Sunday, August 29, 2010

This weekend Susan and Fred came to Rexburg for a visit. We had a great time together. The highlite of our visit was a canoe trip to "Big Springs." Nancy, Allison, Courtney, Fred, Susan, and I went. We took three canoes that we rented from the college.

We saw four moose on the river.

As many as I have seen through the years I am still amazed at how powerful they look, and am always surprised to see them. They never seem too bugged by people, but I always know that can change quickly.

I have many memories connected to moose sightings. I refer to these as "moose memories." The first is when Logan, Griff, and I saw our first moose at Kelly Canyon and I threw snowballs at it. They were both quite adamant that I stop doing such a stupid thing. Then when Griff and I hiked to Dananda Falls in Yellowstone and saw 9 moose in one day. Some from the car and some on the hike. Wow, that was amazing. Another moose experience is when Nancy, Haley, Allison, Courtney, and I backpacked into lower Palisades lake to camp. There was a big bull moose in the lake, but there were a couple of guys with guns camping next to us for protection (the guys were way more scary than the moose). I also remember watching a moose and her baby graze across from upper Mesa Falls as I waited for the boys who had just kayaked the sheep falls run. Another time we camped at Coffee Pot campground with Grandma and Grandpa in the old tent trailer. When we hiked down to the rapids we saw a moose and two babies. I remember watching mom sit on a rock and watch them for a looong time. It was very peaceful. Then there are all the "in town" sightings of moose at the junior high school, the temple, on main street, and in neighborhoods (I haven't seen all these, but supposedly they happen "all the time".) This remids me that we do live in a small town in the mountains. I also remember driving home from Beaver Dick Park and Grandma Hazard saying how funny the horse in the field was running . . . then we looked closer and it was a moose. Another memoriy is when mom and I took a hike to Phelps lake in Teton National Park for one of our wedding aniversarys and watched a moose graze in Phelps lake for a while. One year when the family was cross country skiing in Harriman State Park, a moose was spotted across from a small pond. Then, we were canoeing on the Teton River up by Driggs, and came around a corner to be face to face with a giant moose standing in the middle of the river. Scary, but pretty. We worked our way around it. Then there is always that moose off the right side of the road about five miles in from the Moose entrance to Teton National Park . . . we've stopped watching this one becasue there is always a crowd of people. Anyway, these are a few of the moose memories I have off the top of my head. I'm sure the kids have other memories that I have forgotten. The point is that moose make good family memories, and we saw four of them with Fred and Susan on the river yesterday for another nice memory. I was reprimanded by Courtney, who was my canoe partner for "clapping" and getting too close to try to get them to raise their heads (there were two bulls). Thanks to Court for saving our lives! Mom and Susan were in one canoe, and Fred and Allison were in the third canoe. Allison wore the bonnett Fred had bought her when we were back east at their house. We all had a good time.

We also experienced something that I consider to be a small miracle. I pulled a trailer we had rented from the college. It pulled well all the way to Mack's Inn. Then halfway up the Big Springs road there was a tremendous rattling noise and a "bum". The hitch had come off the ball and the trailer was dragging behind the car. I slowly pulled to a stop. We were able to quickly fix the problem and contiue on. The miracle . . . it didn't happen on a crowded road and we weren't going 70 miles and hour. If it were going to happen, it happened at the best possible time. Anyway, after thinking of all the things that possibly could have happened, I felt blessed that it was an easy fix.

I'm looking forward to reading everyone's blogs. You are all the best!!

No comments: