We have had a fantastic and busy September! I've traveled through Southern Utah and to Jacksonville FL for work, we've been to the Zoo, taken drives to see the fall colors and Layla is getting so much bigger, nearly 12 lbs on her 6 month birthday! Here are some of my favorite photos from this month, I hope you enjoy them half as much as I do:

So I got home from Jacksonville and woke up to this beautifull view of Mount Ogden

Jacksonville

I'm in Jacksonville FL for a training meeting and had Sunday morning to myself. My hotel is right on the beach, with a large pier loaded with fishermen. I had a blast, especially when I found out what was biting today: Hammer Head Sharks! This was the 3rd and biggest that I saw. They were keeping the sharks to eat, said that they are fantastic on the grill. To make matters worse they were catching the sharks right where everyone was surfing and swimming!

It seems like a lot has happened since my last post, here's the update:




Laya is getting stronger, she rolled over for the first time on Friday the 29th! I took Dallen and Maya fishing at Lost Creek Reservoir, we didn't catch anything but only stayed for just over 1 hour, long enough for them to get bored throwing rocks into the water. We did get the crawdad trap out but didn't have any luck this time. I love the photo here of Maya looking up at Dallen, she looks up to him so much, copies everything he does!



For the Labor Day weekend we decided to stay at home and just hang out with some of our favorite people. On Saturday we drove down to Provo and met Loni and 2 of her boys at Bridal Veil Falls. LaNeece and I had never been here and it was a lot of fun. We had a great picnic then walked up to the falls and let the kids wade in the water to cool off.

Here are my two favorite photos of the falls, they were amazing.

On Labor Day we met Josh and Janae at FAT CATS BOWLING and had a ton of fun!






And last week we had some excavators come and build/rebuild a rock retaining wall alongside our driveway, curving around the back of the house. This opened up a ton of yard and flat playing area that we will be able to fill with grass next spring. We also built in sandstone steps that will give us easy access to the side and back yard from the main level.

Dallen started 1st grade on thursday August 21st. He was so excited he made himself sick the night before, then he got worried that he was going to be too sick to go to school. As you can see, it all worked out.
I had the oportunity to drive him to school and walk him to his class, he kept saying, "Dad, it's ok, you can leave now. No more pictures!"
While at school on his first day Dallen got to eat school lunch, which consisted of Yogurt, cake and tater tots. At recess he got chased by girls and had a ton of fun! His teacher is Miss Hansen who is nice and lets them have fun while they're doing their school work.

Layla tried cereal for the first time today, it was a hit!

This midsized buck and his smaller friend found the feed block I placed in the backyard.

Lighting over Enterprise

Here was a Smallmouth Bass I caught in the New Castle Reservoir

Our chicks are growing up! Layla is doing great, now 3 months old and weighs about 8 lbs. Below, the Sandhill Crane chick is nearly the same size as her mother.

The baby crane seems to grow bigger every day, here are two photos taken about 1 week apart... My own little one, Layla, just had her 2 month dr. appointment. She is now up to 7.1 lbs and heathy!

The sandhill cranes have had their babies! Only one of the eggs hatched, but this one little chick has been fun to watch. It was born on Tuesday May 20th so this little guy is only a couple of days old in these photos. The mother takes care of the little one, the dad guards them. I've seen him chase away doves and finches who get too close. I also watched as they scared away a pair of golden eagles that flew over.

For the last few weeks we've been watching the Sandhill Cranes take turns sitting on their nest. We've seen two eggs, which I'll probably never be able to take a photo of because they are VERY protective of their nest. In this photo I was about 30 yards away and as you can see she was not happy to have me so close.

I took the kids up to Pineview on Friday night to go fishing. We had a blast, didn't catch anything but we had a lot of fun!

Along the Weber River