Bow Hunt 2008

Ah, the great outdoors! This years bow hunt was an absolute blast! I was so excited to go because we had a whole week off to go! We weren't too sure how the kids would do, so we were prepared to cut the trip short. The kids were great! Kami was an absolute angel the whole time. Chance did great too! The only problem was that he loved it too much sometimes! He would wake me up in the middle of the night and say "Daddy. Outside. ride four wheeler." And I would say "It's dark outside buddy. We have to wait till it's light enough to see." I opened the curtains to show him that it was dark, but the full moon light up that 2 am sky like it was mid-day! He said "Trees. Trailer. Daddy, outside!" He was ready to go! Other than him being a full-of-it toddler, he was great! It is such a neat experience to see the ones you love enjoying something that you love so much.

I was really impressed with Kami. She did so good! I think she actually did better up there than she did at home! I'm so grateful for Nat doing so much to take care of them while I went out looking for deer. Thank you honey!! My favorite times were when Nat and Chance were able to come with me! That was a lot of fun!!

I even found a new partner for playing pinochle! We had a lot of fun playing games with everybody. Mom and dad went down, and so did Dennis and his whole family. Sky and Brett came down for most of the week too. It was a great camping trip!
Chance had a blast in the dirt! He even found this little stick to play with! No matter how many baths this kid had, he still looked like an orphan! He made his daddy proud! Way to play in the dirt little buddy!!

Chance even learned how to drive the car. It made it a lot easier to look for deer if I had him drive. Thanks buddy!
We had a great time riding the four wheelers. Chance would follow everybody around and see who he could get to take him on a ride. He usually found somebody to take him! We all had fun going on rides.
Chance Loves his cousins Hunter and Hailey! I think he spent more time with their family than with us! Probably because Dennis, who Chance refers to as 'Dense', would give him an endless supply of otter pops!
Chance also had fun with his cousin Skyler. Talk about a guy that has grown up! He used to be the little kid that tagged along, now he's the guy that I look to for advice while hunting! Thanks for being such a part of our family buddy!
The hunt ended in smiles for everybody! Even the deer! You can probably tell that I didn't get one since I haven' mentioned it or put a picture up. I did have some opportunities though! No one to blame but me! I missed a couple of smaller bucks, but I missed a beauty! He was 60 yards broadside through some quakies. I had a good shot and let my arrow fly.. It was slow motion. I saw my arrow flying right for it's target and I knew I had my buck of a life time. He was probably 24 inches wide or more, and just as high. As the arrow got close, it skimmed the side of a tree and it flipped the arrow sideways. It flew at the deer with the broadhead up, and the fletchings down. It gave the deer a little slap on the butt, and he ran off into the trees. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions... I was SO angry when it happened! Then about a half hour later the fact that I had missed out on such a rare opportunity hit me. I seriously got nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up. Then that passed and a while later I felt like I could cry. I still see that buck when I close my eyes and live with all of the "what if's". Hopefully someday all the pieces will come together and I will have an opportunity like that again.

    Even though I didn't connect with a deer, I still had a blast! I love my family and to be with them in such a beautiful place is just icing on the cake.. Here's looking to next year!!

Wind RIvers!!!

On July 16th I went with Matt Barney and his scout group to the Wind Rivers in Wyoming. We went with Mark and his brother-in-law Chris. The boys that went were Andrew, and the brothers, Josh and Jared. We packed in about 8 miles to one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen. I was excited to go backpacking finally! I had used our anniversary, christmas, and my birthday gifts to get set up. I'm glad I liked it! I thought I was going to die going in! Being out of shape sure didn't help anything, but I found out the next day that I hadn't adjusted my straps correctly. I had straps tightened that were actually pulling the pack away from my hips. Talk about a killer! The pack out was much more enjoyable!
This is the stream that we camped by the last night. It was about as perfect as you could imagine! It was decent sized and clear as can be. And chuck full of brookies! None of them had much size to them, but they were hungry buggers! We were even catching them on big 'ol cherynobl ants!
It really was an amazing place to fish. The kind of stream that you dream about...
It's a little blurry, but check out the colors! These things were so bright! We only fished that night for about 2 hours, and we caught over 100 fish each easily...
This is a picture during the pack out. Mark is on the left, Matt in the middle, and yours truly on the right. This was just after making the climb up the switchbacks. We only had a little bit more to go, and it felt great. It was kind of cool when we got to where we could see the trucks. It was such a feeling of accomplishment. It was something that I had been wanting to do, but had never given it the effort required. It was an amazing feeling to know that you had accomplished somthing so rewarding. It's something that only you can do for yourself. Pretty amazing trip!
This is where we set up camp the first couple of nights. Talk about a kitchen with a view! 
This is a picture of Josh. I think that this was his first fish! He didn't even take his pole because he said that fishing was boring. It was cool to see how excited he got after he actually caught something! I think he used my pole as much as I did, but it was awesome to see someone new to the sport loving it!
This is Jared... What a fun guy! I think that this is his first fish too. Not 100% sure on that one though. I do have a good picture of him, but that's not as fun as this one! Andrew caught some fish too, but I don't have any pictures of him. Pretty good group of fisherman! Glad I could go and share that experience with them!
If you look just to the right of the dead tree, in the middle of the photo, you can kind of see a face with ears sticking up. Matt and I got seperated from the group, and to our suprise, we snuck up on a bear! This guy was getting a drink and we got about 30 yards away before we saw each other. He ran off into the trees and I took this photo. It was AWESOME! I thought I would be a lot more scared, but it made me realize that it's just another critter in the mountains that is scared of me.. Plus having bear spray probably helped me feel more comfortable!

This is Matt fishing on one of the lakes.. We didn't catch anything big, but lots of pretty brooks. Plus the scenery was amazing! God is quite the artist! He didn't just make this earth to live on, He made it to live IN and enjoy! It is such a testimony builder to me to just be in the outdoors.

This is a view from the lake by our camp. The sheer granite cliffs were unlike anything I have ever seen. They just erupted from the ground so steep and towering. Awe taking to look at. It was a great trip with great guys. I have never seen a group of scouts get along so well. Never a fight or a harsh word spoken. And the leaders were great! Matt is a great friend and I had a blast with him. Mark is one of those leaders every boy wants. That guy is super man when it comes to hiking! I'm grateful that I was invited to go on this trip and be a part of it!

I'm a slacker....

I obviously haven't been fishing enough in the last 2 months!!! I finally got a new computer (Thanks for talking me into the Mac Jake!) so I have all my pictures on here and am ready to share! I guess I'll start from the top and go from there!

   This spring, Matt Barney, my Dad, my nephew Skyler and I went fishing for a few days. We were originally heading for Calder reservoir, but 

there was still a huge snow drift blocking the road. We 

flipped around and headed down the mountain in a snow storm. We decided to try sheep creek bay at Flaming Gorge. 

The weather was pretty crappy the whole time. The wind never stopped and we even woke up to a few inches of snow one morning! The fishing was slow, but man, it was worth it! 

I started off catching a 13 and 14 incher, but then never caught anything smaller than 18 inches. I think I only bagged 11 total that trip, but one was a 22 inch male. 

(Do you have a professional Photographer following you 

Matt? That is an amazing photo!!)

Talk about some bright colors!!

 We all caught quite a few big fish and it 

ended up being a great trip. We even saw a partially white moose! I'll have to put a pic of it on here. Not the greatest picture, but you'll get the idea..