My elk hunt

When Kyle told me that i drew a elk tag, he was so excited, no like he about peed his pants with excitement, I was just nervous cause it was with a muzzle loader and I hadn't shot anything but rabbits for about 10 year.

Pretty much the day the I drew the tag was the day that I started to practice with the muzzle loader, and holy cow it is a lot to remember! Kyle did most of the work, ok he actually loaded the gun and then I would shoot it! We mostly just shot milk jugs. But one day about 3 weeks before my hunt I got really bad and was shooting very low. Kyle got really nervous and that night he came home and made me a elk sized and shaped target! After learning that I had to aim high to make it hit where I wanted it to, Kyle got less nervous!

Kyle was pretty much my guide to. He went scouting in July, August, September, and October, and then went up 4 days before my hunt and found lots of bulls for me!  I think that was the funnest part for him!

The hardest part if this hunt was leaving the girls. Luckily I have a great sister who decided that she would come from California to watch the girls for a few days.  It seems like every time Jerrica comes to visit, someone is sick and she takes the sickness home with her. This time was no different.  Grace got the stomach flu the twins had earlier in the week and Khole got a bad cold that the twins also had!

Jerrica had them from Wednesday to Friday. She did good and I think was excited to go home, and the girls had a lot of fun with aunt Jerrica, Jody (joey), Rikki, and Kohdy (khole).

Nancy took them for Saturday and Sunday, I love that all the family is willing to help with the girls, cause they love to go stay with grandmas!

 

We left Wednesday morning and got there just in time to get our backpacks full and our warm clothes on and went to “glass” before the opening morning hunt.

We seen the huge 370 bull but he was walking away from all the cows and other bulls, so Kyle thought for sure he was leaving to go to the trees where it would be really hard to find him. But there were still a lot of really nice bulls down in the burn area that we had planned on hunting, so Kyle wasn’t too worried. 

On Thursday morning we woke up WAY before the sun was up and went on the 4 wheeler in the freezing cold and then hiked up a little mountain to glass and see what was out and to make a plan.

All the elk were on the opposite side we were and so decided that we would just wait till later that night and then hike up into the burn.

I am pretty out of shape and kinda a baby and well I like to complain, so I was worried Kyle would leave me behind and make me fen for myself, but to both of our surprise I didn’t fall behind to bad, and I wasn’t to sore and I only had one break down of complaining (out loud) the whole time.

So we hiked into the burn and it was a hour and a half hike.  ( I measure distance in time) I kept asking Kyle “so how much further are we going to go?” every time I would ask he would say, “about uhh, 300 yards.”  I learned quickly that 300 yards as the crow flies is not the same as the 300 yards I hiked.  Where we were hunting had lots of rolly polly hills that were very tiring to hike up and down. We got up to where we thought the elk should be and all of the sudden we heard them start to bugle, behind us! So we had to go back down a little ways, sneaking the whole way, ( Kyle thinks I could work on that). We came up on a group of elk and Kyle told me to get ready, so I did! We snuck up on a huge bull, we got 127 yards away, (which is a lot closer when you aren’t hiking)  and I shot. HE hunched up and I thought he was going to fall over, but by the time we got the gun loaded again and I had a decent shot at him, he was gone.

Kyle tracked him for a little ways, but it was getting dark so we just put our pink tape ever where and decided we would come back up in the morning and find him dead in his bed.

So we woke up before the sun was up again, this time Penn was with us. We hiked our hour and a half hike and listened to the elk bugle all around us, but we couldn’t see the bull I hit and our plan was to track him till we found him.  When the elk had laid down for the day, we found our pink tape and started our tracking. I had never tracked a animal before and so mostly I just had panic attacks and prayed we would find the elk dead. Kyle and Penn looked for blood and his tracks. We tracked him up a HUGE canyon going straight up threw really thick poky trees and found his bed with some blood, but not enough and he was not there.  We didn’t have our backpacks and so Kyle went down to get them while Penn and I still followed his tracks. We looked for 7 straight hours of hiking with nothing but a string cheese, a few tootsie rolls, and a bottle of water.  But he was headed up and over the mountain, and was going much faster than we could go.

I felt depressed and cried a few times, but we decided the best thing to do was just to go back down the mountain and start fresh in the morning. As we were going back down to the trailer the elk started to bugle again. When we found the elk that was bugling it was the huge one! Penn was bugling back to him and we got 278 yards away from him. That was one of the funnest times of this hunt, it was really cool to watch him bugle and interact with his cows.

After watching him for a while we hiked back to the truck, as soon as we got there we drank a gallon of water! 

 

Saturday morning we woke up without really a plan, so we hiked back to the same spot as where we left the big bull, but after looking for him we realized that he had walked a few miles away to get water. So since we were a little more prepared we decided to just stay up where we were for the day and hope that the elk would work there way back over to us like they had been the nights before.

This day I woke up with my stomach sickness that I sometimes get, so I pretty much slept the whole day on the hard ground.

When we started to watch the elk again, they did the exact opposite as we thought they were going to do. That big bull was just way to smart for us. So we tried hard to get close to him, but he was a lot faster and had to many cows with him to keep watch.

 

Sunday we went to get kyles trail cam and on our way down the road we heard “him” bugling again. So since I was obsessed with killing this elk I made Kyle hike over a HUGE wash and ridge and we still just couldn’t get close enough to him. If we would have had a few more people to spot for us and just 2 more days I know I would have got him. But Penn told me that it is called hunting and not killing for a reason, and I now know the reason! 

We had a long depressing trip home, but we also seen another guy with my tag that didn’t see anything so after that I felt a little better cause we seen a lot of elk and had a really great time.

After we got home and got a few things in order, Kyle talked me into going back up for 4 days! Nancy was nice enough to take the girls to cedar with her. We left Thursday morning and got there in time for Thursday nights hunt, but didn’t see anything but people and lots of deer where we were hunting the weekend before.

We decided that we would try the hills behind our camp Friday morning, and as we were climbing a mountain we heard a elk start bugling, clear down the mountain. So we decided to run, quietly, down the mountain. But as we got close the elk smelled us and slowly started to move away, just fast enough we couldn’t catch them.

After that hunt, we decided to go back to the trailer and take a nap, but our neighboring camp decided it would be great to target shoot in the direction of the elk we seen. After all the target shooting we didn’t think that we would find any other elk, so we went in a different place and had no luck.

That is just pretty much how the whole weekend went, we would find a small bull and start to go for him, but the closer we got the further away he would go. Or where we thought the elk would be, they would be on the other side of the mountain!

Sunday morning was the closest we got to shooting something. We had pretty much given up hope so we were just riding around on the 4 wheeler when we went around a corner and there was a big elk in the road. As soon as we got the gun out and it ready, it was gone into the trees. We ran over “hills”, they were mountains, but we were close but just not close enough!

Even though we didn’t get really close to anything and really didn’t see anything to great, that second weekend, we had so much fun and I only had the thought of hitting Kyle over the head with my shooting sticks a few times. 

I was really nervous about sleeping in a trailer, in the cold, without a good shower, hiking, eating camping food, and well shooting an animal, But hunting is defiantly something that i missed! I had so much fun out hiking and looking for the elk, the only thing that i wish i would have done different is take more pictures. But I had on my huge backpack and i didnt want the camera around my neck in case I had to shoot! I told Kyle that when Luke gets home and draws this tag I want to go just so I can follow him around and take pictures of everything! 

cupcakes

When Kyle left us to go find me a elk we were bored and going crazy here at the house, so Grace decided that we should make cupcakes, so we did!

Alaynna ate more frosting than she put on her cupcakes.

This is now her smile when i get the camera out, Kyle said it looks just like mine and my sisters fake smile!

Grace really wanted to use my new tips, I think she did a great job! One kinda looks like it belongs in the litter box though, haha!

Canned frosting is not my favorite thing to use but i think for my first attempt at cupcakes i did pretty good, and its a good thing cause i have a few to make here in a few weeks!

So Graces OCD has gotten alot better the older she has gotten, but just to show her one day she has always been crazy i took this picture of her doing homework.

whats up buttercup?!

So my blog has not been as "up to date" as it use to be. I think I needed a blog/face book break. The world has been driving me nutty and I have been afraid i might have a blog venting session and well that would not be a good idea, ha!
Also we just have been busy with everyday life and nothing to interesting has happened to blog about!
A few thing that have happened that haven't made the blog yet, haha, are...

We ripped out our corn to make room for our winter garden; peas, radish's, carrots, and some broccoli.
Kyle planted 6 plants of broccoli, made a nice shade for them and we were really hopping for some good broccoli this year. But one day after work, Kyle noticed that a few of our plant had all the leaves ate off, so he put up a fence around our fence to keep the bunnys and quail out. But then after planting more plants, more of the leaves were getting ate. So after putting his trail cam out and waking up early in the morning, he caught the rabbit sneaking in and fixed the problem! We havent had a problem with the rabbits again!

After the wonderful week of freezing fall we had, it turned back into summer!! Not the horrible cant go outside at all summer, the nice fall like summer we get here in the desert! It is still way to warm for it being the middle of October, but maybe fall will come in November!

It was my 25th, 23rd birthday this last Monday! When I was a teenager I loved that people thought I was older than I was, but now that I am older I would really like someone, anyone, to be like "oh wow, you look like you are 19", ok that is probably stretching it, i'd take "oh wow you look 23!!!!!"
I always thought I would age with grace, but I am not! I dislike my birthday I want to be 25 23 forever, 30 may kill me!!!!

For some reason people think I am hard to buy for, I am not. A nice trash can, anything for my kitchen, sleeping in, or a simple house cleaning is on my wish list. Kyle did good this year though! Since he has Fridays off now we decided to go out to dinner. I told him id like something different than los lupes and a grocery shopping trip. He didnt seem to listen, but little did I know he had a night all planned out!
He took me into Vegas to this cool little Italian restaurant called Capo's. It was mafia themed and I even had a guy sing me unforgettable. After dinner we went to Fremont Street, neither of us were to impressed so we decided we would go find a Starbucks then come home! We had so much fun and I even got some real tiramsu and ate it on the way home and got sick!!!

This camouflage outfit is my present from Kyle, I think I look pretty good in it, it hide all the extra plump i have! I drew two tags this year and I only had 1 shirt that was camouflage so Kyle decided that i needed 2 pair of pants, a jacket, and a coat! He said it was hard to buy for me cause women sizes arent normal, haha!!! 

My mom was nice and watch the girls for us while we went out on friday and took them to her house for the night. When they came back the next day they brought me a cake!
I guess for turning another year older i had a pretty good birthday, alot of people thought of me and it made my week really nice.

I think my most favorite present came from Jakell. When she told me she was getting started on my birthday I was so happy!
After what seemed like forever, Taygan Riley Staley was born at 4:56pm she was 7lbs 4oz and 20in long! I really can not wait to get my hands on this little girl. I have really thought about driving up there but cant bring myself to go on a 8 hour ride in the middle of no where with my 3 children. So i will just have to wait for a few more weeks!

This week we also took Grace to the dentist for the first time!
It wasnt alot of fun!
The night before I was up with Addison who got the 2nd round of the stomach flu here at this house, so i was tired!
Grace did not like getting the xrays done and cried her eyes out. But after that she did pretty good and now brushes and flosses 3 to 15 times a day!
She didnt have any cavity's but she does have a cross bite and will have to have an expander put in, but not for a few more years!

randomness

This morning while I was putting makeup on, Grace was brushing her teeth.
She stopped and said, "You know, you are not to pretty in the night time and in the morning, but you are when you put your makeup on."
So I asked, "So you dont think I am pretty?"
Her response, "ya, I think you are pretty, you just have alot of dots."
Me, "Freckles?"
Grace, "Ya, freckles! You know God, he doesnt have freckles. He stays in his house all the time!" Then she just goes back to brushing her teeth!
She is nuts!!!!!

My 6 month old new dishwasher stopped working, after I stopped crying I called to get it repaired. He showed up, late, today and the girls were all scared of him. I was sitting with them eating lunch and I got up, as i got up Alaynna put her hands over her eyes till i got back. I guess if she cant see him than hes not as scary!
My children are backward shy, hopefully Alaynna grows out if it by the time she goes to school! 

the lake

Kyle had been working out at the lake and to cool down they would go for a swim during lunch. He said that the lake was coming up and there was a perfect spot for the girls to play.

So he decided that we should get dinner from linns and after Graces dance class we would ride down to the lake and play.

He got dinner and I got swimming suits. When we got there the girls all just ran to the water. It just gradually went out, it was a road when the lake was alot lower and so it was rock and really nice.

Alaynna is a fish, she is not scared even a little bit.

It was hard to get them out of the water to eat some chicken for dinner, so we told them if they ate alittle we would give them watermelon.

So they did eat a little, but all they wanted to do was to play in the water. So they took the watermelon with them and splashed and scrame and had a lot of fun.

After the sun started to go down, the water started to get to cold for the girls so we started to herd them out of the water.

No one wanted to go home cause we were having so much fun, but when it starts to get cold and the mosquitoes start to come out there isnt a lot you can do. We are going to go back down soon, it is nice to get out of the house and to go have alittle fun!