Fall Hunting Season

Every fall since I can remember my family goes hunting for elk and deer. In fact, some of my fondest memories are of hunting up on Castle Mountain with my dad, brothers, and closest friends. When I was in grade school and high school, I would take a full week off and go up hunting in the backcountry near Garden Valley, Idaho.

My hunting experience on Castle Mountain included us taking our sheep-herders tent, (which doesn't have a bottom, but does have sides and a wall and a stove with a chimney) we would also bring our motorcycles to drive around the hills. Often times it would snow 2"-5" of snow during the week. I also remember that everyone had their specific spot that they would hunt and noone else would go...I am not sure why that is just what happened. The Bob Borg family went to "The Face" while the Marc Haws family went to "No Tell'em Creek" and the Don Woodbury family went to "Bumper Bowl."

Now these names were not the actual names of the places. They are names that were assigned through several years of hunting by each individual family. Bumper Bowl was named because for some odd reason there was an automobile bumper halfway down the mountain in the strangest place. I have no idea why or how it got there, nor could I come up with any reason why anyone would bring it there. There was definitely no way, in my mind anyone could drive a car to this location, so I just assumed it must have gotten dropped there by a helicopter. (Remember I was 12 or so when I had this idea)

Yesterday I returned home from the yearly hunt. This year I went with my Dad, Grandpa Hunter, and Wayne Hunter. This was my first year shooting black powder with a muzzleloader and it was definitely more difficult. The muzzleloader hunt is later in the year, which means it is a lot colder. Saturday I was hunting in 24" of snow or more part of the day. While I was walking in the snow sopping wet I was trying to remember why I like hunting so much. I was freezing cold and 4 hours away from camp and it was getting dark.

I tell my wife that the reason I MUST go hunting is "so that I can provide for the family." It seems like a pretty good line, but she doesn't buy it. I guess I don't really buy it either so I am searching for a better one. I was gonna try another one next year, "I need to go hunting because it is a family tradition" or because "my grandpa is getting old and I don't know how many years I will be able to spend time with him out hunting." The truth is that he is in pretty good health though and I kind of feel guilty for saying that. I am pretty sure that he will never read this though...or hope that he doesn't. (grandpa, if you do read this I am sure that someone else had to show you so don't be mad.)

Well, I will spare that details but say that I was successful this year. I didn't have time to cut up the elk and wrap it so I had to take it to a butcher. I will attach a couple of pictures from the trip.

This is taken from the top of 8 Mile Creek Ridge

This is the legendary Grandpa Lavell Hunter

This year this was our kitchen, bedroom, and living room

The morning of the day we saw over 40 elk

The camp cook Don Woodbury frying up some hash browns and eggs

Grandpa Lavell Hunter and Kyle Woodbury

My Curious George

Now that I am comfortably supporting myself on kickbacks from Nabisco for being the official spokeswoman for the Oreo cookie, it is high time I write about the other loves in my life!

The last few days have been an odd combination of lazy,crazy, busy, miserable and enjoyable. With Kyle out of town for the week, my schedule in some strange ways has become quite flexible. Meal time is whenever, and I haven't worried so much about the state of the house. (*Disclaimer. This does not mean that when Kyle is around I keep the place spotless and feed him grand meals. There is just certainly more effort when he is around. That in and of itself is funny because he expects neither a hot meal or a spotless housewhen he comes in the door from work.)

Well, I was laid back about the house until today when I realized I might have a babysitter in the home and that certainly got me moving. An hour or so into my mad rampage of laundry, dishes, mopping and the like, the reality hit that I was going to have to bring the kiddies with me with me on my outing because institute is on Thursday nites. Dang institute teachers have to be so good that it keeps my "driving babysitters" away! Then I relaxed again. It was actually kind of nice knowing that any further cleaning I was going to do could be at my pace and I had no deadline. Once the kids woke from their nap, I really got to enjoy them and for a few hours, didn't have to worry about getting anything ready.

I realized how different my life is when those feelings of having to "get ready" are present. Different things get done. The feeling isn't intrinsically bad-- after all, some times we need a good adrenaline push to get stuff done. But when the adrenaline wasn't there, I was better able to focus on my little ones running around in the nursery giggling. I was relishing in their cuteness and trying to read their personalities. Then my mind drifted to some of the funny things Cade has said this week. I realized I neeed to do a better job at documenting these things because they are just too cute to not!

Yesterday evening I decided to take the kids to the mall during the "witching hours" --that's what I call them--- the hours between 4pm and bedtime. The kids are cranky, hyper, but I can't exactly take them anywhere because I have to get dinner prepared and them ready for bed. After they expended their energy at the indoor play place, we got some food to eat. I was eating a sandwich and Cade discovered my cup contained a liquid substance far greater than water-- an extreme rarity. Root beer! He quickly decided he wanted to be in charge of the drink and began sipping away. A few minutes later I was ready for a sip myself and asked Cade if I could have a drink.

"No Mama, you hafta eat your sammich first. Then you can have pop."

Said like a true parent!

On the way home he asked, "Where's Curious George's Mommy?"

Cade despises the response, "I don't know" so I answered,

"In the jungles of Africa." At least to the best of my knowledge that's where she was.

He seemed satisfied with the answer. I suppose it really started to bother him that there was no maternal figure in George's life. Just the Man in the Yellow Hat.

A few weeks ago Cade was watching a "big" baseball game with Kyle (if you ask me, every one Kyle insists upon watching is a "big" game. What consitutes a little game then, because they all seem big!") and said,

"Daddy, you're my best friend. And baseball's my cousin."

Here are some pictures of the fun Halloween festivities Cade and Savvy joined in on while we were away on our cruise.....

Lesson learnt

After reading the last two posts anyone perusing our blog must think we are junk-food addicts. I firmly hold my ground that I am simply a HUGE Oreo fan (okay, and sweets in general--but the only junk food we have in the house are my Oreos). And as for Kyle--well, I am honestly surprised that he blogged about Oberweis ice cream. He is usually quite anti-desserts and more pro-entree-like foods. Lest we forget that there are still a good 6 (or more!) weeks left in the Hunter family Biggest Loser contest? Blogging about junk food is not going to win us anything!

In any case, time for a fresh topic to blog about.

Wait--- except I do have to confess something. (uh-oh. This could get scary) Two days ago the kids were napping and I felt some hunger pangs. I realized I hadn't eaten yet for the day (For busy, SAHMs forgetting to eat is a common occurence. You know, so much to do and keep up with that we remember at aboout 4pm that we forgot to eat breakfast*) and a smile quickly came to my face. "I've got Oreos," I said to myself. So I grabbed a glass, poured the milk and took a handful of cookies. I sat down in the living room and dunked a few (okay, like 6) oreos in milk and washed them down. I sat on the couch enjoying the hunger that was just appeased.

Moments later my head began to spin and I could not even stand up. This uneasy feeling crept up my throat and my mouth watered. Just like the pregnant days--only I am not pregant. I was closest to my front door so I ran for it and reached the front yard just in time.

I literally tossed my cookies.

So, dear friends, I have learnt my lesson well. Thou shalt not eat cookies on an empty stomach.

Next time I'll be sure to eat something substancial before I partake in the Oreo goodness. I know, even after that, I still swear upon the greatness of Oreos. Psycho.

Okay, I'll blog about something else now. :-)

Good news!

Oreos were on sale yesterday.

This is a big deal for me. It's been about 5 weeks since I purchased any. I don't know how I've survived. Well, the all-I-could-eat-at-all-hours-of-the-day weeklong food fest (aka-- "cruise") probably helped some. I've made this deal with myself that if Oreos are more than 2.54 a package I can not purchase them. I know at Wal-mart they are about 2.52 all the time. Sometimes they drop the price to 2.39--- but I don't frequent Wal-Mart very often. Chicago doesn't seem to believe in the Super form of Wal-marts, so the Super Target's have taken over around here, which is fine by me because I love that place. The last several weeks the going price for a package of Oreos has been 2.70. Just couldn't do it. So what's 24 cents? Perhaps it's just the principle of it I guess. I set a standard and I committed to keeping it. Maybe it just makes me think that I am doing well with sticking to the grocery budget or something. But in any case, the heavens opened and knew that in order for me to get through this week, (Kyle's out of town....again) I needed to be well-stocked on Oreos and they were on sale --2 for $5. So I bought three packages! We'll see how long they last.....

While on the Oreo's topic, I was in Utah back in September and went to Reams, this huge warehouse grocery store in Provo where Food for Less used to be. From what I understood, Reams is supposed to be this super-thrifty, awesome place for folks to get groceries. It is not. It is terrible! Worse than Albertsons! Guess how I know? Oreos are 3.69 per package. Outrageous, isn't it?

Oberweis Dairy

I remember a couple of our friends ranting about how good the ice cream was at Oberweis Dairy. (Alicia & Luke, Jared & Jodie) It took me about 9 months to finally decide to give it a shot and now I am hooked. It is the chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream shake that gets me.

We're baaack!

After a lovely 7 days cruising the Mexican Riviera, Kyle and I have returned to the real world. We missed Cade and Savannah so much, but they had a blast with our friends, the Michnicks. We came home to a plate of halloween cookies, Sunday dinner, and a cute little poster with pictures of what they did this past week (including artwork from Cade). We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family take care of our kids.

Cade's latest style

My girlfriend took this picture while she was visiting and it pretty much sums up Cadewear, the hottest new clothing line for toddlers.

The shirt: I picked it up at a second hand clothing sale a several weeks ago. He seriously puts it on every single day. He LOVES it. I am not sure why. It's comfy and blue, two of his preferences. And notice it's tucked in.

The shorts: When he decides to be independent and dress himself, he prefers the back pockets in front. This is so he can put his hands in his pockets, naturally. He has discovered the coolness of hands in pockets I guess.

Times haven't changed much

This pretty much describes my morning...

Freshening things up..

For the last several weeks Kyle has been oogling over the fabulous templates our fellow bloggers have-- man code language for "will-you-get-us-a-more-hip-blog-background-please-dear!?. I have silently been craving some jazzy schnazzyness on the blog, too, but just never took the time to figure it out.

I waited for the perfect time--- laundry is strewn all over the floor, dinner dishes still on the table, toys and paper everywhere. There's no time like the present! I will say it was supremely easy (probably not the proper use of supremely...but) and anyone can do it. I have now joined the ranks of owning a blogsite that may take so long to download that you might change your mind before the page has completed and go to another site. Yay!

Also, I am still working on getting all of our side bar stuff back, so if your blog site isn't on my list yet, take no offense. Our friendship has not been cancelled. It's just on hold. Ha ha.

On a completely unrelated note (but related in that this still me rambling) I want to announce that I am hooked. I read Twilight by Stephenie Meyers back when we were at Lake Powell. I started New Moon when we went to San Fran. I was borrowing Melody's (I took it from her when she had a few chapters left. I'm mean) and gave it back before coming back to Chicago. It's been a few weeks and I couldn't take it anymore, so I bought my own copy. Can't wait! I have joined the teenage girls in their hopelessly dreamy crush on a fictional character.

Look Who's Twenty!

Waaaah! We are so sad we couldn't be there for your birthday, Gooser! We hope you enjoy the non-teen years!!! We love you for so many reasons.....

You make one beautiful bride:

Love the fond memories together--- water drinking contests!
You are the greatest Auntie!! the kids LOVE you! You married a really cool guy, too!
Hey-- this one kinda looks like your senior picture!

Happy Birthday!!!

It's Fall!!

After a perfectly mild couple of weeks mother nature decided it was time to bring in some fall-like weather, so my blog background had to follow suit. This past week has reminded me of Goldilocks and the 3 bears... Monday the weather was too hot. Tuesday it was just right. Wednesday it was too cold....

I kind of panicked when I had to dress the kids in warm clothes --I totally underestimated the temperature when we went to the Pumpkin Farm Wednesday. Savannah needs to wear shoes? What? I have really taken this barefoot weather for granted. I was lucky I had a pair for her that still fit! Thank goodness Cade just ran around the entire time and Savannah could be bundled up in blankets. It was a good time.

Conference Sunday

Coming home to the kids was a sweet reunion. Cade had his ultra-mega parental sensors on and woke up when we got back to Melody's Saturday evening. Secretly I was thrilled. He was so cute! I snuggled him to bed again and a few moments after laying next to him he said, "Mommy, can you go take a nap on the couch?" So I did.

Sunday morning I awoke to Melody whipping up some breakfast yummy-ness in the kitchen. The fam arrived and we were soon eating delicious food and watching conference. Cade was even taking notes...

Frisco!

The morning after Gramma Berry and Gramma Hunter left we headed to the airport for San Fransico--business for Kyle, pleasure for me! We had a layover in Salt Lake, allowing for dear sister Melody to pick up the kids and watch them (again!) while we headed to the Bay.

The hubbies worked hard and the wives shopped San Fransisco until we dropped. It was fun to be back in the city we used to live by and reminisce. Nina and Nicole were great shopping companions. Addelin, Nicole's daughter, was such a trooper to come with us on every outing. She's such a mellow and great baby! (Cute, too!) I got a Mac makeover and after 9 years of wearing make-up, was taught the correct way to apply eye shadow. By a man. Thank you Victor. I tried on more clothes in the two days I was there than I have in my entire life! I managed to fit my purchases in the same suitcase as when we arrived. Mom, you'd be proud. Kyle and I shared a suitcase!

The flight back was nothing short of a nightmare. As soon as I stepped on the plane I whispered to Kyle, "It smells like a stinky armpit in here!" It really did. If I was pregnant, I would have been puking the entire trip back to Salt Lake. Here's how Brent spent most of the plane ride home (until the ink from the magazine melted onto his face...):

A Wicked Good Time!

We've finally done it! After living in the 'burbs of Chicago for 18 months we made the pilgrimmage out to the beautiful city to do what everyone has been raving about ever since we moved here. Our motivation? Kyle's mom and Grandma are in town and we knew we ought to do something fun in the city, so we got tickets to see Wicked. It was definitely everything I hoped for. I am not a music critic by any means, but I really enjoyed the absolutely beautiful voices of Glenda and Elfeba. They were clear, pure and angelic! Watching the performance made me want to slip on a poofy gown and start dancing with the witches myself. Two thumbs up for a fabulous performance!

Ingenious Product of the Week: Resealable Oreo Cookie Package

(Michelle here) Many are aware of my affinity towards Oreo cookies. Some may even call it an addiction. Well, this addiction just got even easier to feed. The whizzes at Nabisco improved the packaging for the incredible Oreo cookies. It now opens and reseals at the top of the cookie package! The resealable packaging makes it easier for mass cookie consumers like myself to open, close, then open again with minimal noise and effort, the cookie package! Incredible. It comes in handy when I want to sneak a few without getting spotted in the pantry by Cade. And it comes in handy when I am very tired, and don't want to fuss with getting the package open without yanking too hard, causing a tear, which in turn would cause the cookies to go stale faster. (Though sometimes that provides a reasonable excuse for consuming the entire package in one sitting). In any case, I'd like to publicly thank the packaging geniuses at Nabisco for adding some sunshine to my life!