The First Hunt

Jay has been planning this for weeks.  The First Deer Hunt with the kids.  They have walked back behind the house a time or two in past years and have sat with Jay against a tree for an hour (tops) and come back to the house, no action.  So this is the real deal.

Of course, although we have known for...EVER...actually that this was the first day of shotgun season (it is ALWAYS the third weekend in November, ALWAYS), Thursday night was the normal scramble to find everything necessary to go out before dawn.  As was the case when I was a young one hunting with my dad, I wore whatever we could come up with to stay warm.  It wasn't always pretty.  Madolyn went out this morning in a pink Carhart coat and navy blue snow pants.  Yes, somehow (she's growing constantly) she has no coveralls or bibs that fit...so the snow pants have to do.  Lane has Madolyn's hand-me-down camouflage coveralls to wear.

So anyway, the kids were excited and could hardly get to sleep.  We kept yelling at them to be quiet because they had to get up at 5 and were going to be sooo tired.  I was pumped to get up with them and take pictures of them heading out (and then handing over the camera for kill shots, of course).  Then I would have the whole morning to get ready for work and maybe do a load of laundry and some extra stuff around the house.  The best-laid plans... We ate out last night and I had Diet Pepsi.  (We were eating pizza, I can't drink water with pizza and they had Pepsi products so it was a no-brainer!)  Sooo I could not sleep.  I fell asleep at 10 and was wide awake around 1.  Got up and read for an hour.   Tried to sleep, nope.  Came out in the living room and watched TV for an hour.  Tried again to sleep out on couch, nope.  Crawled back into bed and tossed and turned.  It was terrible.

So by the time Jay was up and ready to wake the kids, I had finally fallen asleep.  I missed the send-off...boo.  I noticed that they remembered to take the camera, so that was good.  Jay got a couple pre-hunt pictures. 

Just moments before the kill.

I get a text at 6:15 from Jay, "Ok your daughter is the noisiest thing ever she cannot help but to make noise."  I had to laugh...if you know her, that is SO TRUE.  I can just hear the bull in the china shop heading to the hunting blind.  Sneaky girl. 

Next text at 7:20, "Kids toes r cold we have the stove goin."  Let me just say that when I was young and hunting with my dad, it was dad, his gun, me and my gun.  We walked out to a tree, sat down and leaned against it.  That was it.  I may have had a couple kleenex in my pocket and a piece of gum.  If you would've seen the stuff they had sat out to take with them, you would've thought they were heading deep into the mountains for three days.  They had a packed cooler with snacks, drinks, full thermos of coffee, sleeping bag, camp stove (for heat I'm told), a Nintendo DS, an Ipod touch, a cell phone, hunting stool, binoculars, range finder, gun and gun case, handwarmers...and they were going to be in a hunting blind.  It made me laugh.

Text at 7:54, "We have seen 0."  Bummer, I replied that I hope they would see something soon so kids wouldn't lose interest.  His response at 7:59, "O probably kids r bein good."  8:00, "We r leavn at 8:30 if we dont."  On the way to work, I said my prayers and prayed that God would send them something to keep the kids' interested because Jay was so pumped about them being so excited.  (And of course for safety today for all hunters because it can be very dangerous and my kiddos are out there!)

Text at 8:14, "Just shot a big one."  Awesome, thank you, Jesus.  As I've stated before, sometimes he answers the silliest prayers.  I didn't really ask for a big one, just something.  We'll take it.  Kids were excited.  Madolyn was quick to tell me that the deer weighed more before they gutted it.  She is so dang smart.  ha.

Little sunny, but they still look happy!

They took pictures (as you can see).   I've heard all the gory details and how it went down.  The kids enjoyed deer hunting with their dad.  I'm thankful Jay will spend the time with them.  We assured the kids that it doesn't always go this way...some days you don't see anything. 

I told them since it was so early, they could go back to school.  Haha.  Just kidding.  They went back to hunting in the afternoon.  And the luck stayed with them...they shot a doe after being out just less than an hour. 

They will go back to school to learn book stuff on Monday.  Today was a life lesson.  We will now have deer sausage and deerburger in our freezer!