Antelope Island and the Zoo

A few weeks ago our family made a trip to Antelope Island State Park to go Geocaching. Geocaching is when you use your GPS to find hidden "Treasures". Inside these caches are little toys or coins that you can take and then you replace it with something new. The boys love going on the Treasure Hunts. We did find one that was on the other side of a hill on the island and Kim thought it would be fun to go and find it. I think we wlaked about 4 miles carrying Presley and Jack had almost given up when we finally found it at the top of a hill. These are a few of the pictures from the island.





















We also went to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Here are some photos of that trip.

Garage Progress

We have made more progress on the shop. A few weeks ago we poured the garage floor. Two of my neighbors helped and it turned out pretty good.

Our neighbor Pat was quite the supervisor!

I put the windows in after the cement was dry and we have started the wiring. Hopefully by Christmas we should be starting the brick and stucco for the outside.

More Mexico

Also while we were in Mexico we walked down the beach from the house and were able to release new baby turtles into the ocean. Here is a picture of Kim holding one of the baby turtles.

While sitting around the pool one afternoon, Ben decided that he was Houdini and asked me to tie him up. Of course I wasn't going to pass this up. After he was tied up I pushed him in backwards into the pool. It was pretty funny. Sally jumped right in after he was in the pool to make sure there weren't any problems.

Been Awhile

It has been awhile since we have posted so here it goes. The Skidmore Family has been busy. Kim and I were able to go to Mexico in October with my family. We went down to my Parents time share in Nuevo Vallarta, MX.

We arrived on Friday night and were there for a week. Luckily Kim and I have some great employees that helped us out while we were gone. While we were in Mexico we were able to go to a Hacienda up in the mountains about 1 1/2 hours from the house. It is in an old mining town of San Sebastian. We walked through the town and town square and then went to the Hacienda San Sebastian for lunch.

My Mom and Dad were feeling generous while we were in Mexico and scheduled a swim with the dolphins. This was a very hands on activity and I think all of us had a great time. We were able to hold onto the dolphins and have them pull us around.

Here are a few more random pics of us on the trip.

Garage Update

The garage is getting closer. The roof and wall sheeting is complete and the roof has been shingled. We had 4 loads of road base hauled in and we put most of it inside the garage to bring the floor up in preparation for the cement floor.

I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like moving wheel barrow after wheel barrow of road base into the office part, so I had a guy with a conveyor on the back of his truck and he shot the road base into the office. It was pretty cool to see. The truck could shoot the gravel or road base up to 40 feet.

Addition to the Fleet

We are adding to the fleet and just bought a 2008 Peterbilt 386. It is different than our other trucks but we thought we would try something new. These new trucks have a stnad up sleeper that is 12" longer, a little bit bigger bed and a refrigerator in the sleeper. The trucks have a little smaller engine than all of the other trucks, but with the new aerodynamic design, smaller engines and the engine governors set back we should be able to get better fuel mileage.

Elk Hunting

Last Winter I put in for an Elk hunt here in Utah. It was for a limited entry area called the Paunsaugunt. The area is from Panguitch, Utah along highway 89 south to the Arizona border, east to the town of tropic and then south of Tropic along the Paria river down to the Arizona border again. This area includes Bryce Canyon National Park(you can't hunt in the park.) The way Utah does their hunt system is that each year you can put in for one of these "special" hunts. If you do not draw out for the hunt then you get a point, with a maximum of 16 points. The more points you have the better of a chance you have to draw out for the hunt.

Somehow, with zero points and a little bit of luck I drew out for the hunt. So last weekend my neighbor, Chad and I went down to Tropic reservoir after Dallins Birthday party. We stayed Thursday night through Saturday night trying to find elk. The only elk that we say was on Friday night, the day before the hunt started. Being pretty discouraged, Sunday we packed up right before it started to rain and headed for home.

This past Thusday night I headed down again to try and bag the big monster. I arrived at Ruby's Inn, right outside of Bryce Canyon and stayed the night in the back of the pickup. It was a little chilly that night, only 36 degrees but I toughed it out. At 5:30 am I suited up and hopped on the 4 wheeler and headed out behind Ruby's Inn. The weekend before, Chad and I had met the owner of the hotel and he said we could hunt on his property. I parked my 4 wheeler on the south side of the knoll and hiked over to the private ground. I could hear the elk mewing and bugling but couldn't see them because it was too dark. At about 6:15am I finally saw a line of black moving across the field to head back into the mountains for the day and started to make my way to the west to try and get a good shot. As I followed the fence line I ran into another group of hunters waiting for the same herd of elk. They also had permission from the land owner to hunt on his property. So now there is a dilema. Who is going to get the elk??????

We decided that since they were on the west side and I was on the east side of the property that we would stay there and whoever gets the elk is the lucky one. I made my way back to the east and up a dry canal to get as close as I could. I crawled up out of the canal and saw the elk right in front of me. I laid down on the ground and fired one shot. The elk took off immediately and ran about 50 yards and then fell, DEAD! One shot 324 yards out!!!

When I walked up to the elk I didnt realize how big the elk was going to be, I was amazed. Suddenly I realized I had a dead elk on my hands and I needed to clean and had no idea how. First call was to my neighbor Chad and he walked me through it. I did an OK job for my first time. I tied the head of the elk to my 4 wheeler and drove up onto the trailer and I was done. Luckily there was a natural spring close by with a hose piped into it and I washed up and was headed home.

When I left on Thursday Jack said, "Good Luck catching an elk Dad." When I called Kim and told her she said Jack was excited. When I got home we hung the elk, skinned it and got it ready to take to the butcher. It was alot more work than I thought it would be but I can't remember having this much fun in a long time. I think I may have found a brand new hobby.

Dallin is 8 years old

Dallin turned 8 on the 13 of the month. As a family we went to dinner and then to "Fat Cats" to play some games. Dallin and Jack had a great time. Kim and I just watched and I went on the bumper cars with the boys.

The next day Dallin had a Birthday party. He had an army theme party and had some friends over. The kids had a treasure hunt and Kim made a camouflage cake. Dallin was very spoiled from all of his relatives and I know he doesnt deserve it, but thanks to you all anyways.

I Smell Bacon

Schoochie and Poochie have left us and are on their way to be made into bacon. Dallin and Jackson named the pigs when we got them in June. Dallin was sad that he had to goto school and couldn't watch the slaughter, but like any Skidmore we took pictures. Enjoy!!!

New Soccer Season

Kim and I went to the Def Leppard, Styx and Foreigner concert down in Salt Lake on Friday night. There were alot of older people there and it made us feel really old. We went with our neighbors and we had a great time.

Dallin and Jackson started soccer this past Saturday. Dallin is doing really well and getting alot better. This is Jacks first time playing soccer and it is pretty funny to watch a bunch of four year olds fight over a soccer ball. Dallins team won their game and in the picture on the right Jack scored right after we took the picture. I was standing in back of the goal when I took the pic.

The New Garage

The new garage out back is coming along. Yesterday the crane showed up and the trusses were craned into place.

Today they are suppossed to finish the trusses on the office and finish sheeting it. Then all that is left for the framers is to sheet the roof and they are done. We haven't decided which route we are going to go on the outside but we are leaning more towards bricking the front and office side and then stucco the rest of it. It looks big but I think it will work out great.