Broken Leg

I went out duck hunting the first day of Winter Break (Thursday morning). Looking up at geese flying overhead, I was just about to shoot when I stepped into a hole filled with brush and fell face first. My right leg stayed on the trail as the rest of me fell, and it twisted back and to the right, fracturing my lateral malleolus (the bone at the end of the tibia). I'm going to see a orthopedic surgeon Monday or Tuesday. Right now I've just got a temporary cast. Lame!

The Spider

Canada Whitetail Deer Hunt

I will post a report and more pictures tomorrow, but here are a couple of pictures for now. We went to Kenora, Ontario, Canada. Awesome trip! It was warm the first few days, so the rut wasn't going like it normally would be. We didn't see many bucks, so I took the first buck I saw (on Wednesday evening 3 days into the hunt). He's not one of the big Canadian bucks you go there for, but he's big enough for me!

Vai Sikahema on Missions

If you haven't read former BYU and Philadelphia Eagles football player, Vai Sikahema, and his recent series of posts on missionary service, you need to. Powerful and totally enjoyable in light of the sport he played. You have to read these....good stuff.

Missions and Football Part I

Missions and Football Part II

Missions and Football Part III

Missions and Football Part IV

Missions and Football Part V

Missions and Football Part VI

Elk Camp 2010

Dad, Dave, and I set up elk camp high atop the Manti-La Sal mountain range above Mayfield, Utah this year. We camped in Dave's trailer at 10,000 feet at Twelve Mile Flat and hunted along the logging roads and canyons in the high country for 5 days. It was awesome! We were in elk herds every day, and we had opportunities at spikes almost daily. We still-hunted pine and aspen forests, climbed high peaks, and walked ridgelines and mountain meadows, all while enjoying each other's company and working hard together to connect on a spike elk. On Friday morning, the fourth day, Dave finally connected for us as we moved in on a herd, and he had a spike elk run right at him - he shot it from 30 yards. W

e quartered the animal, de-boned the meat, and packed it out through a high meadow to a logging road. The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful time being together as family in some of the most beautiful country on earth!

This is how you look for elk.

Dave, Joe, and Dad with the one elk we downed. Dave shot him from 30 yards after we closed in.

Dave, Dad, and Joe.
My weapon of choice - a Remington .30-06 Model 700 with Leupold scope.
Lying back on a peak looking for elk in the evening after hiking in on a ridgeline in the afternoon.
Dave and Dad toward the end of the day ready to head back to camp. We cooked our dinners over a campfire, grilling chicken and steak over pine logs.
One of the basins we hunted all week. The elk bed it the north facing pines and feed in the open meadows early and late in the day with some movement during the mid-day.
A ridgeline we hunted. The elk bedded in the north facing forest on the left. Heavy game trails run all through the forest.
Dave shot his elk in the meadows below.
Dad and his woolen hunting trowsers - "The perfect hunting pants," he says.
Good times!

Evening Hike in Arches

We took the kids out for pizza and then into our backyard....Arches National Park for a little evening hike. Beautiful sunset tonight with storm clouds in the west over Canyonlands.

Dark Canyon Lake

We took the kids camping up in the La Sal Mountains here in Moab. We went up to Dark Canyon Lake. It turned out to be the trip that was cursed, even though we had fun and it was beautiful. On the bumpy ride up over Geyser pass, the ice chest worked its way off the rope and dumped out of the truck onto the logging road crushing 11 out of 18 of our eggs and dumping food everywhere. We picked up the remnants, and Brandi cleaned and saved what we could while I set up camp. The first night went off great besides some rain that night, but we all stayed dry. We had breakfast and canoed the lake and fished the next morning. Then the hail storm from hell arrived.

Here is a picture of the camp when we arrived before the hail storm turned it into a muddy pond.

Here is a picture of the camp after the hail storm turned it into a pond. It took me an hour to get the truck out of the that pond. The sides were just steep enough and totally slick that I couldn't get out. After turning it into a mud pit and cutting and laying down a bunch of pine boughs, we got out. Everything was covered in mud.
We slipped into the back of the truck to wait out what we thought would be a routine rain storm. Here's a pic from the back looking out.
James laid out all of his toys to wait out the storm.
The hail slowly built until they were nearly marble size. There were piles of hail about 4 inches deep everywhere.
It rained so hard, that half our camp was submerged in 12 inches of water. The tent and tubs were floating in the water.
Matt grubbing his skillet fried pancake.
James and Matt drinking up their hot chocolate first thing in the morning.
Pretty girl relaxing while Joe cooks.
Joe cooking bacon and pancakes over the fire in the iron skillet.
Canoeing with the kids. The hail storm is rolling in over the mountains.
Using Bryan's supersized flapjacker to make pancakes.
Emmy was the only one to catch a fish. She pan fried it when we got home and ate it up with lemon juice.

Colorado River Canoeing

I took my newly purchased canoe out on the Colorado River for the first time. I went with a friend, Chris, from here in town, and we put in down at the bridge about a mile from my house. We floated 4 hours downriver to Gold Bar. A thunderstorm kept threatening us, but cleared out after awhile. It was a cool trip. I scouted the river, so now I can take Brandi and the kiddos. I'll post pics of that adventure when it happens.

We were in some shallows on the narrow side of an island and Chris saw a bunch of carp boiling in the shallow water. He jumped out and caught one. Gollum the River Hippy.



We rock climbed these walls with the kids a couple of months ago.

Electric Lake

Brandi had to work this weekend, so I took the kids up to my folks' house for our summer "camping" reunion with all my bros. However, we just hung out at my parents, so I took the kiddos up to Electric Lake and camped on our way to my parents. We canoed, fished, and cooked all of our food over the fire.

James and Matthew stomping around the campsite. We set up right on the lake shore.

Emmy loved fishing. She fished at least 5 or 6 hours the second day. She said she was going to get up early, and true to her word, at about 5 or 6 am, I heard her get out of her tent. I looked out and saw her standing on the lake shore in the pre-dawn mists fishing away. She said she wants to go fishing for her birthday this month instead of having a party.
Matt and James had fun tromping around with the girls through the shallows finding dead fish, chasing minnows, and getting muddy.
These little prairie dog type things were all over the sage hills, and we saw this one swimming across the lake. It was exhausted when it made it to shore, and the kids picked him up and carried him around.
Moon setting behind the mountain. We enjoyed the campfire watching all the stars come out.
I bought a canoe awhile back for $150 from some lady in Moab. We used it to fish around the lake. I caught a 14 inch cutthroat, but everyone else got skunked.

Canoeing the lake with the little people.
We canoed several miles down the lake in the morning trolling three lines out of the boat. It was tiring.
These two rascals showed up just in time for a breakfast cooked in my iron skillet over the coals: bacon, sausage, eggs, and hot chocolate.
Cooking the bacon and warming water for hot chocolate.
The brood.
Looking south from the campsite.