Hardware Ranch

 

On President’s Day Andrew and I decided to drive up to Hardware Ranch to see some elk.  We also took up a canoe to switch with Andrew’s brother and a couch his grandparents were giving his brother and sister-in-law, so we didn’t drive 2 1/2 hours just to see elk.  On our way there we stopped at a trapping store so Andrew could buy some more traps.  Right when we stepped out of the car it smelled like skunk and as we got closer and closer to the store so smell just got stronger!  So we pretty much smelled like skunk the rest of the day and inside our car definitely smelled disgusting.

We were a little worried it would be really busy at the ranch on a holiday, but it was GREAT!  We didn’t have to stand in line at all and we only waited about 5 minutes for our sled to fill up! 

Those little specks in the distance are the elk!

The sled was a sled with wheels because there was so little snow on the ground.  I think there was more mud than snow on the ground.

The horses that pulled our “sled”!  They were really pretty and they were huge!  Andrew kept telling me to get closer and when I did he yelled, “Watch out they bite!”…it sorta freaked me out haha.  I have like 4 layers of clothes on in this picture because it was soo cold!

Andrew excited to have his picture taken haha I kept trying to take more but he wouldn’t let me.

We got really close to some of them!  All the little kids on our sled thought it was really cool that the elk didn’t run away from them…I didn’t want to burst their bubble and tell them they’re just habituated to the sled because they know it brings them food haha.

Our driver told us this guy is 9 years old, then he told us elk usually live 9-10 years….so he’s pretty much a goner in a year….so sad because he was one of the biggest bulls there and really cool to watch!!  His antlers were huge!

We forgot to zoom out our camera….whoopsie!

Our driver told us there was 370 elk there!!!!  Holy Cow!….or Holy Elk!

They said last year they had over 600 elk here!  The winter hasn’t been bad this year so not that many have come.  We’ll have to go again when it’s a bad year so we can see lots more and maybe some bigger bulls!!

Fishing!

 

A few weeks ago we went fishing with our friends and dogs.  We headed up the canyon and ended at Starvation.  We loaded up the sleds with all our fishing gear and walked down to the lake.  Our dog Gus practically dragged me down the hill he was so excited.  Anywho…We fished for awhile and I caught nothing for like 3 hours….very exciting…hahaha.  Andrew on the other hand kept getting some bites and about ten minutes in he caught a pretty nice rainbow. 

      

A little while later Andrew and Eric walked off to find some more places to drill some holes.  I was patiently sitting by pole praying for a bite when I heard a splash and I looked up and Andrew’s pole was GONE!  I yelled to him telling him his pole was gone.  He ran over and sure enough some fish took it down the hole.  Eric grabbed his pole and fish finder and put it down the hole and a few minutes later he had hooked something.  He brought it up and he had snagged Andrew’s fishing line on his hook!  So he started reeling it up, and here comes Andrew’s fishing pole!  Andrew grabbed it and then he reeled in the fish that took his pole down the hole hahaha.

Here’s the fish and pole that were down the hole haha not a bad size fish!

And then later in the day I caught a fish too!…Well sorta…Andrew hooked it on his line but let me reel it in because I got no action the entire day..total let down.  I usually out fish Andrew when we go fishing, so he was really proud of himself that day haha.

It was a really nice day, but then it got super cold and started to snow so I put Andrew’s camo coat on and I got roasty toasty.

When we got home that day we were driving past the field across from our house and this beauty was in there!  A really nice 4 point.  Andrew put out a salt lick trying to get them to stay there so he could go get his antlers once they fall off, but no luck yet. 

St. George trip

 

Over Martin Luther King Day weekend we went to St. George with Andrew’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law.  While we were there we went on a hike to see some petroglyphs by the Santa Clara River.  We started out and kept walking past these signs saying “upper graveyard” and “lower graveyard”.  I was really excited to see some old graveyards, but then Andrew informed me that those were just the names of the trails we were on…thank you professor …

Here we are ready for the hike!  Little did we know what we were really getting into….

Here are some pictures of the Santa Clara River.  It was really pretty and the view was breathtaking even though everything looks dead haha.

We were looking for petroglyphs on the rocks on the other side of the river and we found some! 

Here is an actual petroglyph!  We hadn’t really found any good ones so we were all playing around on these huge rocks on the cliff, then some lady and her husband walk by and they were like “Oh here’s one!”… it was about ten feet from where we were! 

 

We wanted to get down the cliff to the river to see if we could find some more petroglyphs, so Andrew decided to try rock climbing.  He climbed down a ways and then found this cave. 

Here we are trying to act like Indians (well at least I was trying!) by a petroglyph. 

Here we are trying to get down to the river.  We couldn’t find a trail that led down so we decided to just go down the mountain!

I think I spent a lot of the time like this or crawling on my bum.  It was really steep!  I know it doesn’t look like it in the pictures, but it was steep.

We all made it!

The mountain we climbed down!

Andrew wanted to climb on these huge rocks!  On top he found a bunch of petroglyphs!!  He had to climb up this by pushing his back against one rock and his hands against the other and climbing up it that way!  It was really funny to watch, it was even funnier to watch him try to come down haha.

There was a pond by the condo we stayed in.  Andrew wanted to go see what types of ducks were there…

I got bored after awhile so started taking random pictures.  I thought this one was actually pretty cool.

Classic Andrew look…I get this look all the time…

But I sure do love this guy!!

On the way home we stopped by a ghost town called Silver Reef.  It was neat to see all the old cowboy stuff they had from the town they found.  Plus some of the buildings were still standing..or parts of them. 

It was really windy there too!

It was a really fun trip! 

Hay Ride!!

 

A little bit before Christmas Andrew’s family had a hay ride and soup party at his Grandpa and Grandma Matthews house.  It was really cold so we all bundled up and brought blankets to keep warm.

The hay kept my bum nice and toasty haha.  We went around some neighborhoods singing Christmas Carols.  Andrew’s little cousins sang the whole time and they have really nice voices! 

…and it was SNOWING which made it even more exciting!  It was really fun riding behind these huge horses!!

CarolAnn and I with the horses!!  I think their hooves were as big as my head!

Here is the rest of the family that went out after we did.  They all look so warm!  Everyone brought different kinds of soup, so after we were done riding we all went into the garage and had our pick between like 7 different soups with ROLLS (my favorite!)  It was a really fun night and I hope we do this every year!

Swimmin’ with the dolphins!!

 

We finally got our dolphin pictures in the mail!!!  I was so excited to get them!!  Okay, so on our honeymoon we went swimming with dolphins in Puerto Vallarta.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!  They were a lot bigger than I thought they would be, but I was in heaven the whole time…Andrew even enjoyed it haha. 

When we first got there they had a sea lion there that gave us a kiss.  It smelled really bad, not going to lie…like rotten fish, but it was still adorable!!

I don’t think he wanted to give Andrew a kiss….or maybe Andrew didn’t want one haha.

This was right before we got in the with dolphins..the photographer wanted us to show how excited we were.  I think Andrew and I were the most excited…

The trainer would give a fish to the dolphin and it would swim over to us then we would take the fish our of it’s mouth and drop it into their mouth.  It was really cool to feel their teeth and see their tongues. 

Andrew takin’ a ride with the dolphins.  They were actually really fast and you had a hold on tight otherwise they’d just leave you.

Riding with the dolphins.  They were so smooth to touch!

I would do this everyday if I could!!  They had trainers there from all over the world.  Our trainer was from Canada and she had only been working with the dolphins for a few months, but she did a great job!  This is definitely my dream job…

Next they had the dolphins swim on their backs and we rode on their bellies around the pool.  This was really fun to do! I think they swam faster that way then they did when they were on their bellies.

Once we got off the ship in Puerto Vallarta they had us meet in our expedition groups.  We were the youngest people in our group.  All the young couples were doing the zipline and stuff, so we were wondering what we got ourselves into.  Thinking it would be really slow, but judging by this picture I’d say we had a blast! 

We had a great time and it was an awesome experience!!