As time drew near and it appeared that this was really going to happen, the whole family made a trip to outfit little Brie for her hunting debut. Next thing we knew, it was Friday night. In just mere hours my amazing hubby, beautiful little girl, and precious papa were going to suit up and walk out, IN THE DARK, on uneven terrain, CARRYING GUNS, and climb up into their respective deer stands. Yep, Mommy didn't sleep a wink. All kinds of terrible scenarios rang through my mind, but morning came and the alarm went off. I helped get her get dressed, and took these shots as the hunters departed with smiles on their faces.
I went back to bed, no sleep however as Conner was up for the day and ready to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I talked him into just laying with Mommy for a while cuddling and talked about our busy but exciting day we had in store and anything else I could think of.
Conner and I spent some really fun time with Olivia, Becca, Evie and Grandma, out for "brunch" for their b-days which turned into actual lunch by the time we got around to it. While walking through Target with Olivia getting some last minute items I received a very exciting call from Steve. A doe and yearling came running by their deer stand. He tells me since Brie wasn't ready he took aim at the doe and dropped her right away since he could tell they weren't stopping. The yearling stopped immediately,Steve instructed Brie to shoot! She pulled up took aim and fired. The yearling jumped and took off. Steve said she missed but that he was happy she was able to get a shot off. Brienna gets on the phone and is extremely excited and said "I shot at it Mommy but I missed." I asked if she had fun and she gave me a resounding "YES."
Off the phone to field dress the doe, Conner and I wrap up at Target and are on the way to pick up pizza's for the evening pizza party at the Schueler's when I see another call coming in from Steve. This time it's Brienna, she's frantic and of course my heart sinks thinking one of my nightmares came true. I tried to understand her ramblings and in my mind I am only thinking "hang up and call 911." Well I finally deciphered what she was saying and to my surprise it was "Mommy I told you I shot it, I shot it!" She relays the story that while the guys were working on the doe, she kept insisting that she shot it. She ended up arguing with her Daddy about just where the yearling was standing when she took the shot, apparently she walked over to where she though it was and yells "here is where it was and look there's blood!" The blood trail was barely 25 feet and then just stopped. So they splintered off in search for it,sometime passed when Papa exclaims that he found it again and looks yonder only to see, sure enough, Brienna shot her first deer, the shot was true and perfectly executed (unlike her Daddy's which needed a second). She told me "Mommy my heart is just racing but it only does that when we're running our miles." I don't know why I felt a little sting of tears in my eyes but I did and just told her that her heart is racing from adrenaline and excitement, she was just beyond thrilled about this whole process. Not having any of the post preparation however, yep, that's my girl.
Pride just soars through us as we admire what an accomplishment that is for our little girl who happens to be one of the most soft spoken, tender hearted, cuddly, truly wouldn't hurt a fly (largely because she'd be afraid of it) type of person. Awe is still present just recanting the tale and thus this rather lengthy posting.
We're so extremely proud of you pumpkin!
Great shot of the crew, the next day they filled out taking a larger 4 point buck as well
Brienna with her very first deer taken down with the 3rd shot of her life!
