Abundant Recompense Copy

The weather was nice on Halloween, so we packed up during the afternoon and went to Antelope Island. We were delighted to stumble upon the bison round-up, which I guess happens once a year. Real live cowboys herd all the bison on the island to be counted and vaccinated and sorted. It was neat to watch, and really unlike anything Nate or I have ever experienced. We got to watch them go down the chute to where the veterinarian would check them out. Touching bison fur. The chute. Bri and Bryn They were pretty scared by the time they got to where we could see them. One thing I learned: don't mess with bison, man. Those things are tanks. On the drive from the bison round-up to our trailhead Nate spotted this western meadowlark. It's the first one we've seen! We did the Buffalo Point trail, which was perfect for our family's skill level and time frame. It was about half a mile up to a peak. Once we got to the top the view was breathtaking. At the top there were lots of rocks ...

Halloween was fun this year. The kids loved their costumes and we had fun at the ward costume parade the day before Halloween. We only went to a few houses on Halloween night. Brother Grove, and the Beehive House and the Allreds (who totally had a caramel apple waiting for each of the kids because they are awesome) were the main ones on the agenda. Lots of cute pics and LOTS of candy, the majority of which I finally dumped in the circular file four days later. Addison and Bryn with our neighbor, Brother Jessop on the way to school. He meets us at the bus stop most mornings with a challenge for the kids to do at school, and then meets us in the afternoon so they can report back. Costume prep. Loved having Brianna here for several days around Halloween.  And the costumes. They were so darn cute.  Asa was a gumball machine. Leah picked Snow White, after being inspired by a smutty pattern of an adult Snow White costume at Joann. Bryn was a flamingo. Thanks to Shauna for the costum...

So we'd been planning a Labor Day backpacking trip through Buckskin Gulch forever. I told Michelle it was the only thing I wanted for my birthday. We got permits in June, roped our friends Mike and Stephanie into going with us, and burned through basically all the social capital I've built up over the years to get my mom to watch the kids overnight (since she also agreed to watch them during our October trip to Boston; but they're angel children so what's the big deal?) It was a rainy summer, and I watched the weather around Kanab religiously all that week. I had five or six weather stations plugged into my Weather Channel app and there were periods when I was checking it every 15 minutes or so. Once you're in Buckskin, there's basically no place to get to higher ground for 8 or 10 miles, so you don't want anything like a flash flood. The chance of rain stayed at about 20-30%, so I was feeling OK about it. Dad picked up our permits and and I called the Kanab...