Can't Believe It's June!

I wonder if there is anyone I could outsource my blogging to. I will take the pics but need them to post stuff and make it look nice...

Anyway, we have been busy like always. Seems like there is always something with work, school, and play. With my job I don't see things slowing down much for quite awhile. I was able to get the boat out last week for a day and caught about a dozen small mouth bass. We hope to get back out this weekend and get some more. I love catching and eating them. We fried em up on Monday and they were delicious.

Over Memorial Day weekend we were able to meet up with my family at Aaron and Laura's house in Spring Creek, Nevada. Everyone was there except for my dad. We had a really good time. We went swimming, shooting, and took a drive up the canyon to see the spring runoff waterfalls. On our way back to Idaho we stopped in Tooele to put flowers on my great grandparents grave. It was nice to be able to stop in there. It had been quite a while since my last visit.

I was really close to my great grandma (Grammie). She helped me raise me. I remember her teaching me how to tell time and tie my shoes. Whenever I brought her a book she would take the time to site down and read it to me. When I got a little bit older (8-9), Grandpa Lyle hired me to water and mow the lawn at their house in Ely that Grammie lived in. I spent most of my summer days with her. As she got older and was on oxygen, we decided that when grandma and grandpa were out of town I would stay the nights with her. I did that for about two and a half years until she passed away Christmas day 1996. I will never forget the special times that we had together, and the all the stories she would share. She was such a strong hardworking selfless woman. A trait that she passed down to her daughter that was passed down to my mom. I will always hold my relationships with my grandparents close to my heart.

My First Wild Turkey

Well, after a lot of stress, hard work, and calling in the expert, I was able to bag my first wild turkey. My dad was going to be in SLC this week so I invited him to come up to Idaho to do some calling for me. We worked pretty hard all day but could only find hens (story of my whole hunt). We finally spotted some gobblers and decided to move in a little closer. It was nice to have dad there running the call so all I had to do was stay still. Dad was sitting a little higher and saw one bird sneak (no gobbling) through the grass that I couldn’t see. Then another bird came along and all you could see was the neck up due to the tall grass. I am not sure exactly how far away it was but at least an honest 45-50 yards and about 20 minutes after sunset. Dad whispered to me, “Are you sure it’s a gobbler?” And about as soon as he said “er,” “BANG, FLOP, FLOP, FLOP.” I could see the color in his head and was sure it was a male, but I had to play with dad a little bit. He said, “Are you sure it was a gobbler?” And I said, “You said it was a gobbler.” He thought that I may have just heard the part where he said it is a gobbler not the are you sure part. When I brought him back over it was no question it was a gobbler. He had nice (not huge) spurs, a nine inch beard, and weighed 19 pounds. Not the biggest turkey, but pretty nice for my first bird.

Thanks KUPI 99...

Thursday when I was driving to work Katie called and told me she had won a 99 second shopping spree at the local grocery store. I tuned in just in time to hear her on the radio. So that night we went through and scouted everything out and schemed multiple plans not knowing what the rules were. Well, yesterday we found out that she didn't win but was put in a drawing to win... So we went down this morning and cased the place out in case her name was drawn. She did her crinkle the paper up trick so that it gets picked and sure enough she was the third name. Our main plan revolved around electronics, drugs, meat, detergent, and the mother load $200 gift cards to Home Depot. As luck would have it most of those things were off limits and you could only get 3 of each TYPE of items. So she ended up with 2 packs of $30steaks, a big ham, 3 blocks of cheese, 3 large bottles of Tide, 3 loaves of bread, two oranges, 3 packs of batteries, a SD Card, a jump drive, case of Mt. Dew, a cake, 2 oranges, 1gal of punch, and an Azalia flower that she picked up for a mothers day gift for our neighbor friend. It all totaled 302.99. Not too bad since she wasn't able to get about half of the things she had planned for.

My Quarterly Update...

Well, I guess that I am never going to be able to turn this over to Katie. I don't know how she doesn't have time to update it while she goes to school full-time and works 20 hours a week... Anyway, let me try to update you on what we have been up to for the past few months.

Lets start in November. Things finally slowed down for me at work and it was nice to get back to 40 hour weeks. Well, it was nice to be home but only getting 40 hour week pay wasn't as nice.
Katie had Thanksgiving week off from school and so I took a few days off and we headed to Spring Creek to meet up as Fishers for a feast. We all piled into Aaron's beautiful house. They have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into their home and it has really turned out quite nicely. The Ruby Mountains are in their back yard and serve as a nice sunrise view. While we were there we took a couple trips up the canyon and were able to see a lot of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep as well as some Mountain Goats. It was really neat to be able to get so close to the sheep. I know that Aaron's boys really enjoyed it and will always remember sneaking up on those powerful creatures. One of the best parts of the trip was on Saturday when Aaron baptized his oldest son Jacob. It was nice that we could all be together to witness and support Jacob in this big step.

December was pretty mild for us in Rexburg. We were able to get out of town before the big storms hit. We met up with Aaron in Ely then traveled to Vegas and met up with my good friend Rod for the 2008 Vegas Bowl. It was the fourth in a row for Rod and I. I took Katie last year and Aaron was able to make it the year before. It was a quick trip. Got into town at about noon on Saturday and gone by 9 a.m. Sunday morning. We didn't get the results that we would have liked but really enjoyed our time together. Rod and his wife Janene have been friends of mine since I was a freshman at Ricks College in 1998/1999. They are true friends and have been so good to me through the years. Rod is one of my few friends that I can always count on for anything.

Katie and I spent a couple more days in Ely after the game and had a little early Christmas with my parents and Becky's family. We headed up to Malad on the 23rd to spend the rest of our break with Katie's family. We had a really good time there and were very spoiled. Katie's mom and dad are very good about getting thoughtful presents. Other than on my mission and my first Christmas, it was the first time that I hadn't had been home for Christmas Day. It was nice to be with my new family and partake in some of their traditions. The only down side is that I was pretty sick the whole time and spent a lot of time in bed.

We headed back up to Rexburg the day after Christmas to try to fill our cow elk tags. We had a pretty hard time because the early winter was so mild that a lot of the elk had not made it to their winter range which happened to be where our tags were. On the last morning Katie spotted some and we tried to get into a shot but we had a little buck fever and lost the opportunity and before we could get on them again they had escaped onto the INL site where we couldn't chase them. Smart little buggers. It was a good experience even though we were not successful. I think we both learned a lot and will be better prepared next season.

January was kind of a rough month. I was laid off from the Forest Service and struggled finding work for a few weeks. Don't get me wrong, I was happy that I got to go ice fishing and work on some projects (i really could get used to not going to work if i won the loto or something), but money got pretty tight. We did have some good luck come our way when I was able to pick up some work for my old boss Randy. I worked for Randy while I went to college. He was always so good to me back then, and continues to be now. He happened to be building some more storage unites on one of his properties and needed some help so I was able to get about 5 weeks in before I got brought back to the FS in mid February.

Katie has been getting to be quite the markswoman. I think in the right conditions she could definitely out shoot me. One issue we have had is that some of my pistols are a little big for her hands and do not offer her a real option for use outside of target practice under the "best" conditions. I have been looking on-line and doing a lot of research and found what I thought would be a good option for her (i actually quite like it for myself). The Ruger SP101 5Shot Revolver. Well, at about the same time we decided that was the right gun for her one showed up for sale in Utah. It just so happened that it was about the same time as the BYU-utah B-ball game in Provo. What a great weekend it ended up being. We stayed with Katie's parents Friday night and they cooked up a feast and sent us off with a big breakfast on Saturday morning. We stopped in Ogden on the way down and picked up her gun. I was so proud of her because she was the one that called the guy and made the deal etc. She had the biggest grin on her face as we got into the car. We then continued on to SLC and met up with my buddy Rod. He had scored us a ticket to the game so all I had to to is pick up another one for 10 bucks. We were able to get ourselves into 10th row seats at about the mid-court line. It was a great game to watch and we had so much fun taunting the dirty puke players.

I think the next week was the longest week ever. I couldn't wait to get Katie out and watch her handle her new piece. Of course Saturday morning was wicked cold and windy with snow flurries but that didn't stop us. Katie was very impressive with her shot placement and got me a little worried about ever ticking her off...:) I am excited to spend more time out practicing with her as the day's get warmer. Another highlight of the day was seeing a cow moose and her calf just a quarter mile out of town in a field. I have seen a few around here but never that close to town. I took some pics and got about 40 yards away and they didn't seem too concerned with me. I didn't go any closer because I have always been a little afraid of getting my butt kicked by a momma moose.

I guess that catches us up for another few months. I am sure we will have some more exciting things to post as it starts to warm up. O, Katie's sister had her baby at about 3:30 this morning. He was a healthy 7lb 8oz. We are so excited to go see him later today.

Some Catching Up

Well, not a whole lot of new stuff going on in our lives. Katie is super busy with school and I just go to work every day, well not every day. Katie makes fun of me because I get federal holidays off like Veterans and Columbus days.

We do manage to get to the Temple about once a month, some sort of FHE, and of course our weekly BYU football games. We were able to go shooting on Saturday before the Air Force game. Katie is very impressive with her accuracy. Makes me a little nervous to tell you the truth. She still does have some improving to do. Luckily for her she has an expert marksman to learn from.

I have been able to go on a few hunts. I have had minimal success, but I went out on Friday with my buddy and we got into a 6x6 Bull Elk that he was able to get with one shot. It was pretty exciting. This was George's first Elk. He is still on cloud nine about the whole thing.

Fall Is Here

I guess that we are now officially into Fall. Things at work are starting to slow down a bit which is nice. It kind of stinks not having any leave built up since this is my favorite time of year to be gone.

I have been out two times now trying to find Elk with no luck, but both times I was able to get into a few birds. I am really hoping I can learn some stuff about this area that I am hunting so that I can get Katie into an opportunity. This is her first year hunting and I want it to be a good experience. Her school and my work schedules have not aligned very well so far, but the hunt goes to the end of the year so we should be able to get into something. Katie did go on her first Dove hunt and was able to bag four. I was pretty proud of her. She was so excited when she knocked that first one down.

The only other thing that we have been able to find time to do together is watch BYU football. This is the first time in four years that I haven't had season tickets. I also have been to every home opener since the 2001 season. It just wasn't in the cards this year. I have been working on Saturdays as well so that means that we have to watch the games delayed. Well, I do. It is too much for Katie to wait that long so I told her she could watch it live. I don't think that I could wait around. We sure have enjoyed the start of the season and really hope we can finish strong. Katie told me that she would take me to whatever bowl we end up at this year. I guess that will make up for not going to any in Provo.

08/08/08

It has taken me a while to get some updates on here. We have been pretty busy. I will get some wedding pics when we get them back. We sure have done a lot in our last three and a half weeks of marriage. A couple receptions, a trip to lagoon, HAWAII, Antelope hunt with Fred and Aaron... and as soon as we got home we were back to work. I am actually going to be gone for work the next week or so. It kind of stinks but I guess it is what it is.

I am continually impressed with my wife. She was so much fun on the hunt and it was so exciting for me to watch her take things so serious and have so much fun. I cant wait to get her out on her own hunt.

I was also impressed with her on game day when BYU opened their season. This was the first time in five years I haven't had season tickets and the first time since 2001 that I have missed a home opener. I had to work so we recorded it on the DVR. When I got home Katie had the house decorated and coupons to take me to what ever bowl BYU goes to this year. I think it was as rough on her as it was on me to wait tell later to watch it.

We are so happy together and so grateful to everyone that did so much to make our wedding and beginning of our marriage so wonderful. We are so blessed to have such great friends and such a wonderful and supportive family.