My Elk Hunt.

Aaron and I dropped the kids off with Grandpa and Grandma Hee Hee this last Friday and took off for the mountains in hopes of coming home with a cow Elk. This was my tag, which meant one thing- this was my hunt! I was excited, nervous, sad... a lot of things. Aaron and I rode the horses into camp Friday night. We set up camp, hung out, ate dinner, and went to bed. It was soooooo quiet. It was beautiful, amazing, and.... even more AMAZING than that! I love my kids, but the time that I was able to spend with Aaron out there was super fabulous! I couldn't believe how well he knew the mountains out there. It was like it was his own backyard. He is amazing. He is so fun to watch out there and his hunting quirks were the freaking cutest thing that I have ever seen. I love what he does when he smells elk. He does this hand gesture by his nose and I love watching him as he is getting the horses ready. He is seriously such a cool Husband. Saturday morning came early and we jumped out of our sleeping bags and headed out on the horses on my hunt. We were passing the first creek and I wasn't paying attention... because it was so beautiful... and the horse sort of JUMPED over the creek and I got some whip lash. I wasn't excited about starting out like that, but I kept it to myself for a while, hoping that I could just ignore that it even ever happened. Eventually I told Aaron and he taught me a bit more about commands. It has been a longggg time since I've been on a horse, away from my kids.... or doing anything of the sorts. We went everywhere in those mountains and I could tell that Aaron was getting a bit frustrated. He kept saying, "where are all the elk?" He questioned his strategy and everything else, but sooner than later--- he spotted our first Cow. I found her in my scope and had my finger on the trigger, but her but was facing me, so I was waiting for her to turn. She turned just a hair and I was sure that I could shoot her, but Aaron insisted that I waited for her to turn even more. She was about 300 yards away or more, so it was kind of important to have a good shot. The gun got heavy and I pulled it down to rest. Of course as I pulled it down, she turned and went behind a tree... I was extremely bummed. So we went after her and we heard a few of them take off. Aaron thought if we could run them into an open area, we could shoot one. So we tied up the horses and hiked in there. Great idea! Butttt....  unfortunately, we never did find them again. So we got back on the horses and went everywhere! I just followed Aaron on his horse. It was beautiful. I was so happy to just be out there with him. I wasn't to frustrated at this point about not seeing any more elk. We called home and told them that if we were to get one at that point that we would need to stay Saturday night too. We ate and took a small nap, curled up by one another in the mountains--- then we were off. Eventually we found ourselves above the burn, looking down from the top of canal ridge. The buck brush was thick and we were looking for any movement! We sat up there for a while and then headed South. As we did, we looked across the valley and noticed elk... clear on the other side, up the ridge and quite a ways to the North. I suggested that maybe we find some different elk and Aaron hated to pass them up. He thought that if were over there, that we would probably be seeing Elk on the side that we were on... so we made a plan to head towards those elk, hoping to find a different herd along the way. We didn't get far before Aaron spotted another herd on the North side of Canal Ridge, so we went down to the East side of the ridge and tied off the horses and hiked back up to the ridge. They were just over the edge into the burn. I spotted many cows in my scope and picked one. I was so nervous and when I shot, I missed. They started walking to the North and so we went up a little further and I again spotted many cows in my scope, so I picked one and shot... missed, shot again... missed. I looked at Aaron and said, "I am sucking it up!" You should shoot it! He took the gun from me and looked through the scope and handed it back over to me and says, okay YOU shoot it! I aim again, take a breath... and I GOT HER! Aaron says, "You got her!" I say, "I did?" and immediately begin to cry. After waiting for a bit. I looked up to see that the cow finally tipped over. Her legs were stiff in the air and she rolled. I watched as her baby just sat there mourning the loss of his/her Mother. I thought of Bambi and literally felt terrible. Aaron told me it was okay to feel sad and that even he still feels that way. I felt better. We went and got the horses and brought them up by the Elk. We called and texted home, said a little prayer of gratitude... and began to harvest the meet. Aaron, again... amazes me how well he can do this. He had to finish it up with a head lamp. I helped hold legs, roll her over, etc... but he truly did all the hard work. We loaded up the sacks of meet onto the horse and we were off to camp.. in the dark. I was so grateful Aaron knew his way. We got home, hung everything up, ate dinner, fed and watered the horses, and then headed to bed. We had some very cold weather come in and figured it was going to be a cold morning. So the next morning we loaded all of our stuff up and headed out. It was hard to come through the last section of mountains, knowing that our hunt was over. It seemed to go by so quickly. Yet I missed the noises of my kids and their giggles, and believe it or not... even their whines. I love you Aaron and had such a blast with you in those mountains, on that hunt. I will remember it forever. Thank you for all that you do and for letting me enjoy something that you are so passionate about. *I should add that Aaron already cooked up some of my elk and it was DELICIOUS! Sooo yummy. We are going to can the rest of the elk this week and I look forward to being able to make many meals with it. We have been blessed.