Almost Hunting Season!!

Few things can bring you more joy than to pursue two of your passions at the same time. This is easy to do by taking your children snowboarding with you! However Eli is too small, see it being the off season from snowboarding, my husband and I do a plethora of other outdoor activities, that help keep up in shape, and ready for the following season of snowboarding! Hunting is right around the corner!! Our first trip with Elijah...wow..we took our 6 and a ½ month old son hunting with us for the first time. I have been so excited to get our baby out and about in the great outdoors!

Obviously Elijah wasn’t old enough to be walking, so he wasn’t able to actually get out and hike, and hunt with us. My husband and I took turns on babysitting between hunts. This was made possible by having a 3rd person in our hunting party, we call him Grandpa!

Getting out in the country, on long dirt roads eyeballing turkey’s could not have been any more fun. It was great to take Eli out of his car seat, sit him on our lap, and watch him squeal with excitement at all the new things he was seeing. The trees, the cows, and the old run down Wyoming barns.

When hubby, and grandpa were out on a hunt, Elijah and I would play outside, and feel the leaves of the trees, grab the rocks, and long grass on the ground, and just look at all the wonderful beauty that was surrounding us. Not to forget of course, changing diapers in the back seat of the truck, rushing to make bottles for a fussy wee Elijah, and cuddle and rock my sweet baby to sleep, while settling in for a movie on the DVD player!

Jamie and I would often bring up what it will be like when Eli is 4, and we take him out to actually follow us on a hunt! We imagine it will be a far different experience. One that will include us walking only a few yards, to then “need a break” to sit and rest on a nearby log. Then a few minutes later needing to stop for a potty break, only to then be told he doesn’t want to relieve himself in the middle of the woods, but that he wants to travel ALL THE WAY back home to potty.

Stories about having young children with you usually do not conclude with the description of the trophy buck that you shoot, but the memories of being there with them are better trophies. We can’t wait until we see Eli jump out of his skin when a grouse takes off nearby and scares him, or of his first buck that he shoots!

I loved hearing all the hunting stories that my husband told me over that weekend, of him and his dad when he was younger, and the experiences he had. They truly are precious memories. I absolutely love being out with my little family and creating our own!

As much as I adore hunting, I am surely missing the snow. Not necessarily LIVING in it, but shredding the heck out of it! My baby will be 1 in September, and hopefully by the time the snow comes yet again to our backyard, he will be able to be towed around on the Burton Mini Shred After School Special Snowboard!