Scouting For Elk

On Friday Rob announced that he and Hunter were going to head into the mountains to scout for elk and do "manly stuff". I can only assume "manly stuff" involves gross body noises, all of nature as your toilet, and Taco Bell; things that are normally discouraged around Mom.

I decided the girls and I didn't want to be stuck home on a Friday night so I suggested that maybe "manly stuff" could wait because we wanted to go too. I didn't want to miss out on a fall drive and to see if the leaves were starting to change colors.

Half way through our scouting mission us girls asked Rob if he could find a good place for a potty break. The kids decided to then turn our pit stop into a chance to explore, and Rob took the opportunity to teach our kids how to make fire with flint and steel, an important life skill.

(I love this picture of Hannah, it tells so much about who she is. She is very timid and will usually hang back until she is sure about the situation, but once she has made up her mind to join there is no stopping her)

The weather was perfect and I am looking forward to our next fall drive. Rob said we can go on more fall drives, they just can't be combined with scouting for elk. Something about spending more time scouting for good potty spots and a lack of Taco Bell.

Duck Hunting

Rob has been talking about taking his Dad out duck hunting for a while now, tonight he was finally able to do that.  Rob hasn't had much luck before now but they ended up coming home with 4 ducks.  I think he was pretty happy about that!!

Dinner after the hunt is my favorite, it took me a while to try Rob's duck, but now I love it.

The Elk Hunt

Rob and Hunter have spent the first two weeks of October hunting in Blanding, I have managed to keep the girls and I busy while they were gone, but we still missed them and I was looking forward to a family weekend. Rob was not able to get anything so he was going back down last weekend and convinced the girls and I to go with him. I wasn't completely on board but we have a deal and if I wanted Rob to hold up his end I was going to have to go hunting with him.

The first morning there we all woke up at 5 am to get out at the best hunting time, but then Saturday and Sunday I stayed in bed and let all the kids sleep in while Rob, his cousin Steve, and his parents went out.  We would then go back out with him in the evening.

When we weren't hunting we spent a lot of time jumping on the trampoline.

The sidekicks all picked a pumpkin from Grandma's pumpkin patch.

We attempted to take family pictures.

And we took many drives up on the mountain looking for Elk, but also taking in all the beautiful fall colors.

But most of all we were together as a family, I was able to spend some alone time with Rob hiking around in the woods, and we had some great conversations on our drive to and from Blanding.

So although Rob didn't come home victorious, I still think we can count this weekend as a win!!