Surgery and Deer Hunting recap!

On October 29th Eli cut his pinky finger while carving pumpkins! The next day he couldn't bend his finger, so after school I brought him to the ER to get it checked out. He got a splint put on and was referred to an ortho hand surgeon because they thought he may have cut a tendon. As it turns out, he cut TWO tendons! He had surgery today to repair the tendons and is going to have a lot of work with PT to get his pinky back in working order! Surgery went well and he's home recovering now:)

Friday after work I headed up north for opener deer hunting. I'm bummed I missed the Friday activities with everyone, but I forgot to ask for Friday off work, lesson learned!! Because I missed Friday, and then spent all day Saturday and Sunday hunting, I hardly took any pictures! 

Carey snuggling with his 3rd deer of the weekend! He was able to fill Christa's doe tag just before they left, it was perfect timing!! 

Carey and Eli proudly showing of their deer on Saturday night!

On opening day Carey was able to shoot this nice doe in the afternoon, and then just before dark got a big 4 pointer right next to his doe! Both deer were about 200 yards away, he was a sharpshooter!! 

Since I didn't shoot a deer this year, you just get a picture of my snow covered rifle:)

Eli shot his first every deer, on his first every day out hunting, with one shot! I'm so proud of him!! It was a perfect first deer, a nubbin buck! 

Opener morning sunset from my stand! The area where I hunt was logged this year, so it looked MUCH different than it normally does. It makes me sad that so many big, old trees are gone, but new growth will come!

Josie and Jessica opening morning!

Josie and I opening morning! She looks so much taller than me here!!

Josie didn't want to tell anyone she shot a deer, so we didn't have a truck to haul it back to the cabin! It fit nicely in the back of Carey's Toyota Camry:)

Liam also didn't get a deer this year, so I didn't get any pictures of him until Monday night in front of the meat pole!! He spent 3 solid days in the stand, he did a great job!! Sunday night he even stayed out 40 minutes in the middle of the pitch dark woods waiting to get picked up, miles away from anyone. He said he had his gun unloaded, strapped to the four wheeler and just sat in dark. I would have been terrified, but he was like, "what's there to be afraid of, I was fine" Good job, Liam:)

Because of the logging, I was able to see Josie sitting in her stand on Monday night. I looked over to her and could see she was moving, I was like, "What is she DOING?!?" and then she shot! I was so excited!! It was around 4:25, prime hunting hour, but I stuffed my blanket into my backpack and shot down the stand to get over to her! I got up to her and she was like "what took you so long, I've been waiting for you to get here before I go up to it, I think it's a Doe!!" We went up to the deer and she tried lifting it's head, but it wouldn't move, it's ANTERS were both stuck into the ground. She was so excited she said, "I got a BUCK, it's a BUCK!!!" She was so happy she got a spike, it brought me so much joy to see her so excited!! These are the moments I carry with me forever:)

Peace out, 

Amy