Hunting and a fire

After Christmas, we headed over to west Florida to visit my family.  Every time we go, it makes me wish we could go more often.  The kids always have the best time.

Dallin had an especially awesome visit.  He got to go hunting with my brother David and niece Melanie.  Not even an hour after they headed out, they spotted a deer and David shot it.  Dallin was very good luck for my brother!

After they killed the deer, they had to come out of the woods to clean it and remove the meat.  While we waited for them to come out of the forest, we looked at the turkeys,

and fed the horses some apples.

And then we got to see the deer.  Layton and Mandy were fascinated and were even brave enough to go up and touch it.

While David cleaned the deer, we just goofed off for a bit.

David got the deer skinned and then removed the best cuts of meat.  Here he is taking off the backstrap.  He gave us some of it and we added it to our New Years meal.

After the excitement of the day, we met up with the rest of the family at White Springs,

for dinner and little fire.  My brother Cliff never does things in a small way.  He lit that fire up with a propane torch.  Now that’s the way to light a fire!!!

It was a great evening!

After it was over, Dallin got to go home with Cliff and Chelsey to spend the night for more hunting in the morning.  Dallin’s favorite part of the sleepover – getting to sleep with the dog.  Elmo the dog became his very best friend!  Although he did say the Elmo snores just a bit.