Becoming a teen!

It was Austen's birthday on Sunday, 10/17/10. He turned 13 and is now officially a teenager! I can't even tell you how crazy that is! I was still having a hard time getting used to the fact that he started middle school this year and now he's a teenager! He is growing up so fast and is almost as tall as Jes and me! He is such a handsome boy and has such a bright future ahead of him! I can't wait to see the great things in store for him! (He was way happy, just a silly picture!)

To celebrate his birthday we had a family dinner in Moroni along with yummy cake and ice cream!

My parents got him some clothes, a Playstation game, and an awesome cell phone! Marcel and I paid for his deer tag this year and got him a cool Ferrari car model (his dream car)! He had a great time, as did the rest of us!

RIP Rhino

Our little Rhino passed away on 10/17/10 in his sleep. We think that he was very sick because he got to the point where he was smaller than Shelby and was losing his hair. It's probably better that he's gone and now Shelby has a little buddy up in hamster heaven. We'll miss you Rhino. Enjoy that big hamster wheel in the sky little buddy!

Every time we filled the food dish Rhino would race down to stuff his cheeks!

Scouting

The morning of 10/17/10, Marcel and I borrowed Pascal and Suzanna's 4-wheeler to go scout for a place to hunt. Since our last place fell through we needed to find some where. We had a great time riding around looking at all of the beautiful changing leaves and gorgeous views! We found somewhere that will hopefully bring us luck! We'll see this weekend I guess!

We found this super old truck and decided to have some fun with it!

Loading up the 4-wheeler to go home.

FrIgHtMaReS

On Saturday, 10/16/10, we got to go to Frightmares Lagoon (thanks again mom and dad)! We had SOOO much fun! Originally it was going to be me, Marcel, Jes, and Austen but that morning Jessica woke up sick so we had Austen's bestest buddy Trevor come instead. I was really bummed that Jes didn't come but you can't help but laugh most of the time you are with those two goobers!
The first haunted house we went in was called "Lockdown". It was the scariest of all of them and I was forced into the front! I had voted to be in the middle which was agreed on by everyone and then I some how ended up in the front and couldn't move because Austen had a death grip on the hood of my hoodie! I got so scared that I cried (okay my eyes teared up with fear but there was no water flow)! Yes I know I'm a pansy but it was dang scary! I can't handle people making scary noises right in my face! Stupid scary people! Anyway we made it out alive and I managed to recover!

You better believe I wasn't going to go first again in any of the other haunted houses! Austen went first in the one called "Deception" and Trevor went first in "Fun House". Marcel and I were laughing so hard we could barely walk and my cheeks ached! These two cracked us up to no end! Austen did pretty well but Trevor fought being in front the entire time! When we came out of Fun House Trevor was all for going into another one and requested to be first because it was fun! What a goof!
During Frightmares they have people that are dressed up for Halloween just walking around the park and the whole place is decked out for the holiday! These crazy chainsaw guys and gals are there every year! They are my favorite! They do a dance performance every few hours once it starts to get dark and they are great dancers! Right before their performance a few of them were walking around giving people up front a high-5 and one of the men stopped in the corner we were standing at in the front and gave every one a high-5 then stopped and me, took my hand and caressed it! The group of girls next to us were jealous and voiced it and Marcel, who had his arms around me the whole time, was like "Hey!" and then he let go and moved on! So silly! There's also this Monster Mash gang that performs every year too! They are awesome and their songs are pretty catchy! Even Marcel was singing them afterwords! They sing and dance and are really good at both! One of the songs the guys sang was about the pretty girl on the corner (no not a "pretty woman" song!) and they all lined up and pointed at me during one of the chorus's! I had my camera out and was taking pictures but when they all pointed at me I froze and didn't get one! I am so mad at myself for that but it is a funny memory anyway!

So just a little side note, that group of girls next to us (who were at least my age if not a little older) had one girl in particular that the wolf man was flirting with HARD CORE during the entire performance! It was awkward! Every hip thrust, tongue lick and wink was directed at her and everyone knew because the group of girls would scream every single time. Between that and the Chainsaw performance I would've thought we were in Vegas! Good grief!

There were SO many people there because it was the Saturday of UEA weekend so we only ended up going on about 5 rides but we had a blast!

This silly Kangaroo wouldn't get up for anything!

These two got SOAKED on this ride! They had the water on full blast! I honestly have never seen that much water coming off the waterfalls before! It was hilarious to watch! They were in this raft with 2 other people (a father and son) who they didn't know, and Austen and Trevor were climbing over them trying to escape the water, to no avail! Like I said, hilarious!

This thing is awesome! A few years ago when Marcel and I were at Frightmares taking pictures on this thing there was a little girl with her mom who innocently asked "Mommy, is that Jesus?"! We couldn't stop laughing and her mom couldn't help but chuckle while reassuring her it wasn't!

They didn't get as wet on the log ride (as if they could get any more wet than they already were)! They have a little pioneer village in Lagoon and Marcel had fun in the gun museum!

You can't go to Lagoon any other time once you've been to Frightmares!

Velvet-be-gone!

Marcel finally got Strike's antlers back and we were sad to see that the velvet couldn't be saved. It looked terrible from him rolling down the mountain and Kelly tried his best to make it look good again but it was unsalvageable. So Marcel decided to pressure wash the velvet off and have my dad stain them!

We went over to the car wash to get the job done!

I left Toby in the car at first but he REALLY wanted to get out where we were!

Once he was out he got scared of the pressure washer so in an effort to get away he snagged his claws in my hair and for some reason that helped him relax!
When the velvet started coming off we were able to see how much trash he has (trash: the word chosen by I don't know who to represent all the little bumps at the base of the antlers). Marcel, and myself, are very excited at how much cooler he looks without the velvet (although Marcel really would've liked him to stay the way he was originally when he got him but he's excited for this too)! Close-up!
He couldn't quite get all of the velvet off at the car wash so we brought it home to soak in the tub for a bit so Marcel could get the rest off. Toby was fascinated! I absolutely love these pictures!

This picture freaks me out a bit just because in the picture on the left he looks like Pascal but he looks like himself in the picture on the right! Weird! Regardless of that you can see how happy he is to have Strike back (well part of him anyway)!
And this is where he will go once we get the whole thing back! Can't wait :) !!!

Lost & Found Pup

On Saturday, 10/09/10, Marcel and I went scouting for deer. We drove down by the pond in the canyon and were just looking around when we saw a dog poke it's head up out of the bushes. Marcel got out of the truck and went over to her. She was laying down and looked/acted really scared. He finally got her to stand up when he offered her some crackers that we had in the truck, which she had a hard time standing because she had been laying there so long. She gobbled up all the crackers and a couple of granola bars and then Marcel walked back to the truck, with her following, opened up the tail gate and she jumped right in! She is such a precious dog! She is so nice and sweet, she comes when you call her and she knows the command to sit. She acted like her back leg was hurt so we're thinking that maybe she fell out of the back of a truck :( . We could tell she had been out there for a while because of her appearance and she was extremely hungry and thirsty. I really wish we had room to keep her but sadly we don't so Marcel had the dog catcher come pick her up on Monday, 10/11/10, to see if she could find her a home. We let her know that if she couldn't then we will take her back rather than her be put down. Hopefully she can find an awesome and loving family for this awesome and loving dog!
On our way home!

Exploring the yard!

She was really good with Toby and whoever came to visit.

When we first saw her and figured out she was in fact a female, I kept wanting to call her "Lady"! I'm not exactly sure why but I think that name fits her perfectly!
I was really sad I didn't get to say goodbye to her (I was at work when she left) but I'm glad I got to spend the weekend with her! I'll miss you Lady!

Beauty & the Beast...Diamond Edition!

I can't tell you how much I love this movie! I made my mom hate it because of how much I would watch it when I was little! I'm not exactly sure what it is about this movie that I enjoy so much but for whatever reason, it is my favorite! I already have this on DVD but this is the "Diamond Edition" so I had to have it! Marcel stopped at good ol' Walmart on his way home from work and picked it up for me. He isn't a big fan of this movie but he knows how much I love it so he got it for me! He's such a great husband :) ! He wasn't as grouchy as he looks in this picture. I told him to smile and he made this face (which I obviously couldn't see because my eyes were closed)! He cracked up when he saw it but refused to take another one so there ya go! Tale as old as time ;) !

Dad's 44th Bday!

My dearest dad's birthday was on 9/30/10, which fell on a Thursday this year so we ended up celebrating it together as a family on the following Sunday, 10/3/10 (minus Marcel because he had to work). We all hung around in the living room and watched General Conference, had a delicious lunch (steak with real mashed potatoes and gravy and steamed carrots) followed later by my moms scrumptious home-made cheesecake covered in blueberry sauce! It was oh so good! I know nobody looks excited in this picture but we really did have a good time together!

Here's my dad opening his present from Marcel and I! Marcel found this awesome truck decal at Sportsman's and he couldn't resist getting it for him! My dad loves it and can't wait to get it on his new truck (when he gets it)!

I know that every girl thinks that her daddy is the greatest but mine really is! He is always there for all of us and and manages to see the silver lining of a dark situation. He encourages us to stay strong and never give up. I love my dad tons and hope that he knows how grateful I am for everything he does and has done for me. You're the best, dad!

Retrieving trail cam.

As you may recall we had set our trail camera up in a place that we were told wouldn't be very successful. We have since learned that there is a farmer that herds his cattle up into that area right around the rifle hunt so that would be a big problem if we were hunting there. We decided to go get it on 10/2/10, thinking that it probably wouldn't be a very successful trip picture wise but we actually got a little over 700! Most of them were pictures of the shadow from a tree moving with the sun but we did get a few bucks, does and even a few foxes!

There was one pretty decent buck on there but we're looking for something possibly a bit bigger.

This hunt will be interesting!

Some of the scenery.

We some how ended up following this trail that took us right to the center of Camper World! We had to hop a fence and just strolled through like there was nothing unusual! It was an interesting!