Tradition!

My family is big on tradition. We eat the same thing every 24th of July (Fishing Fiestas). We say the same words every Memorial Day ("Now who does this baby belong to?"). We all sing "Happy Birthday" at different tempos and in our worst voices. (We can make babies cry!) One of our big traditions is the Deer Hunt. The tradition of the deer hunt began when my Grandpa Noble was a young man. He and his friend (Mr Fisher) went to an area called Willow Creek (pronounced "Crik") down near Gunnison and Salina. As they continued hunting this area they named the landmarks (The Dry Lake, the Gammon Rock, Jack's Flat, etc.). After a while Grandpa and Mr Fisher both got married, had families, and continued to go to Willow Creek to hunt.

Grandpa Noble and Grandma Julie have been gone since 1995, but the Deer Hunt lives on. No one hunts anymore, but none of us would ever dream of missing the Deer Hunt. We have to do the EXACT things that Grandpa Noble did, such as:

* Arrange all the trailers and motor homes in a circle (picture circling the wagon train),

* Rake all the stickers from the ground from inside the camp circle,

* Lay down canvas tarps (who still has canvas tarps - aren't they all that blue plastic stuff?) inside the camp circle so the dust doesn't get kicked up,

* Dig a hole for the outhouse. (Everyone has bathrooms in their trailers but remember, it's TRADITION!),

* Talk about those old landmarks and how they appear this year,

* Try to remember where we hid the fire grate from the previous year.

Those are just a FEW of the things that we need to do to complete the deer hunt experience. (Does it sound like the entire family is a little obsessive-compulsive? We are.) We have added things over the years such as 4-wheelers, paint ball guns and occasionally a craft or two (for a few of us). We have always had snacks but now we have reached the ridiculous stage. We had 24 people in our group and we had one ENTIRE church banquet table plus the half-size banquet table FILLED with candy, popcorn balls, candy, cheese and crackers, candy, cookies, and anything else you can think of. It was as if I had died and gone to heaven!

Each night we all sit around the fire and talk about farting. This year I shared with some of my younger boy cousins (ages 10 & 12) how cool my scrapping friends were because we've been involved with "blue darts". That really moved me up on the coolness ladder!

Here's some pictures of the traditional deer hunt (if you want to use it as a pattern for planning your own outing):

The king and queen of the camp - my Mom and Dad


Here I am with FOS (why does he always make the stupid face when we are getting our pictures taken?)


The picture below is me sitting on the toilet in the outhouse tent ... You didn't believe me, did you?

Since I don't have a trailer, this was my campsite. Every evening after the fire we would drive a few minutes to Salina and our "camp". Imagine having a hot shower whenever I wanted on! Hee hee hee ...

The Deer Hunt - It's the same every year. Life doesn't get much better than this!