Our trip to Kansas

We just returned from the best trip ever! We took the whole family to Derby, Kansas to visit my sister Kristen and her husband Steve for 10 days. It was so fun! Jason was hunting whitetail deer, so the rest of us got to hang out and explore Wichita. Dallin even got to go hunting for a few days with Jason and loved it. This was the boys' first trip to Kansas, and they had a blast. We went to the zoo, Kids Fest, Madagascar 2, Exploration Place (a museum where the feature display was "The Scoop on Poop" - what kid would not love that?), and lots more fun stuff. Kristen's post pretty much sums it up. In addition, Dallin and Luke absolutely loved Kristen and Steve's dogs, Tank and Lucy. We don't have dogs, so our kids are really deprived and have no idea how to act around them. Dallin is usually terrified of dogs, but by the end of the trip he was running around with Tank and Lucy like he had known them all his life. Luke has no fear and his favorite thing was to have Lucy lick his face over and over. I was so sad to leave and I'm still in denial that the trip is over. I'm honestly a little depressed to be home. Thanks, Kristen and Steve, for such a great time and for all your generosity. Can't wait for next year!

You gotta have faith...

And people in Kansas DO have faith. Kristen and I had so much fun laughing at all the church billboards. Who thinks these things up? One that we didn't get a picture of was "Pssst! Guess who is due in two months?" (Keep in mind that it's early November....). Here are a few others for your faith-promoting pleasure:

And this one pretty much sums up the trip:

A huntin' I will go...

I wasn't going to post this, but last week was Jason's birthday and I gave him what was probably the best present of all time. I mean besides the chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I guess the story starts at Christmas two years ago when I was desperate for a present for Jason, so I signed up for Hunter's Safety and gave him the receipt in a huge box. I really didn't intend on ever going through with the actual class, but he made sure I went and shot guns with a bunch of sweaty 12-year-olds in the basement of a Pleasant Grove city building and got my lovely little certificate in the mail a few weeks later. I still did not plan to ever actually go hunting. Little did I know, he was busy putting me in for every hunt he could think of. I haven't drawn out for anything too crazy yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time (not that I will go if I do - yeah, right). This year I just got a general deer tag and there was some pretty significant bribery in getting me to go at all. The stakes were that if I shot a deer I can get laser eye surgery. So, two weeks ago, the kids stayed at my in-laws' overnight and we headed out to West Canyon at about 4:30 am. It's all a blur now, but there was a long 4-wheeler ride, an even longer hike, and I found myself on top of a mountain before the sun came up. I got a few good pictures of the sunrise, but then the camera batteries went dead and we had to take the rest of the day's pictures on camera phones (sorry, Jason!). It was actually pretty fun being out in the wild and feeling adventurous, especially because I was sure we wouldn't even see any deer. We hiked around for a while, and then at about 9:00 it happened. Jason spotted a bunch of deer. There was a chase, some more hiking, and eventually I had a gun in my hand and he was trying to help me aim it, yelling in a desperate whisper, "Shoot! Shoot!" So I did what I had to do to make my husband love me more than I ever thought possible. I shot a huge deer. It's funny because we really didn't know how big it was until we found him. I figured it was pretty good, though, when Jason started giggling like a little girl and saying, "He's got cheaters! He's got cheaters!" over and over. Not that anyone knows or cares about the score of a deer, but it scored 172, had 5 points on each side, and eye guards. I wish I didn't know what those things meant, but I have been married to a hunter for long enough that I could probably write a book on scoring animals. Guys. Why does it always have to be a competition with them? Isn't killing something enough? I guess not. Anyway, I felt really bad for a while, and I talked it over with the deer and petted him on the head (with gloves on, of course) and I think he was glad to give his life so I can see. There really are a lot more deer out there, and his little deer friends didn't even act sad or anything. They just stood there and watched us, so I figure, the deer has lived his life, and now he will live on. On the wall of Jason's office.

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween. It seems like it is more of a season than a day, but I'm still sad that it's over. The kids had a great time dressing up for the ward party, Grandma Rita's party, school parties, Daddy's work trick or treat, and of course, Halloween night! Dallin was a ninja, Luke was a bat and Abby was a sweet little witch. I've never been one for dressing up on Halloween, but I decided that next year I might take the plunge into the world of weirdies and be a witch or something. I'm just glad my kids haven't missed all the candy that has gone missing from their sacks. Jason and I had a few great movie nights this weekend with a wide assortment of treats... Gotta love Halloween.