New Addition to our Family

We have been looking for a while for a vehicle that would fit our needs. Our needs being: better gas mileage, 4 wheel drive, decent clearance (for the rocky roads we have to drive), cheaper parts than our Isuzu and enough cargo space to travel. Finding something to match all of those requirements is pretty much impossible. So which ones were the most important? That was a question that kept us awake at night. OH.... and like anything else, of course, it had to fit into our budget. Well, it is a very long story, one I am sure you don't want to hear, so I will spare you. But we had pretty much given up when we saw this one online in denver, and since we had been given a 2 night stay in Colorado Springs (just 35 mins. away), we decided to give it one more weekend. We looked at the Denver vehicle on friday and piles of cars in Colorado Springs on Saturday. After finding nothing in C. Springs, we went back to Denver for one last look. If we didn't like this one, we were done for a while. They accepted our first offer on the vehicle and we didn't pay more than we had planned!!! It was such a relief but also nerve-racking driving it the 5 hours home through the mountains. It is a 2003, Jeep Liberty Renegade and it has 54,000 miles on it! (it also gets anywhere from 5 to 8 mpg's better than our Trooper) I think John and I have only bought one vehicle that had less than 100,000 miles and it was just barely under. We praise God for this vehicle that should last us a long time!

Horse Club

If you read the previous post, here is a horse club picture that another mom sent me. This is Ethan and Sparky.

First Day of School

We are homeschooling Ethan and this picture is his first official day of school for his first grade year. Not the typical picture of a kid in a large class room with his back pack and cubbie, but It is pretty exciting for him. We pulled out the school table and set up for the day. Our first week went very well and we are looking forward to starting our second week tomorrow. Well, at least Ethan is, I have yet to sit down today and work on our lesson plans. Today was the first day of fall Horse Club. I cannot believe the improvement over last year. Last year I was his teacher, mainly getting him comfortable on the horse and getting him used to trotting and steering. But he would get very frustrated with me making him make the horse obey him. Weird sentence but it does make sense! It brought up a lot of good opportunities to share how John and I feel trying to guide him when he wants to do his own thing. Today was awesome though. He was with a group of 5 6yr. olds and he did great. I didn't see him fighting with the horse and he seemed to be very assertive with Sparky. Of course I forgot my camera, but I will get some pictures next week.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

What John has been up to

John got a archery bear tag this fall but wasn't sure if he would have the time to fill it, since it coincided with his Elk hunting season. Then we found Mr. Bear up a tree near our house. John and the guys waited for him to come down and he got a good shot, hitting one lung, but the bear still had some life left in him. They tracked him from 9:15 am til 3:30 in the afternoon. When they found him he was injured badly and almost done for, so John stuck him one more time. This time though it did not glance off the shoulder blade and he died instantly. Now we have, most likely, a record size bear with his height measuring around 7ft 4in and his skull measuring 21 to 22 inches initially, but not officially. He was massive. If you don't like hunting pictures... you may not want to continue; However, I did try to keep the real bloody pictures out.

In this picture you will notice the two blue tags in his ears. This was a problem bear that was relocated and had 2 strikes against him. Next time he would be destroyed and the Department of Wildlife was pleased that a hunter got to him and will benefit from the kill rather than it just being tossed. This picture was taken of him up in the tree, if you hadn't figured that out.

The Hunters (L to R): John, Mark, Brant and Justin. (we missed Kirk in this photo somehow but he was there and a big help)

John and Mr. Bear

John, Ethan, Jimmy (who helped Track him) and Brant

John's Hand in comparison to the bear's front paw

A Men's Retreat was taking place at the Family Ministries Facility and some of the men saw the guys dragging Mr. Bear out of the woods. They came over to help and get their picture taken with the massive bear. They, being from Atlanta, Georgia, were shocked that women and children would be there witnessing the events.

Then we pulled up to the Family Lodge and the men continued to pour out to see it and get their picture taken with it. Talk about the perfect men's retreat!

Kate, Claire and Ethan enjoying the event.

Riding in the truck with bear didn't seem to bother the kids at all

John enjoying the spectacle