Here in Utah it is hunting season. I never knew there was such a season having grown up in Southern California. I thought that was something that only the cavemen did, before man learned to "raise" food.
Russ hunted quite a bit growing up. I figured that was because he was from Lovelock, NV. Maybe they didn't have food processing plants in that part of the country yet. It is a small town of 2,000 people and there isn't a big city real close by. Then I learned he did it mostly for sport. It was fun and enjoyable. Are you kidding me?
We were not going to have guns in our home when we got married, NO WAY. Well, we had been married about 5 months when I learned that we had about 5 guns in our home (and those were probably just the ones I knew about). About once each year, Russ would go bird hunting. You know, dove, pheasant, grouse, that type of thing. I have even tasted each of his killings. Not bad, tasted like chicken.
Then, last year, Russ had Garrett complete a Hunter Safety course. Then this year he got a little bit crazy. This year Russ put Garrett and his own name in for deer tags. Guess what? They both drew out. WHAT? I asked if he was really going to go hunting. He said yes. Really? He has been reloading bullets, taking Garrett to practice target shooting, and taking the boys dove hunting. I still had my doubts that he would really follow through with any of this, and more particularly, that Garrett would have any real desire to do it.
I have a sweet patient at the hospital that has taken such good care of our staff. He owns a bunch of property in Utah where he raises alfalfa. He was given some depredation tags to shoot deer and antelope and brought him into my work for any of us to use for hunting. My co-workers decided to let Garrett have the doe tag so that he could get some practice before he went on his "real" hunt. I brought the tag home and gave it to Russ. He got pretty excited and called the land owner and got directions. He then called his dad and asked if he wanted to go as well. Then on Saturday Russ and his dad took Garrett on his first hunt.
Anyway, as you can see, Garrett shot himself a deer. I couldn't believe it. He missed a few times, but eventually got himself one. At first I felt really sorry for the deer, but now I feel really sorry for me. I just realized I am going to have to eat deer meat for the next few months. YUCK!
and Shanda was one of our teammates (she was the only one I didn't know). The four of us met Katie and her baby, Heide, in Cedar City and we drove to the start of the race at Brianhead ski resort. I was to run the first leg. I found out the day before the race that I had to take a 20 minute ski lift ride to the top of the mountain. My first leg was a 3 mile run down the mountain. It was a crazy trail run. I had slate rocks sliding out from under my feet, logs and streams to jump over, boulders to trip over, weeds as high as my armpits to run through, etc. I am sure it was beautiful on the mountain, but I was afraid to take my eyes off of the trail for fear of what I might fall over. I made it down 2 minutes ahead of my projected time. I passed off to Katie, who had a wicked uphill run for 7 miles. She was amazing.
Katie handed off to Kellie who had the worst leg of the entire race. She had an 8.4 mile run that started all uphill. When the course finally leveled off, it started to HAIL! It was HARD, BIG hail. Just so you get the idea of how bad it was, I took a picture of Kellie's legs that got bruised from the hail.
Then it started to thunder and there was lightning all around us. I thought she would never forgive for getting her into this race. However, she just laughed and said she felt "tough" for having finished that leg. I agree, she was so tough! I would have got in the car and cried until it all stopped. Good job Kellie. Kellie, then handed off to Shanda. While she was running, Brady drove down the mountain a little ways and picked up Dayna and Jill (I have run 4 of these races with Jill- she too is so much fun to be around), the last two runners in our van. They had to come up late due to work and babysitting conflicts. They made it in time and we finished our first legs. We then drove to Cedar City and had dinner at the Pasta Factory while our second van of 6 runners were running their legs. After dinner we drove to the exchange point at SUU and waited for van 2 to finish running their legs. 
They were kind enough to stop by my house and pick up our sleeping bags which I forgot to bring and my camera. They tried to take a few pictures of Kellie running her second leg, but they didn't turn out so well. My second leg did not go so well. I had a 5.5 mile run at midnight. I was having a hard time breathing because my nose was completely plugged and my lungs hurt if breathed in too deep. After my run, I coughed for about 45 minutes straight. I was really having a rough time. We ran to New Castle where we slept for 3 hours before our last legs began in Veyo. I had been the last runner of our second legs, and then I was the first runner of our third legs. I hadn't gotten much rest, and we were late getting to the exchange. Our other van of runners had finished their legs and we weren't at the exchange. They were not too happy with us. Needless to say, we raced into Veyo. As we were pulling into the exchange point, a little pick-up truck came flying through the intersection with the horn blaring at 5:00 am and almost side swiped us. Then the little truck drove toward a group of runners off to the side of the road. I jumped out of the van and worked my way over to the start. As I was jogging up to the start, I heard screaming with lots of vulgar language. The lady who had been in the little pick-up that almost hit us was out of her truck and absolutely irrate! She was screaming that the runners' f***ing headlamps, and f***ing vans, and f***ing this, and f***ing that, had made her late for work. She then said that she was going to f***ing kill a runner so they would have to shut the race down. The men she was screaming at tried to calm her down but were unsuccessful. She jumped in her truck and drove down the road a little ways. She then backed her truck up so that it sat perpendicular across our running course. And guess who the first runner was to be approaching her vehicle? "Guess, guess... I only have one minute left in my brain- so guess" (a little blurp from Kid History episode 6- our new favorite). Anyway, yes it was me. Two men were standing there and said, "Good luck" and "Be careful up there". Goodness, thanks for that encouragement. I said, "How about an escort, some bodyguards?" So they ran with me. She didn't try to kill me, but I sprinted up the Veyo hill, looking over my shoulder the entire time. Kellie ran our last leg and our van finished our legs about 10:00 in the morning. 
Our second van finished the race around 2:00 that afternoon in Zion. The race was a blast and it was so fun to hang out with my friends for a couple of days. 
The kids loved catching the frogs and crickets along the way.
We didn't have too much luck fishing this trip. The boys and I 
After our hike, we drove into cook city and ate at our favorite little pizza joint outside the park. It tasted so good this year. We then drove back to our campsite and crashed. Russ and Gracie were both sick by this point. We were up all night listening to the two of them coughing up a storm. By the morning nobody was feeling good. We decided to drive back to St. George. We listened to some Jack Marshall, John 
My baby just started 3rd grade. She is still at Sunset Elementary School. She is very excited to be in third grade because she has Lana Beck, the most coveted teacher at Sunset, as her teacher this year. Gracie was all about posing for her first day of school pictures. She allowed me to go to the school with her, and go into her classroom. She is 4'5", and weighs nothing.
She was baptized and confirmed by her dad.
Other family members that were part of the ordinance were Papa, Grandpa Paul, Grandpa Hyde, Reese, uncle Brent, uncle Raleigh, uncle Kurtis, and Brother Kleinlein. We are grateful to all of our friends and family that were there to support Gracie on her special day:
There was one other little girl that was baptized on the same day as Gracie and her grandpa was giving the talk. As he stood up to speak, my mom read his name on the program and said, "That is the missionary who gave me the discussions 46 years ago". After Gracie's baptism, we waited for his family to finish so my mom could speak with him. As he walked up, my mom introduced herself and said, "You were the missionary that taught me the gospel in Walnut Creek 46 years ago". He spoke with her for a few minutes, and then asked her once again what her name was. She said, "Nancy Little". It was obvious it wasn't triggering any memories. Then my mom clarified, "My husband actually baptized me. We weren't married at the time. My maiden name was Potts". All of a sudden the light went on. His face lit up and he recalled every detail of her conversion and baptism. He told her that he had told her conversion story 100's of times over the past decades. My mom proceeded to tell him that she had three daughters that all graduated from BYU and were married in the temple. She also told him that she had 11 1/2 grandchildren and her 9th had just been baptized that day. So far, his missionary service had brought 13 more people into the gospel. What a great feeling that must have been for him. It was such a fun moment and I was glad I was there to witness it.