Evening duck hunt

Friday morning Chris had to guide a pheasant hunt up at the club. When he got home we packed up everything to go out for our first evening duck hunt. We headed to the bird refuge this time to see how the water was. So many places were dried up! I couldnt believe it. We really need a good hard winter this year. Normally this place is so full of water and there is a canal that runs along the side of the road here.. its dry!

 Peanut finally got to use her waders and she was SO excited!! The whole fact she could walk in water and not get wet thrilled her... that is until she fell over backwards at the boat ramp and filled her waders full of water ha! She was soaked but thankfully it was WARM

There were a ton of coots in the water so we headed a little further north and found a spot to stop

 We set out the decoys

 Kennedy kept an eye on the puppies in the boat

 We were all set and waited.. and waited.. and waited...

The mosquitos here absolutely horrible out there. I have never been swarmed by them while duck hunting! We normally have so much colder weather by now its crazy!

Chris fell asleep. Kennedy hid under the coats from the mosquitos. It was 64 degrees! We were so hot in all our waders. If it werent for getting bit I would have stripped down!

 NOTHING came in... well I take that back. We had coots galore. Stupid birds. We also had carp jumping all around us!  But no ducks came in at all.

 The second Chris got out of his chair Tank hopped in to keep it warm

 We packed up and went home empty handed. Mom made chicken noodle soup so we stopped in for dinner. This is one of my childhood favorite meals. She always made it over thick mashed potatoes. Chris looked at me like I'd lost my mind the first time he ate it like that lol! I didnt know most people didnt put it over mashed potatoes

 Miss Moo was spending the night with my mom so I got to cuddle her for a bit. This child cannot stay awake when I hold her. She always goes right to sleep

298- Sweet peanut

I have a confession. I have a really really hard time dropping Kennedy off to school. It scares me. Its not a debilitating fear.. more like a small worry in the back of my mind from when she gets dropped off until she gets home. Every time you turn around all you hear about is more school violence or crimes against children. School shootings. Teachers being killed. Extreme bullying. Bomb threats. Attempted kidnappings. Its everywhere

I know I cant shield her from all that. She has to be allowed to fly on her own. Its out of my hands because if something is supposed to happen it will. But its always that little nagging worry. I always give her a kiss goodbye and tell her I love her. (I only get to drop her off to school 2 days a week because I work the others) and I always slightly wonder will this be the last time I drop her off to school?? I try not to rush her out the door and out of the car. She always gives me an extra hug and an extra kiss. I watch her until she is inside both doors of the school and she blows me kisses the whole way. Tells me she loves me a few hundred times and waves to me the whole way in. It cracks me up. Shes usually winking and giving me a thumbs up as she does it. I treasure these moments. Its a hard mom moment. I know she needs to grow on her own and I cant lock her into a bubble in life... although Ive thought about it. I need to let her go and learn... to take those steps on her own.. to do what shes been taught and take her lead in her life. Its a good learning time for me too. 

This morning with our extra I love you's and kisses she walked off into school. My windows side windows were still foggy from the block drive to school (dont judge me. I slept in and was in pjs still and it was cold lol!) She got out of the car and kissed her fingers and put them on my windows, said I love you mom and walked into school waving and blowing kisses and giving winks the whole way. It was such a picture perfect moment I had to. I know the real depth of this picture probably doesnt show to most but it does to me.

Her clear little fingerprints of love while shes fading away in the background headed off to school. I love it.

297- Date and deer

My mom bought us this cute Duck Dynasty sign. She saw it and had to get it for us. Its perfect! Thanks mom!

  A few weeks ago Jana and I were talking about pizza. She really doesnt like pizza at all. I asked her if she had ever eaten at PizzaRia or BBQ chicken pizza or chicken alfredo (its the pizza sauce she doesnt like) She hadnt eaten there that she could remember and hadnt had either one of those pizzas. I said thats it. We are going on a date. Pizza is one of my favorite foods! Youve got to try these and then tell me if you dont like pizza. We finally settled on a date that would work for both of us and went Thursday.

 mmm I love their lunch specials. I ordered a BBQ chicken mini pizza and a small deluxe salad. Their salads are so yummy! She ordered the Chicken Alfredo. Kennedy of course had pineapple pizza. We had to get an order of cheese bread too! We go in to sit down and I see two people from work there. Then a few minutes later my friend from works husband walks in. A few more minutes later my cute friend Kandace came in and came over to say hi to us. Kennedy LOVES Kandace. Then a few more minutes later Dan and his daughter come over and say hi. Goodness we saw everyone there lol! We came home with so much food afterwards but it was so worth it! We spent the rest of the day running errands and hanging it. It was so much fun!

Later that night I invited my Mom down for dinner. Dad was working. Its just easier to make as much food as I normally do and invite her down to eat than her trying to cook for one person! She came down for spaghetti. We had planned after dinner to cut up the two deer in the garage. Todd and Jana came over and we got to work. I love family cutting days! Its so much fun! Mom and Jana trimmed up the meat and cut it it. Todd and Chris took it off the bone and made the roasts.  

 This was my work space. I sealed up and labeled all the meat. 

 Kennedy supervised while sipping hot cocoa and keeping Chico warm

Then Todd and I ground everything up and put it in the burger bags. Jana tied them off for us and labeled them. It only took us just over two hours from start to end of clean up to get two deer all done! Not too bad!

This is what you get. A bunch of burger in the back. Roasts and steaks. I like to keep it simple!

296- Chick Fil A and first night of Archery Class

Our awesome Administrative Assistant at work entered us in to win a free lunch from Chick Fil A.. and she won!!! So Wednesday Chick Fil A came in and brought us all lunch! We took pictures with the cow lol!

Lunch was so good! We had chicken strips, wraps, salad, fruit salad and cookies!

Thanks Chick Fil A and Megan!! It was so yummy!!!

Wednesday night was Kennedys first night of Beginner Archery class. They let kids as young as 5 start shooting. She has been SO excited. I told her if she listened and paid attention she could take the class. Its an hour a night in Brigham on Wednesday nights for 8 weeks. The ENTIRE class is $15. They will provide the bows and arrows if needed.  You cant beat that!! Kennedy already has a bow.. two actually. One we painted silver. It was green and she couldnt have one just like everyone else! We had to make it pretty! She was getting her stuff together and I was finishing getting ready. I asked her to please go grab me a Dr Pepper from the fridge. She brought me a Diet Coke instead (her favorite) and said "Well mom since my hands have touched it can I still have it?!?" Somehow I think that might have been the intent from the start. She has to wear her bow too. Its a fashion accessory.

I made her take her sign in front of the indoor range. Im so stinking excited for archery to start again!!

The best part about this class is its broken up into skills. (and you can still come join if you want! It goes for 8 weeks then another class starts in January)

First year beginners shoot from 5-6

Then those with a year experience shoot from 6-7

Then more experienced from 7-8

Then they also have a beginner adult class that goes from 8-9 for $25 and equipment is provided too!

Its such a great way to learn!!

This is about a 1/3 of the kids who were there to shoot. They had to break them up into groups because there were so many! The parents have to stay or some adult with the kids. The parents help the kids shoot. They go over all the safety rules and teach kids about being safe with bows

Oh ya..my mom teaches the class ha!!

A lot of Kennedys little friends from archery were there (ones who their parents are Brigham Bowmen and shoot) In Brigham Bowmen there are a lot of parents with kids right around Kennedys age. A lot of new people came that night to try it out also!

 Its kind of funny because Kinlie, Parker and Kennedy were shooting. Mom was teaching. Dad stopped in. Grandma Gigi and Grandpa Doug came to watch Parker. Of course Elysha and Liz were there. My cousin Lud and his two girls came up to learn and they were shooting. It was a family full night thats for sure!

Chris came up after he got off work. He is really good with a recurve and Im not ha! I do better with a compound so he helped Kennedy shoot. She was shooting next to Kinlie. Kini Bean has a lot of practice with her bow so she was doing it all on her own.

The first year beginners shoot 10 yards which is kind of far. Chris did great helping Kennedy! They shoot 3 arrows and most the time she was getting 2 out of 3 to hit the foam and stay. It takes some practice for them to be able to hit the big foam and even get their arrow down there. 

Grandpa Doug was hanging out with Parker watching him. Parkers pretty skilled with a bow too. Him and Kinlie have pretty much been shooting since they were 3 so they are really comfortable with one on their own.

I 'forced' them to all have their pictures taken together after the first night of class. I say forced because Parker is all boy. He doesnt smile for pictures if you can even make him get in a picture. I had to make the girls go stand by him and hurry and take one before he walked off. He doesnt do pictures lol!

Kinlie, Parker and Kennedy after their first class

So looking forward to next week!

295- Pumpkins and Fire Open House

 When I got off work Tuesday, Kennedy and I headed to go get pumpkins. She has been waiting and waiting to go pick them out and I figured we better hurry and get them before we run out of time! We went to Pauls Patch in Perry because they had all their orange pumpkins 2/$1 and these cute wagons!

 I let her pick out her and dads pumpkin

Then later that night was the Fire Dept open house

We also got a new toy

 This big ol thing is our new heavy duty brush truck.. soon it will be outfitted, painted, have a water tank put in it etc. All the guys were so excited talking about the motor, gears, how many gallons of water they were hoping to fit on it. It was like Christmas

The scouts stopped by also and they launched some rockets

with supervision of course!

They got to squirt water from the engine

Play in the engine

Run the lights and sirens

 They all tried to save Rescue Randy from a burning building

 Try on some gear

and put out a fire! This was their favorite part by far