Our archery hunt this year turned into one wild and crazy camping party, which I LOVED!!! In the planning stages it started out with our normal hunting group of 3 families, but as we got closer 3 families quickly turned into 7 families. It was awesome! Now granted only 5 out of the 14 adults who came actually hunted, but I think everyone had a great time whether they hunted or just camped.
This was our first year of using our new 14X16 canvas wall tent, with carpet flooring; and as far as camping goes, I definitely felt pampered! It was very spacious and comfortable. It gets really hot in the afternoon where we camp with temperatures reaching the high 80's so every afternoon our routine consisted of sun bathing in the creek, followed by a trip down the road for ice cream. That's 5 days straight of ice cream for lunch, oh yeah!
So I guess the good news is, I shot a buck and filled my tag, which is what I hoped would happen, but this time around my experience was much more emotionally charged than my first. After shooting 3 arrows and missing 3 times, I came upon this spike and let my arrow fly. I knew I'd hit him, but I didn't see where before he took off. As with almost any shot you need to wait a considerable amount of time before you follow the blood trail which will lead you to your deer. Well unfortunately, it was getting dark so we had to leave him and come back in the morning to find him, which is the right thing to do. The following morning we went back and found him quickly, but I was not at all happy with my shot. As it turns out I hit him on his side near his butt which pierced a major artery, but it wasn't as quick and as clean as I would have liked and so I cried for about an hour afterwards just because I felt SO awful. In fact, in the picture below that is a fake smile on my face, all I wanted to do was cry! It took a good portion of the day, with lots of positive comments from other hunters, to bring me around. Like I said, this was a WAY different experience then my text book success I had my first time. 
Despite the fact that I struggled emotionally with the hunt, I had an absolutely wonderful time otherwise! It was truly a great finale to a great summer. I loved being with my own family and I loved laughing and spending time with our friends! We played hard, we ate well, and both Spencer and I brought home some meat for our freezer!
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