Moose Central!

Before we moved to Troy, I never once had seen a moose in the wild. Now I have seen several and have since then decided that Troy Idaho is moose central! It started last winter when a baby moose made our front yard into his home. It was really beautiful and amazing to see, but knowing how dangerous they can be, it was also really SCARY!

THEN...

April (Joe's neice) came to stay a night with us and as we loaded her car up she and I heard a noise in the woods...It was a VERY LOUD stomping!! Then all of the sudden we both saw something big and brown in the trees (20 yards from where we were standing). We are pretty sure it was a full grown GIANT moose. Now I am scared to walk from the house to the car! I make poor Joe walk right next to me both ways!

AND TO MAKE IT WORSE...

We were on our way home from Lewiston and on the few mile stretch of road between Moscow and Troy, I was texting my sister and not paying attention to the road at all (Joe was driving!) Next thing I know, Joe's hand flies over my chest and we are swerving into the other lane! I look up and there is a giant animal in the road! We couldnt tell for sure whether it was an elk or a moose (it was late and very dark). It scared me to death!

I think that moose are absolutely beautiful, but scary and I hope that we wont be seeing too many of them too close this year! I dont like the idea of "death by trample"!

Well, thats all...

We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

We're Coo Coo for Camping!!

I just came across so pictures from our camping trips this summer. Thought I would mention them real quick! We camp A LOT! We arranged a family camping trip for the 4th of July and ended up having our daughter on June 30th! So that we didnt disappoint our family and skip out on the very camping trip we planned, we brought our 4 day old baby camping and to watch the awesome fireworks show in Clarkston, WA! It was a ton of fun, we kept her bundled up and she was fine. At two weeks old, she was headed out on her 2nd camping trip! By 2 months old, we had gone camping 4 -5 times! She did so well. Kaleb loved every minute of it! It gave up the perfect opportunity to please both children...Kaleb could be a little boy and get dirty in the mud and the rivers. Cameron could nuzzle up to me on a blanket in the warm sun and let it help her jaundice. Perfect! It was a blast.

However, our camping has another agenda. Although we love to camp in a tent, sleep on the ground, fish, and eat around a camp fire...there was more! GOLD MINING!!! We had invested in a couple items to help us gold mine areas where we camped. We didnt make it rich this summer, but we do have a little vial of gold. AWESOME! We plan to invest in a dredge (c'mon dad hurry up and buy it!!) and hit our hot spot (sorry we cant tell you where it is!!) but the river is LOADED with gold and an awesome place to camp. It doesnt get much more beautiful than that! Gold mining is a hard hobby, it is time consuming, money consuming, and physically exhausting. But it brought our family together, outdoors, close, and we had a blast! We even got my sister to go with us!!

I cant wait for next summer. To load up the Jeep, the gear, the kids, and hit the road! I'm ready for dirt, trees, fires, s'mores, and good old fashioned family fun!!

Addison Lydia Rutledge

For being a woman who had convinced herself that because she wanted to be a mom so badly she probably couldnt have kids - she sure did make a beautiful baby girl. Our best friends Alicia and Ron just had their first baby, a beautiful healthy daughter (11/6/08 at 8:09 am). She was 7 pounds, 1 ounce. 18 inches long, and perfectly small. A bundle of joy!

I was very happy to be able to make the trip to Walla Walla, WA and get to hold their little tiny! She was so small, I couldn't believe Cameron weighed less, even though it was only 4 months ago, I feel like Cameron was never that small!

Well, to Ron and Alicia - You guys did awesome! She is so beautiful and I wish the very best for you and your new family. What a blessing it is! I know you will both love and cherish all the moments that little girl is going to give you! I am very happy for you both! I love you!

SPIDER BITE...

CAUTION: kind of gross!!

Recently my dad pulled out his old boat to take steelhead fishing. It had been tucked away all summer and was full of random spiders. From Black Widows to the Agressive House Spider, they slowly came out of their hiding spot while he was on the river. Though he tried to kill off most of the pesty insects, one managed to get down his pants and bite him good! We do not know what kind of spider it was, but it did some damage. It started out no more than what irritation comes from a mesquito bite. Then it seemed to grow larger. The bigger it got the more sore it got and the hotter it got. You could feel the heat radiating off of him just standing next to him.

Eventually it got too bad and we finally went to the doctors. After a round of antibiotics he was much better. Then a scab formed over the center and began to bother him again. My mother decided to pick at the scab and try to see why it was bothering him so much. She tweezed it and slowly started pulling out what looked like a large intact sac of poison/puss. Once that was removed, he had a very deep dark hole in his leg but it healed quickly after that with no signs of scaring! He was lucky, if he had waited much longer for antibiotics he could have formed a major staph infection. Everyone beware of spiders this winter and try your best not to let the little ones get bitten...it is NOT pleasant or pretty.

Time Change!

WOW! I spent all week telling myself to remember that it was time to "fall back" this weekend and sure enough...I FORGOT.

Joe had to work this morning at 8:00 am and I wake him up freaking out that he is late. He jumps out of bed, throws on clothes, then grabs his phone to call his boss. He looks down at his phone and I think for a split second we may have wanted to throw it at me!! hehe....

He then tells me that its only 7:00 am and that I freaked him out for nothing! But in all fairness to me, he forgot too! Then he finished getting ready and went to work (not late!) and I rolled over and went back to bed. 30 minutes later I hear "mommy, mom, mama, I sleep good!" So I get up and get Kaleb up. GAHH!! I almost got to sleep in! Almost...