September's Gone

Once again, another whole month has flashed before our eyes. The fall colors have been magnificent and the weather has been quite nice except the past week or so which has been rainy and therefore freezing cold! We buckled and used a single bag of pellets the other night because it was too cold, even though I told myself I would wait until October. 

So the haps. 

Oh, nooo...no. Oh no. 

Truman can stand but not walk.

We extended the road in front of our house (or shortened our lawn, depending on how you look at it) because Billy always drives over it with his trailers and in the winter the plow does the same, thus, we had no grass. 

It was a fun project and Truman and I mostly contributed by playing in the dirt and gathering rocks because Billy is just a machine (and a professional) so it was almost silly for us to even try doing anything else haha. But Truman LOVED the dirt! Rocks are his most favorite thing in the world. 

I had downloaded some other good pictures of the finished product, but once again, they disappeared so you'll just have to come see it in real life. I am pleased with how it turned out, but now i want to fix up the rest of the yard too. Oh well, next spring maybe. 

My garden fought a brave fight, but the deer were too fierce. I came away with two tomatoes that made it to ripeness, one teeny little tiny pepper that I didn't actually get to eat before the deer did, and 3 or 4 delicious cucumbers (turns out, the deer love the leaves but not the veggie itself. I'll take it!)  

 This dog is so funny and roams the canyon. It belongs to a family deeper in the canyon but it's a big, white, furry, burr-covered, bear-like creature that just sometimes sleeps on my porch haha. 

My friend Jen with whom I lived my last two years of college-ish texted me the other day and invited me to a goodbye party for her. I'm like, "Sweet! Where are you going?" She's like, "On a mission!" hahah I had no idea. She will be an old missionary (she's my age) but so so great!  

 Me and Jamie went on a hike in a canyon up her direction and the boys were once again in heaven. Trey is a rock climber!! And Tru is a rock eater!

This is such a poopy picture that does not do it justice, but my trail has been so magnificently divine and colorful, I love it! Even though I did not make as much progress up the mountain as I would have liked to before fall, I love having my own little mountain trail in my backyard! We retreat there frequently.

Another project, Billy put a gate in our fence so we can hide his junk pile behind our garage.

 Brrr!

I canned my head off! I will be glad in the winter months for the delicious fruit!

Visiting dad at work

Dropping off a tent for Dad. Truman loved playing with Grandbill!

The other week we went camping up by one of our favorite lakes on Nebo Loop. We left rather late and so Truman fell asleep on the way there and when we got there, I bundled him up in a billion layers. He was SO skeptical and couldn't really move since he had 12 layers on, so we were laughing our heads off! This picture is worth clicking on to see the zoomed in version because he was so weirded out by where he could possibly be or what could possibly be going on.  

But in the morning he was happy once again and loved camping.

Kim came and met us and she and I went for a beautiful trail run while Billy and Truman fished. The colors were divine!

I went and spoke to CJ's cross country team (props to Eric and all other people who ever teach teenagers because it is harder to gauge if 16 year olds are taking in a single word you say than if 5 year olds are haha! But i guess they liked it). Anyway, I stayed for practice and saw Coach Carter in action and she was the best coach ever! She has a good team and I was endeared to my own cross country days. 

 And now I am playing with Joey! I actually feel like I am hanging out with baby boy versions of Charina and me, two little people that look alike but one is the dark version and one is the light version. So fun! 

That's it, that's all! Onto one of the finer months of the year, October! Birthdays, anniversary, holidays, the happy time between being excited for winter but not yet remembering that it's actually freezing and miserable! 

Birthday Month!

Welp, August is gone! But it was a good month. I tried to send all the best pictures from Billy's phone but somehow some didn't come through. oh well!

Billy had a big rock wall job and it turned out great. He also had another big BYU job at the MOA (one of the missing pictures) but also that turned out great. 

Truman is getting better and better at turning everywhere he goes into a tornado zone.

We went to the Natural History Museum with Lindes and CharlyAnn and that was fun.

Billy did this water feature for our neighbor.

We wanted to try some backpacking with Truman so we headed up into the Uintas. Truman did great and loved it!

It was only a mile hike into the lake where we were camping so it was a good trial run. 

When we got to the lake, which was beautiful, Billy fished for awhile and we had some dinner and set up camp. The moon was ridiculously full that night so we opted to sleep without the rain cover which turned out to be maybe not so good an idea becuase it was too bright for Truman. He had a few bad outbursts but overall it was a good night of sleep. 

Billy did some fishing in the morning and even though there was cliff jumping there and that's why I wanted to go to that lake in the first place, it was too cold to even think of it! So we spent a relaxing morning in the mountains then went home to the relaxing mountains. 

Billy had some really great employees this year and he took them boating again for an end of year bash since many of them were going back to school. 

I had a highlight hiking experience! I was hiking with Tru in a canyon that is usually deserted, even of all animal life. I looked up on the ridge and what did I see? 

Two real live big horn sheep with real live big horns!! I have never ever seen any of these anywhere in Utah and I have done my fair share of mountain exploring! I thought it was so awesome! So i hiked up the mountain a little more and hoped I might see them on my way back down too. 

Well, on my way back down, they obliged and came right to the trail! 

It was kind of a little scary cus I don't know their temperament, but they were distracted with each other. I got better pictures but I don't know where they went. Anyway, it was crazy! And I also took a video but could never figure out videos on here, but they were just head bashing each other! Not fiercely, but enough that I was like, oh man!  

I just thought it was so cool. I have never seen those guys here. 

Tru can climb somehow. 

And basically eat peaches whole. 

We ran a marathon on Saturday and we were kind of nervous cus there's been really no training. But it was fun and beautiful and great! Billy did really well considering he rarely ever got a chance to run beforehand!  

The course was stunning and so fun. Mom and Dad and Linde kids came after. 

Billy's current job, cinder block walls that he'll be facing with brick. he's never done this kind of wall before and I thought it turned out so well!

We took a little hike with Jamie and Trey and trey was doing his super hero pose and they were both doing their boy thing of sticks and dirt and rocks and stuff. 

And this day I went with Mom and Dad to hike the Timp Caves. It was SO cool! No offense Kentucky, but it was better than our Mammoth Cave tour (though admittedly we could only do the kind of ninny tour while we were there). But yeah, it was sweet! 

Kind of small, but that's mom and dad up there. They hike that path frequently and they are beasts! cus it was a good climb! But i just was most amazed at how the heck someone even climbed up there to discover that cave in the first place. That guy was crazy. 

Ok, that's it! Fun! September, October, November, December, basically already gone, goodbye 2016!