I am loving the fall chill in the air this morning.  This is my favorite time of the year, and it is because our favorite family outings usually happened in October with the deer hunt.  When I was really young my mom would make cinnamon rolls, and caramel apples, and little ghost sugar cookies, with chocolate chip eyes.  Most of these treats were taken deer hunting.  I feel bad that we did not draw out on any tags this year.  I love to get over to Hatch, and breathe in the cold, wet leaves smell.  It is way invigorating and so I will have to go over there for a visit anyway.  Perhaps Deeb and I can cook venison and dip fries in fry sauce.  That just might do it for me. 
     We had an extremely eventful weekend.  I loved hanging out with family, and watching the kids play with their cousins.  Last week was extremely busy too.  Now that the kids are back in school, we have way too many activities going on.  That, and Jams and Sags (and Jerusha too) thinking that they need to be social all the time keep my very busy.  We started out the week kind of rough because Mo refused to get out of the car on Monday afternoon.  I had just picked the kids up from the bus stop, and I had hit the case lot sale the Saturdee before, but had yet to remove some of the items.  Anyhow, Mo wanted to play in the car, and I needed to direct traffic inside, and so I asked Oak to keep an eye on Mo as he asserted his independence.  I kept the car door open, and I kept the front door open to monitor what was going on with Mo.  Anyhow, five minutes went by.   I went outside, and Oak was still "watching" at the car door.  Moroni had broke into my jumbo sack of flour and had moved a bunch of it into different piles that he was bouncing in.  It had spread all over the van.  I asked Oak why he didn't inform me of these messy happenings and he just shrugged and said that Mo was having a great time.  I guess Oak figured that Moroni knows best what to do with a sack of flour....not so I am afraid.
     The next morning we had the privelage of trying to drop off the water trailer again.  This time Ryan left me a jack and just told me to drop it wherever and use the jack.  The tire was still bad with tread flip flapping all the way down the road.  Lovely.  I also laughed silently because the girls were all piled onto one seat that Mo had somehow missed with his flour antics.  Anyhow, inspite of the tread finally giving way and flopping up onto the roof of the car, and scaring us half to death, the floor jack was way easier to use.  It is good that Ryan can come up with ways to help me succeed in these clunky situations.  I was way happy that I was able to make that work. 
     I need to mention that Chlo has grown up tons these past few weeks.  She is now such a mature little helper.  I thought we were going to be in trouble the first few weeks of school because she was being such a sneaky mess maker.  I realized that Oak had been tattling on her non-stop for a very good purpose.  After a few horribly messy days I began calling on her to help me with specific tasks.  She helps with laundry, dishes, cleaning.  Chlo is so much help now, and I don't know what I would do without her.  We still find a few odd messes here and there, now and then, but nothing like it was.  For example, I found a few rocks that had been frosted with hazelnut spread.  This is to be expected I guess.  One morning she got up demanding that I warm up some spaghettios for her breakfast.  The thoughts of that made me gag a little bit.  I suggested a piece of toast instead, and she went off bawling and complaining that she didn't want a roast.  Yep, our communication needs improvement at times.
     Our steers went into the butcher, and Jerusha was a little bit relieved that Ryan didn't have time to butcher them.  She had kind of gotten fond of Leo, in spite of the fact that he would drag her around by the lead rope about as much as she would lead him.  I think we all would have been happy to shoot Diablo though.  He was a real jerk.
     Jams and Sags went to a friend's birthday party in Zerkleville and ended up in a big chalk fight.  When they got home, they were a blue and red chalk mess.  Jamie still looks like she has been strangled with the red chalk all over her neck.  We have scrubbed and scrubbed and it just will not come off.  I love that my kids are creative about having fun, but hey, I have no idea how these things get started.
     On Saturdee we had the Roy Bundy Reunion.  I must admit that when we first started attending this reunion I was kind of crabby about it.  A whole different set of Bundy's attend that one.  Bundy's that of course were not as familiar.  It is held on the Roy Bundy property in Enterprise, and it is a lot filled with Cedar trees and dead weeds.  I must admit now, that I am glad Ryan always insisted that we attend.  I have gotten to know these Bundy's way better, and this year, because of the rain, the property looked like a green meadow.  Instead of doing an auction, the past few years have been spent telling stories about Roy and Doretta.  They had it tough, but they held to their faith.  Roy had rheumatoid arthritis, and his kids had to carry him around for about fifteen years of their childhood.  I know the Bundy spirit, and drive to work.  I know that this must have been completely devastating to Roy.  After that long, he cut up some tires, and put them on his knees.  He then began walking on his knees, using some homemade crutches.  He gardened and ranched on his knees.  They talked about his service in the temple.  He painted a set of tires white so that he could do temple service. She had twelve kids, and did a lot of the work too.  It is impressive how some people don't let hardships hold them back.  The Bundy's are an awesome family.  I love this reunion now, and look forward to it every year.
     On Saturday evening Katie had made plans to baptize her eight year old, and bless their new baby.  We went down the road to a little pond.  By this time we were experiencing blow-your-head-off wind.  The water was way choppy, but I will never forget Daniel's baptism.  He and his Dad looked awesome in that pond, dressed in their whites.  The baby was given a nice blessing, and then it was off to rescue Mo from the local dogs that he kept terrorizing.  The wind was bad, but it didn't hinder the spirit at all.  It was a great evening.
     Yesterday Christopher Allen had his missionary farewell.  We really like Christopher.  He came to the Bundy reunion this year, and he was a great help to me with the kids.  He held a bawling Chlo, and Mo.  He and Sags also had a great melon fight.  I determined that we were not going to miss his farewell.  Oak is getting old enough that I wanted him to be there.  Anyways, Mo was just awful.  The attendance was huge.  I finally took Mo in the back.  Jazzerz joined us, and he wanted to jump on whatever chair that Jazz happened to be sitting on.  She couldn't sit anywhere without him squawking about it.  He then began rearranging chairs.  This was loud and noisy work.  He pushed chairs clear across the gym, and I let it go on for a minute because I really wanted to listen.  They had Christopher leaving, and another missionary returning.  I finally gave up and joined several others in the hall.  By that time Blake Holmstead had given up on his one year old, and several others had too.  Who can hear with Mo rearranging chairs in the back?  I personally cannot.
     We had a Dave Bundy get-together after the farewell meeting.  It was fun.  Chlo wanted to sit up on the stage.  She refused to get down, but kept demanding pieces of watermelon.  I kept obliging with the hope that she would not be so cranky on the ride home if she ate something.  By this time a bunch of other kids had joined her on her stage-perch and they kept demanding melon too.  I was running back and forth to meet their melon orders.  Ella, Alice, Paxton Houston, and Maddie Schaefermeyer were all involved.  During my wanderings back and forth, I came across Ammon and Lisa's youngest daughter.  She had removed her diaper and was mooning different groups of people.  I thought it was hilarious, she is only two.  Anyhow, when Lisa noticed what was going on, she had Halle hurry her out to get another diaper.  Good times were had by all.  It was good to see everyone again.
     The ride home got testy with all of the kids fighting over really dumb stuff.  At one point Ryan had to pull over because some of the kids needed a bathroom break.  Chlo came back from the bushes with some "hotdogs."  This made me nervous because I thought that they had perhaps found an old raggy package of hotdogs and I am sure Mo would have just helped himself.  Yuck.  But no, her ''hotdogs" ended up being those swampy cattail bushes.  Chlo swirled and twirled them into a seed mess all over the car.  See what one little decision by a kid can do?  Those hot dogs aren't cool at all anymore.  They are simply a vacuuming job for mom now.  I already filled the car warsh vacuum with flour this week....come on Chlo!  Gimme a break.