After 13 years, I finally received a Utah Rocky Mountain Goat tag.  For those of you that might be confused by that first sentence - this isn't Melanie.  This is John putting forth his valiant effort in blogging.  

We flew into Utah on Tuesday as many of you know from Melanie's previous post.  My Dad and I spent most of Tuesday getting ready for our trip.  We spent the afternoon out a Cabela's and sighting in our guns. Wednesday we packed up the horses and headed up the trail above my parents house.  The muzzle loader deer hunt is in full swing so we had big crew.  There were 8 of us, along with 10 horses.  We arrived into our camp below Box Elder peak Wed night.  It was crazy being on a horse again.  Living in Indiana, my butt hasn't seen a saddle for ages.  4 days of horse riding has caused some serious pain!

Thursday morning we got up and rode to the top of South Box Elder.  Thanks to Reed and Sam, we spotted about 8 goats on the East side of Box Elder.  After watching them for a while, I found the one I was going to go for.  I really did luck out with that opportunity opening morning.  We videoed the whole thing.  I was actually really surprised when Melanie suggested putting the video of me shooting my goat on the blog.  For any of you animal rights activists out there, I will spare you the kill scene.  It was pretty sweet though!  While we were skinning the goat Jordan, my 9 year old nephew said, "why do people do this?"  He was pretty grossed out.  We all got a kick out of that and enjoyed having Jord around.  We had a great time.  Besides the goat, we all had opportunities as some big 4 point mule deer.  No thanks to some mishaps in gun cleaning 101, 2 of the muzzle loaders misfired and those big 4 point deer on Box Elder will live another day.  We stayed up there till Saturday.  Enjoy the pics...... or don't enjoy the pics - depends on who you are.

Day With Grandma Heiner

Yes, we are in Utah! To say that we had a fun day with Grandma Heiner would be an understatement! First Grandma took the girls to Build a Bear for the first time! Both of the girls picked out a cute animal with a very girly outfit (of course). It was so much fun! As we were walking out the door the girls spotted the Disney store. Of course they darted right in and started trying on princess shoes, and princess dresses. Grandma couldn't resist and decided that the princess outfits would be there birthdays this year. Thank you for spoiling us Grandma! We love you!

Even though Kate is super sick, she couldn't help but smile about her darling Belle dress and shoes. The shoes light up when you walk in them!

Talk about a child that can pose! She was dancing to a Disney song.

Hailey caught a glimpse of her reflection in a store window, oh man, should I be worried?


As we were walking Arlene and I were cracking up because Hailey would curtsy all the way down to her knee to almost every person she passed. When her knee became sore she whipped out her wand and waved it at people passing.

This is Hailey's curtsy

"KATE"

VS.

"THE MAKEUP DRAWER"

.....Stay tuned for next weeks battle - 

"KATE"

VS.

"HER OWN POOPY DIAPER"

Running Mix Fav's

So I wouldn't say that I exactly LOVE to run, but once I force myself to actually do it, I feel healthier and my body just functions better. I have always been addicted to music, especially unique music that I hear on a movie soundtrack or artists that haven't made it yet to the #1 spot. Sometimes there isn't a soundtrack available on i-tunes so I look through the credits at the end to look up the title and artist name. (I think I got this from you Ryan).
Anyway, here is my running mix for the moment that I blast while I run. It changes frequently. Instead of buying new running clothes or something else to reward myself for running (because really most days I want to die rather than run) I just download a song on i-tunes or Amazon for .99 cents. Ryan showed me how I can actually download MP3 songs from Amazon and that way they aren't encripted (basically I can burn them to a CD as many times as I want, or share them in various ways that buying them off of i-tunes would prohibit me from).
Anyway, most of these songs are pretty popular, they aren't ones that I would consider part of my "unique playlist", they just get me revved up to run. Let me know your favorite running songs. I am always looking for new ones!!

Pocketful of Sunshine-Natasha Bedingfield
Viva la Vida- Coldplay
Shake it-Metro Station
Tonight-The Afters
Hero/Heroine-Boys Like Girls
Disturbia- Rihanna
Nothin' Better to Do-LeAnn Rimes
Do You Know-Enrique Iglesias
Shiver-Coldplay
The Sweet Escape (clean version)-Gwen Stefani
Never Again-Kelly Clarkson
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree-Kt-Tunstall
Burnin Up-Jonas Brothers
Who Says You Can't Go Home-Bon Jovi and Sugarland
Ain't No Other Man- Christina Aguilera
Takin' It to the Streets-Taylor Hicks
So Small-Carrie Underwood

Ok, I just have to give a shout out to one of my favorite places....Costco! I have fond memories of Costco with my cousin and longtime friend Andrea and her sweet little daughter Abby. Who doesn't love the free samples, the awesome produce and of course the polish hot dog dripping with relish and a soda for $1.50!
My Costco experience will forever be dimmed now because you moved Ang! It was so fun to shop around, chase after screaming kids and then eat lunch together (which we were never that hungry for because we filled up on samples). In short, we miss you Ang and Abby!

OPRAH!!!!

I can officially cross it off my bucket list

Do any of you have a list of things you want to do before you "kick the bucket" (AKA bucket list)? Well attending Oprah live was on my list. When my sweet high school friend announced on her blog that she had some extra tickets I told her I would drive to Chicago in a heart beat. After her 13th try on the phone she finally got through (some people wait years on a waiting list).
It was a great opportunity for John to take care of things on the homefront while I caught up with a friend that I hadn't seen in six years and attended a live showing of Oprah!!!!! We wore super bright colors and ended up on the second row!!! Look for us on September 15th! Although the topic wasn't exactly what we would have liked (Substance Abuse), we still had a blast! The topic was still very interesting. It was just a cool experience all around. Oprah interviewed Tatum O'Neil and Lisa Ling. We were literally a couch length away from Oprah! It was so fun to see Emily Erickson and meet her friend Alicia too! During a commercial break it was hilarious when Oprah jumped up, kicked her shoes off and said, "I have gotta pee in the worst way!"
Thanks again Megan for such a fun time! Any time you want to visit the exciting state of Indiana let me know!


This is Megan's apartment! Awesome!

Hailey's First Day of Preschool!

A special thank you to my sweet husband for taking care of the girls and getting Hailey all ready for her first day of preschool! Stellar performance on feeding, clothing and doing Hailey's hair honey! You even took some great pictures! Hailey had a blast and can't wait to go back again.