Hedgehogs

The Hedgehogs are doing so great! They are past the infant stage and are now getting into the "toddler" age. They have their eyes open and are exploring new things. They are so cute! Nanay is definately busy trying to take care of and feed her 5 growing babies! We are really enjoying them. It is sad that they will be leaving our home in a few weeks. There are a few more pictures online at http://www.familyhedgie.blogspot.com/

Happy Halloween

Natalie and I are having an awesome Halloween! We have our apartment all decorated (we will have to add pictures later). Last saturday we had our ward halloween party and had a pre-carved jack-o-lantern contest and a costume contest. We wanted to enter into both, so after about 2 hours at the D.I. we found some great costumes. We were inspired by finding a torch-like basket. This reminded us of the statue of liberty, and so that is what we ended up dressing as. Natalie was the statue of liberty and I went as Uncle Sam. It was a lot of fun! We were going to carve a pumpkin, until we saw the prices of pumpkins.... so instead, we carved the large zucchini that grandma Steel had given us. It was hilarious! We put it up on the stage next to the other pumpkins and it sure did look weird. However, despite its green color and oblong shape, our carved zucchini actually got 3rd place! It was a lot of fun!

Balloon Fiesta

Natalie and I were able to go down to Albuquerque, NM for the Balloon Fiesta. Natalie had school off for the potato harvest, and we decided to make it into a vacation. It was a lot of fun! Saturday morning we went at 5am to the balloon fiesta park and were able to watch all of the balloons taking off. It was a great weekend!

Yellowstone

Tyson, Pam, and their daughter Maddy came over from Nampa and we went up to Yellowstone. It was a lot of fun. We saw elk, deer, buffalo, osprey, cranes, coyotes, ravens, and a Black Bear! We made the loop within the park and saw old faithful, the geysers, mud volcanoes, waterfalls, etc. It was a wonderful day!

Ice Caves

Mrs. Steel!

Natalie has officially started teaching 4th grade at Jefferson Elementary in Rigby, ID. She is liking it a lot and is doing a great job, but is also working about 80 hour weeks. I had no idea how much time is takes to be a teacher. She works so hard for the kids, and they love it!

Hedgehogs!

We got another hedgehog! We have had Scion since this past summer- He is a 3 year old male hedgehog that we adopted from a family in Albuquerque. He has been kind of lonely, and due to a change in the breeding laws, we have obtained a second hedghog. This Hedgehog is a 4 month old female from breeder in Montana. We have named her "Nanay" which means "mother" in ilonggo (got the hint?) Yes, we are hoping to breed these two hedgehogs. They are both very friendly and we are excited to have baby hedgies in our home and later on in the classroom! \

Check out our website: www.FamilyHedgie.blogspot.com

"River Navigating" the Teton River

Blake and Becky came up to Rexburg and we went Rafting/Camping on the Teton river. We floated 2.2 miles on Friday evening and then set up camp, and then 2.5 miles on Saturday. It was quite the adventure because none of us has floated the Teton River before, so it was all new! There were some good rapids and I think we all got wet! It was beautiful weather and we had a blast! We saw several eagles, some deer, and some abnoxious beavers. We fished lots and Blake caught his first fish! It is a beautiful 14" brown trout. We had so much fun! It was quite the adventure and we had a blast!

Hiking Table Rock in the Tetons

Natalie and I hiked Table Rock! It was probably the hardest hike I have ever done, but it was definately worth it. In 4 miles, we went up 4,100 ft. Basically we were climbing straight up! It was a beautiful view of the Grand Teton and of the whole valley! It is kind of crazy to be so high that you see birds and airplanes flying below you! There were also tons of wildflowers everywhere and basically just an awesome day!