Happy Thanksgiving!

**DISCLAIMER** Sorry, but this is a long post....

Wow, what a great, yet very busy weekend! We had our fill of turkey, potatoes, pie, and everything else that my mom and guests had prepared! Thanks so much Mom, and Lisa for the great meal! We had so much fun up in Bountiful.
Lisa made this great Jello mold salad! She was so happy the "mold" part turned out!! Good job Lisa, both of your salads were so good!

I don't have a picture of the whole table of food.. I honestly think this is the first Thanksgiving that my Mom didn't take a picture! Every year the picture looks the same, but she always took a picture.. We'll have to remember the picture next year.
Gary went hunting Thanksgiving morning with no luck.. Oh well, better luck next time!! Our Thanksgiving was a little quieter than normal. My sister, Kristen had some of Clay's family down so they didn't make it and Eric's family didn't make it because they had some sick kids. Dave's family didn't make the trip up from Mesa, but they're coming for Christmas!! Our Thanksgiving consisted of Mom and Dad, Bryan's family & our family!

The weather was so nice and the kids had fun playing outside together.


After we got everything cleaned up we watched some TV.. Lisa had Pollyanna and turned it on for the kids.. By the end of the movie the kids were running around and the adults were the ones watching the movie! I love that show and Gary had never seen it... I'm sure it was a life changing event for him :)..

Gary, Jackson, & I went home after the movie. Madi stayed and slept at Bryan & Lisa's house! She was so excited to have a sleepover! Thanks you guys for having her over, she had a lot of fun!

The next morning Gary and I got up and started packing for our trip up to Logan. Gary wanted to go hunting again on Saturday so we got a hotel and went up Friday afternoon! We always have so much fun up in Logan. That night we ate at Madi's favorite place, Olive Garden, went shopping and went bowling.. Madi says that she won... We stayed at the University Inn on the Campus of USU! Gary and I both graduated from USU and it was so fun to go up and walk around campus and go inside the buildings we spent a lot of time in.

Here is the room where Gary did all his studying! There were nights he slept up in this room when they pulled all nighters for exams..


I went and walked around the Fine Arts building.. I miss singing with my choir up there so bad! I loved the challenge of the songs and singing with such talented peers! It was nice to walk around inside. We headed over to the visual arts side of the fine arts building. There is a long hall in the back of the building that all the students put the art they have completed. Gary and I thought this was a cool wire sculpture of a dry fly..


We passed a lot of flower beds filled with pansies.. Come Spring these will be huge and take up the whole flower bed! I love Springtime up on campus..


Madi got a kick out of all the different sculptures around campus.. I think the art students do these. She liked the "french fry" one..


I was disappointed that I didn't get a better shot of Old Main.. I love this building.. It's an old building and isn't necessarily a pretty building, but so many memories and feelings rush to my mind when I see it!


The next morning we got up bright and early @ 6:15 so we could be the first hunters of the day and catch those little pheasants off guard. Gary and Bryce have specific spots they like to hunt and wanted to be the first to hunt these spots. Here are some random pictures we took that day.

Here's Gary and Uncle Bryce helping Madi across the ditch.. We figured it was too early in the day for her to fall and get all wet..


I liked this picture of Madi stompin' her way up the hill with Gary and Jackson coming up in the rear! Madi had a lot of fun today, but after awhile she finally sat down to rest while I was at the top of one of the ditches posting it for the guys..



Is this not the cutest puppy ever!! We saw this little guy at one of the houses we stopped at to get permission to hunt on their property. The minute I saw him I jumped out of the car to pet him! SO cute!!


Jackson was so good this trip! He was in the backpack most of the time and he was either looking around and taking in the scenery or taking a nap.. Here's nap #1..


And here's #2


By one of the spots we hunted we came across a huge area of cattails.. Madi had a lot of fun playing with them and getting all the soft part off of the top part. All the white stuff at her feet is from the cattails she had been playing with..

These cattails are so soft! No wonder they're called Cattails!


Here is Gary, Jackson, Bryce, and Casey walking back to the car to head home!! Notice how DIRTY Casey is! Mind you he is a YELLOW lab.. His fur was packed with mud! We had to come home and give him a bath! This is the first time I've every had to use a scrub brush to give my dog a bath!



Bryce was the only one to get a bird that day! I was up posting the ditch and when the rooster took off in the air Bryce shot it.. He hit it, but when it hit the ground it started to run.... FAST!!! I took off and sprinted so we wouldn't loose the bird. I called for the dogs hoping they would run up and find it. I saw it quite a bit ahead and started running again.. I stopped where I had last seen the bird, right by a small body of water. There was good cover by the water so we sent the dogs in looking for them. They had a hard time finding the bird, but eventually Bryce's dog, Gage found it.. Here is a video of them looking for the bird. The video doesn't show them finding the bird. They found it a few minutes after I took this. I was sad I didn't get it on video..


Here's Bryce and Gage with their bird.


Here's Madi posing in the huge tree!


Mommy, Jackson, & Madi!!!

Jackson was so happy to get out of that backpack and walk around (yes, he is finally walking.. I just haven't been able to get a video of him)! At this point he'd probably been in the backpack 6 or 7 hours. We hunted for about 8 1/2 hours that day pretty much walking the whole time! We were all so tired!


Gary with Jackson and Casey! Cute picture.


Gary is such a great dad! After hours and hours of hunting he still found the strength to carry both kids for a few minutes.. You're probably wondering why I didn't take part of the load... Gary said he was alright.. I offered to help, I promise!


This was the last weekend of the Pheasant Hunt up in Idaho.. You're probably sick of seeing all our hunting trip pictures.. Just think, you don't have to see them again until next year! LUCKY YOU!!