Father's Day Saturday

We got together as a family on Saturday night for Father’s Day.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy, followed by my favorite delicious chocolate Bundt cake and/or strawberry pie. I had both. I love this time of year for strawberry pie, but this chocolate cake is irresistible ( and it could be held totally responsible for the extra five pounds that I just can’t get to go away!)

                                                                                          

As everyone was talking after dinner, Hunter Man began to tell about the event that has become known as “THE EIGHT MINUTE ELK HUNT”.  One year, he was elated to find out that he had drawn a Limited Entry Big Honkin’ Bull Elk Tag for the fall.  This hunt was his opportunity to hunt for the biggest elk of his life and he proceeded to get ready for that hunt for the next six months.

It was very important to him to be ready to recognize a gigantic bull elk when he saw one.  His study material consisted of numerous DVD’s about elk and he watched one EVERY SINGLE NIGHT right before we went to bed.  He was going to make sure that he knew how long the front tines, the back tines, and the whole rack of antlers should be.

I absolutely did not love going to bed and finding him already there with the elk video playing. After a week or so of this happening, I started avoiding going to bed until the video was almost over.  Sometimes that didn’t work.  If I hadn’t come to bed yet, he would start another episode!

So, at our Father's Day party when Jer and Hunter Man were recounting the events of the elk hunt, I interjected that my (least) favorite memory of that elk hunt was the fact that Hunter Man watched “Elk Porn” every night before he went to bed right up until the elk hunt. Everyone laughed when they heard me call it Elk Porn.  (I can joke about it now).

The reason that it was called the Eight Minute Elk Hunt is that Hunter Man got so excited to see this elk just a few minutes after he started hunting—and he was sure that it was a BIG, BIG one—that he shot it first thing in the morning on the first day of the hunt!  Jer was recording the whole thing so when we watched the video of it later, we all witnessed Hunter Man walking up to that elk and being fairly disappointed that it wasn’t as big as he thought it was. 

I gave this picture to
Hunter Man one year and
told him that it was of
his 2 favorite things--me
and his elk!

When he came home from that hunt and I saw this huge elk in the trailer, I was so happy for him.  I didn’t even realize that it wasn’t as big as it was supposed to be.  I am HAPPY that he didn’t get a bigger elk.  Right now, with our standard-sized ceilings, the elk mount is hanging on a nail about 2 ½ feet off the floor and the top of its antlers is about 1 inch away from the ceiling. If it was any bigger, it would be sitting on the floor!

Our son-in-law, Mark acted quite interested in the hunting stories, so Hunter Man decided to show him the DVD of his life’s hunting pictures that I made for him quite a while ago for another Father’s day gift. It was fun to see it again and he enjoyed explaining who was in each picture. 

The timing of showing that DVD was perfect.  It had A LOT of pictures of Hunter Man’s Dad in it. His dad has been gone for about 15 ½ years now and we all wish he could have been here, sharing in all of the things that have happened since he died--from Jer getting married and becoming an electrician --to Ty growing up—to Kj getting married and graduating from college--to his two great-grandsons being born.

At Christmas, we visited Hunter Man’s grandpa, who was almost 104 at the time.  We always take a lot of pictures when we visit him, and Tass had taken a picture of Bridge, Jer, Hunter, Man, and Grandpa together.  It would have been a perfect Five generation picture, if Hunter Man’s dad had been here.  Tass really wanted to crop a picture of him into it and give it as a gift to Jer.  She worked very, very hard on it and finally got it ready for Father’s Day. 

When she presented an awesome black and white version of this picture to Jer and Hunter Man after all of the Father’s Day gifts had been given, Jer was speechless and choked up about receiving such a meaningful gift.  Hunter Man teared up at seeing his Dad in a picture with him after all this time.

Bridge thought it was a birthday party and started singing “Happy Birthday to You”.  When we told him it wasn’t anybody’s birthday, but it was Father’s Day and that his Daddy, Papa, and Mark were getting presents because they are all fathers, he changed his tune and proceeded to circulate around to every single one of us about 5 times each saying “Happy Faths Day!”  It was so cute!

Bridge had also been so patient with having to stay inside for the party that when I said we could finally go outside to blow bubbles, he quickly ran to the kitchen and climbed up on the counter to get them.  Then, blowing bubbles evolved into playing with the hose.  Hunter Man kept turning the water on and off.  Bridge laughed as the water sprayed him.  He kept saying, "Turn water on, Papa."   

Sitting outside all together, watching Bridge play, was a nice way to end the day. 

 

(By the way Strawberry Pie is soooo easy to make.  You buy a pre-made pie shell and bake it.  Then, slice a quart of strawberries.  And you also buy a tub of red strawberry gel stuff that is sold in the produce section when strawberries are in season.  (If you can’t find this, you can get another mixture called Danish Dessert in the Jello section and make your own red gel stuff).  Mix the strawberries with the gel, spread in the pie crust and chill in the refrigerator.  Top each slice with a dollop of Cool Whip.  EASY and delicious!)