Post Xmas Pre Xmas Party

 Friday night we had our annual post xmas party ... but because of scheduling it ended up being pre xmas!

Its just an informal get together at our house where we all visit and catch up and gorge ourselves. 

The boys were in the kitchen discussing duck hunting

 The children were running wild everywhere

Elysha, Mom and I all in deer shirts

Us 3 girls

 Kennedy had a full day Friday.. She had her class party, went to her bffs house after school, my mom took her and all the grand kids to the movies to see Sing and then there was the party at our house with all her cousins and some of her friends... and all they could eat

It ended up with her running to the bathroom but someone was in there so she ran back and ended up throwing up all over the carpet and running out the front door to puke outside. We were laughing so hard we had tears streaming. The kid gets over stimulated and her coping is puking. Zack went home and got his carpet cleaner. MarDee, Christian and I scrubbed the carpet while Kyle and Taylor were dry heaving. Which made it even funnier. Elysha and Taylor hosed off the frozen puke porch. Then Zack came back with his carpet cleaner. Of course mid party Chris got called into work (he was on call) so he missed the whole puking episode. 

The party crew

Week before Christmas

Our weeks have been full

I took my last Officer 1 class woo woo! Now waiting to test!

 We responded on a structure fire that thankfully was just something electrical.

These things are horrible!

 I taught Kennedy how to start the fireplace. She was so excited about it

 This man has been working a lot lately. Extra hard.

 Hes also been working hard on making a lot of silhouette decoys

 I helped him out too

 We took up a donation at work to give a Christmas gift card to our cleaning ladies at work. We have had a lot of bad cleaners here... a lot.. we now have a crew of 4 Hispanic ladies who dont speak much English. They cried when we gave them their gift cards. The next morning they brought us all in homemade tamales and salsa. It was amazing!!!

Saturday: Polar Express

Saturday Kennedy had a surprise from Ash. She asked if she could take her to Polar Express with them but not to tell her. She spent the night Friday night at their house and we packed her snow clothes 'just in case it snowed'

The next morning they got all dressed and headed to Heber.

 There was Derek, Ash, Briggs, Ry, Grandma JaNeale, Grandpa Jimmy, plus two of Ashley and Dereks friends and their kids. Kennedy had a blast!

and after that they went to Temple Square to see the lights! She had so much fun! 

Saturday: Antelope Hunt and Barton Family Party

Saturday Chris and I had an alone date. We headed out west to try and get an antelope. The tag ended Sunday. Our family has a tradition/superstition that every hunt and fishing trip we take Raspberry Filled donuts with us and have a great trip. Its been like that since we were little tiny kids. Chris has always laughed at us for the tradition. Its small things like this that show he really loves me. He put them in the truck when we were getting ready just so that we would have a good hunt :)

We wandered all over just as the sun was coming up. The skies were beautiful!

We had a big fat zero on any antelope. We didnt see any coyotes or antelope. We even went to the places we saw them before but the had moved cattle and sheep into the areas. Dad and Phil were also out hunting in the areas looking for the same thing. We were going to contact each other if we found a big herd.  By 830 we hadn't seen anything and neither had they. We saw a bunny or two along the side of the road and decided to get out and shoot since there were no antelope in miles!

We found a little hole full of rabbits!

For those of you thinking "what the hell, cute fluffy bunnies" let me explain something. Rabbits are an invasive species. A decent rabbit population of course helps keep the Eco system in balance. BUT an over run of rabbits creates all kinds of problems They DESTROY the ground. Their holes and tunnels cause the erosion and collapse. It hurts the vegetation and a good group of rabbits in the area decimate the vegetation... and there is that whole saying 'breeding like rabbits' it doesn't take long to have a TON in an area. 

Jack rabbits are not good eating. They are more like a nuisance rabbit. You shoot those and leave them for the coyotes. Coyotes and mountain lions eating dead rabbits that are easy to get keep them from eating the baby deer and antelope. Its all about the circle of life here and keeping things in balance.

However cotton tails are delicious. There is a season on them so you cant shoot them at just anytime like you can jack rabbits. This is a cotton tail. We kept the cotton tails we shot to eat.

We had so much stinking fun! We froze to death, it was only 7 degrees outside, but it was great.

This is a jack rabbit. Theyre a lot bigger than cotton tails. I got it with Chris's pistol

We drove around for a little bit more glassing areas and trying to find any sign of antelope. We ran into Dad and Phil. We were following them on a road when Dad got out to chase some rabbits and stretch his legs.

We passed them and a couple hundred yards ahead we ran into another pocket of bunnies. Dad and Phil came to join us.

Chris and Phil were on the roads while Dad and I pushed through the brush

We had a blast and before you knew it, it was time to go!

It was 230. We had over an hour and a half drive home. And then had to be in Layton by 5pm for the Barton family party.

We made it! I had time to shower and do my hair. We got to Golden Corral right at 5! We had reserved a room and made it through the crazy crowd.

We had a great dinner and the dessert bar was a huge hit

Koree and some cotton candy

This is my dads side of the family. It also was an Ugly Sweater party

Liz and I helping Grandma feel tall. Her ugly sweater was a tree skirt she made and it was adorable!

Chris and I with Grandma and Grandpa and Mom and Dad

and Kyle and I

It was a great dinner. We parked way out in the parking lot because the place was packed and I didnt want my car to get hit. Well when we came out it was COVERED.. COMPLETELY COVERED in crow poop. And its not just runny. It was thick and frozen on my car. It looked ten times worse than this in real life. I had to stop at a car was on the way home because I was so embarrassed. 

Bootlip Beatdown 1.0

 As soon as we got home from pheasant hunting Chris and his dad were headed out on the lake for ducks. One of his friends offered them two spots in his airboat. Todd had never gone out on the lake like that before and Chris COULDNT NOT WAIT to take him.

They set up in some mud

 and the birds were flying like crazy!!

They both came back with big huge grins on their faces and couldnt stop talking about it. 

They had a 63 bird limit in 2 hours. 

Kennedys first Pheasant Hunt

Chris was so excited about Kennedy passing Hunters Safety that Saturday we went looking for shotguns for her birthday. We of course had to take her with us to make sure we could find one that fit. Daddy was JUST GOING TO LOOK...and then he found a muddy girl camo one that Kennedy fell in love with and you can guess what happened next...

 Todd, Chris and I had a pheasant hunt planned for Sunday at the club.  Instead of getting paid money Chris takes it in trade for birds. We talked and decided this would be a great first adventure for Kennedy. Its pretty controled. Theyre released birds. Its just us in a certain area and its a good chance for her to learn how to start carrying a loaded gun in a hunting party. 

Grandpa, K and Momma

You can tell Kennedys beyond excited

 Todd

 Chris

 We found a bird sitting down in the corn. It was about 15-20 yards away. We couldnt sneak up on it any closer. Kennedy was hunting right next to me. I got her up on the bird and talked her through shooting her first bird and first time with a shotgun. She was really really nervous but we got the first shot off. She hit the bird and it took off. We found another one and she shot this one good. It flew off some but Chris shot it and brought it down.  SHE WAS ECSTATIC. She made Chris put it in her vest so she could carry it. This cute little kid was on cloud 9 the entire day.

 She even made Chris put another bird in her vest and she carried TWO! Thats a good chunk of weight plus you have to add in the shotgun and a box of shells in her vest.

 We hunted up and down the sections of the corn several times. Her little legs were finally tired by then. We went back to the truck to drop off birds and she put her gun in the truck and waited for us to go down another section.

 Chris shot a pheasanta that was flying across in front of him and it went across the river. 

Rue was on it. She jumped right in the water and crossed to the other side, found the bird and brought it back. Shooter put up all the birds and Rue retrieved them all.

 Kennedy made sure we kept her one bird seperate from the rest. 

 Look at the smile on her face!

She has told everyone about her pheasant hunting and how she got one. She has drawn pictures in her note books of her pheasant hunting. Its so awesome. She wants to go get coyotes next :)