Hallie's first hunting trip

It is that time of year again. I always love hunting season and get excited to go out and enjoy the outdoors. I usually don't shoot anything, but I love to be out there and get to places that you wouldn't know about if you wren't chasing an animal through them. I had no plans of bringing any of the kids with me since I wasn't sure if they would like it or not. 

One day Courtney and I went to the temple and as I thought about the creation of the world and how beautiful it was I started to think about all of the hunting trips that my dad had taken me on and had a distinct impression that I should bring Hallie with me. At first I tried to brush it off and it kept coming back. I wasn't sure why, but I told Courtney afterwards that I thought for some reason that I should take Hallie with me. 

It turned out that the week that I was going to be gone was the same week that the girls were supposed to start school. So I knew that I shouldn't have her miss the first week of school so I didn't say anything to Hallie. As I mentioned in the other post, their school was built this summer and they weren't ready for the first week, so they pushed school back a week. This was perfect timing so I decided to ask Hallie if she wanted to go and at first she didn't really want to and I wanted it to be her decision so I told her to think about it. She asked some questions about what we would be doing and asked if she could sleep in my bed with me and pick out some snacks and I said yes so she got excited and said that she wanted to. 

She was a huge helper getting everything ready to go and was bouncing off the walls. 

Before I left Lisa that I work with brought me some animal print rubber gloves, because in our management meetings they make fun of me about when I went to Olive Garden with Courtney I used a fork to cut my bread stick so my hands wouldn't get oily. I don't mind car grease or dirt but messy food drives me crazy. So she brought these for me in case I had to clean out an animal. They are a new addition to my hunting box. She even got some for Hallie. 

 Shelby stayed home and got her ears pierced and looks really cute. She didn't even cry she said.

They came to say good bye to Hallie and I before we left. 

 As I ran errands that morning I took Hallie and Bryndee with me so we stopped by Mcdonalds. It is always so much work to get ready to be away from civilization it's funny how much time and money are spent to enjoy no toilets, sleeping in the dirt without showers. There is just something about camping that overcomes what normally wouldn't be worth it.

 It is about a four hour drive out to where we go and it isn't to pretty until the last hour or so.

 Well here Hallie is in the bed, she always made it so nice hefore we went to sleep every night. We had about a million blankets so I slept good.

 The first night and day it rained. We weren't prepared for that since it was so warm last year. I bought Hallie some Camo clothes but didn't bring any boots for her. The first day we saw a big bull elk and hiked quite a ways to try to get close enough to call it in and get a shot. That hike ended in shivering tears and no snacks, because we didn't plan on being out past lunch before we saw it. Needless to say the following days we were prepared, because I didn't have the energy to carry her down the hill on my shoulders like I did that day.

 I had bought a fourwheeler that I was going to fix and take for us then sell and I didn't get it running in time for the trip so we spent a lot of time together on my motorcycle. It worked out pretty well.

 We did stop on the side of a hill one day and I tried to lean to the uphill side so I could put my foot down and ended up tipping to the down hill side where I couldn't touch and we rolled off and down the hill. I had my bow on my back and luckily didn't damage it and Hallie was pretty shook up about it. She was pretty mad at me for letting that happen, but we didn't get hurt.

 It was pretty dry up there, but not as dry as last year when we were forced to end early due to forest fires.

 Hallie loved the binoculars and we would end up fighting over them when we would see an animal and I couldn't tell what it was without them. Needless to say I will bring two pairs next year.

 This was one of the best daddy daughter dates that we have done. I am so glad that she was able to come and we had some good moments that will be great memories.

 This is my cousin Jason, we used to play all the time when we were little and have been able to stay close as we got older thanks to him.

 CJ shot a grouse and Hallie is watching them clean it from a distance with her beloved headlamp. It was kind of ironic that she had her peace sign robe while we were out trying to shoot bambi.

 She brought the bow I had made her for her birthday last year and was getting pretty good at shooting it.

 This was the view from Hallie's favorite hiding/ambush site that we had found.

 She put up logs all around her so the animals would stay away from her.

 Her she is keeping a lookout while I took a nap. When I am fishing or hunting I seem to do best as I dose off.

 She had a green shirt of mine to cover her pink backpack up.

 I handed down one of my knives to her on this trip and tried to teach her how to use it safely as she carved a branch. Needless to say we were not the quietest stalkers in the woods.

 These guys were with us for the first two days and got a nice deer the day they were leaving.

 Hallie had to do smores everynight so we made sure to have a fire going.

 It was time to go home and we were empty handed as far as kills went, but we saw a ton of cool animals and a lot of bucks and a big bull, but just couldn't get close enough to get a good shot with a bow. each year I learn a little more about the woods and the animals so that someday I may be more successful.

I wasn't worried about not killing anything at all, because Hallie and I had such a good time together. When I dropped her off with Annie, we both started crying because we were going to miss each other after being together for a week by ourselves. It took me about a day to get adjusted to city life again. I almost wanted to set up the trailer and sleep in it for a couple more nights.

 We went to the hot spring and soaked our dirty tired feet on the way home.

 Here are some elk tracks

 Hallie slept the whole way home.