"Big Bull Down.."

First we leave off at Kayson's most exciting event of the year...FINALLY got his big bull!!

Kay was SO SO excited to draw out for this tag and believe me ALL Spring/Summer long we were "Prepping" for the big hunt. Going up to lay down salt and feed and scope things out. I'm not going to lie there were a few times i had to bring Kay back to reality and be like ok...this hunt is exciting but lets not lay in bed at night and talk about how much poop you saw up there this weekend! We had trail cameras up there and we were seeing big animals EVERYWHERE (See some of the pics in August post) Kay was getting so stoked and we were all praying they all stayed into the first week of the hunt. This hunt also was super exciting because THREE of the Gines men drew out for the big bull tag..which is like unheard of so...it was a family affair!! so from the very beginning i had joked with Kayson that he better kill it the first day! Knowing that there was a very slim chance of that i prepped on being a pregnant "hunting widow" for the whole month of aug-sep. We went up a few days before the hunt started and "set-up" and got all ready. Easton LOVES being outside so he was in all his glory! we planned on spending 10 days (and Kays bday) up there with him then me and the babe would go home. First morning of the hunt all the men woke up before light, the night before Kay had said to me "what if i got it the first day?" I said you better!!! but then said " Well i would love that but then we would have food and gear for days" seeing we had got enough gear and food for him to live up in the mountains for 4 weeks. So Kay leaves First thing in the morning 4:30 am and we never hear from them since all the boys went us girls didn't get left a radio. So around 12:00 i go to lay down and take a nap with Easton in tent. Soon i hear Shaun say" Heather...you may want to get up! " "Kay got something?!" i was like ok..because he had a deer tag too... and she says "Wake East up its a big something" i was like SHUT UP! and sure enough first day of the hunt 30 mins in he shot this beauty! he was shaking he was SO excited he even told me "I may have shed a tear or two" he was stoked and me for him!

oh yeah total redneck family photo with a dead animal! just woken up and camping..we look rough.

"The Hunting Boys"

So all the men had been with him all morning gutting and skinning and had just got done since he had shot him at 7 ish . They are all tough it is heavy and gross work! So the clock was ticking it had already been 5 hours or more since he was shot so we had to get the meat on ice. So Kay, East and i loaded up the truck and started down to Heber to try to find a meat fridge. We were hoping to find a butcher in Heber that would keep it until the end of the week so we would have to go all the way home but, after 2 hours of calling around..NOT ONE fridge up in Heber! so we started the drive home....

There was a HUGE fire up the canyon on our way down..scary!

We called a place in salt Lake and they said they would take the meat..so we got that off ice and dropped off. then for the head, Kay could not get ahold of his taxidermist seeing it was a weekend and the hunt holiday. He had to be on ice to save the cape so we hauled him out of the truck (with the help of our neighbor, who was TOTALLY grossed out) it was so funny to see all our "city" neighbors come out and had never in their life see such a thing, we had a trail of 8 year olds following us around, thankfully they were able to help us haul this guy in the back door INTO MY KITCHEN. Yeah I'm a pretty open to anything kinda gal..but with this guys ears full of ticks and dripping blood i wasn't a fan of this idea to get him out of the heat!!!! thankfully just 10 mins later the taxidermist called and said bring him over!

So Kayson is one happy boy! He said it was "one of the coolest things he has done" i mean i don't h think people realize what an accomplishment it is to kill and animal with a bow! HARD WORK! so needless to say we filled out new freezer full of meat so...anyone want any? ha ha

We had a blast and ended up going back up just to camp and help the others fill their tags, Easton loved being dirty, riding the bikes and playing with cousins! WHAT A GREAT YEAR!