::huntin'::

Matt's a hunter.
A bow hunter.
He goes every August.
Has since he was a youngster.
He loves it.
Like a kid on Christmas.

It's all a big ordeal. Lots of packing, shopping,debate (when to leave, who's going, who's driving what, what food to take, how long to stay, how to pack the trucks, when to come home, how many arrows to take, when are we going to Cabela's?, where's my camo? etc etc), unpacking, cleaning, etc.

This year was a particularly special one though because Matt & J drew out on a limited entry hunt. Which basically means only a few people in the state get these tags that say you can hunt in a special area, aka San Juan, aka "where the big ones are!"

In the days leading up to the hunt, we spend a lot of time in Mantua (his mom & dad's) getting stuff ready. The packing of the trucks happens the day before they leave, and it's usually pretty funny. The definition of the saying "too many chiefs and no Indians" or the too many cooks in the kitchen one would work too. Either way, it's funny. The little boys enjoyed it too. They played on the 4 wheelers a lot. A lot of "wehm, wehm, WHEM" noises. It was pretty cute.




They were planning on going from Thursday to Thursday, so they needed a LOT of gas(oline).


Finally they got done loading the trucks. And they left.
Bubb & Port were very sad. They missed Da-da all week. Every time the door would open, doorbell rang, garage door opened, they thought it was Da-da. They asked me everyday when Da was coming home. All of them, well, not Ava, but the other 3 would just randomly say "I miss Dad." It was kind of sad. A week is a long time when you're little.



He was gone for 6 days. He shot his deer on Tuesday, and got home late Wednesday. We missed him. We're glad he's back.

He wants SO much to take those little boys with him. He was talking about it A LOT this year. He kept saying how he can't wait 'til they're old enough to go, and they can camp and ride the 4 wheelers together. He's so excited for that. It's pretty sweet. He'll probably take Portie next year.

Anyway, he was gone and now he's home.
And we're glad.
:)

In other news...
Remember how I wasn't ready for school and Fall yet? NOT ANYMORE!!! Probably due in part to the fact that I was flying solo with 4 kids for a week (it really wasn't too bad, but we had our moments). We did our back to school stuff, met the teachers, started flag football (which always makes me feel Fall-ish), watching Fall-ish kid shows , AND it's been insanely hot this last week.
Bring. On. The. Fall.

Also...
I miss the Tahoe! We sold it so we can get a bigger car. Uncle Bob's workin' hard to find us one. So in the meantime, we're driving our old commuter car (with no a/c) and Matt's mom & dad's old commuter car (with no a/c). Not fun. We can't all fit in one car, so any time we go somewhere, we have to take 2 cars. Also the no a/c thing is pretty miserable.

::gateway & b2s::

Since Dad was visiting, we all got together on Saturday for a splash at the Gateway and some lunch at Z Tejas.

The 7 grandkids...

(Tristan-4 1/2, Cooper 2 1/2, Chloe-7 1/2, Ava-5 mos, Mia-18 mos, Liam-6, Porter-5)






Glad we all got together. A fun time was had by all.

In other news...
We went to back to school night for Porter and intake conference for Chloe. Chloe's teacher is really nice, and she's pretty excited (and also nervous) for school on Monday. We walked all around her BIG new school. Her teacher said there were over 600 kids there! It's big-makes her mother a little nervous. We get to buy some school supplies for her this year (in years past, the school provided most of the supplies). So that's exciting. I feel like there will be lots of pink Barbie things, and a huge box of crayons. Portie's back to school night was cute. He's SO excited about going to kindergarten. We drove past his preschool yesterday, and he said "There's my old school! Finally I'm no more baby school!" We met his teacher. She seems really nice. I hope he will like her. He got a different teacher than Chloe had-which is good. Chloe's kindergarten teacher was a great teacher, but I just think Port needs somebody who will be really fun and happy and nice so he'll really want to go every day. He was so excited to be in his classroom. He was running all around it, touching stuff, looking at stuff. We got to see the class list, and noticed a few familiar names on there. He'll get to have Kelton and Gavin from preschool in his class, so we're pretty excited about that. I have to say that I'm pretty nervous. Especially for Porter. I remember being pretty nervous for Chloe, but I think I'm a little more nervous for Port. I hope he likes it, I hope he's nice to the kids (he always is), I hope the kids are nice to him, I hope he makes friends, I hope he's okay on the bus. I'm sure everything will be fine...I'm just nervous. He's such a sweet boy. He's sometimes a little crazy and not so nice at home, but he's always been good at school. I'm still nervous though. My sweet baby Portie!

Also...
While we were at Port's school, we had to drop in and see Mrs. C (Chloe's first grade teacher). Chloe was SO happy to see her. She got sick the last 2 days of school, so she didn't get to tell her a proper goodbye or get a picture with her or anything! So we got one last night.

I kind of love her too! I hope Portie gets her for first grade-and so does he. Chloe said she was the best teacher she ever had (which is funny because other than preschool, she's only had 2 teachers). It made me think of all my teachers I've had. I remember their names from kindergarten all the way to 8th grade. Some stick out in your mind, some made a big impression on you. Mrs. C is one of those teachers :)