A couple firsts... First day of school and first snowball fight of the season.

Dane started first grade on September 4th... 

Last weekend we headed out to the Front. I have a deer permit for that area, so we wanted to see if we could get permission to hunt on any private land. As you can see there was some snow! It was beautiful!

 The snow made for a fun first snowball fight of the season!

Checking out some tracks.

 Then Daddy was showing the kids these fun little "mushrooms". As you can see, each of the kids had picked one up and he was explaining how delicious they are... :)

Then, being the mom...  I had to spoil all the fun by telling them it was actually elk poop!

Opening day of bird season!

Monday was September 1st...  opening day of bird season and the beginning of our favorite time of year! So, we made it out to chase snipe and have a great time! :)

 

As well as birds, there were also caterpillars!

 Like father, like son!

 First bird of the day!

 Learning how to shoot the bb gun.

 What a beautiful day.

 Dane is an amazing big brother! Holding Kimber's hands, helping her through the long grass... and just being awesome!

 Mama's girl!

 What a great morning with the family!

A little of this and that!

We've had some rain, which is always conducive to art projects!

Then when the rain clears, the kids had to extend their art to the outside of the house!

Then we had some fun last weekend with Uncle Fergie and Aunt Kathy.

Playing lawn darts

Then some croquet.

Then we roasted some hotdogs.

Made some smores... (out of real smore stuff!)

Delicious!

The past couple weeks...

Clint and I had a new opportunity knock on our door...  I put in for a promotion at work and was chosen. So, now I am the Health Officer/Director for the City-County Health Department. It's a really exciting (and a little bit intimidating) challenge for us! My sweet hubby sent me these gorgeous flowers on the day they offered it to me!

 Although it's been raining for the past few days, last weekend we had some beautiful weather and made it out to the River for a little fun. We took a little trek to a pond where Clint and Dane waded out through some crazy thick seaweed and fished off of a little island. Kimber and I didn't want to be that brave so we went and found a nice spot to do a little swimming and playing with some cute little ponies. After the boys caught a couple pumpkin seeds (sunfish) they came and hung out with us. However, Dane quickly became bored with that and went off to find some backwater to play in. He found some crawdads, minnows, and had his very first leach stuck to him. Poor kid, we were working together to catch a frog and I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't focus...  he kept trying to wipe something off of his hand. All the sudden he screams like a girl and holds up his hand. Sure enough he has a leach stuck to his little finger. I take one look, point him towards Clint and say "Daddy will take care of it!". :)

 Then we got home and made smores. But, I didn't have large marshmallows, graham crackers, or Hershey's bars...  So, we made due with what we had!

 and everyone enjoyed them thoroughly!

 Dane and Bones have recently became pretty close....  as you can see, Bones loves every moment of it!

Sun River Game Range

A couple weekends ago, we had a fun day together to head out to the Sun River Game Range. Clint and I have cow elk permits for that area and thought we would go check it out. We saw some fun critters and had a great time!

 

 How convenient that I also have an either sex antelope permit for this area! :)

 

Look at this nice group of bucks!

 Beautiful views!

 Found a little friend!

and the boys caught dinner!

More fun with family!

We had a ton of fun while Grammy, Gramps, Evan and Erik were here! But, the boys also got a little work done! Here they are trimming in the windows! I need to post some "after" photos! They look amazing! Thank you to everyone for all of your help!

We were all signed up for the HURL Elkhorn 23K, but I had to sit it out. Dad and Erik still did it and really did great! They had fun and finished strong! Here they are at the starting line.

On your marks... Get set...

GO!!!!!!!!!

Although I wasn't running, Evan and I helped the race director set up, and do anything else that they needed.

Here are the boys after they finished!

It was pretty hot while they were here... so we had some fun playing in the River!

and finding crawdads and other assorted fun stuff!

Evan jumped right in and helped catch crawdads! Then we took them home, cooked them, and he got to try his catch!

Some of the river critters weren't very pretty... actually quite ugly! We think that this was a crane fly larvae.

This picture epitomizes the difference between a little boy and a little girl! Dane thought the crane fly larvae was cool...  Kimber, well you can see how she felt about it! (It was laying harmlessly on a log at this point.)

Erica was super generous and sent her saddle and other horse tack with Uncle Erik. So, Uncle Erik and Gramps made a super cool saddle rack/play horse. This horse pretty much gets ridden daily! :) It is a super easy keeper, though! Thank you Erica, Uncle Erik, and Aunt Lisa for your generosity!