Trip to See My Dad

So on Sunday after church I took Aby (my niece) to Yakima to hitch a ride home with my sister, April. Because my Dad is there... I stopped in to see him and let me tell you what, I was amazed. I am so proud of my Dad and how far he's come. He looks great and is doing so much better. I know there's still a long road ahead, but I am amazed at how good he's doing. I wanted to let him know how much I love him and am glad that things are going well... I will continue to pray for him though as I have been. Life is hard and sometimes we need a little divine guidance. :)

I also wanted to thank all of you that have been praying for my father to get better and recover.

You don't know how much it means to me to have others take time out of their day to pray to their Father in Heaven for a person who is struggling.

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!

FInal Shrub Demo and Pumpkin Carving...

This was the crew that helped us out minus the Bishop. Thanks again for all the hard work and support (the tractor kinda helped too :o)

This is the huge pile left after 4 trailer trips to the dump full of shrubs, 1 full of dirt, and 4 garbage cans full. It was a HUGE project! We are so grateful to everyone who helped us out! Brother McMann and his son Joel, Brother Marrott, Bishop LaDow, and Brother Smith with his family.

The roots on this thing were unbelievably huge! It was a hard job for the guys that night... plus it was raining, windy and dusty.

The three kiddos, Brielle, Joel, and Landon sat and watched the bigger people work. They helped by sweeping and cheering them on.

This is the pumpkin that my niece, Aby carved. I couldn't guess what it was with the lights on after she was done, but it turned out really nice when lit up in the dark! Good Job Aby!

This was what my date carved. The date didn't go all that well... so no reoccuring ones with him... he free handed his... can you tell?

This is the one that I did. It's a pirate's ship. It was wicked awesome. The best pumpkin I've carved by far!

I love to carve pumpkins, but just didn't get to it this year because of he hectic schedule and everything. So about a week or more after Halloween I finally get around to it with my niece here... It's always more fun to carve pumpkins with more people than just yourself.

Good Times

Great things have been happening!

I found out that my divorce that was started almost 10 months ago was finalized this last week. I spent some time with my sister, Leah, cooked and ate dinner and watched a movie followed by a trip to Wal-Mart. Then we baked cookies and visited with friends into the late night. It was fun to just hang out with her and sing at the top of my lungs my favorite song by Taylor Swift, "You Shoulda Said No," while they laughed at me. :op I had an awesome time with the Young Women in church on Sunday and laughed at how off I was at trying to practice one of the songs with them because of my darn cold. I spent this Sunday night at my roommate's parent's house and had TONS of fun with her family. We made popcorn, danced in tutus, again sang at the top of our lungs, plastered ourselves with "Brooke" stickers, ate carrot cake till we couldn't stomach any more, surfed facebook, myspace, and other networking sites, and then ended by having Family Home Evening which consisted of telling everyone what we had going on this next week while Chelsea was giving Andrea a pedicure. We compared foot shavings and read from the Ensign's Conference Issue, and then watched their family videos and laughed. It was so much fun.

Lately, I have loved driving around town and seeing the fall colors. Days in the Kennewick area have started out rainy and dreary, but usually end up sunny and nice. We are going to take the kids out and have them play in the leaves and get pictures this next week sometime. The trees are gorgeous around here. The church has some amazing trees with about an inch of leaves under them. Sweet spot for pictures. :)

I am going to be one busy bee early this week. Tonight my mom is coming over from Quincy with my niece, Abby. Tomorrow I am helping with the demo of the other 2 shrubs in our front yard right after work. Wednesday I have the YW/YM activity of raking sister's leaves in the ward which I am looking forward to. Then Thursday is finally the day that I don't have something going on right after work and can finally buckle down and study. I have my first MiaMaids lesson I have to prepare for this week as well and somewhere this week I want to go visit teach one of my sisters that I have. Go Go Go... that's a mom's life right?

I know I haven't posted Halloween pictures on here yet and the reason is because I couldn't find them on the computer. Andrea had downloaded them, but I couldn't find them and then when I finally asked her and found out where they were, her computer now has the blue screen of death! I don't know what the issue is there... I'm just worried that all the pictures we have stored on there are not going to be able to be accessed. Has anyone else had any experiences with the "Blue Screen of Death" on their computer before and if so how did it work out?

First Hunting Trip Ever!

I never thought that I would ever go with my brother-in-law on a hunting trip... but since I've helped him set up duck blinds and have fun playing/training his dog, I have really been interested in going and see what hunting is all about. I only thought that it was men going out and slaying poor helpless animals and then laugh at them as they die. But apparently I was either an idiot or a dork who has watched one too many deranged movies. Oh and I have to clarify that my job during this hunting trip was to use my camera and capture moments and angles that would look really good. I was a pretend photographer, my roommate is the real photographer so I tried to put some of the things that I've heard her talk about to use during this trip! :)

Hunting was so fun. I got up at 3:30 in the morning and pulled myself out of bed after going to bed at 11:30 that night before. So I really thought about calling Thomas, my brother-in-law and ask him to do this another morning... but I didn't because he was so excited about it. I had to sing songs out loud in the car with the cold blowing to keep myself awake on the 10 -12 mile drive to his house in Pasco. I got there and he hooked me up with a pair of thermals from my sister and some waders which she had not used and still had the tags on. It was very comfy! I loved the waders... I wish they made something like that to wear every day!

We headed out and drove to our spot which no one had claimed yet... we parked his truck so that everyone could see we were going to be claiming that area for the morning hunting season. After we packed down about a dozen decoys, MagnaLight, shotgun, bird with twirling wings (fake, but effective), and a cement filled bucket to have it sit on as well as my camera and cell phone in case we needed it or someone called us. We were walking in pitch dark and Thomas had forgotten his hat that had the built-in camera so we were walking in the dark. It was kinda fun.

When we got to where we were going to set up the decoys, we dropped everything and went into the water and started to plop the decoys down after untangling them because I was the smart one that tangled the guarenteed-not-to-tangle-together decoys... Talent is all I can call that one! ;D We were setting up the decoys and this entire time I had been carrying the MagnaLight and for some reason put it between my neck and shoulder to help untangle some of the decoys... but then heard something I really didn't expect, "Autumn. Did you just drop the flashlight in the water?" Yeah... smooth... within the first 15 minutes of being out there I had dropped the flashlight in the murky water.... wonderful. I could tell my day was going to be wonderful just from this first experience. So we tried for 5 minutes to find the flashlight with our feet in our waders to help get it up. After that we just gave up and I promised Thomas I would pay him for another one. Stupid Autumn! Way to go!

Now I have to let you know something that I learned and had my eyes opened to! I didn't know that when hunters went out that sometimes they waded in the water up to their chests and then would sometimes stand in water up to their chest to hunt a good spot. We weren't up to our chests, but we were up to our knees and there were some places we were up to our chest in the freezing water. Thank goodness Zoey, Thomas' very talented hunting dog, was there to fetch the ducks.

Moving on... we finish up setting up the decoys and finally I grab my camera and start to take some shots... it was still pitch dark and my camera was acting up (which reminds me that I need to get the user manual out of it to check some of the settings). My favorite part of that time of morning was me hearing geese flying above us, but not being able to see them. Another part I laugh about even now was me telling Thomas that the sun was coming up in one direction and he looked at me funny (I couldn't see his face, but I could just tell he was) and told me the sun would come up on the opposite horizon... of course I didn't believe him because he was obviously blind... but in the end he was right and again I was wrong...

The moon was just a little thumb nail and I tried to get it, but my camera was focusing on everything but the moon. Frustrating!

Thomas and his hunting dog, Zoey. She is beautiful and very well mannered, not to mention talented. I love her.

Thomas with his duck calls hanging around his neck. He has quite the collection.

Thomas doesn't have gloves on and puts his hands in his waders to keep them warm. He goes the entire winter without gloves...

So fast forward to when the huge flock of ducks come into the area Thomas was hunting. I didn't know what time it was because Thomas had my cell phone to check the time. I heard from him it was about 10 minutes till when the ducks flew in, he just hunkered down and hoped they would stay the 10 minutes until shooting opened for ducks (7:00am). Finally we heard the shots in the distance at 5 till and so Thomas took the shots and downed 3 ducks. We were super suprised that Zoey brought in her first ever double-catch fetch. She brought back two ducks at once, which she hasn't done yet! The third one that he had shot landed far out there and we couldn't find it at first on the water and then finally about 4 minutes after Zoey came back we spotted it out and then when it came closer Thomas sent Zoey out after it. He used hand signals to direct her until she spotted it. Just after that while Zoey was coming back in, another group of ducks came into the area. Thomas shot at them and downed another one right behind us about 10-15 feet.

These are the shells that were discarded just the first 10 minutes of the morning when it was time to start hunting. Very impressive! Of course we picked them all up so not to litter. It's the Hunters Code to clean up th place before you leave. Below: Zoey waiting for Thomas to give her the go to get the ducks he downed.

Thomas finally does give her the go and she's off....

Thomas using his hand signals to tell Zoey where to go to get to the duck in the water which she couldn't see at the moment.

This was the dawn shot. This was the sun finally peeking out. The dawn is beautiful here! I haven't experienced it yet like I did this day. You have to be there I guess to do it justice.

Zoey returning with the ducks.

Thomas looking watching more ducks flying in....

Another couple of scenery/dawn shots

To say the least Thomas was one away from his limit that day (7 ducks per hunter in one day). It was light out and I was getting some good shots (with my camera of course). I couldn't shoot anything alive and kill it. Even in high school when we were raising chickens, when it came time to butcher them I couldn't do the cutting heads off thing. I did the gutting, but not killing. So we decided to go walk around to the other ponds right by us to see if there were ducks there. The entire time it was so awesome. I definately was moved by how beautiful and peaceful things were at that time in the morning. We took some shots on the railroad tracks and at different places along the way that I thought were good ideas.

Do you see that Zoey poses too!

Thomas lookin on a pond that he really thought there would be ducks on.

This is Zoey running down the railroad tracks to us. I love this one too!

Thomas, the hunter, and Zoey, the hunting dog

I really like the sillhouettes in these photos.

Thomas started to get "smart" with me when I was telling him how to pose... so this is HIS pose shot that he liked! :D Could you tell we had fun with this?

I really liked this one with not only Thomas, but his shadow on the bushes behind him.

Another sillhouette I liked.

In this photo Thomas was waiting for Zoey who had gone after something in the brush... right after I shot this photo Zoey came running out after Thomas called her because there was a Racoon hissing in there.

Thomas calling ducks in before we left.

We finally went back to our spot and started to pick up the decoys and as we were collecting them, a flock of ducks flew over head of us and Thomas shot one. I will spare you the details, but he had to go after it himself after Zoey couldn't find it because it was hiding. So that was his limit for the day. We packed up and packed everything back to the truck. I wasn't trusted with the decoys another time, I don't know why! ;)

This is Thomas moving from his call to getting his gun ready... you can tell he's concentrating...

Then this is me taking a shot while trying to cover my ears which were still ringing from the shots earlier in the day. Thomas popped up like a Jack in the Box.

Thomas across the pond searching out the duck he downed.

That's his last one and limit for the day. Zoey was really wanting to take it back to shore. Can you tell?

Thomas with the seven ducks he shot.

I love this photo of Thomas and the decoys along side the real ducks. This is probably one of my favorites of the day.

After we packed everything back up to the truck we had to get our picture together.

So the hunting trip with Thomas was so much fun. I definately hate the fact that women don't look good at all when they roll out of bed and guys always do! It's not fair! I definately am going to do another hunting photo shoot with my brother-in-law, his friend, and my nephew in December or sometime in the winter. I love being out in the early morning and experiencing the sunrise by yourself and in person. It was awesome.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

I don't honestly remember the day we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Andrea met me with Brielle and Shay at my work... we loaded into my car... ran over to pick Landon up from Daycare... then drove right over to the Pumpkin Patch which was already starting to get dark. The first thing we did after being in awe of how cute the little goats were that were roaming around where ever they wanted... was ride the cow train... I don't know what to call it.

At this point Landon started to cry so to try to calm him down and show him it was okay to ride in the cow train... I just jumped in behind him!

I love this shot because you can see how dark it's getting, but also because of the sunset behind us. It was the Farmer as the driver, Brielle, Landon, Me, and then Shay.

Afterwards I wanted to get a picture with Landon and the Farmer who was really friendly and nice to the kids, but Landon was terrified of him. You can clearly tell what he was thinking in his face.

Then we headed over to the petting zoo. Landon didn't really want to get close to any of the animals. I think he was a little skeptical even after I showed him it didn't hurt to pet the calf.

There was this HUGE pig, named Bubba! He was bigger than me if he stood on two legs! I couldn't believe how big this pig was... I was scared of this animal... I don't know what Brielle thought as she was going up to it. It did have a big sign that said, "Don't put your fingers in the cage!" Apparently Bubba isn't very friendly. He looked like he had the mouth of a warthog...

Me and Landon next to the pigs!

This was the duck races where you pump the water down the thing and sees whose duck makes it down first. Landon loved this! Both of the kids started throwing fits when we had to leave because they loved it and it was getting dark and there was so much more to do!

Landon trying to pump the water by himself!

Andrea and Shay racing ducks while the kids look on.

Landon loved this... can you tell?

Me trying to help Landon with the pumping thing... it didn't work out too well.. our duck got stuck a few feet down the thing.

This is Shay, Landon, and Brielle in the little face thing as Sunflowers... it was cute. Landon kept trying to put his arm through it rather than his face.

There was this HUGE pyramid of big haybales. Landon and I climbed it and Landon didn't want to get down. It's hard to see us... wonderful camera couldn't see very clearly right then.

After the pyramid, Landon decided to say hello to a random goat on a picnic table. He got up and was trying to feed it some oats on the table... but right after this picture was taken he shot his hand back like the goat was going to eat it. It was cute.

Landon looking at the huge pyramid when Andrea and Brielle were at the top.

Landon is really into tractors and trains right now. We have this tractor and train book and he wants to read it everynight. So I thought this was a great time to get a picture with Landon and a tractor. Look how small he is compared to it.

There was a scarecrow measuring thing there. It was cute, but he wouldnt' sit still long enough to have me take a really decent photo... so this is what I got.

There was a stuffed bear there and Brielle didn't like it at all.. The first time she saw it, she started to screaming and had the look of terror on her face... Andrea thought it was so funny that she wanted to get a picture of her reaction... so this was the second take of it.

Another random billy goat on the weighing table for the pumpkins while we were waiting for the food.

There was the kid's haybale maze where they only had one haybale high... Landon loved this and so did Brielle. It was freezing there that night... Landon's hands were ice cold... I felt really bad. He sure did love this maze though. I kept running away or towards him and he would laugh and laugh.

Where's Landon in the maze?

Landon and I

There were these Massive Swimming Pools that were filled with corn that the kids could play in. Landon loved those too... but not as much as Brielle.

Landon and I - Andrea and Brielle

All throughout the place there were tricycles. Landon had to try each and every one of them out.

Finally we went to look for pumpkins.

Landon tried to carry ours.. it was a little too heavy for him. :)

He fell down and hurt his hand which was frozen by this point.

This was Landon's little pumpkin that he picked out in the pumpkin patch.

My pumpkin was weighed and it was a whopping 17.27 pounds! Only $4.35 for it though! Great deal!

On the way out of the pumpkin patch/corn maze, there was this little billy goat laying curled up next to a lady... so the kids pet it before we left.

This is what the corn maze looked like... and even though we didn't go in it because Andrea doesn't like corn mazes at all... I wanted to get a picture of it. It had the donkey and elephant for the election year. Very cool!

Landon wanted me to put him in the wheelbarrow just after we got done petting the billy goat... so I did...

Then Brielle wanted in....
Here are the kids with their pumpkins and my big pumpkin in the wheelbarrow.

All in all the day went great. It was definately busy and rushed... but maybe next time we will plan this a little better and have to do it on the weekend when we won't have to rush rush rush the entire time.