Oh Deer!

       This past Saturday, our alarm went off at 4:45 a.m.  As it did, I was glad that it was not going off for me!  Tyler on the other hand was ready to jump out of bed.  All night he had been like a little boy trying to sleep on Christmas Eve...he could not wait to wake up so that he could go hunting.  I supported him by getting his breakfast and making sure he had warm clothes, hunting license, water, etc. 
      At about 9:00 Tyler told me that he had gotten his deer!!!  I was so excited for him!  Later he told me the story of how it had happened...He and his dad had been out waiting for a deer for a couple of hours and had seen nothing.  Finally, they decided that it was time to go home and come back another time.  As they got in the truck, and began to back up, they saw two deer off in the distance in a little valley.  Tyler got out of the truck, but he did not have a good shot at it.  He waited and waited, while his dad drove the truck, hoping to get the deer to move.  One deer finally began to run, and would not stop...so once again it could not be shot!  Finally it stopped, and Tyler aimed and fired.  He had gotten his deer!
      Later I finally got to see the deer...I made sure not to get too close!  I saw it from about 15 feet away as it hung in his parents' garage.  Thankfully the head was in a bucket, because that is where it was shot, and I am not sure if I would have been able to see that!  Tyler, my father-in-law, and mother-in-law spent about an hour processing the meat...I did not help here either!  I did give it a distant glance after all the fat and hair had been removed and it looked a little more normal. They are excited about the deer jerky, deer roast, deer shredded meat, and everything else they will get from it.  I am very excited for them as well, but am not quite sure how much of it I will eat!
      I am definitely in South Dakota now!  I know of two other people who shot a deer over the weekend.  I am just thankful that there is a Wal-Mart here with good cow meat!  It did put me into the Thanksgiving mood as I thought of the Pilgrims and Indians on the first Thanksgiving...everything they were eating they had killed themselves!

Family Visit

Vacation Bible School is now finished, and I finally had time to take some pictures from our camera, and put them onto our computer!  Being the non-camera people that Tyler and I are, we kept on forgetting to take our camera with us while my family was here for vacation.  We remembered on the last day, and so any and all pictures that I post from my family's visit are all on the same day...I know-not very interesting!  I am sorry, but maybe you can find a couple that you do like.  Since it was the only day we had a camera, we ended up taking 87 pictures that day.  I will not put them all on, but did have such a hard time deciding which ones to use.  No one in our family is a professional photographer, or even striving to be one, so you will be able to tell that when you look at the pictures.  We did see some beautiful things, both in the Badlands and in Spearfish Canyon at the amazing waterfalls.  I miss my family very much, but am so thankful for the pictures that I have to look back at!

This is a snapshot of a very small portion of the beautiful Badlands.  It is so neat to see something that was carved out in this way by the Flood.

Of course I have to have a picture of my wonderful husband and I!!

This is the whole group: Lorelynn, Lorena, Mary, Tyler, Dad, Mom, and Grandma.

While we were hiking around a little (as much as we were allowed to) we saw a couple of different places where there were mountain goats.

You really have to look to see these mountain goats-they blend in with the scenery.

Lorelynn was able to receive a call from David, who is in Afghanistan, even in the middle of the Badlands!

When I see Lorena, I still cannot believe that she is 18 years old and only has a year of high school left.  Sometimes I think she should still be my little 5 year old sister that we all had so much fun playing with!  It was great to have her out here, and several people in my church said they want her to move out here!!!!

After being in the VERY hot Badlands, we drove to Spearfish Canyon, which was a complete opposite of the desert place we had just been in.  There were beautiful waterfalls, and everything was so alive and green!

This is called "Bridal Veil Fall".  I have only ever seen it from the road, but this time we decided to hike a little and get closer to eat.  We had to wade through some VERY cold water and do a little climbing, but is was worth the work when we got there.

Another picture of Tyler and I.  This is quite an accomplishment, since we are not picture people!!

Dad and Lorena

We had to make our way through this creek to get to the waterfall. 

When we got done with all of our fun, and had gotten back to the main road, we saw this sign a little ways down from where we had started our little excursion!  

This is a picture of the BEST mother in the world!  She is standing in front of another waterfall that we went to, called "Roughlock Fall".  

Grandma and three of her granddaughters

This is where we took our engagement pictures, so it was fun to go back and take pictures after we were married.  I am not sure if the sun was shining weird on my hair, or if it really was that frizzy by the end of the day!

A picture of Roughlock Fall