than an hour when they had two swans down!

Grace and Mike and their nice birds

My 2014 Swan Hunt

Friday night as soon as I was off work Chris Todd and I went out swan hunting. We were out there and set up by 3. I joked and told the boys we are NOT picking up decoys until its officially shooting hour close after what happened last time. There were a flock of swans that came over around 3:30. Nothing close enough to shoot and they didn't want to turn into our decoys. We had a few more smaller and far out flocks come in around 4:30. Shooting hours officially closed at 5pm. We had a flock fly over head with about 25 swans still too high. A few of them dropped out and landed to the west of us. We had swan hunters to the west and to the south east of us. The group of 3 landed close to the guys west of us decoys. We were watching the birds through the binoculars. One swan was HUGE and grey. I kept hoping they would pick up and come towards us. We were watching the clock too. Its now 4:40.. 4:50.. and the swans are still sitting there. We can hear swans all around. We have a set coming in from the north of us too but still far..

Its now 4:55....4:56... I glance to the east of us and 3 swans are flying low and right over us. I have 3 1/2 inch T shot loaded in my gun. I am shooting directly above me and hit the lead swan. 

It doesnt drop but sets its wings and coasts out to the water just over 100 yards from us. I can tell its injured. Todd jumps out of the boat and pushes us out of the weeds. I hop in the front. Chris gets the motor uncovered and started. We head towards the swan. The two other swans that were with it circle over us twice and try and land in our decoys.

 To be legal you cannot have your motor running and have to have all movement from the motor stopped to legally shoot from the boat. We run to about 25 yards or so from the swan. Kill the motor. Wait for the boat to stop and I shoot it again. I hit it but still not enough. It starts swimming off. We get closer and I shoot it again at about 15 yards(head shot again) and it still doesnt die. Rue is out of the boat on the last shot and is after it. She is trying so hard to catch it but its wing is broken and she is swimming as fast after it as she can. She keeps getting a mouth full of its tail feathers. Chris starts the boat back up and turns towards the swan and the dog. I set my gun down and he pulls the boat up next to the swan and I catch it and drop it in the boat. Its 5:00. I can hear Todd yelling from where we left him. Chris is jumping up and down happy. I was pretty dang happy too! It was a HUGE swan. Way bigger than the one I shot two years ago.

                                         

The way a swan tag works is you have to put in and draw out for it. You dont draw every year and usually about every other year. So I wont be lucky enough to get a swan tag again next year.. but hopefully Dad, Todd and Chris will!

We took the swan into be measured (you legally have to within 3 days of shooting it so they can gather information on it) and they measure from the nostril to the end of the beak. My measurement was 51.1 which is really good size. The lady said I was the first adult woman to bring in a swan to the Refuge this year. We have decided we probably need to mount this one!

Week 50- JP, Sugar cookies and the Dentist

Tuesday night Willard City had its city dinner. Chris was at class. Todd was in Cali. Dad was in Vegas... I wasnt going by myself! I took JP as my date. Everyone was standing up introducing their wives and I stood up and introduced JP as my wife for the night. We had Maddox and then Taylor, Zack, JP and I went back to our house to hang out for a while after. 

 Wednesday after archery Kini Bean came back and had dinner at our house. They were so excited to get a play date together. 

 Thursday night while Chris was at class Miss K and I had a cookie night. We made a bunch of sugar cookies and frosted them. Pretty sure she ate more dough than made into cookies

 We took a plate to my mom, one to Roy and Kathy, one to Grandma Tammy and we dropped off a plate to Todd and Jana. Todd was coming home from Cali that night so Kennedy made him a welcome home note to go with the cookies.

After that she says to me "Mom I think it would be a great date night end if we snuggled on the couch and watched Elf"  What a great idea! We love that movie.

 Friday night after I shot my swan we had to stop at my moms house. K was so worn out she fell asleep on my lap. Sometimes being so big she is still so little.

 Our weekend was full of hunting, drying out our clothes and going back out hunting again. Our living room was a disaster.

 Miss Ry watching Tangled on Grandmas tablet during Sunday dinner. She loves her Tangled.

 Kennedy had to get 2 cavities filled. It was really kind of one but it was touching both teeth. She was pretty nervous.

 Well they fixed the two cavities. Then he said her two front teeth on the right are pretty loose and her other teeth are starting to push them do you want me to just pull them out? I said sure! She hates wiggling and pulling her teeth. Its easier than fighting with her and then they have room to grow in right. So he took care of those. I had never saw teeth pulled before. He went and checked her other teeth. One of her other fillings had cracked around the tooth so he redid that filling too. Poor peanut had two spots numbed where her cavity was filled, her two front teeth parts numbed and her other side of her mouth numbed to fix the cavity. Plus a bunch of gas.. She was SO drugged up and numbed by the time we were done. We went to Walmart for a few things. 

 She was still insistent on going to Old Grist Mill still for her celebration lunch of being good at the dentist and having no cavities in her xray. It was hilarious trying to watch her eat. She couldn't figure out how to drink from a straw. We settled on soup figuring that would be the easiest and of course a mint chocolate chip brownie.

She was so excited for the tooth fairy to come that night.

Week 49- Hunting Hunting and Hunting

Remember those cute adorable dance clothes I bought Kennedy just two months ago.. I bought her two sets and she only wears them ONCE a week for an hour... Shes already outgrown them and torn the tights to shreds. Dont mind her archery medal. She snuck it to school and wore it all day and at dance

Its the first week of December and we are still walking home from school with out needing jackets and on dry roads. This is just wrong! WE NEED SNOW!

 Santa got a make over. Hes rocking new lights and adorable painted bulbs

 He was super excited to get to meet up with the reindeer again

 Our week was crazy. We didnt do a whole lot but work and Chris started his official first week of school. In his first week he finished an entire semester and passed his test woo woo! Our weekend was busy. Friday night was the lights. Saturday morning was the tree getting and after we had gotten home it was time to go swan hunting with Dad. He wanted to take us out to Ogden Bay on the North run. There was a spot he used to hunt all the time and thats where the swans were supposed to be. We made it to the first parking lot and got all our gear on. We were getting ready to launch our boat when he started talking to some guys who said he couldnt get to the area we wanted off the north run, we had to access it off the 5600 s because there is a dike across there now. Their boats are small enough they just drag it up and over the dike but Chris's is too big. So we loaded everything up and ran to the further east north run to see what it looked like. There was a big concrete dam there.

 So we ran back to the other run we were just at and decided to launch and see what we found. It was almost 3 and the hunt for the day closes at 5. We pulled into the parking lot and Miss K was all excited to show me Chris showed her how to shock herself with the shock collar. She would put it on the buzz and shock her fingers and she thought it was hilarious. She wanted to be in charge of it for the day.

 We were getting loaded when I hear Dad start laughing. He had grabbed a set of waders out of the garage and ended up grabbing the wrong pair. He grabbed my old set that my moms wears. They were a little tight and the shoes were two sizes too small.  I rode with Dad in his boat with Grizz. Kennedy Todd and Chris rode in Chris's boat. We had a little race down the channel.

 You can tell who won. Dads boat is a lot shorter and a few hundred pounds less than Chris's.

 We found a nice big open cove and set out duck, goose and swan decoys. It would be the perfect bad weather spot... except we were in good weather. It was 55 degrees. We were sweating in hoodies and were getting sunburned. Thats horrible duck hunting conditions. 

 I let Miss K put on her own make up. I wish I would have gotten a picture. She had a black beard

 Nothing flew at all. NOTHING. We didnt fire a single shot!! We still had fun though. 

When we got home it was time to decorate the tree. I wanted to keep it simple and cute this year. I didnt trim any of the branches into uniformity. I liked the rustic look of it.

 All of the ornaments on the tree were hunting ornaments and we put antlers on the branches too.

 Sunday morning we loaded up bright and early again and headed out for another round of duck/swan hunting. My swan tag ends next week so its a good excuse to go out more. I know Ive said this before but I absolutely LOVE the sunrises on the water. The skies are so vivid with color. Its beautiful.

 All this year Todd has shot the first duck. I told myself not today! It was game on. A set of 3 came directly into us. I smoked one and Chris and Todd missed the other 2. First duck in the boat! That ended up being our only duck. The skies have been so slow lately with all this warm weather. We need some bad weather!

 We got home from our first round of hunting and were getting ready to go out on our second. Kennedy went with Todd and Jana into town since Chris and I were going for a hike. Grandpa caved and took K to see Santa. He was asking her if she had been good... I think her face says it all

 Chris and I drove to Harold Crane to walk out along the dike. We heard the swans were in the bottom of there and werent sure how far we could take the boat so we chose to walk. He packed the bag with 6 swan decoys and 6 duck decoys. I packed the bag with all our shells and toilet paper. You know the important stuff! I love my pack mule of a husband. The things he does for me! 

 Did I mention its still 55 degrees outside!??

 We walked a good mile to a mile and a half in waders, carrying gear and guns to a spot that looked good. Which ended up being a place that would be PERFECT to drive the boat too.. sigh

 We sat there for a while. Chris napped. Nothing really was flying. A guy came pedaling down the dike on a bicycle going out hunting. We are sitting in the weeds on the side of the dike all camoed up with face paint. He comes to a screeching halt and says to me "Youre a Barton arent you!?" He is a fireman who used to work with my dad. We talked to him for a few minutes and he was on his way. 

It was dead. No birds coming close to us at all. The ducks were all sky high and far away. It officially closed at 5:00 that night. We had been sitting there since 1:30. Its now 4:45. I said to Chris we might as well start picking up the decoys. We havent even heard any swans let alone seen any. We picked up all them and walked back to the dike where our guns were sitting. We were just laughing and having fun when we turned around and a swan flew right past us. Right past where we had our decoys. The decoys are now in the bag. Our guns are empty. Its FIVE freaking minutes til close. It wasnt close enough to shoot but I almost guarantee it would have landed with our decoys! All we could do was laugh and shake our heads and start the walk back to the truck