Sooooo, a friend just brought it to my attention that I can blog from my phone.....maybe I'll update it more now.....maybe.

Adrenaline RUSH!

Now that the wife and kids are back in AZ, I decided I was in no hurry to get back to the RV and spent saturday night scouting for Elk since the Bow hunt starts soon. I Pulled up to this spot and told myself "THIS is where I'll be hunting!" I hadn't really found any evidence yet that it would be a good spot so I parked and began hiking down the canyon. I took wildlife trails, many of which ended in thick brush that I could not get through so I'd double back and find a new route. At one point I came within about 20 feet of a Coyote (he was not like the mangy desert Coyotes that most people usually see, he was big & healthy looking), he must have been moving up the trail as I was moving down it and only hesitated for a split second before turning and running out of sight...no time to get the camera out for a pic. As I continueed to hike the trails, I begin to catch whiffs of the distinct musky Elk scent (you hunters know what I'm talking about)....so I knew I was very close to at least one.....I could feel my heart start to beat faster....was it a Cow Elk or possibly a Bull?? I had to concentrate to control my breathing and avoid making too much noise as I hiked through the thick brush. Then I saw one....not a monster, but a nice rack. I was close enough to hit with a rock (or kill with my bow if I had it and the season had started)!! I took out my camera and started taking pictures, when it decided I wasn't a threat it casually walked off.....but I wasn't done....could I get even closer or were there more close by? I moved off the trail in the direction it was walking, still making sure to be as quiet as possible. When something else caught my eye....more antlers...bigger than the first and MAN was I CLOSE! It was hard to see...I needed a better view, so further into the brush I went. I was able to stay low enough behind the brush to get into a better position...when I emerged from behind it I was incredibly close but I had it's attention so I didn't hesitate to start taking pictures. At first I didn't realize how much bigger he was than the first....and neither one of them is done growing this year, will I have the patience to wait until later in the bow season to take him? I hope so but I'd be devistated if I missed my chance.

Before too long, the first Elk I saw appeared so I continued to take pictures and some video of the both of them.
(video wouldn't upload, maybe I can put it on my Facebook instead)
As it began to get dark they moved on to the other side of the ridge so I tried to follow but never saw where they went. As I began my hike back to the truck, I stopped a few times to process what I had just experienced and take in the beauty of the area I was in, when I noticed some movement on the next ridge....lo and behold, another Bull!
It's hard to see very well so I have no idea how big it is (I need a good spotting scope...hint hint)but I am confident that my initial impression was correct.....that this WILL BE a good spot to hunt....I CAN'T WAIT!

For those of you who don't know, Mitch went up to Colorado about 3 weeks ago for work and we are spending 5 weeks up here with him. These are the pics of our adventure as we traveled to be with him. It took us two days to get there but we had fun doing so.


Under the Arch..they were so proud to be up there!

Overlooking one of the Arches near Moab







This is the cool car at the Hole in the Rock in Moab...If you look close on the license plate for Moab it says "Mother Of All Beasts"...thats what I am haha!


Grayson was so excited that we saw a bear!


Here are my "boys" being boys!



We were so close to this bear. It was amazing!

Proclomation Canvas

I made this for my mother for Mothers Day. I took all of us kids' baby pics and scanned them in and presented it to her.

What...blogging once every two months isn't enough?!

Well, nothing "off the charts" has happened in the Ryan Family in the last few months but I had some time today so I thought I'd do an UPDATE!

We just got a puppy.....and for those of you who know Jen you are thinking "what the crap?" She has always been against pets, she has always said we would never have any (well, except the snakes we had for a while, but she refused to help take care of them so when I was out of town for work 3 years ago she sold them) but for whatever reason her attitude changed and when some friends of ours were selling some puppies she decided we would get one. Her name is Betsy and she is now 8 weeks old....she is part Shih Tzu & part Yorkie....so she's a shorkie Tzu. She is really cute (as you can see) and the kids love her to death. She is becoming very playful and happy at our home.



The kids are getting ready to finish school, they are on a modified "year-around" schedule so they have a relatively short summer break...only 6 weeks out for the summer. normally I'd be more than happy with that but considering the circumstances I wish they had more time off....which brings me to my next subject.

I am working in Colorado for the summer! I have been here for a week already and am getting ready to start working pretty long days (12 to 15 hours/day, 6 days/week)in order to make sure this project gets completed before the weather turns too cold again this fall. I am going to be inspecting different aspects of a 28 mile long, large diameter (24"), high pressure (1,440 PSI) pipeline construction project in Northwestern Colorado. Now, back to the part about the kids....Jen has changed her work schedule from 2 days/week to being basically "on call" when she tells them she is available so her and the kids are coming to Colorado to stay with me (in a 26' RV) for as long as they can before they have to go back to school. This past week has been hard to be away from home but in 2 more weeks they will be here with me so I'm excited about that! They are excited as well (mostly to get out of the AZ heat I think) but I think after 5 or 6 weeks after being cramped in an RV they will likely be ready to head home and have some space, lol!

I'll try to get some interesting pictures from the project as well as our time out here together (we want to do some fishin' etc...) and do another update in a while....hopefully less than 2 months!

Mitch

Disneyland, CA adventures, Legoland trip....lots of pics!

Time to plant again! (in Arizona anyway)

Harvest time

Onions, Carrots, Turnips, Lettuce & Peas.....YUM


Diggin' up carrots!


Cleanin' off green onions



No honey, it's a turnip....not a huge radish (HAHA)

no news...... is good news?????

I'm sad to say that I have nothing of great consequence to report that would be of any interest to the masses.......sorry :0(

Halloween

Venom (black spiderman), GoGo Girl, Ted Nugent, Bob the builder, & baseball player.....unfortunately Jen was working that night.

New house (very limited....sorry)

This is the only picture that we have of the inside of the new house......I guess everyone will just have to come over to see the rest.
Just as I promised in the post at the end of August. :0)

Back to blogging

It has been awhile since I have posted, we have been pretty busy plus my laptop had some problems too. I will start doing better.....I promise.

For those who may still be wondering who to vote for.....

This video is about 10 minutes long but worth every minute of it.....I actually paused it several times because it fits soo much info into a short amount of time.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wxmr_burning-down-the-house-what-caused_news

It's about to become official

It has been a while since I've done a legitimate post so I decided to let everyone know that this weekend it will become official, we will be living in Queen Creek. We have been going back and forth between Jen's mothers house and the Anthem house trying to get ours #1 closed (underwriting held things up for about two weeks longer than we expected) #2 painted & #3 epoxy the garage floor (I've always wanted to have it done but it's practiacally impossable to do it after everything is moved in, I'll take and post some pictures as I've promised). The kids started School out there about a month ago and I have still been working primarily in the northwest part of town so I've mostly been in Anthem and the kids pretty much have just stayed in QC and Jen has gone back and forth since she is still working a few days a week @ JCL.

WHY I'VE DECIDED TO VOTE DEMOCRAT

I don't know who wrote this but I couldn't help but share. ~Mitch

I'm voting Democrat because I believe the government will do better job of spending the money I earn than I would.



I'm voting Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.



I'm voting democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the bad guys will stop what they're doing because they now think we're good people.



I'm voting Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday CAN tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.



I'm voting Democrat because I'm not concerned about the slaughter of millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.



I'm voting Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as THEY see it.



I'm voting Democrat because I believe three or four pointy headed elitist liberals need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would NEVER get their agendas past the voters.



I'm voting Democrat because I believe that when the terrorists don't have to hide from us over there, theyʼll come over here, and I don't want to have any guns in the house to shoot them with.

I'm voting Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I've decided to marry my horse.



I'm voting Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't.


* * * * *


Makes you wonder why anyone would EVER
vote Republican, now doesn't it?

First Day of School

The kids actually started over a week ago at an awesome charter school in Queen Creek (we are moving there, in case you didn't already know) but I just got the pics off Jen's camera since she was out there with them and I've been lonely in anthem.

Baylee is now in the 3rd grade (holy crap...we have a 3rd grader,..... I remember 3rd grade!)

Brody is now in 1st grade.......our little man is growing up! He's gonna have a hard time eating if he loses any more teeth any time soon...LOL! Gage is now in Kindergarten .....he loves to learn and is excited about his new teacher who "lets him do all the things he likes to do"(.....that just means he's letting him learn). Grayson was feeling left out so Jen took a picture of him too......He will start preschool next month, he talks about school all the time.

Our Catalina vacation.....with captions

Independence day celebration 2008 in Anthem

Fun Family sticker

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Trip to Grandma & Grandpa's house in Utah

Captions on pics