Fun in the White Mountians

To make the 4th of July weekend fun for everyone we also did other things besides just the archery shoot. Kiersten, Rieley, Logan and myself drove into Round Valley to watch the fireworks. The other guys were finishing up a round of shooting. I love fireworks! And Rieley made it fun............we almost got attached by a hill of ants since that's where Rieley placed our blanket, he tried to climb a telephone pole, we jammed music as we waited for the show to begin and made some funny memories as we tried to climb over the bobbed wired fencing..........crazy fun!

Kiersten and Rieley were just besides themselves when they saw that we were camping right across the street from a horse riding place. They talking me into letting them take a ride, after I got the okay from Justin of course. They both loved checking out all the horses as we waited for their ride time to get here. Rieley said he wants to have a ranch some day. It is always fun to hear peoples dreams! Rieley's first horse they placed him on wasn't very tall so they decided to switch him to another horse. Kiersten was so happy to get to ride! She does like riding horses even after she's had two experiences where some of Grammy Cluff's horses took off running with her on, because they got spooked with cars coming by them. I told her it's a lot different with horses that are actually ridden frequently, unlike Grammies! Much better with a tall horse.........Rieley could almost touch the ground on the other one! So happy!

They went on an hour and a half ride through the thick pines. They said it was awesome! They saw tee pees and lots of deer.

It started to rain while they were out and I was worried that it might make their ride not enjoyable but I guess with the tree coverage they were pretty protected.

The Indian guy that works at the riding stables was so nice and gave Hunter a "real" bow and arrow he had made from wood himself. It just made Hunter's weekend! It was so nice of that guy to give him a bow and an arrow........pretty cool!

Here we are in our 4th of July duds!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July because we sure did!

I think I could easily do this again next year!

We also took a nice little drive into our favorite little town, Greer. We had heard with all the fires up here that it had sustained a lot of damage. We were so happy to see that that was a bad rumor because Greer is still green and beautiful! You could see the burn line up on the top ridges surrounding Greer but no structures were damaged thank goodness!

When we were heading home on Monday we decided to stop in Lakeside and have some family fun. I would LOVE, LOVE to have a vacation home in this area! Hopefully someday!

It was a down pour shortly after we got to the Family Fun Center but that didn't stop our kids!

They had fun racing in the heavy rain!

The boys were loving it!

Mr. Grant wanted so badly to be out there racing cars as well but we took cover with the camera.

Nice way to celebrate the 4th huh?

We also played arcade games.

Always love a good race car game.

Kiersten just as cute as ever. She was a little cold after getting SOAKED on the race cars.

Hunter is all about the tickets at places like this. He almost can't enjoy himself because he focuses on getting tickets.

Happy Good Looking Guys

I am so glad they are mine!

I was so good this year and didn't buy new 4th of July outfits. We just went with last years stuff that I had bought big.....still looking cute as ever!

They had a free barbecue which was nice!

We played some goofy golf but man was Mr. Grant not a happy camper! All he wanted was to hold the golf balls. So he would run after the kids balls each time they hit one.

The older kids just had a ball.

Strikin' a pose!

Mr. Grant was finally happy once we got him his OWN GOLF BALL!!!

It warmed up quickly, just a nice mountain rain, short and sweet!

Justin had to have his turn on the big boy race cars! Actually I had to talk him into it, but he had a fun time once he was out there. He even thanked me for talking him into it............silly guy!

Put his hat on backwards and everything. The kids loved watching their daddy race. They kept cheering for him and saying, "Our Dad is Winning!"

It was a fun time and a great way to end our 4th of July trip!

Hunter's 1st Archery Shoot

I think this might be our new 4th of July Tradition.......

Every 4th of July there is a large archery shoot up in the White Mountains at Sunrise Ski Resort.

This was Hunter's very first archery shoot and boy was he excited!!! He has been taking archery lessons for several months now and is loving it!

His teachers just love him..........the lady teacher told me that "Hunter is her favorite and that she'd take him home in a heartbeat!" She went on to say how well behaved he is and that he is the best listener out of the group. It's always nice to hear comments like this as a parent!

We talked Uncle Quincy into coming with us, since he is an experienced shooter. Him, Jeff and my dad were really in to archery when I was growing up. I remember going with them as a family to their many archery shoots. Since this was his first shoot, Quincy and Justin decided to have him just do it for fun, instead of entering the competition part. Plus by just doing it for fun you got to shoot at about 3 times as many targets. So Hunter was excited about that........he didn't care either way! And since we were on the just for fun course, even Logan and Kiersten could have a turn shooting at the targets. All the targets were 3D which the kids all loved!

Kiersten enjoyed shooting, but I think she's sticking with dance and gymnastics. Plus I reminded her she doesn't have time to take the archery lessons.........she's a busy girls already!

Hunter got this one right in the foot.

Don't they look great in their CKC orange hoodies! No one will shoot them on accident, you can see them a mile away and that's why we wore them!

Kiersten was very proud of her neck shot.

I have to say that both Logan and Kiersten shot from a lot closer up then Hunter did. He had a little bit of a hard time with this because sometimes they shot it when he didn't. So a couple of time Kiersten and Logan stayed back at camp with Mr. Grant and I to give Hunter some individual time with Uncle Quincy and dad!

Hunter shot this one in the Kill Zone..........way to go Bud!

Shooting down hill at a lion. It was fun to get to shoot at so many different animal targets.

Rieley drove up with Kiersten, Mr. Grant and myself on Saturday morning. The other boys left Friday early so they could get up there and start shooting. Kiersten wanted to stay and go to the swim meet that was on Friday night. That was the main reason we didn't go up at the same time! So much going on I tell ya!

Now that is one happy kid!

This was a great shoot!

You got to ride the ski lift up and walk down while shooting at all the targets. It was just breath taking! And I mean both the ski lift ride up and surprisingly the walk down............LOL!

Mr. Grant loved the ride up. And since he got carried down for about 80% of the walk down I'd say he loved that as well.

Mr. Grant through this pose in there..........so cute!

The whole family enjoyed the archery shoot!It was nice and cool. It was great to get a workout in while having fun!

However, being our first archery shoot our kids weren't use to the rule of being quiet because there were usually people ahead of you shooting. It will take some getting use to. Typically when we go camping the kids can be as loud as they want...........but by the end of the weekend they were catching on to the unwritten rule!

It was great exposure for Hunter..........he had to shoot up hill, down hill, through trees, around rocks, you name it! This is Hunter shooting up hill at a deer!

Quincy was nice to give advice to not only Hunter, but to the other kids as well. It was good to have him their since neither Justin nor myself know anything about archery............yet. Looks like we might need to learn at least the basics because I see a lot more archery shoots in our future!

See the bear through that small space in the trees.........that's what he's aiming for.

Rieley was great to help with Mr. Grant!

Logan felt like such a big boy getting to shoot with his older brother!

Isn't Rieley one handsome guy!

Loved, loved having him here this summer!

Yes he has character.........

He is such a funny guy!

They caught a pheasant and man was it's momma mad. She was squawking and screaming like crazy. I was afraid we were going to get attached.

Hunter of course wanted to keep it and bring it home to give to Kendall, since they have hundreds of birds he thought they needed one more.

What beautiful scenery to be walking through! It was so nice!

Mr. Grant had it easy.........he spent a lot of his time being carried by his daddy! What a nice daddy he has!

You can see in these next two pictures that Hunter had to shoot 2-3 times farther away then Logan or Kiersten. He needed to get use to where he would have to stand if he was doing the competition part.

Yeah Logan is much closer, but there is no way Logan or Kiersten, for that matter, could hit it if they stood where Hunter was. I told Hunter he needed to be proud he could hit things from farther back.

The boys both hit this cheetah. Kiersten looks mad in this picture but actually she is just staring off.

Rieley being the monkey that his is. He fit right in with our monkeys!

See what you started Rieley!

Logan was so so excited to shoot this deer right in the neck.

It was a great first archery shoot! Great job Hunter!