Yesteray Griz and I went on our first chukar hunt ever with a friend of mine and his dog.... I thought I was in pretty good shape but this hunt proved that theory wrong in a big hurry! I've hunted elk in some steep country before but that was at a fairly leisurely pace. Keeping up with two labs in that kind of country is a whole different story.

I have to admit that I was a litle disappointed with Grizat first because all he wanted to do was chase the other dog's tail (she was in heat) and although he is young (only 8 months now) you could tell that he was interested even if she was ignoring him. Things did get better though after we found a few birds. By the middle of the day we actually had a pretty good system worked out.... The other dog would hunt birds and Griz would tail her. We would watch and if the scent was strong enough for Griz to stop hunting a piece of tail and start hunting birds we knew we were about to get into them.

Even when we knew we were right on top of them, it seemed like I was never quite ready. I was either looking at my feet so that I didn't fall, or I was in the middle of a fall when a covey of those little buggers would come rocketing off the side of the hill! There were also several times that I would shoot at birds until my gun was empty and THEN the rest of the covey would take off!

We hunted like crazy and saw close to a hundred birds, if not slightly more than that, and after a few pointers from my buddy, I actually managed to connect on a couple. The highlight of my day though was Griz's frst ever retrieve of a live bird!

I knocked one down and it landed about 70 or 80 yards out. Griz ran over, picked it up, brought it back, and dropped it right into my hand like he had been doing it his whole life! After that I feel like I can officially call him a hunting dog and not just an overgrown lap dog!

Here's a picture of the end results for those who are interested.

paper dolls at preschool

We made paper dolls at Emma's birthday party. It was so enjoyable. Even Sam liked it. Actually Sam loves to craft. He can be hesitant about everything else but the kid loves to craft. Sam is a two year old that comes to our preschool.

Fall, My Favorite Season.... Followed Closely by Winter

Just wanted to share a few new pictures.... While we listened to conference on the radio today we took a little drive up into the hills behind our house. It was beautiful!










But the higher we got, the colder it got, until we found....




WINTER!















It seems that summer is just barely done and already I'm faced with the prospect of shoveling snow. It's a good thing it's so pretty.

Peace at Last

"Parents aren't interested in justice, they're interested in peace and quiet."

-Bill Cosby

After all of the requests for "dwinks," and "snacks," and "potty" are through and the requests for nightlights and socks or fans are through, they are pretty cute when they finally fall asleep. The boys sleep in bunk beds but no one ever sleeps on the bottom. It's so much cozier with two.

The hair is spring loaded.

Ahwoo and tattoo!

Noah is trying very hard to talk. In fact, he does quite well with single words, he was just a little slow to start saying them. I am under the impression that he was just waiting for the right time to lay this new talent on us because once he started talking the words came out pretty easily for him.... Single words that is. He still has trouble stringing multiple words together. So "I love you" sounds like "Ahwoo" and "Thank you" sounds like "tattoo".

With his personalty though I won't be surprised if he comes home one day when he's older and says, "Dad, check out this sweet tattoo!"

Long time listener, first time blogger

This is the first time I've posted to the family blog.... Just wanted to relate that all the training of done with "Griz", our new chocolate lab puppy is starting to pay off. He flushed and retreived his first bird today. That's good news for him because when we agreed to get a dog I told the kids and Amy that he would have to do more than just lay around the house, consume large quantities of dog food (as if I' not already spending large wads of cash to feed two growing boys and a girl) and poop on my lawn in order to earn his keep. Not bad for a puppy that's not even six months old yet!

Amy is much better at thisblogging thing than I am but I'lltry to do my part

The Joy of going back to school.

Or should I say the joy in Tyler going back to school. Tyler is so lovable and so hard to parent all at the same time. He is a wonderful boy. The same old question of "why" that he has always asked has been joined by "how, how many, how tall, where, what if, can I try that." The general answers are never enough. In fact for many of them I think I need to have an advanced degree in Zoology. Oh, boy. Daddy is a pharmacist and thus we refer to him as "the scientist" and when the questions become too difficult I just say, go ask Daddy. Oh, boy. My least favorite questions, as of late, have to do with our boy dog. All 3 of our children ask it, as do all of the neighbor kids: "What is that pink thing?" Which always leads to reproductive questions. EEeeek! I have become really good at the dodge though. I give them the simplest answer possible, and then ask if they will help me look for ripe tomatoes. Then we look for the grasshoppers that crawl all over our plants which we feed to our neighbors chickens. Subject changed. Awkwardness with a 6 and under crowd averted. I am prepared to deal with the "where do babies come from question" just not with every kid in the neighborhood and not with a 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old. It just ain't happenin.

Anyway, it has been great(!) to have T. in school full-time. Last years 2 hours a day kindergarten was just not enough for that kid. All summer we have been on grasshopper expeditions and trying to figure just the right amount of water for the garden, and finding the perfect fruits of our labors in the garden. It has been a great summer for him.