October

To celebrate both the girls birthdays in October, we wanted to do something with Kathy. We were hoping to go horse back riding but God closed that door. I was really apprehensive with Victoria riding a horse with her brain coming down her brain stem. So we went to a ceramic painting place in our puny mall. Kathy painted/glazed a knitting bowl that turned out really pretty. Victoria painted a dog bank to look like Jasper. Daphne painted salt and pepper shaker cats to look like Thunder and Lightning. And I painted a little dog plate to use as a spoon rest in the colors of Henry.

We took MerkTavitch to IFA to pick out a present for his First Birthday. And then we texted Kaleb a photo of Merk with his new toy. It freaked Kaleb out because he thought he missed his birthday but then realized that we were just a day early. Merk wanted this sloth. He likes flimsy fabric type toys.

I used my umbrella to bring treats to the goats and Brody. The goats were not sure about the umbrella. Brody could care less. 

The past two years, our maple trees leaves froze before they could fall to the ground. We have a real Fall this year. Finally!!

I came upon this scene of Kaleb and Merk dressed like twinsies coming back from their Saturday morning run. Merk's harness is orange and black like Kalebs shorts.

We celebrated Daphne's and Victoria's birthday really late. The kitchen was still not helpful in baking a cake so we waited until almost November to celebrate their birthdays. Plus I had to bake two because Daphne has to be Grain free, Gluten free, Dairy free, no refined sugar...you name it she probably can't have it. 

Of course Victoria's was Triple Fudge Chocolate, homemade cake and homemade frosting.

Daphne's was gluten, grain and dairy free chocolate cake and coconut base frosting. She was so happy to have cake that she can eat.

Kaleb. Victoria and I had to get out of the house. We were all getting stir crazy really bad and bad things were about to happen if we didn't get out of the house. So we walked along the canal.

Kaleb acting goofy with these enormous leaves.

Victoria acting like a dork. She was mocking how other girls are all twitter happy and girly and how she is not so she decided to act like she was twitter happy. We have the most interesting conversations when were hiking.

These seed pods were all along the way. We did our best to spread them and watch them float in the breeze. I remember being little and my mom telling me not to blow the dandelions seed pods. We couldn't help it with these. They were huge!!

Sammy is getting old. It's been a year since Henry passed away and now Sam is 14 1/2 years old. He's become clingy and back to being a lap dog.

Jasper is so funny. Victoria put a mullet wig on him at the 4H Howl-O-Ween Agility Night. He cracks me up. He was trying to get my attention so he huffs until I looked at him. 

I cut holes in a sparklets water bottle and put treats and grain in it for Brody to kick around. It took him quite a while to figure out how to get the treats out. He started picking it up by the handle and then drop it, hoping the grain will fall out. He ended up stepping on the bottle and broke it. So now I have to find another big plastic bottle. His tail has grown back so nice since Jacks ate it last winter. Well, he did it again but worse. Jacks has eaten Brody's tail to the point that he might as well have shaved his tail. I was so mad. But then we noticed that Brody ate Jack's beard. SO I guess they are even.

 

Random Fall

Leaves and then some .... Carrots. Our harvest was successful. 

 

Belgium Waffle Ride

Kaleb raced in the Belgium Waffle Ride in September. He rode his bike 85 miles in 6.5 hrs.

It was quite an adventure. Kirk, Victoria and I rode down to Cedar City with him and camped. It was a very nice get away. But there is quite a story that goes with this.

Kaleb found a campground to stay in. So we followed Google maps from the actual BLM website to this well established campground. We pulled off the paved road onto a dirt road and next thing we know we are driving the van and our tent trailer on a jeep trail into the desert. We followed it to the place that the campground was supposed to be and pulled into this area where other people were camped but just out in the desert...like how I grew up camping. We had to get back to the start line for Kaleb to get to a meeting the day before. So we found a spot, dropped the trailer and....got the van stuck in sand.

Like, really bad stuck. Kaleb, Victoria and I had to push the van really far. It was horrible. Victoria's heart rate was in the 180s and freaking me out. She had to stop and just follow along. It was hot, dust was flying, we get the van unstuck, jump in and start back down the way we came to get Kaleb to this meeting on time. 30 minutes later, we are turned around, appear to be lost. Kirk is barreling through the scrub and rips the license plate off the front of the van. Kirk is freaking out and almost destroys the van. I jump out and get better cell service so we can use google maps to get us back to the trailer. We go back, but stay on more solid ground while Kirk is still freaking out. Kaleb and I push the trailer over to the van and use Google Maps to get the Heck out of there. Kaleb missed his meeting, oh well. We ended up staying the first night in a KOA and then while Kaleb we riding the race we actually found the campground and stayed there the next night. It was very nice and peaceful. It was a nice break away from the hub bub of life.

Kaleb amazes me. He has so much energy. It does not surprise me that he has invested in these bike races.

Woo Hoo! Survivor!

We've missed the desert.

There was still time to play Parcheesi

And time for hiking before we left for home.

Victoria, doing a great job at Photo Bombing!

I guess Jasper was exhausted and managed to get the whole seat to himself!

 

Wind Storm

We were eeking out one more cookout at Bear Lake. It was only the first weekend of September. The wind was blowing so hard it was ridiculous. We were so desperate to stay, wait, I was so desperate to stay, that we stayed. We had no kitchen at home so it was either the wind storm or face the torn apart kitchen, dust, cooking in the garage.

We were the only ridiculous people out there.

We had the WHOLE LAKE to ourselves!

 

Jasper's Girlfriend

Jasper truly only likes one dog....really. He will tolerate a couple others but he truly only likes Cora. It is so cute to watch them when they first see each other. We have to take them off to the side and let them get their wigglies out they are so happy to see each other. This is Merk's Mama. 

 

Bucket Boy

Little Bucket Boy is growing!

Blossom the bunny is in the background. She has been digging out of the goats pen. At some point she is going to be on her own!
 

A Much Needed Day Away!

I can't even remember the name of this lake. It was a nice little walk. Okay, I've been told, it was Bloomington Lake. It was just far enough that Victoria's heart rate didn't do too bad....just to the 170's.

MerkTavitch has discovered that he likes water.

This was Daphne's first hike for the season since getting really sick with Ulcerative Colitis. 

This little lake was at the base of these cliffs. A neat little place.

Afterwards we headed to Bear Lake to hang out and let the dogs play in the water. Merk would lay down in the water waiting for the frisbee to be flown and his super long tail was floating.

These two are meant to be together. Merk loves all the crazy noises that Kaleb uses to get his attention.

Jasper has never been real hip with water. He tolerates it. He romped around the water only to chase the toy that Merk was going after. He's pretty sly. He uses his brute to get what he wants. Now if there were sheep or goats in the water, he would have been busy herding them no matter how deep the water was. Jasper has a super strong drive for herding.

Just a girl and her dog.

This is only proof that I was there. I didn't want to go home. I need a vacation. I'm just glad that everyone was up for this little adventure.

 

Contractors

We stopped by the jobsite to see what the boys were working on.

They are working on this Enormous house!

I found some of their plans written on a board.

Kaleb is the comic relief of the two. He makes any work day entertaining. 

You never know what Kaleb will do next or what he will find. These are a pair of 3D glasses he saw sitting on the table.

 

Random Pics

I found this skinny guy sacked out on my bed.

Victoria has her Learner's Permit. The head injury delayed her getting her permit but is well worth the wait. She's a pretty good driver. She doesn't want to drive the big ol' van but I told her that if she can drive the van, she can drive anything. I think she is finding that out.

This is what happens when you cook eggs on a Campchef in the driveway and leave your Mother's favorite wooden spoon on the pan just waiting to be mistaken as a wood stick to be chewed....by a dog of course!

This enormous spider made a huge web by our back door. I found out that it's a Cat Face Spider.

Kaleb nabbed Kirk's snack mix and stuck it in his lunch box. He texted a photo to his Dad.