BeautiFall

Fall was truly gorgeous this year. There wasn't an early frost, and couple that with the hot temperatures that lasted until the end of October, the trees were full of vibrant, vivid colors all month long. I was constantly in awe all of September and October at the abundant natural beauty all around me. I tried to capture some of these images during moments that my eyes beheld them and my heart appreciated them, but unfortunately that meant that I was taking pictures on the spot, and thus I had only my cell phone on hand instead of my camera, so the quality of the photos aren't near as good as they truly were in real sight. 

September 20.
On this afternoon, I was basking in the glory
of the sun's rays and couldn't believe how
GREEN everything still was.  

September 30
Josh took this photo while working at the golf
course. The moon was a stark contrast against
the bright blue sky and full green trees. 

October 16
I looked out the window on this morning, and just
loved the sight of this tree glistening in the sun!

October 16
This tree across the field from our house usually  turns
brown early because of the first frost. I never remember
seeing it such a bright yellow before. It was so beautiful!

October 16
The smaller trees (on the left) in Ed & Kathy's yard turned orange, yellow, and red
LONG before the giant Oak tree (on the right) did. It surprisingly stayed green
until about Halloween, which is a rarity for it to last that long!

October 21
Every afternoon I parked under this tree
at my job. I loved watching it change on
a daily basis. It was so colorful!

October 26
This is the same tree 5 days later.
The red was so bold, and the green
was almost gone by this point.

October 21
Josh took this photo at the golf course. It was a gorgeous day, with green
on the grass, yellow on the trees, blue in the sky, and white in the mountains.

October 22
This was my favorite tree to pass on the way
home from work every day. It was in the yard
of a house along the highway, and it had THE
reddest leaves I spotted all season long. I
stopped at the house on the way home one day
to take this photo (much to the boys' dismay),
but I hate that you can't tell just how bright
red the leaves were from the quality of this pic. 

October 24
Because it was so unusually warm for so long, I got tired of watering the flowers,
and gave up mid-October. It didn't matter, though; the flowers were still going
strong until the first freeze in November, which finally stopped their growth.

We had two leaf clean-up days this fall: the first one on October 24, and the last one on November 14. The boys were happy to FINALLY be done mowing the lawn, but leaf clean-up days are actually a lot harder manually and take longer time than mowing. Josh mows the lawns (ours and Grandma's) with a riding mower that has collection bags, and when the bags are full, he dumps them into wheelbarrows. The boys then haul the wheelbarrows over to the pumpkin patch where they spread the leaves over the ground (they are used as a compost and later rototilled into the dirt), then they return back to the yard to repeat the procedure over and over again. When the Oak tree's leaves fall, though, they are too far too numerous and huge to mow over, so the boys rake them into piles, and then they move the piles to a trailer to be transported to the pumpkin patch that way instead. It's a laborious, time-consuming task to clean up the yards in the fall, but due to experience, it's a job the boys have become very good at completing (and they make sure to always includes some leaf-jumping and leaf-throwing to make the task more fun, too)! 

November 14

Colorful 5K

One of the Salmon High School seniors did a 5K Color Run in October for her senior project. I've wanted to do a color run for a while; I think they look so fun! I wasn't sure if I would be able to commit to running the race because of other commitments I had going at the time, but Josh and the twins signed up and were looking forward to it. All 3 of them had a goal to run in a fun run this year, and this was an awesome opportunity for them to complete that goal! The week of the race, my schedule opened up and I realized I could suddenly go to the race. I knew I could walk it, but I wanted to know if I could jog it since Josh and the boys planned on jogging/running the whole time and I wanted to be with them during the race instead of walking it alone. Josh took me on a practice run a few days before the race, but I could only run about a half mile before I wanted to stop and walk, so I knew I couldn't run with them the whole time. But, I think I'm going to make it a goal of mine next year to run in a 5K! Ammon didn't run because it was still XC season, and you can't run in any races other than sanctioned high school events. He was also injured, so he couldn't run. 

The race was on Saturday October 17th. The weather was so beautiful; it was a great day for a race!  The race started at the high school. When we arrived there, all the registered runners received a t-shirt and 2 color packets. There was a great turn-out for the color run! Before the race started, Lexi Keller was doing Zumba on a trailer in the parking lot, and it was fun to hear the upbeat music and watch the dancers to help get the excitement flowing before the start of the race. 

I don't know why the twins hate having their picture taken!

Right before the race started, everyone started throwing their colors all around. It was quite the sight!!

From the starting line, they ran across to Shoup Street, and down Lemhi Back Road. After a mile and a half, they turned around and came back along the same route. All along the way, there were locations with volunteers who threw color at the runners/walkers. I drove the suburban down a ways to watch Josh and the boys. They were near the front line of the racers the entire way. It was so fun to watch them!! Kanyon opted to stay at the high school collecting leftover color packets and playing toss with some of the kids hanging around.

One of the color stations along the route. The lady with dark hair and black shorts
in the center is throwing color at the participants as they pass her. 

Josh and the twins ran together the entire race. I was so impressed that Josh was able to jog the whole time without any prior training. It was awesome to watch the 3 of them run together the whole time!

Turning the corner onto Shoup Road on the way back to the high school

This was the finish line--they all had a strong finish, wanting to beat each other!

After the race ended, I took some pictures of everyone covered in color! I threw color on the boys several times throughout the race, and I ended up getting covered in it, too!

Micah's dual-colored hair!

Jonah's face splotched with color dots

The successful and colorful racers!

It was a fun event and I'm glad we were involved in it! I look forward to running in a color run with Josh and the boys next time!

4 Bucks for 4 Boys

Late last fall, Jonah and Micah took the Hunter's Safety class necessary to get their hunting licenses; they've been looking forward to hunting ever since. Josh was so excited to give them rifles for their birthdays in September this year so that they could participate in hunting this fall with him and Ammon. Josh used a laser to make sure their guns were shooting straight, and he took them target shooting to practice using their guns so they'd be more comfortable on the season's opening day. For weeks leading up to opening day, there'd been a pack of 7 bucks hanging around in the fields by our home. We watched them every evening, and all the boys were getting buck fever and were SO excited for the opportunity to hopefully tag several of them. And thankfully, within 48 hours of the start of opening day, they all got one!

L-R: Jonah's, Josh's, Ammon's, Micah's

Opening day was Saturday, October 10.  Jonah had his last football game of the season that day in Idaho Falls, and he got up early to catch his ride at 6am. After he left, Josh took Ammon and Micah to scope out fields near our home before the sun came up. As the sun began to light the sky, Micah had a good shot at one, but unfortunately missed. Josh spotted another one soon after, took the next shot and got it. Ammon followed a deer to a different field, and shot it; it went down but unfortunately it wouldn't die. So Josh got his pistol and went to where Ammon was. He shot at its head, but he looked away before pulling the trigger, and the shot ended up taking off the antler instead of being a clear shot into its skull. It still wouldn't die, and as they were slitting its throat, it was gasping for breath. It was a pretty traumatic killing, for sure. Because they were so involved with their deer that morning, nobody thought to take a picture in the fields! Josh gutted his deer, and Ammon gutted his deer in the fields, and then Grandpa came with the hay truck to load them up and bring them back to the shop. They hung the deer up in Grandpa's shop to skin them and cut off all the meat. In years' past, we've let the deer hang for a week or two to let it cure, but because the forecast said it would be a super hot day (reaching over 80*), we knew the meat would spoil, so the job had to be done that day. 

Josh hanging his freshly killed deer.
Notice the steam rising from its body?!

Using the chains to pull up Ammon's deer

Ammon pulling the skin off.
Tiki loved being around all the raw meat!!

After skinning both deer that morning, Josh took Kanyon and I into town to the Sacajawea Center. We unloaded pumpkins from the trailer, then he left to come back home and Ammon and Micah helped him as he cut off all the meat from both deer. Around 5:00, Jonah arrived at home, and Josh brought Kanyon and I back from selling pumpkins at the Sacajawea Center. Josh grilled us up some fresh venison steaks for dinner, and then he took Jonah to go hunting.

Jonah got one on his second shot! This time, Josh remembered to take a photo of the momentous occasion!

Then Josh repeated the same process from that morning: gut the deer, haul it to the shop on the back of the truck, hang it, skin it, and cut off the meat.

Jonah helping Josh skin it. 

Tiki loved all the piles of blood below the deer

As Josh cut strips of meat off the deer, he would hand it to Jonah, who then put it in a bag. As the bag became full, Jonah's job was to bring it up to the house and put it in the fridge, and then repeat the process. It was the same process that Micah and Ammon did that morning with both of Josh and Ammon's deer.

On Sunday afternoon, we started grinding all the meat that had been in the fridge for 24 hours. Josh started cutting the meat into smaller sections, and Ammon helped Josh by putting the meat into the grinder. He wasn't feeling very well, so then Jonah took over the grinding.

As we were processing the meat inside, Kanyon was on the lookout for deer outside. He spotted one in the field right below our house. Micah grabbed his gun, and Josh went out with him. He shot at the deer, and killed it this time! He was pretty happy to finally get his deer! 

It wasn't too far from our house, either. When they went to gut it, and Grandpa brought his truck over to the site to repeat the process again (for the 4th and final time), I took a break from the grinding to snap a couple of shots. This was the view from the back porch: 

Zooming in, you can see that Micah is holding up a leg as Josh is gutting it in the field before putting it on the truck and hauling it to the shop:

When they got back to the shop, it was Micah's turn to help skin it!

Tiki happily took the prize from this deer--similar to Rocky Mtn Oysters

Then Micah helped bag the deer meat and bring it up to the house as Josh cut it off the carcass.

Meanwhile, the whole time Micah and Josh were working on his deer, Kanyon and Jonah became my helpers in the kitchen. Jonah cut the meat into smaller strips AND fed them into the grinder, Kanyon measured 2-cups (the equivalent of 1 lb.) of meat, and I placed the meat into freezer bags and sealed them shut. They were good little workers, and we were an excellent team; we worked on it for 2 hours! It seemed like there was an endless amount of meat and I was determined to get it all done that night!

When Josh was through cutting up his 4th deer in 2 days, he came up and relieved Jonah from the meat cutting duty. Micah then became the grinder, and Jonah started measuring the meat for me.

Then after everyone took a break for a bit, Josh and I finished packing the rest of the meat that night, and then cleaned up the fridge and kitchen after the boys went to bed. We were both exhausted (especially Josh--he'd worked non-stop for 2 days!!), but the job needed to be done. There was a lot of blood all over everything: on the table, countertops, floor, fridge shelves, and on the utensils and dishes we'd used. It was like vampire heaven!

At one point, after cutting a ton of meat, Jonah said to me
"Look at my hands, mom! I'm bleeding!!" Thankfully he wasn't, but they were so gross!

Within 48 hours of starting the hunting experience, the boys tagged 4 bucks, we'd eaten venison steaks for dinner, and we had 110 pounds of deer burger stored in our freezer! It was a very successful hunting season, and an exciting one too!