Tarbet Family Christmas Party

  We had our Tarbet Family Christmas Party and got to see everyone!  We got to enjoy dinner and of coarse open presents and stockings from Grandpa and Grandma Tarbet!  Sally made each of her kids quilts this year for their gifts, she has made each of the grandkids quilts for their 8th birthdays and now she has made each of her kids one too!

So much time and work goes into each of these!

Hysell Family Christmas Party

   We had our Hysell family Christmas party and got to see everyone but Dave(His Chemo is hitting him pretty hard this round).  We got to enjoyed dinner, then decorated cookies and then of coarse presents!  Kabree was so excited that she has finally surpassed aunt Deedee in height and is getting closer to Grandma Cindi lol.  Keagan was so excited that Grandpa and Grandma got her an ISU cheerleading set!!

Keagan loved her ISU cheerleading outfit Grandpa and Grandma got her!

Branch Christmas Party

  For the Branch Christmas party this year they had Santa first, then dinner, then a little talent show and then ended with the Nativity.  Kabree decided to sing, she sang Deck The Halls.  This was her first time singing alone and she was VERY nervous.  She did great and we were very proud of her for trying something hard!

Kinzie Williams and Kabree

Thanksgiving

   We had a very chill, quite Thanksgiving this year.  Heather let us crash her house; it was them and their kids.  It was so nice to spend the day with them and get to visit with them for a bit.  We even got to play games for a little while after.

Family Pictures Round 2

   Because Jerry knew Zach was in the Dog house he decided he better help his friend out and he offered to give us a quick 15 min photo session!  We sure appreciate him and all he does for us and his willingness to share his amazing talent! 

Girls Pictures

   Family Pictures are always stressful but this particular time will go down in the history books for our family ;)! Katie Campbell agreed to do our family pictures up Knox Canyon on a Saturday afternoon.  We will not discuss how many shirts were purchased and returned for Jessi prior to this point, because of Zach's choices of shirt.  Zach then decided he wanted me to exchange his shirt (for a different size) that he would be wearing for pictures the Friday before so I had to make a quick run to Idaho Falls.  (When I say quick I mean I had 45 min in Idaho falls, before rushing back to American Falls and then rushing back to Pocatello and then back to American Falls.)  Also during this 45 min trip in Idaho Falls Keagan found a shirt she now likes better!!!  

  Now to Saturday; picture day, it's getting afternoon and the girls and I are starting to get ready and I decide I should text Zach "Did you remember pictures?".....to which eventually I get a response...."Eric has a bull down."....I will spare you the details of Zach telling me he is not coming to our family pictures! So, I took the girls to get their pictures taken and Katie was great about my verge of being mad/verge of tears attitude and did an amazing job!  We broke a necklace, Katie's husband didn't show up to watch her kids so she had hers all in tow lol!  We decided it was a great bonding experience for us and that we would agree to love our husbands again the next day ;)!

Kabree's Deer

 Kabree's Deer

  This year Kabree and I put in for bull elk tags in the Bannock zone and we were fortunate enough to draw tags. It was our first year putting in and we drew, but the good thing was that Eric drew that same tag as well. I was excited for this years hunt because I would get to spend a bunch of time hunting with Eric and Kabree. We went out on opening day deer hunting and Kabree told me that she didn't want to shoot a small buck or bull this year. She wanted to be a little picky and so we passed on all the small bucks. By opening day of elk season we still hadn't seen a good buck, but now the focus was on elk. On opening morning we caught the glimpse of a bull walking out of the field before light and no way for us to get in front of him. So we planned to come back that night to catch him in the field. Well we waited and waited and no elk were coming. We saw a lot of deer and small bucks but nothing was coming out for us. Finally we were able to spot a good buck and we decided to make a move. We snuck up until we had no more cover and waited on the deer. They were at about 700 yards just feeding, so we decided to keep looking for the bull until we got within 30 minutes of shooting light. By this time the big buck decided to lay down in the field. We ranged the buck at 650 yards and with that distance it was to far for Kabree's .243 Win to take an ethical shot. So we tuned up Eric's .338 Laupa Mag, dialed the scope, set the video through the spotting scope, and got Kabree into position. Once she was comfortable, I asked how she felt and she just said "I'm ready, are you ready?" Eric gave her the go ahead that it was recording and she took a few seconds and BOOM! And true to her name one shot Kabree had done it again. The deer just rolled over and died as she made a perfect shot on a laying down deer at 650 yards! I was so proud of her! And Eric and I were cheering her on and in awe of how great the shot was on the deer! Kabree was able to get a nice buck for the year.

  After this exciting hunt, the rest of the season was pretty low key. Eric and I went with Trevor and Kenize Williams on an all day horseback ride. We were able to help Trevor fill his elk tag on a 6x6 and Kenize fill her first deer tag on a 3x2. It was a pretty great day. After that Eric and I hunted our butts off till the last day of the season and Eric was able to fill his elk tag on a 5x5 at 1200 yards. He was pretty stoked about being able to ethically shoot his elk twice in the lungs at that distance. Overall it was a pretty good season.