Chinese Night

We love going places in our imaginations!
We will roll out a big sheet of colored bulletin board paper and paint scenes on - a farm, an ocean, a beach, etc. and go there and imagine what it would be like...what we would see, hear, smell, taste, and how it would feel.
We have enjoyed reading the American Girl books and imaging what it would have been like in their family, home, school, time period, etc.  We have especially loved Kirsten from Sweden immigrating to America and Kaya - an Indian girl.  We are currently on Molly from WWII era.
We have enjoyed looking at maps and finding where places are.  We have an interactive globe that will play music from all of the countries.
We decided to go to China!

River with Chopsticks.

We had rice with orange chicken.  River ate every last piece of rice with her chopsticks!

We decided that shiny fabrics, flowers and fireworks reminded us of China.

Silver's fireworks!

I love the chopsticks in their hair!

My little Chinese Girls!

Carp Bow Hunt and Idaho Trip

Have you ever read Patrick McManus?  Colt introduced me to the author and his writing.  HILARIOUS!  Especially after being married to a hunter/fisher outdoors man!  I can see Colt as a little boy/young teenager in these stories.  SO funny!  Especially when we have been camping/hunting/fishing/ice fishing and can relate to the stories.  Colt and I read them on long drives together and laugh and laugh!

We took the long drive to Idaho to visit family and had a great time!

Colt took me on a date to go carp hunting.  

Colt getting the bows ready.  We packed our bows.

So this trip seemed to come right out of a Patrick McManus!  

I get dressed for our date and don't want to wear my good pants...thinking this will be a fishing trip on the edge of a River where I can just watch my man reel in the fish and fling a couple of arrows in the water as they lazily drift past.  I dressed in pajama capris.  WRONG CHOICE!  We wade through stickers and prickly nasty weeds.  Over barbed wire, and when we waded the muddy stream I let out a scream sure a big something was after me from the splash I make in the water.

Even my first blind date questioned my attire.  My first blind date:  Dance.  At Utah State.  I wore tights and a long wool skirt.  A long sleeve white shirt followed by a blue knit sweater ontop.  I also had on the long wool coat from my mission.  The first words out of my date's mouth:  "You are wearing that?  You will freeze!"  I honestly didn't know how to go to a dance any warmer than that!!  He also carried lotion in his pocket so it was doomed from the beginning!

Could Colt not have warned me of the dangers my legs would encounter from this hunt through the wild?

At least he didn't carry lotion!  But Bug Spray would have been nice!  He was wearing hat, long sleeve shirt, jeans and appropriate shoes.  I made a nice meal for the mosquitoes.  I must love my man - I made myself dinner so he could hunt unimpeded.  

As with all hunting , stealth and patience are required.  2 things I don't have in copious amounts.  He came around the bend of the River, saw something flash, pulled his bow back and shot.

He was SO surprised that there was a RAINBOW TROUT in the muddy river - He thought there were only carp.  He was giggling was SO excited.

"Do you have any idea how cool this is!"  and "NO WAY!!"

It was cute to see him so excited!

Great date.  When hunting with Colt - expect the terrain to be covered in stickers, very inhospitable and the bugs to not have eaten in a week.  Great Times!  So thankful for family watching kids so Colt and I could have a great fishing trip.  

We took the kids with Colt's uncle Lance's family to a rodeo.  The kids got such a kick out of it.

We had a GREAT time!

River loves twisting, tying grass, twigs, flowers together to make crowns, hats, fishing poles, mats, etc.

Summer catching grasshoppers

VIDEO:  Summer's Grasshoppers

Daddy & Summer

Mommy and Tanzi

River and Grandma Delora Henderson's Flowers

Summy with Corn on the Cob!

Silver:  This Reminds me of my Grandpa Clyde

I LOVE this outfit - Summer with pink cowgirl boots

At Grandma Delora Henderson's home in Idaho.  

At a restaurant on our way back home

We LOVE trips together.  Especially to stop for Hang-u-burs!

Colt's Two Dears

Colt's deer hunt ran for 2 weeks.  The Monday before the end of the hunt he took River Silver Summer and Mommy out to see the deer.  We had a such a fun time looking hard to spot the deer.  We didn't see very many in the morning, but in the afternoon/evening just before dark we saw deer after deer after deer!  It was awesome!  

The girls had fun rolling down the window and watching for big puddles to splash through.  

Singing, talking, laughing

We ate some jerky on our ride and the girls decided they wanted to get a deer to make our very own jerky.

Hollow Tree

There is a cliff here with big boulders all the way down.  We stopped and threw rocks down and listened to them jump and bump all the way down.  Friendly chipmunk that would eat potato chips also lives here.

While waiting for Daddy to glass and track deer we found:

TONS of pretty wildflowers

Smiles

Frowns

Butterflies

And MUD!

SQUISHY MUD!  

Just right for little fingers, toes, legs, arms, faces....

River LOVED going out so much to find deer that she really wanted to get one with Daddy.

She wanted to make that jerky!

I was excited for her to go, but unsure how it would go for her when the deer was actually shot.

She has a very tender spirit and life is sacred - we hunt to enjoy the hunt, enjoy each others company, and use the meat.  

She very much enjoyed her time with Dad and they had candy, sang, talked and hiked.  She would pick wildflowers and pretty rocks while he glassed and stalked deer.  They helped get vehicles unstuck from the deep mud, and even got themselves unstuck!  She was a trooper to gather up sagebrush and build a road to drive the truck out of the mud on.  They even had an adventure backing up the truck to the trailer to pull it out in the dark.  This is a difficult feat for Mommy and Daddy to do.  She stuck with all the hiking and long hours.  The last day of the hunt Colt decided to forgo the big buck to get some jerky for River.  

They found a buck and and Daddy shot it.  River kept asking "Is it time to go yet?"  They needed to wait in case he was just injured for the deer to bed down.  River followed the blood trail and came upon the buck.  She was so happy to have got the buck.  She helped Daddy gut out the deer - what an amazing experience to talk about all of the organs and how they function, what they look like and what they do for us.  Biology and Anatomy are a testament to me that there is a God.  Everything works so well and goes hand in hand to bring life - even the cycle of life - meat is protein which our bodies utilize for muscle and energy.  

But enough chat:  On to the HUNT! 

When it came time to take him to the truck Daddy asked if she would carry the bow/arrows.  No WAY!  She wanted to help drag the deer!

We made excellent Jerky!

The whole family helped marinate and put in the drying racks.  

We decided a girl that loves hunting so much and is such a great trooper needed her own camo:

She got boots, Camo Overalls, camo hat and Camo coat for the Elk hunt.

River wrote a note to Daddy with the quote:  "Camo, It's like coming home"

Unfortunately:  it was extremely foggy on their elk hunt - could not see much of anything.

Fortunately:  River and Daddy were there - nothing can get these two down - laughing, talking, making the best of it, they had a great time even though they didn't see any elk.  

Daddy brought River back after a few days and returned the next Monday to hunt.  Under protest River returned to school.  Daddy sent us pictures that night to show the elk he got!  River wore full camo the next day to school in celebration!

Thank you Colt!  What an amazing Daddy to take a little girl along on his hunts!

Huntin's in the blood

Silver and Daddy at "Muley Crazy" 

Silver just can't wait until she is old enough to join Daddy too :)