Deer Hunt

This past week we celebrated the things we are thankful for, so I felt like sharing a few. I am so grateful for my hubby. He works hard to provide for our little family and I love him so much for that. I am grateful for Bryce and every day we have with him. He brings so much joy to our lives! I am grateful for modern medicine and all of Bryce’s doctors and therapists. They have helped improve his quality of life. I am grateful for the friends we have and the help, comfort, relief and fun times they’ve given us. I am grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that my family is eternal. Finally, I am grateful for our family. They have given us so much love, comfort and support as we’ve gone through our different trials. I am glad I can call them mine!

Speaking of family, I’ve been wanting to post about our latest vacation with them for a while now, but I’ve been busy and haven’t had the chance to. Until now, that is.

Nine days after Bryce’s G-Tube surgery was opening day of the deer hunt. Jus was lucky enough to have drawn out with Nanny and Poppy, so we got to spend an entire week with them! Saturday morning came and everyone was up by 5:30. Nanny, Poppy, Jason and Joey (Justin’s brothers) all left together and we didn’t see them again until after dark. Justin left on his own, but he only had to go to Chris’s house (another of Justin’s brothers). Chris had permission to take Jus onto a friend’s field. All they had to do was not shoot his horse or cow that were in the field.

Jus and Darryl.

As soon as it was light enough to shoot, they spotted the nice three-point they were after. Justin found it in his scope and shot. The deer didn’t spook or run off, but it was wounded. He reloaded and shot again. This time the deer dropped. Chris and Jus were both very excited. They got back in the truck and drove to retrieve the deer. On their way to the deer they passed the horse and cow in the field, both still very much alive. Once at the deer Chris looked at the two shots Jus had made. One was in the middle of the guts and the other was in the neck. Chris turned to Jus as asked, “You were aiming for the heart right…? Yet you hit a foot away in both directions”. Jus replied, “Its dead ain’t it?” He may have been a little shaky and excited but he hit it with both shots.

As Jus was gutting the deer, Chris noticed the horse rolling around on its back as if it had an itch. Jokingly he said “look, the horse is dying”. They both had a good laugh at that. However, a few minutes later the horse quit rolling around and just laid there. Suddenly, it frantically started to twitch, as if it were having a seizure. Chris said “That don’t look right.” Then the horse stopped moving and Chris said “I think that horse is dead!” They looked around to see if there was any way Jus could’ve accidentally hit the horse and realized there was NO WAY it was possible, it was too far away from where his deer was.

Chris, Jus and Bryce

They couldn’t check on the horse until Jus had finished gutting the deer and they had it loaded in the truck. On the way out of the field, they stopped by the horse to see if it was okay. It was very obvious the horse wasn’t breathing. They walked around the horse, checking for bullet holes just in case one ricocheted and hit it. Really, there was NO WAY Jus shot the horse, it was on the other side of the field when he was shooting. After confirming the fact the horse wasn’t shot, the thrill of the hunt was over. It was replaced with the dread of informing Chris’s friend that his horse was dead. As they headed toward the friend’s home they contemplated how best to say “Thank you for letting us hunt your fields, but your horse is dead”.

They got to his home and woke him up by banging on the door. When he answered Chris blurted “We didn’t shoot your horse, but I’m pretty sure it’s dead…” He looked Jus and Chris over for a minute then asked “You sure you didn’t shoot it?” They reassured him they didn’t, then relayed what they witnessed the horse do. After hearing their story, the friend said it sounded like the horse died of a twisted gut. “It was time for the horse to die anyways, it was 30 years old.” This bit of news helped lighten Jus and Chris’s hearts, but they still felt terrible. I mean, what are the odds of the horse dying while they were there? They decided to thank the friend by giving him some of the deer meat.

Chris photoshopped this awesome memento for Jus!

While everyone was hunting on Sunday and Monday, Bryce and I got to hang out with Grandad and Maw! They decided to drive three hours to see us at Nanny and Poppy’s because it’s much closer than the 7 hour drive to my house. It was so good to see them! We couldn’t do much, Grandad just had surgery on his toe so he was on crutches, but it was nice to be able to visit with them. Monday morning they even took Bryce and I out to breakfast. We ate at a little Mexican restaurant and it was absolutely delicious (have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Mexican food?)! We were sad to say goodbye to Grandad and Maw later that day, but we were happy to spend time with more family.

The rest of the week was spent playing with cousins. The night Jus got his deer, Chris brought cousins Darryl and Amilia over. They were so cute with Bryce, or as they called him, Baby Rice. They brought out books for us to read together and they gave him so many different toys to play with! I love seeing how well Bryce’s cousin are with him. It just melts my heart.

Amilia reading to "Baby Rice".

Monday afternoon cousins Brooklyn, Kaylee and Hunter came over to play. Oh my goodness, those kids have so much energy, but are fun to play with. Their favorite game was what Kaylee called Tippy Toes Hide and Seek. I taught them how to put their feet in the middle and we’d do a little chant (you know, like bubblegum bubblegum in a dish). Whoever won that part got to go hide and the rest of us would find them. The girls were so funny! When it was their turn to hide they would sweetly ask “Aunt Alyssa, can you help me find a place to hide?”

There was one night while we were playing that I decided to take a break and play with Bryce for a while. Every couple of minutes one of the girls would come up to me and ask if it was their turn to play with me. I would tell them, “Not yet, I’m playing with Bryce right now”. After a while they got sick of waiting for me to come and play with them, so Kaylee said, “Aunt Alyssa, you’ve played with Bryce for a long time! We’ve been waiting and waiting to play with you. Can you come now?” Her facial expressions and little attitude were too cute to resist. I handed Bryce to Nanny and played Tippy Toe Hide and Seek again.

On Friday we were invited to attend Trunk-or-Treat with Joey and Lara. I had spent most of the previous day working on Bryce’s costume, trying to have it ready in time. I am definitely not a seamstress, so it took me a while to figure things out. The finished product turned out so cute though! I might be a little biased, but Bryce made the most adorable Captain Hook!

Anyways, the Trunk-or-Treat was a lot of fun. There were a bunch of people there, which means there was a ton of noise. It was overstimulating for Bryce, so he handled it the way he handles anything that overstimulates: he fell asleep. Not to worry though, we still pushed him around and gathered candy with his cousins. Once that was done we went inside the church and had some yummy chili!

Jus, Nanny and my Little Captain Hook

Saturday came and it was time for us to go home. On our way out we stopped to visit Justin’s brother Bryan and his family. We had so much fun with Bryan and Melanie that we ended up staying a lot longer than we had planned. In fact, we didn’t leave until about 9 pm.

We were sad to leave family, especially after all the fun we had with them. But I think we were all excited to go home. After all, with our week long vacation with family and recent Primary Children’s stay, we had been gone half of October. 

Bryce, Hunter, Kaylee and Brooklyn