Day after Christmas hunt and shoot!

The day started at 5:30 as I got up and tried to find my way through the house, quarter to 6 got Parker on his feet and moving, in the truck packed and rolling to Joe's house by 6.  Loaded and the road by 6:10 and off to Cracker Barrel where we were meeting up with the rest of the group.  Danny Adams put this together, a bunny hunt and game of clay pigeon blasting, he called Annie Oakley, I felt it more appropriately called Wild Bill since there weren't any girls among us.  Met up with the group, 15 total, all friends, team mates, and OHS Grads.  It was great seeing all of them again I hadn't seen most of them since they graduated and I was there coach.  Re-introductions took place for me since I had forgotten a couple names, damned old age....LOL.  Sat down had a bite to eat and told stories and listened to stories for about an hour.  We took off and headed south ending up about a mile past the Painted Rocks turn off to Yuba.  On the way down we noticed the temperature kept dropping finally bottoming out at -12 degrees, by the time we unloaded and got ready to shoot it was a BALMY -4 instant nose hair freeze.  We took off in search for bunnies kicked one up within 5 minutes we thought alright a day of shooting and maybe some cottons for the smoker later.  Well that was just a tease we hiked and saw a couple more with highways of trails in the sagebrush.  Colin got into one and didn't let it go till he got it down.  We had 22's, AR 15's, 223's, and 12 gauge in the field with us any rabbit that moved was in trouble.  We pushed the one section for about an hour and got back to the trucks and went up the road a little farther, where my grocery getter got a little hung up, not to worried with all the vehicles we had, a quick tug and free I was....one more reason for bigger tires and more clearance.  We got out and pushed a deep gully and and kicked up a few there and put them down, but no cottons :(.  After that push legs were spent, especially mine, so we set up for our shooting game.  What a blast that was, two hand throwers and 4-6 boxes of clay plus that and more shells for 12 gauges a plenty!  We stayed and shot for 2 hours, it was incredible fun!  Those in attendance were all good shots and everyone got a chance to win at least one round.  Everyone was a little surprised at Parker and his shooting abilities, especially when he put the top 3 shooters out in 2 of the first rounds with one shot.  Parker was elated.  We ended the day with good byes and a promise to make it an annual event. Check out the slide show below.

Christmas Eve bunny hunt....

We called it a hunt because that is really all we did was hunt for them for 2 hours.  Parker and Jimmy accompanied me on the nice hike through the sage brush.  I think Jim forgot about his allergies cause he was stuffed up by the end of it.  We seen a couple running fast away from us.  We went out to Faust and turned south went about a half mile stopped and started hunting for the elusive bunnies.  No luck but it was great getting out with my boys.

First Ski day of the season at Sundance

Saturday morning we woke up to a cloudy kinda rainy day.  We had breakfast at the church for our annual Christmas social got our belly's full and came home after getting pics with Santa.  We then loaded up and headed for the mountain.  We arrived and met up with Dana in the parking lot.  We then loaded up on the shuttle and headed for the base and up the chair.  The snow was decent with a fresh layer of 6 inches.  Boots hurt like haties the first run, legs and lungs were burning and I was realizing what a year of sitting in front the puter had done to me.  Got on for a second ride up had the boots unbuckled and loose the coat unzipped.  Unloaded buckled up and went for another run, legs burning lungs killing me but loving every second of it, Parker laughing at me....LOL.  Parker was enjoying the whole show.  We loaded up for 3rd ride, again everything loosened and then tightened, but a great run I was feeling better legs loosened up feet not hurting so bad lungs still on fire!  Parker came down and said last run, he had a date with his grandma we both almost forgot about.  So we loaded the shuttle to the truck and rode home with smiles on our faces.  First day! Good Day!  Got a short video trying to get it loaded, give me a minute it will be there.

Last Boat trip of 2009, and for 2 years with the "Babe"

We hit a late fall early winter boat trip this season since the water was still open.  Dec. 5th Deer Creek, Parker and I decided since Sundance hadn't opened yet and the snow hadn't really set in on the west desert yet we would try our luck on the pond.  We got on the water a little later than usual and started running pop gear with a triple teaser, it worked on Thanksgiving.  So we started out, it was a beautiful morning, Blue Bird day and no one else really on the pond with us.  We got a few hits, got a couple to take them, but they all quick released themselves that morning.  The boat was struggling with the cold and didn't want to run to well kept dying on us and then we decided that it was probably due to the lack of fuel in the tank ;).  Parker didn't have his "RED" shorts on that morning so we thought once we got it going with the tank tilted just right to get fuel in the lines we better head in.  Parker stated on the way, how fitting it would be if we ran out on his last trip for a couple years ;-) LOL.  Long but very funny story behind this....any ways we spent a good couple hours just chillin' in the yacht and reflecting.  Gonna miss him for a couple years on the boat but I know he is doing the best thing ever!
Love you Babe!!!!