First Annual Hunting Trip

My tough man, Mike, decided he wanted to literally "bring home the bacon" this year and go hunting for some lean, healthy elk meat.  We're all way excited Tyler helped him shoot his first animal ever (unless you count the hummingbird he shot back in the day with his BB gun).

I have to add a small caption here: yes, this is a cow elk.  Yes, he shot a mama elk.  This wasn't by accident, I promise.  He got a special permit tag.  Everyone who sees the picture seems to need this explanation, and I believe half of them are still tempted to turn him in even after my explanation.

Here is Mike explaining to Michael the intricacies of life by showing him an elk heart, the size of a football.  Yes Michael, this is where our food comes from.  For the next year, we will be eating 300 lb (-ish?) of elk meat fortified by this very heart.

I hope it's okay to tell this little side story.  You can tell from the picture that Michael is totally squirmish.  He enjoyed the hunt, but totally didn't want to be around when Mike cleaned the elk out.  When Michael was telling Adelyn about how it went, I heard him telling her that he totally helped gut the whole thing.  I thought it was so cute that he wanted to appear so tough.

And at this very moment, this chukar bird is sitting in our refrigerater waiting to be cooked.  Mike is convinced he should be shooting any meat that our family eats.