Davis County fair/rodeo

After our Caribou hunt when we stayed with Joe and Jess they told us to go get Em and come back up the next weekend to the Davis County fair. So... we obeyed! We told Em we were going to go see Joe and Jess and see some Elephants at the fair. She was sold. The whole way up she talked about Elephants and Monkeys (not sure where the monkeys came from) We went up Friday and did a little shopping and went to yummy Mandarin with Joe and Jess for dinner. Saturday we woke up and Jess took me and Em to see where she boards her horse pearl, while the boys ran up a mountain. Emma loved it. She fed her, brushed her, and walked her. Then we went to the Farmers Market in Salt Lake and went to City creek mall for a bit. After we went to the fair. Emma had a blast. The elephant show was kinda lame but yet still awesome just because they were elephants!! Em liked seeing them but I think her favorite thing was the rides and the rodeo. It was her first ride and she was so so excited. I was worried and thought she'd either love it or shed cry and scream the whole time. She absolutely loved it and had the cutest little smile on her face the whole time. The second ride was a little scarier but she never cried, and when she got off she wanted more!!! After the fair we went to the rodeo. It was a really good one. Em loved the cows and horses! We had a great time! It was good to have one last horah before school. About school... we are super excited for it to be done with. 2 years... 2 years... I can do it ;) Emmi has been going to daycare for about 2-3 hours, 3 days a week and she loves it! Wish us luck, I'm afraid we need it!

Caribou hunt in Canada!

WARNING: Super long with lots of pics... :) What an amazing experience it was. Not just the hunt but the whole trip was a great experience for so many reasons! Randan was given the trip by the SFW. They have a wounded warrior project and take WW on hunting/fishing trips. When we moved into our ward we met an amazing family and he happened to be in the SFW and secretly gave Randan one of the trips along with an amazing rifle. That was 2 years ago, I remember cause it was like a week before I had emma. (the pictures prove that) Well with Randans therapy and what not it got pushed back to Aug 2013. In July they called and invited me. I had two extreme emotions. 1. what an amazing opportunity to experience with Randan 2. I can't leave my baby that long!!! haha. So with lots of telling me it will be okay we dropped Em off with her Papas and away we went. we drove to SLC and met Don-the founder of the SFW and drove with him the rest of the way. We met another part of our crew (Gretchen and Jeff-Gold star parents) and Alan (a retired Marine) in Idaho and off we drove to Edmonton Canada. It was a long trip! haha. from Edmonton we flew to Norman Wells Canada, a town that you can only get to by flying. and then from Norman Wells we took a float plane to Northwest territories- in the Mackenzie mountains. I seriously could not believe how beautiful it was! We weren't aloud to hunt the first day, there is a 12 hour wait after flying. So the first day we just set up camp and checked things out! We also met the rest of our crew, a family of 4 who donates a lot of money to the SFW WW project. They were hilarious. It was so great to be around such good, charitable people who really enjoy doing so much for others. Every year he takes 10 "special" (people who he thinks deserves to go- whether it be wounded warriors or whatever) people on a private ranch to hunt mule deer. He invited Randan and I to go. It was inspiring and really made me want to make a butt load of money so I can do the same someday ;) We also met our guides. Ben, Kent, Ryan, and Kevin. In Canada you can't hunt without a guide. These guys were great and a lot of fun! The Second day we woke up and off we went. Me, Randan, Gretchen, Jeff, Alan and 2 guides- Ben and kent went one way and the other went another way. We hiked for about 2 hours (the ground was like walking on a temperpedic mattress) and we spotted a caribou. The guides were amazed that we found it that fast and said it was never that easy haha. They told Randan it was his but he felt bad and said lets draw sticks. He still got it! The guides asked Randan what range he felt comfortable at. He said "I promised myself I wouldn't go farther than 700 yds." They go, "Oh, I was thinking like 100 or 200 yds" Jeff said, "he was a Sniper in the Marine Corps." the guides go "Oh..., well okay then, lets go" So with lots of questions about long range shooting, off we went. The caribou started going pretty fast and were standing about 720 yds away, Randan wanted to shoot it but Kent decided they should get a little closer. So Kent and Randan ditched us and up the hill running they went ;) They got about 400 yds and Randan shot. we could tell he hit it so we started making our way up the hill and then all of a sudden we heard another shot. We were confused cause we saw the Caribou fall. Randan said that he hit it perfect and it fell and slid about 500 feet and then all of a sudden it started to wobble up so he shot it again. It was a perfect shot, the guides were impressed! We tried to take pictures but the lighting was terrible so we drug it (or it drug us) down the hill. It was so beautiful with the mountains and the lake in the background. We hiked around a bit to see if we could see anymore but with no luck we hiked back to camp and cooked up some meat and mac n cheese :) Randan and I went for a canoe ride down the lake to see if we could see the other group but we couldn't so we turned around. Randan was going to the bathroom and could see them so we hopped back in the canoe and went and picked up there packs and caribou. It was fun to exchange stories. Long story short the other group shot theirs after being woken up from a nap by their caribou. He even shot it barefoot ;) pretty crazy... The next morning we woke up and Don said that the family was ready to go (they weren't quite used to the whole roughin it thing) and he got his caribou. Don was wanting to go as well and asked if that was okay or if we wanted to stay. Randan got his caribou so we said that was fine. we got on the float plane to Norman wells and stayed there the night. That morning the hotel chef even cooked up our caribou meat and some eggs for breakfast! Im not a big fan of wild game but that caribou meat was delish! the next morning we flew to Edmonton and said goodbye to the family. It was kind of sad, felt like we were saying goodbye to good friends of years :) From Edmonton we drove a few hours and stayed in Calgery Canada and then drove to Bountiful the next day! What a drive! We stayed with Joe and Jess and then Sunday we got up to come home. Mom said that Emma was missing us, I was so so excited to get back to her. I don't' know if I could've gone another week! It was a trip that Randan and I will never forget!