First Beaver Turkey Hunt

The winter was a little more bearable for Travis knowing he had a hunt to look forward to in April. Travis, Draney, and Travis' Dad all had turkey tags here this year. Dallen and I got to go scouting with Travis one evening before the hunt and actually got to hear a good amount of gobbling. It was pretty exciting. Travis didn't get to hunt opening weekend because he had to work, so his first day off after the opening of the hunt, he went out and shot a really good looking Tom. He called him in sacrificing a numb leg that fell asleep while he was being a statue waiting for the Tom to move to the perfect location for a perfect shot. He got him on the first shot. It's always exciting to have him come home with a kill and was so interesting to watch Dallen watch Travis with the dead turkey. :) He kept his distance most of time. Looks like we're going to be mounting the feathers.

The second weekend of the hunt the 3 guys took off to the hills. They had a great time together and harvested another Tom. It was David's first turkey as well and was excited to get one as well. Draney went until the last minute he could on Sunday trying to get one as well, but they're just more evasive than Travis made them out to be! ha! It was fun to have visitors for the weekend. I actually think I'd like to do the turkey hunt next year. :)

Easy Easter

Dallen was so cute this Easter. It started out with a little Easter Egg Hunt that our neighbors did for him in our backyard. He didn't get to go to the community Easter Egg Hunt because he was sick. Ashley noticed we weren't there and wanted to teach her boys about serving others and so they hid a few eggs for him. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it until he found treats inside the eggs. Then he just wanted to sit and eat the candy instead of hunt for the eggs. They also gave him a bag of goldfish and he was way excited about that. 

Easter morning I woke him up to get him ready for 9am church and then he found his basket from the Easter Bunny. His favorite treats were Doritos, the juice bottle, a hoping bunny and sixlets. In the first picture he's so excited about his basket that you can see him smiling through his binky. Then the other 2 pictures he's showing me all of the wonderful things he's found in his basket. So cute! He definitely woke up happy that morning. It was so fun to see his excitement this year and see him understand that these colorful things in his basket are so fun and yummy! For Easter dinner the Browns were heading home to Provo and stopped in for the evening. It was so nice catching up with them and sharing Easter dinner with close friends. Such a great day and lots of blessings to be thankful for.

Clockwork Angel, Prince, Princess

These books have changed my life! Ok, so maybe it's not that dramatic, but they are truly amazing! They are inspiring just as Harry Potter was, but with more drama and relationship development. Cassandra Clare is truly a genius making you believe that the Shadow world exists and even did in the 1800's where these books take place. They resonate so much good, joy, hope, and love amidst a breath-holding story that you live in with the rest of the characters as either a spectator in the Institute with them or imagining yourself in the place of one of them. Clockwork Princess is especially amazing with truths that we all should pattern our life after. I couldn't have asked for a better ending! Makes me even want to read the Mortal Instrument series again as well. A good read every couple years for sure!

Beaver Prom

I'd heard a lot about the Beaver Junior Prom and just had to go to it and find out myself. So apparently this is a tradition that goes WAY back. The community and families are invited and the entire junior class dresses in formal wear. The rest of the high school students can come but dress in semi-formal wear as did we. As you can see the gym is decorated more lavishly than any wedding I've been too- very different than my prom. The evening begins with an hour long program. First they announce the junior class and their dates and spotlight them so that we can see their dresses and tuxes. There are only about 100 students so it didn't take too long. Then there were a couple musical numbers- piano and guitar/vocal. They said a few thank yous and then proceeded with the 'Promenade'. The Promenade is a choreographed group dance that the junior class performs to the theme song which in this instance was 'A Thousand Years' which I swear was one of the main songs on the Twilight series movies. Anyways, the dance was super cheesy and you could tell the kids just didn't care about it at all. Then they announced the prom royalty which are also juniors. And lastly they finish with a daddy/daughter, mother/son dance. 

I have to say that the program wasn't all that bad, just cheesy at some points and really it seemed like it was something all for the parents. Like I could see how I'd love to see my kid at prom do something like this but would hate to do it as a teenager myself. It just seems like they need to have another formal dance without the parents involved because I guess this is the only one, not to mention most of the rest of the school doesn't come anyway. I went to 2 proms and homecomings and my parents weren't at any of them. Anyway, my favorite part of the program was definitely checking out all the dresses- so fancy and princess looking. The fashion now a-days is full dresses and super sparkly. Very pretty. But overall, my favorite part of the evening was slow dancing with my hubby. We finally made it to the floor, once most of the students were gone and most of the people dancing were adults. We danced to 2 slow songs and I felt all butterflies again like it was one of our first dances. It was the ultimate country/small town romantic moment; I think he liked it too. We had a wonderful date and enjoyed getting all dressed up too. (wish we had a picture!) So fun these small town traditions. :)

Ranger XP 900-Oooo

Introducing our latest and greatest 4wheeler: Polaris Ranger XP 900! It's a bench seat in the front which seats 3. It fits Dallen's car seat perfectly and has really nice accessories- a roof, a full glass windshield, more comfortable seating and doors, and most importantly, it's more powerful. We love the orange! Travis got it street legal and found a box for the bed to fit all of our gear. The only down side is that there isn't much room for Lily with all of us riding together. She doesn't fit well in the bed with the box and gets too hot back there without a roof. So I let her sit with me sometimes and we all just squish. There have been a few times the Ranger Crew, 6 seater, would've been nice to take friends but this one maneuvers much better and fits in more places than the Crew. I absolutely love having a Ranger and am so glad we decided to buy one now and not wait until the possible Crew 900 came out.

SFW Banquet with the Starleys

Nick and Travis took the weekend off for the infamous Beaver County Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife Banquet. And it happened to be a winter wonderland that weekend as well. So we took the kids out and went sledding, built a snowman, and ate some snow. Nick, Mindy and Cael also enjoyed skiing at Eagle Point Resort up Beaver Canyon. Jay and Tamara and Nick's cousin and family also came to town for the big event. So we got a sitter and headed over to the Elementary school's gym. 

At the banquet you purchase tickets to get in and for the dinner and then you can purchase raffle tickets to put in for dozens of prizes. There's also an auction for other prizes including guns, bows, specialty hunts, and other gear. Last year Travis won the auction for a pair of hiking boots that he loves that ended up being $100 cheaper then what retail would've cost. This year Nick had his eye on a bow in one of the raffles. Well they started the evening auctioning off a large cowboy buckle. I immediately tuned out the auctioneer since I of course was not interested in a cowboy buckle. While he was rambling on, I spotted my friend Shawna across the room and raised my hand to wave to her and say hi. Next thing I know the auctioneer is pointing at me saying 'we have $80 right here right here...' And then he stops. He looks at me and reprimands me for waving during an auction because I'm telling him, no no, I don't want it! My face must've been beet red! It was THE most embarrassing moment, but a laughable one as well. Thankfully I didn't end up with a cowboy buckle. 

Later in the long long evening, as they were drawing the name for the bow, we all were startled to hear Nick's name called! We cheered and were just so excited to have someone in our group win a big prize. :) Travis and I ended up winning a few small things and just enjoyed the evening out with friends.