Grandpa Belnap

Brock's Grandpa Belnap passed away on November 24th at home in Idaho, so we spent most of our Thanksgiving weekend in Idaho with family. Grandma and Grandpa Belnap have a very large family so it was fun for Brock to catch up with some cousins he hasn't seen in a very long time.

Grandpa's funeral was very touching and quite spiritual. They did a military tribute because of his service in WWII, that was super neat and very touching as well. He was such a good man and a really fun Grandpa, Brock always tells silly stories about Grandpa and his teasing and goofing around. We will miss him and look forward to being with him again!

I'll never forget the first time I met Grandpa, he instantly pulled me in for a giant hug and a kiss and said "I'm not crazy.....I'm just half crazy!" He was so lovable and funny!

Brock and I with His parents and grandparents at the BIG Belnap Family Reunion this past summer.

Grandpa Belnap was a scoutmaster for many years and he loved it.

I'M GRATEFUL FOR GOOD PEOPLE

We all know how hard it can be to move to a new unfamiliar place, away from family and close friends. It seems like no matter where you go there can be a kind of "loneliness" due to unfamiliarity. The streets, stores and people can for a period of time seem so foreign.

These are some of the feelings I had when we moved to Montana. We've been here over a year and a half now and those feelings since fled and I love it here. Sometimes though, no matter how happy you can be with a home, neighborhood, neighbors, co-workers, ward and friends, you still miss having family close by. Especially as Thanksgiving and Christmas get closer the desire to be closer to family grows.

However, the friendships we've built here have become so important to me and many of these people have become "our family away from home", and have made Montana our new home.

I started thinking about all this last week when my close pal Kirsten made Brock and I Sunday dinner. She prepared a very nice meal and called and asked if we wanted it for dinner. She was going to deliver right to our door but I couldn't let her do that too. I went and picked up the COMPLETE meal and brought it home to eat. It was maybe one of the most kind thoughtful deeds anyone has done for me. (I must mention too...Brock and I were both physically and mentally sound, so it wasn't a "sick person" meal).

Basically it's nice to have people around that you can count on no matter what, especially when family isn't around to help you out. I sincerely believe that the people in our lives are here to help us and we should be there to help them in their lives.

HUNTING FRENZY!

AS YOU MAY KNOW, BROCK'S BEEN HUNTING THE LAST FEW WEEKENDS FOR A WHITE TAIL BUCK. LAST WEEK HE WENT OUT A COUPLE MORNINGS REALLY EARLY WITH A FRIEND TO HUNT NEARBY OUR HOUSE. THE 2nd MORNING OUT, MATT GOT HIS BUCK BY CALLING HIM BY RATTLING ANTLERS TOGETHER. THE NEXT MORNING THEY WENT OUT AGAIN AND CALLED IN BROCK'S BUCK THE SAME WAY.

BROCK IS SUPER PUMPED TO HAVE HIS MONTANA WHITE TAIL AND WE ARE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING THE MEAT PROCESSED AND PACKAGED FOR US. (I won't allow cutting up an animal in my kitchen...YUCK!) IN RESULT WE ARE NOW IN THE MARKET FOR A FREEZER TO PUT ALL THIS MEAT, SO IF YOU KNOW OF ANY GOOD DEALS LET US KNOW!

NOW BROCK IS FOCUSING HIS HUNT FOR A BULL ELK OR A BLACK BEAR, SO WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

WARNING: DEAD DEER PHOTOS BELOW

Hunting Season

From Hippies to Hillbillies...we do it all! The past couple weekends Brock and I have ventured out to the surrounding mountains for some hunting. (I believe this is what we are going to be doing with the rest of November on Saturdays...lucky me). We've done A LOT of hiking and I have been feeling muscle aches I've never experienced before! We are hunting for Mule Deer, White Tail Deer, Elk and Black Bears, apparently Montana lets you do it all at once! However, we have yet to see any animals that are NOT behind NO HUNTING signs. Plans are we'll shoot what ever we see first. When I say "we" I mean Brock. I have never witnessed a killing of animal and am pretty worried of how I will handle it. I'm just around to keep Brock company and am not really into the whole "redneck" hunting thing. I do enjoy getting out and hiking and seeing more of Montana though. Who knows....maybe my feelings will change after the whole experience, maybe I'll really like the hunting thing. We'll see?

I had to take a pic of this HUGE pine tree.

(We were hiking through lots of huge trees like this).

Views from on top of the mountain we hiked

BOO!

We had a very SPOOKY HALLOWEEN this year and here is our recap.

We had a very spooky dinner with our friends Kirsten & Aaron. Kirsten put together a really fun "spooky dinner" with mummy dogs, baked slugs, blog clots and green boogers.... pretty spooky huh! It was so much fun, she made a cute little ice cream dessert out of oranges too!

After dinner we headed to the "TRUNK or TREAT" at the church to pass out candy and hang with some ward members. It was such a warm night ( the warmest Halloween night that I can remember in the longest time). to spend outside socializing. We had a wonderful SPOOKY evening!!!

The cute little pumpkin Kirsten made each of us filled with chocolate ice cream for dessert.

This is our "Spooky Dinner"

Brock dishing out some green boogers.

(notice his eyes...he looks like a REAL hippie)

Aaron looking pretty "spooky" at dinner.Me and my little buddy Claire! Yes...we make good hippies!

We had fun dressing up this year as hippies and creating our own costumes. Kirsten & Claire home grown from the farm!

Last but NOT least....the Wells Fargo group!

Brock the hippie, Conor the LDS Missionary, Carla as a baby, Graham as Sponge Bob and Lucy the bow hunter. They had a fun time dressing up and enjoyed a BBQ for lunch.

Brock's Steelhead Trip

I decided since I've been tossing and turning since 2am that I'd get up and blog, lame I know...who blogs at 4 in the morning?????

BROCK'S YEARLY FISHING TRIP TO THE SALMON

Brock just had his yearly fall fishing trip to the Salmon River in Idaho. He met up with his friends Casey and mark for a few days of ALL DAY fishing. Brock looks forward to this trip all year long, it's like his "DREAM VACATION" come true!

They fish from sun up to sun down as they mosey down the river in Casey's drift boat. Brock was extra excited this year because he was able to use his new Steelhead Rod. (don't ask me why a regular one doesn't cut it....I will never understand)! The fishing was really good for all of them considering how tough steelheading can be.

Brock caught 5 fish all together on special homemade "Brock flies" and as a group they caught around 12! Brock forgot a camera even after all of my lecturing, so we only have this one picture that Casey sent us. However, I'm sure you can imagine how happy Brock was with out seeing the pictures!

Some fish after a day of fishing This is a picture from last year's trip, I thought I'd through it on for good measure.

Please forgive any grammar or spelling errors, I'm starting to feel a little drowsy and am not going to proof read this post!

No. 1 Reason Brock loves Montana.....

THE FISHING!

We are absolutely in love with the mountains, rivers and lakes here. For those of you who know my husband, you know his passion for fishing. He loves, loves, loves to fish and absolutely loves all of the fishing options near our hometown. Here's a peak of our latest fishing trips. I have to say Brock has out-fished me the last few times we've gone, so I think I will hang my pink rod up until next spring!

GALLATIN RIVER

(our claim to fame...it was one of the rivers used in the movie "A River Runs Through It").

Brock caught 8 nice fish this day and I caught 0. No, I don't have any pics of Brock's fish. He saw that I had the camera and was wading through the river and made me put it away in the car. I guess he had a good point, I would be super sad with out my camera!

FAIRY LAKE

(my favorite lake ever! It's so beautiful and peaceful there).

Boog loves the mountains, although he is quite small and I had to carry him over big rocks and small puddles. He was all over the place sniffing, chewing and getting stuck in bushes. He's got such a funny personality and is so sweet!

Boog kept going through this "sticky mess" instead of going around the easier way. I had to catch it on video, puppies are so funny.

This was the view as we drove down the mountain to go home. I thought it was a pretty neat picture of the moon.
My favorite little stream on the way to Fairy Lake, I wish this is what my back yard looked like!

HENRY'S LAKE, ID

Our super good friend Adam was on a fishing trip in Idaho and invited Brock to join him for a day out on the lake. Brock was really excited to go fish on Henry's because he's always wanted to fish it and has never had the chance.

He met Adam for an all day fishing trip out on a boat and apparently the fishing was "HOT" and they "SLAYED" them. (boy talk???)

Look how gitty this grown man is.....you can't help but grin.

Brock had a lot of fun with Adam, it sure makes us miss our good friends in Utah though!

Thanks for the invite Adam!

THE END.... OF OUR FISH TALES

IT MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL

OKAY, seriously.....get a life Brett Farve! Who is this guy anyway? I am so annoyed with people in the limelight thinking they own the world and can do what they want. Take for instance Brett Farve, personally I think if you retire then you are done with that particular field of "work". I don't dislike this man but am incredibly irritated about all of they hype he's put us through. At the end of last season the announcement was made about his retirement and rumors of him not really retiring were ended by the Farve himself. Now, we find him yet again on our televisions throwing passes for the Jets. In my completely ignorant opinion the Jets shouldn't have signed him, that's just not fair for the sucker that got replaced by Farve on the Jets!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

This does not only regard Farve but others who retire and make a second or third come back. You may know whom I'm talking about, yes, Michael Jordan. No matter how well someone can play I don't respect the quitting and then changing your mind. Such behavior is child like and deserves zero respect!

My last order of business that makes my blood boil are yet again those in the limelight who think because they have their "foot in the door" in one area they should have free reign over everything. For example; they sang "Pop" and it didn't work out so they change and now sing country. Same goes for those who act and then think that the world wants to hear them sing. Lastly, those who think their opinions should be valued through out the presidential debates because they were voted "The Sexiest Man Alive" years ago. Seriously, all of our celebrities are absolute mess pants and makes themselves look like they are suffering from being Bipolar.

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She's celebrating her birthday by giving away a few fun items and I'm entered into the drawing!

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Our Puppy

Family Pics

Here are our Family Pictures from a couple weeks ago when we were in Utah.

What do you think?

The Whole BIG Happy Family

Me with all my siblings and Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad with the Grandkids

All the siblings with their spouses

Our weekend in a FLASH

We made a quick trip to Utah this past weekend to visit family and see all the new babies. It was a lot of fun but really quick...too quick!
We left Friday night after work and got to my parents house at midnight. Saturday morning we went with my parents to see both of my grandmas. Grandma Bennett isn't doing too well and is probably going to pass away soon, so we made sure we got to see her.
Later Saturday afternoon we had family pictures with my family up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was my only chance to see all my siblings and nephews and nieces, I was sad when it time to go.
Sunday morning we got up bright and early and headed down to Sanpete for Brock's brother's baby blessing. We made it just in time for church to start! We got to see most of Brock's siblings and nephews and nieces, it was great to spend some time with all of them and to see the new babies.
Monday, we headed home to Montana! As much as we love visiting Utah, we sure love coming home too. We love Montana and love where we are at right now.

(We apologize to all our friends that we weren't able to visit while we were in Utah, we were so busy that we barely got to see our families. Hopefully next time we will be able to make more visits)!


Big Cottonwood Canyon in full blown Autumn colors....WOW!


Kim and BEAUTIFUL Bella


My super cute nieces: Brinlee, Lexi, Kaitlyn, Chelsea


Kim and Lexi


Brock and Bella


Snoozing Bella, she slept almost our whole visit!


Andree in her gorgeous blessing dress, what a sweet baby girl!


We finally got to meet our little niece Hadlee this weekend too! She has grown so much and has the cutest little personality. So CUTE!