2012 LABOR DAY!

And in Texas, opening weekend for Dove Season.  Yes, Jackson went on his first Dove hunt.  We were invited to a beautiful ranch in Goldthwaite that was covered in huge 100 year old live oaks.  Our friend Eddie from the River invited us and off we went.

Loaded up the Fun Mobile and headed West.  As soon as we got there, Tony off-loaded the Kawasaki Mule and to our surprise the cattle came running.  The rancher who runs the cattle on the land, feeds them from a Mule, so the sound is like ringing the dinner bell.

As soon as Jackson saw all the cows, he asked:  "Momma, are we in the West?"

It was a blast and sorry, every device I owned had a dead battery, so no pictures, but did we have fun.  The Mule finally got to do what it is supposed to do - go 4 WHEELING!  We went through some pretty tough terrain and Jackson and I woohooed the whole time.  This is during the day, by the way, when the doves were not flying.

Eddie has a deer feeder so we checked on that and downloaded the pictures from his game camera.  396 pictures of deer in three weeks (well, that includes 1 cow and a hog).  He is going to have a great deer season.

The camp was a blast with 5 other campers who all have hunting leases on the camp.  One trailer had 7 year old Megan complete with her pink BB gun and pink camo T-shirts.  Jackson and Megan stayed pretty busy building forts and just playing around.  I do have to admit, the first Deer camp I have ever seen where women and children are welcome.  That may change during actual Deer season, but bird season, they appreciate the groceries.

During morning and evening dusk, the kids stayed with me at camp.  Jackson is still too little to understand the need for stealth (I sure hope he doesn't have my stealth gene or Tony will be very disappointed).  We went searching for a pet turtle to take home,  but had no luck.  Then the hunters came back and we shot clay pigeons and Tony's 9mm pistol.  I think I hit the target once - so it's a good thing my family is not dependent on my shooting skills for groceries.  I could hit a bad guy, though so watch out.

We also bought Tony a new Jeep on Friday to replace the Expedition.  We have loved the Expedition, but it just gets crappy mileage and it has over 200,000 miles on it.  Still runs like a champ though.

Tony's new Jeep is an 08 Limited Grand Cherokee - fully loaded with the Mercedes Diesel engine.  It has the coolest bells and whistles with navigation, 40GB hard drive to load all your music, built in inverter to plug in regular stuff, heated seats front and back - the list goes on.  Mileage was low and it is a beautiful truck.  It will take some getting used to as far as traveling with all of our stuff and the dogs as it is smaller than the Expedition, but I think we will love it.

Now, I have hunting fever, so I am hopeful for another invite back.  Pretty sure we will go again, I am an excellent Camp Cook!

We did have some antics at the River this weekend!  Funniest thing was the "I heart Obama" sign in Matthew's yard (who is not an Obama fan to say the least).

And this is a bit backwards, but this is Jackson Friday nite after his first week of Kindergarten in our bed at the River house.  He usually doesn't have a bedtime out there and this is about 9:15 - pretty early for a weekend.

and last but not least, a picture of George - cooling himself.