Annual Spring Hunt 2010

Sunday May 2nd we left the house at 10:30am for our annual spring turkey hunt/camping vacation trip. If you remember that far back it was really hot that day, I think it actually got up to 90! So all of us were in tank tops and shorts and complaining about sweating so much (which we laughed about later). We had a coupon for IHOP restaurant and Ricky had really been wanting to eat there for a while because of their Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes so we stopped after a whole 30 minutes of driving and put our name on the list to be seated. They originally told us we would have to wait 20-25 minutes so we went outside for a while to wait since there were no seats in the restaurant. Chase and Joanna have been into wrestling lately and were having fun playing in the grass together.





(the only good smiling picture of Joanna, ever)
We actually ended up waiting an hour for a table and then 1/2 an hour for our food which we were not very happy about and I don't think we'll be going back there to eat anytime soon. We got up to our cabin at World's End State park around 3:30pm and were very excited to explore our cabin and surroundings.

The cabins are so neat at this park- there's no running water in the cabin but there were bathrooms very close that were clean and private. Each bathroom was very large with a shower, changing room, toilet, sink, washing basin and urinal. You were supposed to lock the door to the bathroom so you had the whole room to yourself which was really nice, although I usually ended up with two little urchins running around mine :)


the cabin

We loved this little covered porch area and ended up spending most of our time here in front of the fireplace. It was nice that we could be outside even when it was raining. We got quite a few scattered showers the 5 days we were here.

Sunday evening we drove up to the vista to show Ricky's parents the beautiful view from up there (they had come up to stay with us till Wednesday). The drive up there was pretty comical because there is a vicious drop off with no guardrail for quite a bit of the drive and Ricky was not being sympathetic to his mother's pleas to drive on the other side of the road. The view at the top is beautiful though.



Monday morning Ricky and his dad went out first thing in the morning and hunted until 9:00am when they came in and we had a fabulous breakfast together. Ricky and I then went out together and hunted till noon. He had a turkey coming in to his awesome calling and it was really neat. He got to a certain point and then just disappeared so Ricky never got a shot on him which was disappointing after all the work he did. I went out with him 3 times but never took a gun with me, I decided I didn't want to shoot a turkey but did want to experience what it was all about. I definitely think it is much more exciting than deer hunting cause you can move around and make turkey noises and don't have to just sit there and hope something walks by you. I probably stepped in deer poop a hundred times though and was annoyed with myself for forgetting my hiking boots and having to walk around with wet sneakers most of the time. It was so nice to be out with Ricky though. He said the method of hunting that we were doing is called "running and gunning" he would call and listen for a gobbler and then try and get closer to the bird and then call him in from there, if that wasn't working we'd circle to a different spot and call from there. Some people just set up a blind and decoys and sit all day and don't move at all. I think the method we were using works better though because that's how actual turkeys act, they don't stay in the same exact spot, turkeys are able to pinpoint were you are calling from too and can tell if you are not moving around and get suspicious. Who knew something with such a pea brain could be so wily.

Tuesday morning Ricky and I went out first thing in the morning together. I think we left the cabin at 4:45am. We were walking around the woods trying to find a good spot and we stopped at this one spot to catch our breath and I just happened to look up and said, "Ricky, look at that weird nest." He said, "that's not a nest its a porcupine!" Sure enough, this little guy was just staring at us clutching on his branch.



I wonder how they get down from there. I thought it was cool that if we hadn't just so happened to stop at that one spot we would have walked right under him and not even known it. We found a good spot and Ricky had a turkey coming in to him again and really worked at getting the bird to come in. I was sitting a little away from him and never got to see the turkey but he was so close it seemed like he was right next to us. He started putting like he wasn't going to come any closer till he saw a hen so Ricky shot at him even though he was still a little far. His shot ended up hitting a branch on the way so he missed, bummer, it was sure exciting though.

After breakfast Ricky and his dad went out together again and I took the kids to the playground at the state park which was really nice. Chase has been really into trying to use my camera lately.

Those actually aren't half bad. I think we're going to get him his own kid tough camera for his birthday.

When we got back from the park Joanna decided to crawl up on this ledge and scare her poor grandmother to death. There was about a 4 foot wall on the other side and Alma was very nervous that she was going to fall, I was keeping a close eye on her though. She has been really funny lately, quite the character. She actually slept really well the whole time we were gone and I think that's been helping improve her attitude during the day, she's been very pleasant to be around.

I think here she was singing or something.

The kids had a blast at this cabin... here Chase was "helping" put more firewood on the fire:

We went fishing a few times in the afternoons and on many many bike rides. There was a short loop around the cabin area that Chase liked to go on but needed someone to go with him every time so we all took turns biking around with him. On one of the trips I heard a bunch of crashing in the woods and glanced over and thought there was a dog running at us and then looked again and it was a deer! She was running right towards us and then zig-zagged and ran like 5 feet behind us and into the woods on the other side... so cool.

Wednesday afternoon Ricky's parents left for home and we started packing up most of our things and getting ready to leave the next day. Thursday morning we packed up and hit the road for the second part of our adventure. All ready to go:

We arrived in NY at our campsite in the afternoon and since the kids were napping in the truck we were able to set up camp pretty quickly. We're getting good at putting our tent up and I thought the site looked really nice.

Our big and wonderful tent with lots and lots of room!

It was pretty cold Thursday night and got down to 32 degrees. We all stayed warm under our nice sleeping bags though, I wasn't too thrilled about my air mattress going flat and kicked Ricky off his around 4:00am so I could sleep. He didn't get any turkeys on Friday and said the ones he heard were pretty far away. We spent most of the day trying to get our water hot so we could take showers. It took 4 hours till it was hot enough! Friday night the weather was warmer but we ended up getting a torrential downpour around midnight(none came into the tent) and lighting and thunder very close to us. I couldn't believe the kids were sleeping through it but we woke them up and sat in the truck for an hour till it passed. It rained off and on the rest of the night but was nice and warm. We had filled up the leaky air mattress and put both the kids on it to start the night and by the morning it was flat again, it was a fact that was not lost on Chase either. First thing in the morning he was explaining to us how his bed went all the way down to the ground while he was sleeping, Ricky and I were trying not to laugh too hard :)

Ricky went out hunting for a little on Saturday morning and I tried to clean up from the night before and start a fire with no success, everything was so wet and it was really windy. I ended up giving up and just sitting in the truck with my book and Chase while Joanna napped in the tent (she was tired from being up an hour the night before). As the morning progressed it got progressively windier. Ricky came in from hunting around 11:00 or 12:00 and tried to lay down with Joanna and gave up because he said he thought the tent was going to blow away with them in it. So we went over to our Mennonite friends' house and visited with them a little bit. We only got to see them for a couple hours but the kids loved seeing all the animals and playing with the kids (they have 10).

The forecast for Saturday night was cold with wind gusts up to 40mph so we decided it would be best to stay in a hotel that night.

Chase was tuckered out on the way over there:

We went out to eat for dinner and the whole town ended up losing power because of the strong winds. Thankfully we had already gotten our dinner and just ate in the dark. We went back to the hotel and were without power there for at least an hour. It was pretty funny, just like camping, no showers, TV or electric! It eventually came back on though and the kids thought it was great staying there...

Sunday morning we woke up and opened the curtains to snow! I was very glad we stayed indoors that night. We filled up as much as we could on the Continental breakfast and then went to check out our campsite.

Our site was about 30minutes north of the hotel and on the drive up we noticed quite a bit more snow the further north we went.

Here is what our camp looked like when we got back:

The roof of the tent was sagging under the weight of the snow! Ricky and I had a snowball fight which he won, of course, he couldn't even let me win on Mother's Day ;) then we got to work cleaning up and taking down the campsite. The forecast for Sunday evening was pretty much supposed to be the same but colder, low of 25! So we decided it was time to pack up and head for home. I think we got home around 5:00pm and unloaded some things before calling it a day, our big luxurious bed sure felt good, as did the nice hot shower!

Monday, we were still technically on vacation so Ricky went hunting and the kids and I just took it easy. Ricky called me on his way home from hunting and said he was tired of chasing turkeys and that we were going to the zoo on Tuesday. That was fine with me!

Tuesday morning we drove over to Hershey, PA and went to Zoo America first. It's a small little zoo with all animals from North America.

The wolves were just pacing back and forth along the fence.

We also got to see elk, buffalo, mountain lions, lynxs, and lots of other stuff. They even had a pen with deer and turkeys so we got to see turkey right up close and remember what they looked like. The kids loved the zoo, Joanna was just running around shrieking and yelling with joy.

After that we went over to Chocolate World. You get to ride on these little boats and take a tour of the "factory". Basically its just a bunch of subliminal advertising mumbo jumbo but the kids enjoyed it.

After the little ride is over it spits you out right into the huge chocolate shop. I'm not going to say we didn't buy any candy but we definitely didn't buy the worlds largest hershey's bar for $40. A whole 5 pounds! I was wondering how long it would take a family of 4 to eat through this thing.

The pictures of the kids holding this thing crack me up. It looks like the both have their tongue's out ready to break into that thing :)

Tuesday afternoon I was able to go get a much needed haircut. The last time I had a haircut, I wasn't pregnant. I just started into my 5th month and here is my picture to prove it:

Apparantly the baby is the size of a mango :P In about a week we go for the U/S, I'm so excited.

Wednesday it was back to life and back to reality for us, Ricky and I both had to work. Well it was fun while it lasted, can't wait till next year :)