September has been full of adventures and that is for sure.  It is finally cooling off, and I am so grateful, because I was just over the high heat thing.  96 today...feels great honestly.  The heat is not as stifling, and doesn't hang on 24/7.  It is starting to cool off at night and yeah...my morning runs feel awesome...cold even, especially down by the river.
     We had the incredible opportunity last weekend of being a part of Maddi's baptism.  The spirit was incredible.  We sang a song called "the miracle" as a family, and Ryan and I spoke about the Holy Ghost.  Ryan also had the opportunity to do her confirmation.  Man...tears come to my eyes just thinking about it.  She is glowing, smiling, and happy.  She has a boyfriend, family that love her, and many new friends.  The Gospel has changed her whole world.  It makes me so happy.
     Another interesting thing that has happened is that I was called to be the young women's president.
That news kinda made me scared and way nervous.  I have been involved with Young Women's a lot and yet I have never once been in charge like that.  I did pick some fantastic counselors though, and they are a ton of help.  I was a little concerned about Jerusha's reaction and yet she was way happy about that news.  I have no doubt that I will love those girls.
   

     August...it is flying by.  We are currently back in school.  It all came way too fast.  We have had a busy month, and Ryan insisted that we take a last minute vacation.  I am way glad that we overcame a bazillion obstacles to go.  We ended up having problems on the way, and we had to stop in St George to try to get the lights working.  This is all so very typical.  It appeared to me that we were going to have to end up sleeping in the Wal Mart parking lot.  Somehow Ryan always figures it out and makes things work.  So...night one, we did stay in Hatch in the trailer.  After all of the stifling heat in Mesquite, we loved opening up the windows and sleeping in the cold night air.  It was awesome!
    So, we ended up going to the Huntington reunion out at Red Point.  I mentioned to Ryan that I would really like to hear the river.  Of course he lined our window right up with the river, and it was so, so incredible.  It also rained a ton out there, and it was really nice.  I had some really nice visits at the reunion.  I learned a lot about my Grandparents and my dad and his siblings, just by talking with Alan, Ann and Betty.  I really enjoyed the last evening's campfire, and it was just fun.  The next day we went to church in Hatch, and then we pulled the trailer out past Tropic Reservoir.  We found a really good spot that had a stream that ran through it, and it was green, fresh, and cool.  My only complaint was and is the deer flies.  I am still scratching deer fly bites.  The fishing was also bad...like really bad.  Ryan will fish by hand if he has to, but there were literally only minnows to be had.  That doesn't break my heart or anything cuz I just don't like fish a ton, but the kids were disappointed.
     Anyhow, so basic recap of the camping trip.  The kids spent a lot of time shooting guns, playing cards, and they spent some time swimming in the river, even though the river was extremely cold.  There was a squirrel or a chipmunk...I honestly cannot remember which at this moment.  It lived in one of the trees that was right there in our camp.  It was the most annoying little thing ever.  It chittered and made noise all day long.  Oak begged me to let him shoot it, and I told him that if he shot it, he would have to eat it, and I had brought meat for the family and so there was really no need to destroy it like that...it was annoying though.  The litte animal was scared of Ryan for whatever reason.  He would come down and start his loud noises, and Ryan would get after him, and he would run up the tree all sorts of scared.  I would go and confront him strongly like that, and he would just get in my face.  He would make his noises louder.  I would like to think that I am intimidating, but I guess I am just not.  I am not even intimidating to small woodland animals.  Little does that little guy know, but I saved his little life.  Beautiful thanks I get for doing so.
     Ryan had to run Jerusha home one day and conduct some business.  I was a little bit nervous at this because I was out there without a vehicle and a phone, but hey...I am tough, and it was for one day.  That morning, I got up early and went on a walk.  Normally, I like to run, but the elevation was kinda killing me, and so a walk uphill sufficed.  It poured on me the whole time.  I slid all over the path in my running shoes.  When I got back, I decided that it was best to just let the kids sleep as long as possible because we were going to be stuck in the trailer while it rained.  When the kids did finally wake up, they got on this card playing marathon.  They played cards until the rain broke, which was late afternoon.  We also ran out of water in the trailer, which was a problem, but we were sitting by a river, so yeah...we were not going to die or anything.  I have watched my husband and children drink out of rivers and streams galore, and I am always a little nervous to do that.  Ryan seems to have an immune system of steel, and I guess I was just raised in a more controlled environment, where we carried in our drinking water etc.  Anyhow, I followed the little stream up the hill until I found where the water was actually springing from the mountain.  I filled up all of the water jugs that I had with me, and then I summoned Oak to help me fill up more.  As we were sitting there, Oak noticed a camera that was watching us on a tree.  It was the weirdest and most unsettling feeling.  I realize that this camera, was most likely placed there by hunters, or game watchers, but the Government has tailed me and surveilled me for so many years, that I immediately felt violated.  Being out away from cameras, phone service, and the internet, I had felt so free until I saw that dum camera.  Sigh...it is kinda frustrating, but the water was extremely good.  I really loved it.  Oak and Jazz literally shot guns all day, we swam in the stream, pretended to fish, and went on hikes.  It was the best week I have had in a really long time. 
     I have noticed something a little undesirable in myself, and it leads Ryan to behave a certain way.  This is noteworthy, because I really would like to change this about myself.  When we go on rides I am not too adventurous.  On the last evening we were out there, Ryan wanted to go on a ride.  First of all, rides are hectic because of the kids.  When we are out in the hills like that, the littles want to be on my lap, and their bony little bums wear my lap right out.  Not only that, but they fight over my lap, which just leads to more sighs of exasperation.  Ryan is quite adventurous, and he likes to push vehicles to their limits, although, on this trip, he had borrowed his dad's truck in order to pull the trailer, and he really was cautious with it.  When we are in the van..the sky in the limit, to what he might try to conquer or climb.  I find myself really ragging on him.  Has he gotten us stuck?  That depends upon your definition of "stuck".  My definition differs from his.  In my opinion stuck is when you cannot move and you are delayed as you try to get out.  His definition is that you have to call in an emergency tractor and equipment to get you out.  Anyhow, we drove to this beautiful peak, lookout spot, and it was literally freezing cold.  It was raining, and the wind was howling.  It was gorgeous though.  On our way back it took me a sec, but I realized that we were not on the same road that we had been on.  It began to get narrow and rough, and I wondered where exactly we were going.  My lap had a few holes in them from Dill's wallering.  He mentioned something about seeing the map, and knowing that the road was going to make a large loop, and then rejoin the main road.  The road got kinda rougher, and narrower, and then we ended up on top of this hill that had obviously burned recently.  The road ended abruptly, and so I kinda wondered about his map explanation ha ha.  I really need to chill.  He enjoys exploring, and I kinda just want to get to the destination.  We also saw some really nice deer, and some fat cows.  That made Ryan all kinds of excited.  Yes...we enjoyed our ride.
     On the way home we blew a tire on the trailer.  This is extremely typical.  We hobbled into Hurricane and had to buy a tire and a new spare.  Sage texted me asking about the purchase of a milk cow and I was kinda confused.  Sage has been wanting a milk cow for awhile now, and we really have not had any luck finding one.  In a way we really need one because some days we are going through a gallon and some days we go through three.  I am literally buying about 10-12 gallons a week.  Ryan had found a jersey on the range that he felt we could milk.  She had a new calf and everything, and so that is what I thought Sage was asking about.  When I mentioned it to Ryan he told me that he had actually arranged to buy one in Rockville  Ummm...yeah.  This was the first time I was hearing about this news too.  It was then that I started asking a million questions about how we were going to put in a stauncheon, panels, feeding system, watering system, fences etc etc to accomodate a cow and calf.  I can see why I am annoying and why he just doesn't tell me this stuff.  He explained that he was just going to go pick her up, and worry about all of the details later.  And, that is what he did.  He dropped the kids and I off, picked up Sage, and then turned around and headed back to Rockville.  He and Sage arrived late that evening with the cow, her calf, and an extra holstein calf that just kept bawling.  Sags could not really explain how we ended up with the extra heifer, but she had paid for it, and it was an annoying little thing.  The cow was nursing them both, along with Gravy...the little calf that had not been being properly taken care of by his mother.  It took a few days, but all animals settled down, and Sage went to milking the cow.  It kicked over plenty of buckets, and at this point she definitely has the hang of things.  We have more milk than we can drink.  Sage and I both have allergic reactions to the hay that Ryan brought home, but hey...who needs to breathe?  We muddle through.
     We have had a few birthdays this month as well.  Chloee turned 10, and Jerusha turned 16 yesterday.  Chlo was really low maintenance on her birthday.  I took her shopping, made her homemade french fries, and had her cousins over to watch a movie.  Most of her birthday list consisted of stuffed animals, and I know that this is probably the last year that she will ask for toys like that.  She is growing up, and makes me sad.  She is one of the quieter, and easier going kids that I have. 
     Jerusha had quite an eventful birthday.  Lydia invited her out to her house and had a nice breakfast for her.  Some of her guy friends came over and had purchased her candles from Walmart with saints and scriptures on them, and then Brock came over.  Brock is such a great friend to Jerusha.  They have a ton of fun together, and I am always so amazed at all of the craziness he rolls with.  He and Jerusha took Dill and they went over to the delicious pizza restaurant across the street.  According to Brock, Dill ran pretty wild in that place, and then refused to eat any of the pizza because Jerusha had ordered it with vegetables on it.  Brock has seen it all at my house, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The kids have been atrocious to him at times, wallering on him, and banging into him.etc...he keeps coming back.  I really like that kid.  I also dropped off donuts for her seminary class, and we have a shopping day planned.  I am pretty sure she has a date today as well, and I am going to do my best to look intimidating.  Aden Woods came over last night as well, as he and Jerusha, along with a few others have gotten into mud turtle finding down at the river.  We ended up chatting instead, but Jerusha is a champion mud turtle catcher apparently.
    Another awesome thing that has been going on, is that Jasmine's friend Maddy has been taking the missionary lessons in our home.  I cannot tell you how much this has helped our whole family.  We began these lessons with Elder Christensen from Idaho, and Elder Gunderson from Burns, Oregon...yes, Burns.  Coincidence??  Not a chance.  These two Elders have an amazing spirit about them, and Maddy was learning it all.  She did not know anything about faith, prayer, baptism, the Holy Ghost etc.  To be able to go over these basics has been so good for me...so good.  Prayer....praying for her has opened up a whole new world.  It has also strengthened my own prayers.  Sadly, Elder Christensen got transferred, but Elder Gunderson is now training a new missionary from Texas named Elder Whitworth.  Maddy has agreed to get baptized too.  It is amazing to be a part of.  Gunderson is a kid I will never forget and always love.  He grew up on a ranch, and has so many similar stories...he is such a kindred spirit now and forever.
     Jamie has been moved from Philadelphia to Woodstown, New Jersey.  She absolutely loves it.  She did really well in Philadelphia too, and really enjoyed Sister Stumpf, but Pennsylvania came up with a new law that required fingerprints, background checks, etc, and Jamie fasted and prayed, and did not want to be moved, but did not feel she should comply with that kind of a law either.  The week after she was moved, the police had a big shoot out with a guy and six ended up dead....yes...I feel relieved, she is out of the city, but I know she was willing to stay there.  I truly feel like she is where she is supposed to be.  She has clicked with the small town, has gone to the fair, and roped, and has had two baptisms in her area.  Three of her contacts from Lehighton are getting baptized, and Charmaine from Philadelphia is also on schedule to be baptized.  Charmaine was always worried about the "devil getting on her" and I can completely relate to that.  That little lady has been an example to me.
     Oak has started back up with football, which is awesome because it is wearing him out, and Jerusha made the volleyball team.  I am way happy for her.  I was concerned that she would not make it, but she made it, and she is a starter. 
     Sage has been teaching a few yoga classes here and there, and should be certified within a week or so.  She does a really good job.   I have gone to a few of her hot yoga classes and it really does release a lot of tension and it feels great.  She is still wanting to serve a mission of her own, and about has the money earned to pay for it herself.  Great going Sags!!
     Chloee went to school a few days with a large circular hicky on her forehead....she chose to stick a suction arrow in the middle of her forehead, and there ya have it.  I am so grateful that she is less than concerned about her appearance these days.  Seriously...we can get to that later. 

  Summer is killing me in a million different ways.  Sleep deprivation is a real thing in the summer and I find myself dragging my heals every day.  And it is so dang hot.  I really cannot complain about hot too much because this summer has been mild in comparison.  But I just feel like the summer stuff is kinda shoulder shlumping.  I need to quit complaining, but there ya have it.
     So, one of the things that had to be accomplished before the Bundy reunion, was the fact that Ryan had left a bunch of camping gear down by the lake.  He, Cliven, Clance, and Ardeeno had gone down there to round up cows, had gotten cold or some sort,and had left it there.  They had plans to go right back out there.  That had not happened, and so we were hoping to be able to salvage some of the camping gear.  Ryan seemed to be pretty excited about the horse ride to pick up camping gear.  I was a little nervous to be honest, because the horses at the ranch aren't always the best and my favorite.  It has been awhile since I have been on a ride.  Ryan chose to ride Diesel, and I got on Chumacko.  Chumacko is kinda a stinker.  We had to ride through some really thick brush and he kept running me into a tree.  He almost took a knee cap off a few times.  But, we arrived and assessed the damage.  Arden's and Cliven's sleeping bags were in great condition.  Ryan's however had been torn to shreds by something.  We loaded everything onto the horses and headed back.  We had an insane bull that followed us for a bit, and then we had a heifer or a cow that was all upset and followed us mooing crazily about something.  She followed us for awhile and then just stood there and mooed.  We told her to just come home with us, but apparently that was not what she wanted.  It was actually a very enjoyable day and ride
    Bundy reunion came and went.  I was kinda in a panic as we were packing because I had not heard from Jamie.  I finally emailed the mission home because I knew that week was going to be tough and I wanted to get some mail sent her way.  They informed me that she was currently serving in Philadelphia with Sister Stumpf.  They advised me that sending packages in that area was not a good idea.  Great.  My country girl was now in the middle of a huge and dangerous city, with a new companion, on the week when she would be the most likely to be homesick.  I was not too thrilled with that news initially because everyone has a horror story about Philly to share.  I was also informed that the sisters never served in Philadelphia because of the danger and crime.  Yeah...I wanted to hear from her, and so I informed the family that I would not leave until she called me on the fourth.  She did call, and she sounded better than ok.  She seemed to be doing well, her companion kept her laughing, and we did drive off knowing that she hated missing the reunion, but that she was ok.
    So, we get to St George...we had also brought Kaden Lee with us, and so yeah..it was kinda chaotic, and I am always more aware of the chaos when someone else is with us.  Anyhow...we had a few items to grab in St George...just a few.  We needed a few melons, and Ryan did not want just any melons.  He wanted Stirling Melons.  The gorge was backed up with traffic and so we had to go around Utah Hill.  We ended up stopping at Lins in Santa Clara and they did have Stirlings.  We also grabbed some items from CAL ranch.   Seriously, six hours later we pulled up to a gas station to fill a tire up.  Ryan was literally taking forever, and so I looked over and he had their compressor all torn apart.  Yes...my husband was mechanicing on the gas station air compressor...so that stop was not a quick one.  He did fix their machine...the guy that was running the joint offered him free drinks, we grabbed a few and headed out of town.
     The Bundy reunion was awesome as always.  It was a dry year, and it was hot, but not overly so.  Ryan insisted on camping out in the trees, and it was really nice out there, but we really did not spend our days out there.  We slept out there and the sleeping was good.  Ryan set me up a nice bed under the trees, the kids slept in the tent, and other than the fact that a wailing and spooked out dill invaded us every night, we did great.  Oak came in first place in the shot gun shoot, and he actually shot in the age above himself so that he could shoot with Bowen.  The kids danced, little Roper sang in the talent show, and of course, trips to the ice caves were taken frequently.  Moroni struggled to find a crowd to hang out with, but everyone else found a nice group of kids to hang out with.  Chloee was one that I never hardly saw, and I would have to hunt for her to check on her.  She was always with a big group just having a great time.
     Sunday is always my favorite.  I loved having the opportunity to report on how Jamie is doing. Ryan actually reported on her for the most part.  We told several stories, about her running into the guy wanting to plant melons, leaving the Book of Mormon in the bathroom, and helping the one family move.  The Bundy reunion meetings are extremely inspiring.  We had dinner and as soon as that was over, people began to pack up and go home.  Usually Sunday ends with a big rain storm, and that was not the case this year.  The men got into a big, in depth discussion with Duane about the Constitution and liberty.  This conversation went on and on.  Sage, needed a ride off of the mountain that day, and Arden had agreed to give her a ride, but he was also caught up in this discussion, and they did not end it until bed time.  Sags was kinda tired and worried about her early morning, but I was getting kinda frustrated.
     As we were talking in the falling dusk of evening, Ivona got talking to us about the fact that there was a drifter that had been hanging out on the reunion grounds.  I found this information interesting because we had had an incident with Oak and Bowen the previous year that I had questioned.  Both of the boys had woken up in the night, and they had come running up to sleep by Ammon and Ryan.  They claimed that there was a man that had been standing by a tree watching them, and that they had both been woken up by something.  The man was apparently wearing a white shirt, and he was very tall.  They had woken all of us parents up and it was around 3 am or so.  I was a little concerned because the spot that they pointed out was right where Cache was sleeping soundly.  Anyhow, I chalked it all up to boyhood imagination, until Ivona started telling her tales.
    Apparently the cabins had been broken into, and items had been stolen from the Bundy family that have cabins over the fence.  Someone had gone to the sheriff and it was found that this guy had been just living on the reunion grounds.  She even told me that Mel had caught him peeking into one of the tents and had threatened him, so he left.  She made sure to mention that he was told that he could no longer trespass on the reunion grounds, but that he could now just hang out on the public ground, and she emphasized that he had been hanging out by where Ryan and I were currently camped.  Of course, all of this was spoken of when Oak was sitting right there, and at that point Oak refused to sleep out with us.  He had claimed the night before that he had heard footsteps out there and that he was scared.  He ended up in the tent with the little ones that night.  Oak opted to sleep close to Ammon and away from the mystery man's stomping grounds, and Ryan and I put the little ones to bed, and I handed him a gun just in case Ivona was not pulling my chain.  When I got up in the early morning hours to go run, two sets of footprints had walked by in the night.  It was kinda unbelievable.  Do I want to be scared at the Bundy reunion?  No, but I guess this is kinda scary and makes it more interesting.  Ivona has also been known to make up stuff to scare.
     So, since the reunion, time has just flown.  The kids have swam in the pool, in the pond, and in the canal.  We got invited to Trey Houston's birthday party out at Aravada Springs...Nay's ranch for those of us who have been around for years.  It was so much fun.  The blackberries were ripe, we swam, and then watched Napoleon Dynamite over the pond.  I love Trey...he is a great kid.  Ryan and Oak got into a water fight, we picked peaches, and Denise grilled us some hamburgers.  I am way glad we took the time to go.
     Sunday we had Jasmine's friend with us at church.  The elders were speaking and she was with us and felt that this was no coincidence.  Because they had spoken, they were less scary, and she was willing to meet with them to have them teach her.  I was surprised to learn that one of the Elders was from Burns and he knew the Hammonds.  We have a ton in common with that guy.  We had a great chat with Maddy, and she is reading the Book of Mormon.  Dill was also kinda surprised in the middle of the meeting as she realized that all people have skin...so yeah..that is a thing to be eeked out over.
     Jazz also had a birthday yesterday.  14 and its kinda unreal.  She is such a good girl.  I took her and Montana shopping for awhile and tried to spoil her a little bit.