Summer is almost here!

Oh my goodness summer is almost here. Samantha has one more week of school and then she is done until the fall. I was done May 16th and managed to get straight A's so I am officially on the dean's list. Eric graduated from the Peace Officer Academy on May 10th so he has been hitting it hard to find a job. He has one now working back at the resort for the boardwalk marina security. Its a job for right now to pay the bills.

This is going to be our first year that we can actually plan a garden. So far I have 16 tomato plants in the ground and 52 onion plants. I have a lot more planting to go and I really need to get to it but the weather has been having a mind of its own lately. I can't wait to be able to harvest all the yummy food. Samantha and Hunter have been very excited for it all. Hopefully the pumpkins I will be planting will get decent sized for jack-o-lanterns this year.

I promised at the beginning of the month an update of how Hunter has been doing over this last year since it has been a year since we found out he has neurofibromatosis. We have learned so much this last year. We met the geneticist in Spokane and was not impressed so when the geneticist from Seattle was coming over we jumped at the chance to meet her. I was unable to go due to school but Eric went and really enjoyed her. She explained something that we noticed. Hunter would be a happy little boy one minute and then all of a sudden he would just go lay down in his dark room or put a blanket over his head and just lay around. It mostly lasted for only a short time but still it wasn't him. When Eric met with the geneticist from Seattle she explained that he was actually  having headaches. It is something common for people with NF. They come and go just randomly. The great news is that he hasn't had a headache in a really long time. This winter became a challenge for us. The kids were so excited to be able to go out and play in the snow. Hunter was so excited but it hurt for us to try and get a glove on his right hand due to the neurofibroma on his arm. It was so hard to find gloves that would protect his hands and keep them warm. He would cry so much if his hands would get too cold. He got to a point where he didn't want to go outside. We finally were able to find a pair of gloves that would work and he has done ok with them. Hopefully this next winter we can get better gloves since he will be bigger. He has been showing us all the things he is capable of. You would never know he had something on his arm. He uses his hand and arm just like a typical 2 year old. He does have to watch it because it is a bit more sensitive but it is getting better.

This summer is going to be a great one. We finally are all in one place again. The kids have 2 grandparents around and hopefully one more coming up soon. I am going to make more of an effort to hang out with friends and reconnect. I am excited to go out camping with the kids. Eric and I are taking a weekend to go to watershed festival so we will have a kidless weekend to ourselves enjoying great music. There is so much more that we plan on doing and we will keep posting all of our adventures.

 



 

 

 





Turkey hunting

Kristin and i took off up to 4th of July pass looking around for some turkeys and mushrooms. Is good to get out and about get back up into the country we had been in a long time. We got high enough into the mountains we had to use four wheel drive to get through some snow on the road.

We made several attempts stopping looking for mushrooms but kept striking out. We decided to continue down the road a ways  and we're just hitting that point where we're deciding it's time to turn back around.

We both had long forgotten about turkeys figuring where to high and had a big surprise when we came around the corner and spotted four turkeys in the middle of the saddle.  A good size tom was standing  strutting with his three hens. 

When the initial shock wore off of seeing a nice Tom at the elevation in the mountains I decided it's time to get out and shoot him.

I got out of the truck grab the gun loaded it up  and ever so stealthily snuck through the brush toward the turkeys. As I approached I noticed all three turkeys walking directly toward me about 15 yards away through the brush. I took up my position as all three of them looked right at me and turned around walking slowly away.

I  raised up my shotgun putting the bead right on the toms neck the only problem was the other hand or directly behind them. Ihad to wait for the hens to keep walking away and down to the right it seems like it seemed like it took them 20 minutes to move away from the Tom. 

Finally the tom was all alone as able to take the shot.  Mr Tom went down and is now going to be on the wall and in our freezer.