Squirrel Huntin' 2012

We spent last Saturday out in the woods on a hunt for squirrels.  On our way we chanted "We're goin' on a squirrel hunt! We're gonna catch a big one! I'm not afraid, are you? Look, It's a river! Can't go over it, can't go under it, we've gotta got through it!" It all worked great with our substitute animal until we were sneaking in the cave & had to say, Oh nooooo, a squirrel! It just wasn't the same effect as a big scary bear. Anyhow, it was good for a laugh & something to keep a toddler occupied on the car ride.

We are deeming this a Valentine tradition during small game season now that we have done it two years in a row.  Check out last years post here.  Once again, we did not even see ONE SQUIRREL! I said it last year & agree with myself, I think that was a good thing for Charlotte to not have to see her Daddy kill & skin a squirrel at 2 years old. Maybe she will be ready next year ; )

A few differences for Squirrel Huntin' 2012; 2 little girls in tow, Bella Bella blue dog joined us & we actually fired off a few shots.

Warning, many pictures to follow.....I couldn't help myself!

Charlotte did a lot of waving her arms while walking through tall grass.

the beautiful Blue Belle

I was wondering how Char would be out in the "wild."  Sometimes she is clingy when she is unsure of her surroundings but on this day, she was beyond confident & we saw a lot of this....

As she ran through the bush all on her own, I chased behind her with a baby strapped to me. SO FUN ; )

 We also saw a lot of this....

She was all smiles all day! She LOVES the great outdoors!

We drove in through the bumpy terrain praying that Old Beller wouldn't croak in her kennel. She has a tendency to hyperventilate while riding in a vehicle unless heavily drugged with Benadryl : ) She was still alive when we arrived at our first stop. We hopped out & headed down a path that led to this beautiful bit of water.

We were in & out of the truck as we went from game trail to game trail. Eloise even got to do some driving! Not really but she got to pretend!

oooo that grin!

After some squirrel lookin', we headed over to Billy Lake (isn't that the best name for a lake? haha!).  We ate our lunch in the back of the truck & then enjoyed the view.

It was definitely fun to have a 2 1/2 year old instead of a 1 1/2 year old this time around.  Char was not quite as steady on her feet last year and was worn out so much more quickly. This year she ran full speed the whole time yelling "I wanna go squel huntin!" We woud tell her that we were "squel" huntin' & she would say "NO! I wanna go squel huntin!" She walked along the path yelling "Squels! Whe ah you? You in hay? No" onto the next bush "in hay?" She was covered in dirt from head to toe and she soaked her shoes & pant legs about an hour into our trip by jumping in a puddle.  I love that she likes to get dirty!

We felt like we should at least fire the gun off since we were huntin' & all. Rob found a water bottle & put it on one of the many palm trees ( I know, palm trees in the woods? That's Florida for you!). Rob let Charlotte take a look at his gun & then she stood by me while he shot at the bottle.  He put a hole right through it! We SO could have had some squirrel stew had we seen a little furry friend!

I also took a couple shots...and missed : ( I used to be a fairly good shot when we lived in Dallas. I guess that was only with a pistol though which was just a tiny bit different than this one ; )

Cousin Karis let us borrow her off-roading stroller.  It was awesome for when this tired mama couldn't haul miss chunky monkey around in the Ergo for another minute! She smiled as we bumped along.

 And our award winning red neck picture of the day.....drum roll please.....

Going potty in the back of the truck next to Old Beller with her honor roll bumper sticker : )

Thanks to that dog kennel, we had a place to set the camera that was out of reach of some dangerous hands while it took our picture.

These two have a good time together.  Her legs did get a little tired toward the end & she opted for a ride on her favorite shoulders.

So, with the lack of squirrels around, we got to laughing saying that if we ran over a squirrel while driving that it would really tick Rob off. Turns out, when we were leaving the land we found out that a kid that had been there earlier in the morning had left with 12 squirrels! What the heck? We didn't even see ONE up in a tree or anything! Robby said that he bet that guy didn't bring his entourage of women with him though ; ) I am pretty certain that he didn't have as much fun as we did!

Looking forward to next year's trip....3rd time's the charm right?