Hunting Camp

As you may be aware from one of Lynda's earlier postings, Cameron and me (Kevin) are back east in Pennsylvania with my brothers and some of my nephews for a hunting trip.  We spent Sunday until today at my brothers cabin and went through various weather seasons, experiencing one each day.  Sunday and Monday mild temps and clear weather, Tuesday - rain (and lots of it), and today freezing temperatures - snow, sleet, freezing rain, and winds.

On Monday which was the first day of the season for rifle, three deer were taken, my older brother Jim got a doe, my nephew Steve Jr, took a 6-point buck, and our new friend (but long time friend of my brothers's) Frankie took a button buck. The temps were too high for them to keep the deer hanging at the camp overnight so 1/2 of our camp (4-people) left Monday evening to take the deer on the 3-1/2 hour trek back home and to the butcher.  Cameron, my brother Pat, my nephew Dan, and I stayed behind to hunt more, however the bad weather kept the deer low and there were not enough hunters out in the woods to stir them up and get them moving.  We arrived tonight at my brother Pat's house and will be going to the farm of a local friend to try our luck there using shotguns w/slugs.

Here are some photos from the past few days - I will add captions tomorrow and edit/update the post, however we need to be up out in position before sunrise (which meant the past few days only getting a few hours of sleep each night as Cam and I are still on West Coast time!).

Uncle Pat showing Cam the rifles

Cam getting a chance to practice and
get familiar with the various guns.

Kevin getting a feel for the scope.

Cam shooting Uncle Steve's handgun.

Kevin - Up a Tree! Sitting about 10-feet up in a tree stand.

Frankie getting his tree stand set up on Sunday.
Kevin used this spot after Frankie left
 as there was an 8-point buck that ran
 by Kevin and Cam when they went to help
Frankie with his take. 

Uncle Steve setting up the stand
 he would be hunting from. Lovingly called, "The Condo"

Cam climbing up to test out his stand.

The hunting cabin with Frankie, Cam, and Daniel.

Keeping Busy

The girls and I passed some time after school work to decorate. We finished the front sunroom today.
We're pretty pleased with the results and both sat to stare at our handiwork for some time.

It made for a good distraction as emotions are still raw with Mia's passing. I had a very nice young man come by today to pick her up for cremation. The other dogs were clearly down and kept looking for their buddy. It was touching and sad.

Sunroom tree and decorations

With Lights On

Sad Day

It started out busy with school then decorating more for Christmas. This evening I found our dog Mia lying outside clearly not doing well. She wasn't able to walk so I managed to half carry, half drag her inside. We tried to make her as comfortable as possible, but it was clear we were losing her.
I was hugging and petting her when she slipped out of this life.

Despite her large size she was a big baby and really great with the kids. She will be sorely missed, but
 I am so glad we had her these last 8 years as part of our family.

And They're Off

Today Kevin and Cameron left early in the morning for a week's hunting trip with Kevin's brother in Pennsylvania. Know they'll have a great time, but the goodbyes especially for Hannah were really tough.
Will have to stay busy until our guys return.

Decorating for Christmas

We spent today getting the decorations started indoors for Christmas including putting up the trees (that's correct it is plural we have several trees in the different rooms). Kevin & Cameron (with a little help from Hannah) put the lights on the trees then it was time for Lynda to start with the decorations.  Today was Lauren's first experience with a Christmas tree and helping with decorations. Hannah also had Lauren help with decorating her tree, we will need to get a small one for Lauren's room.

Can you guess what Hannah's favorite
color is?  Yes - purple!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed a fun day of food and family at home today.  Amber, Eddie, Erica (Eddie's sister) and Eddie's Parents joined us for our Thanksgiving meal.  As our family tradition requires we put up our outdoor Christmas lights after dinner and started to decorate indoors. After desert it was time for some games and the Muppet Christmas Carol.

Cameron's 18th Birthday

It is hard to believe that Cameron, our once little boy is now a more than 6-foot tall young man.  On Thursday Cam turned 18 and had his traditional meal from Outback Steakhouse. Amber & Eddie were able to join us for dinner and the celebration of Cameron's birthday.

Amber & Eddie gave Cameron a hat to keep him warm on our upcoming deer hunting trip, and we had to take a picture of Cam as he shouted our his favorite line from The Three Amigos - "It's a sweater!"

He was very surprised with his new Call of Duty game

as most of his online friends already had it and he did not

even include it on his wish list.

Just thought we would put these in because they are so cute, the first shows how Cameron and Hannah's temperature gauges are completely opposite. When one is cold the other is hot - go figure!

Hannah trying on Cam's new hat - she looks like our little Eskimo girl.