Rylie's first Turkey!

Rylie drew a Southern Utah Turkey tag this year. Her and Doug went down and met up with Doug's brother Mark who lives down there. She has had quite the first year of hunting. Hunting turkeys has been her favorite so far. They called in some jakes the first day, but she whispered to Doug that she wanted a "big one"! So she passed them up. That night she had some hens just about walk right over her. But the next evening was when the real action happened. As you can see in the video, that turkey was ticked and a little protective of his women, he beat up Marks poor decoy. Doug and Mark were just as excited as Rylie, if not more!

Do you watch?????

If you do then you know that Monday was the final rose ceremony!We have been faithful to this season. I know it is ridiculous, but that is what makes it so much fun!

This was left on my door step Sunday evening. And of course I accepted the rose,

I am after all "in this for the right reasons" and it is just such a

"surreal experience" I would never miss the final rose ceremony!!!!!!

(even if it was a no brainer)

I will say that the after the final rose interviews really surprised me. Emily looked beautiful, (even if she did play with her hair to an annoyingly high rate) she just did not seem as sweet as I thought she was. I don't know why it is always such a surprise to them that their guy had feelings for someone other then them during the show. Do they watch the bachelor????? There has never been just one girl who gets a key to the fantasy suite. You signed up for this maybe you should read the fine print! That being said I hope they make it, he seems smitten!

I will be looking forward to May when Ashely takes the hot seat as the new Bachelorett!

GiRls, GIrLS, GiRLs!!!

With 9 granddaughters (well 12 but 9 old enough to enjoy the show)

how could we pass up nosebleed tickets to the ice capades???

We had Aaron and Kates kids for a week while they went to Hawaii. We were all so excited we had a party everyday! One night we decided to go to the ice capades, its a good thing we all have great husbands who took all the boys and babies so we could pull this off at a spur of the moment!

What are the ice capades without glow in the dark junk, I mean treasures!

Rylie was not sure she wanted to come, she is getting to big for this baby stuff, but I think she was glad she did. I know I was!!! Ashton is always ready for a party, there was no twisting her arm. And Skylar had a smile a mile wide the whole time. She was mesmerized!

I don't know if we have a bunch of boy crazy girls in our family or if Disney is to blame but this was every one's favorite part of the program. We, the adults, thought it was because of the princesses. But we were soon informed that it was because of all the PRINCES that they loved this part! "I like Aladdin the best, because he doesn't have on a shirt" was an actual quote, (I will not admit whose daughter said that!) WOW! We better keep a close eye on this bunch!

SoCCer!!!

We had our first outdoor soccer tournament of the season over Presidents Day weekend. We played down in St.George, so we were expecting a little bit of a warmer situation than what we had. It was one of those freak snowstorms that sometimes come through that part of the state (it seems like every time we go there we hit one of these RARE weather patches).

But come RAIN, SNOW, SLEET, HAIL soccer plays on!

Rylie had a great game, she is a tough defender and an aggressive

offensive player, she is fun to watch !


We did not do as well as we would have liked but there is always next weekend, right?!?!?!

Ni Hao....

means hello in Chinese. Just one of the many things we learned at the 6th grade Chinese fair!

Rylie had to choose a dynasty, then a topic from that time period and write a report and make an artifact to go with her report! She choose the Sung Dynasty and wrote her report on the fashions at that time.

On Friday we were able to "travel" through the many different dynasties, traditions and fabulous customs of the Chinese. Rylie was our tour guide. She introduced us to many great people like Confucius...



Lao Tzu



and Buddha


We also got to see many interesting sights such as the tomb of Emperor Qin, the emperor who was buried with the terracotta soldiers. His tomb has not been opened because it is said to have been booby trapped and will kill anyone who tries to enter.
They all did a great job and we learned a lot of interesting facts some of my favorite were:
*Evil spirits are believed to only travel in a straight line,
therefore most paths in China are zig zag.
* The Sung emperor loved the story of Cinderella and believed she was chosen by the prince
because she had the smallest feet in the kingdom. So he made it know that all women
must bind their feet to keep them small only about 31/2 inches if they were to be
seen as beautiful or to have good fortune.
As you can see in the following video....

Chinese foot binding

Rylies First Goose Hunt!!!!

Over Christmas break Doug and Rylie planned a goose hunt in Wyoming. They had planned on going with our friends Doug (McKinney) and his daughter Abby. Rylie and Abby took hunters safety together this past fall. Grandpa and Uncle Mark were able to join the fun as well! Despite the freezing or should I say below freezing temperatures they had a blast!
Rylie learn all the ropes for a successful hunt and was able to bag one of her own!

This day the temps were 15 below zero, CRAZY! They were set up pretty good though in a pit with heaters. Rylie and Abby loved hunting as much as spending their nights in the pool at the hotel. They can't wait to go again!