Labor Day weekend

A hunting we did go in Island Park over Labor Day weekend. Rebekah and Seth went hunting that week and during another week later on in the month. The rest of the family came up for the holiday weekend to enjoy time in nature. We drove up on Friday evening (Rebekah drove up later after her Friday evening temple shift) and came home Monday after lunch. 

One noteworthy anecdote: When it came time to drive home Monday, we planned on loading up the back of the truck with our stuff and driving both the truck and the van back. We figured we'd have plenty of room for six people, a dog and all the necessities we had brought up in the trailer. (The trailer was staying at camp so Seth and Rebekah could stay there later in the month.)

We started getting ready when Seth discovered that he had accidentally locked the keys to the truck in the cab. All the doors were definitely locked. He searched the undercarriage of the truck for the extra key in a magnetic box, but there was none to be found. (We're not sure if the truck never had one or if the bumpy forest roads had knocked it off.) We were despairing and wondered how we'd fit everything into the van when Seth remembered that he had brought up a new key fob to camp to try and get it to work with the truck. (The old fob had previously broken.) As he opened up the fob, a little piece went flying onto the forest ground. We searched and searched for it, but to no avail.

Then we had to try and find a battery that would work in the fob. Did we even have one like that at camp? Actually, we had three: one in each of the three tuners I had in my ukulele case. Seth wasn't sure which way the battery went into the fob. We were missing the little piece that needed to be there to make contact with the battery and make the buttons work. So we got a little piece of aluminum foil and Seth carefully made the contact and tried each of the batteries oriented both ways in the new fob to see if we could get the truck door to open.

After several tries, we finally had success and breathed a huge sigh of relief. (Seth had two extra copies of the truck key made after we got home.)

Our only other alternative that we could conceive before that was for us to all drive home in the van and send an extra key from home up with Dennis and Susan when they returned to camp the next week. When we got home, Seth found that we no longer had that extra key. So it's a good thing we didn't have to rely on that.

It was our own little forest miracle, and we were grateful things turned out that way.

Seth while on the hunt.

The bear tracks Andrea saw while hiking in Harriman State Park. No one else wanted to come with her, so I hiked alone. After spotting the tracks, I turned some music on so I wouldn't startle any wildlife.

Dennis, Uncle Kent, Rebekah and Seth hunting. The rest of Kent's family had been visiting earlier, but they left in time for school to start back home in Virginia.

Andrea at the top of the Ridge Loop at Harriman.

Rebekah whispering a secret to Ana while Miriam stands in the background.

Rebekah next to the elk skeleton she had previously dubbed Ricardo. 

Winnie surrounded by hungry dogs at camp. There were a ridiculous number of dogs at camp. We brought one of them. And ours was the (ahem) best behaved.

Winnie with the scrapes she got while walking on a fallen tree and slipping.

Miriam reading with Kent's dog Teddy on her lap.

Rebekah at the campfire.

A family session of Dungeons and Dragons. We had previously attended church and came back to relax.

Some of our visitors during the big Dutch oven dinner on Sunday. Grandma Scott, Grandpa Scott and Grandma Hendricks all came up.

Rebekah giving Peach some love under the trailer.

The wildflowers Winnie picked for me in the forest.

Seth on the hunt.

The barrel strapped to a tree that Winnie found in the forest. She was too scared to approach it by herself, so I later accompanied her to it so I could check it out. It was empty.