Christmas and Guns (Politics free! Unlike your soda)

Christmas break was another enjoyable time spent with family. Instead of 12 days of Christmas, I believe we had 13 days of it! Here are a few of the highlights.

 1.  Getting woke up on a day off to the angelic music of Cherubs.

 2. Creating angelic music for some elderly friends in the nursing home.

 2. (Continued) Actually, I entirely lost my voice the day before so there may have been a little "Ron White" timbre in the background instead of angelic choruses.

 3. Riding in the "Family Bus" on our caroling tour.

 4.  Unrestricted boys in a large moving projectile/RV. (Don't tell the deputy)

 5.  THAT BEARD!

 6.  Ping Pong all along. 

 7.  7 degree (F) wake up calls at 7 am by our 7 month (+15 months) coughing kid.

8.  Shooting a photographer in the wild.

 9.  Shooting evidence of a shooter!

 10.  Target practice on snowballs.  If it ever comes down to a live or die snowball fight....

 11.  More guns!  Guns are as much a part of our family entertainment and enjoyment as some people's dogs are.  When you get the chance to shoot clay pigeons, give it a shot!

 12. My North Face model sister. 

13.  Brother in laws are a good thing.  Glad I had awesome sister's so they could marry great guys who I would mind-meld with.

Dashing through the snow and attack of the birds!

Christmas Eve gave me the opportunity to test out the Jeep in the snow.  The snow won.

 High centered in the snow.  Four spinning wheels don't do much good when they aren't touching the ground.

 Knee deep in snow.

 If it weren't for the fact that the jeep is unable to move an inch, this might make a good promo shot!

 I spent roughly 45 minutes digging with a broken window scraper.  While I created some great snow hills all around the jeep, it wasn't quite the tool I needed. 

 Now, if there were 10 more exhaust pipes on the Jeep, I may have been able to melt free!  Looking into some of these badboys for the future.

 As much as I'd like to be able to tell a story about using my own two hands to get unstuck, the real solution came from my cell phone.

 All that work really got me ready to blend in to the environment for Lemming hunting.

 Predator meets odd-shaped-tiny-gun Lemming Hunter.

 On the way home, I ran into a large flock of birds. 

 A really large flock of birds.

 A wall of birds.

 A sleepy wall of birds.

 I've seen flocks that are large before, but never any that covered my entire field of vision with this great of a density before.

These birds were everywhere!  Even the trees were littered with them.  Pretty sure these are the nasty Starling's we know and love around here.

Deer Slayer.....Maybe Ep. 6

Deer hunting with a bow recently took a back seat to "Scene" hunting with a Canon.  My last outing wasn't productive if productivity is measured in pounds of meat you bring home.  Instead of veal in my bank, here are some "Vision's" I caught with the Canon.  (I know, the play on the name "Canon" is over the top, but I like a little corn in my cheese.)

 Poised and ready....to take shots of the inactive bow.

 This spot in the woods felt like a scene from "The Hobbit" or "Lord of the Rings".

One spot of the woods had dark green moss covering the dead logs and bases of trees.  It seemed out of place in a dead woods in the middle of December.  The colorful moss was hard to resist taking some shots of.

 A little Edgar Allen Poe-esque if you ask me.  I didn't notice the skull under my feet until I lie down to take this shot.  Made me look over my shoulder a time or two.

 Playing with some "Forced Perspective".  I don't know what those berries were, but they tasted delicious.  Jk

 My inner nerd is revealed any time I reference Tolkien but it's worth the risk to mention that this tree has been a favorite of mine ever since I began walking these woods.  I'm sure if I lived in Middle Earth, this tree would have a name and could wake up to crush some skulls every so often.

A beautiful sunset capped with a waxing moon over a Christmas-light-clad town.  

As you can tell, I didn't have much patience sitting in a tree stand while a new camera sat, unused in my lap.  Who knows if I scared off a potential Arrow recipient but taking a few extra moments to enjoy creation in more intricate detail was reward enough.

Turkeyball

 
The season between Thanksgiving and Christmas has become one of my favorites because of the copious amounts of family we get to interact with during this time.  From siblings, to in-laws, to cousins, and relatives of all nature, we enjoy the time together and try to incorporate new activities into the festivities every time we get together.

This year after Thanksgiving, the guys got a chance to let their masculinity (and perhaps boyish dreams) shine through with a rousing game of Slingshot Paintball.  Whether you believe me or not, slingshot paintball is perhaps more fun (and more economical) than paintball with guns.  Imagine staring down your opponent, knowing they have only one shot, but being in the same situation yourself, and having to make a decision to let one fly or call their bluff and rush toward them with wild adrenaline-laced delight!  It was a lot of fun.  The majority of us were 20's-30 somethings but there was a 10 year old and a 50 something playing too which made it feel like a cross-generational game of monopoly; with welts and masks.  However, the main objective for most of the day was to shoot everyone on the other team or sprint like mad to their flag and hobble like crazy back to your base. 

 Gearing up for battle.  Don't worry, the bows were for another game called "Duck and Cover".

 Keeping it "Rural".  Although; those paintball masks could come in handy during a riot, or when the need arises to subdue the local population.

 All smiles before the carnage but family only goes so far.

 The cat really ruins the manliness of this picture.  However, it's absorbent fur came in handy when  suffering a head-shot.

 Game on!  Most of the time we were running and gunning or just running and puking.  Shooting on the run was actually a horrible idea, but it sure got me amped up like a teenager on energy drinks!

 Every good war camera-woman knows the only safe way to photograph destruction like this is by keeping a good trampoline-distance away.

 It was a beautiful fall day for pegging relatives with a semi-frozen .68 caliber paint projectile.

 What an awesome death pose...wait...What's that cuddly kitten doing in the pic again!??  That's it!  We're releasing Rottweilers during next year's game.

 The craziest part was when someone suggested playing "Civil War" paintball.  Take one step toward the enemy for every shot you take.  Not every shot broke, so you weren't "dead" until paint splattered across your body.  I'm don't know how that's analogous to war since I'm pretty sure no matter where you got hit with a musket-ball, you'd tap out.  Most of us took several shots before getting painted at 15 feet.

Whatever the cost to our physical bodies, our relational bond's were strong at the end.  We shared some good welts and cheap shots, but enjoyed the physical challenge and the joyful memories enough that I think for Christmas, we'll be playing with tasers.  (Now where is that kitty?)

Get Out! Adventure strikes outdoors!

The other evening, on the verge of the coldest night of Fall, our family decided to go camping at my folks cabin.  Instead of sitting at home and enjoying a relaxing evening with our electronic devices and climate controlled bedrooms, we got out.  If we hadn't left the house that evening, we would have missed out on some obstacles and challenges that I'll call adventures.  For instance, before we even got out of town, I got a call that the cows were out and that I needed to get them back in before dark.  I had one hour to coax dad's (well-trained) cows back through the gate and fix the fence. It was challenging but fun!  It was very dark by the time my family got to the cabin and started up a fire, but everyone met that obstacle with a great attitude.  Getting the boys to bed in a one-room cabin was tricky since we had to turn out all the lights and lay down quietly.  They thought this was time for a giggle-fest and stayed up a little (maybe a lot!) longer than usual.  Throughout the night, the fire needed tending since the outdoor temperature was below 32 deg. F.  Every time I had to get out of my comfortable, warm sleeping bag I felt a bit proud to be taking one for the (family) team so that they could stay warm; and actually it wasn't as cold as I thought!

There's just something relaxing about a wood stove.

So the boys woke up at 5:30 am and there wasn't anything to do but get up with them and put some delicious foil-wrapped burritos on the stove! Challenge accepted!  Hunger averted!

Since we were all up and had already eaten breakfast, there was nothing else to do but take a brisk sunrise jog.  I wouldn't say that physical education is my strong point, but the family run at seven am may become a tradition when camping!

Air mattress jumping is an Olympic sport in our house!

To cap off the beautiful cold morning jog and clean-up, we discovered our van's battery to be dead.  This required a 1/2 mile hike to the nearest fencer battery to steal it for our van.  Challenge accepted! (Em would like to point out that much like the little house on the prairie, she was left alone with two crazy boys to keep them alive while I was gallivanting across the plains)  Fortunately the battery was good and our van was running in no time.  We got home in good order and when we looked at the clock, it wasn't even 9 am yet.  Just imagine if we'd stayed home in our warm beds; we'd probably just be getting around to breakfast without any adventure like the ones we had at the cabin.  Get out...side!