Ahh, vacation

Well, the vacation went wonderfully. We spent 11 days in the Uncompagre (I am sure that is spelled wrong) National Forest near Montrose, Colorado. We had a wonderful man, Brent, assist us in finding a camp and brought us fire wood for campfires. Jason hunted his heart and legs out, to no avial. He did see wonderful wildlife, was almost attacked by a large coyote and did take two shots at two different animals. The first time, was a down hill shot and he misjudged the yardage, flying the arrow over the bull elks back. The second shot was the last night we were there about 20 minutes before sundown. He shot a young cow who was standing broad side at about 35 yards. He saw the arrow hit her and she stumbled. She then took off walking and Jason gave her some time while he went and retrieved his four wheeler (that Brent also loaned us). When he got back to the place he shot her at, he found the blood trail. After 25 mintues or so, he could no longer see enough to keep hunting without a little bit more equipment and he was not having any luck finding her. He came back to the trailer, gathered a few more supplies and retrieved the cell phone so that he could find service to call Brent for some help. They ended their searching around midnight that night and found very little evidence of her. They resumed their search after a few hours of sleep and still could not find her anywhere. Poor Jason! He was absolutley sick to his stomach. It feels so unethical to kill an animal and then not retrieve it to make sure the meat does not go to waste. After 5 hours (give or take), they called off the search. We headed home that same morning.

As for me, I did a whole lot of nothing. It was wonderful to not have schedule to follow, responsibilities to worry about, kids to advise/consequence/keep up with, laundry to do (though after doing 9 loads of laundry upon returning home, I wish we our vacation didn't have to include so many clothes!), meals to cook for 10 people and homework to help with. I did a little bit of fishing, but not much. Sadie and I played a lot, which we don't get to do very often. All in all, I had a great time. Truthfully though, I think I was ready to come home a few days before we actually did.

We got home fine and thought that all was well. We found out later that it was not (thus the delay in my posting about our vacation) and having been dealing (emotional, spiritually, physically and mentally) with the fall out. I will post more later on this when I figure out what I can and need to say for you to understand what has been going on. To say the least, part of me regrets having that vacation, but I am not stupid enough to think that the same things could not have happened when we were here. More later!