what’s up…

For the past 4 weeks, we have been parked at our dear friends’ house.  The first two weeks were spent house sitting for them, and the second half we played/visited/lived side by side, with us parked just out their front door.  It was fabulous.

Remember Jake and the pickle juice?  Come to find out, this is why he did it…

Jake has an insatiable sweet tooth, and apparently Beth and her BFFs dared him to drink it, with the promise of his own chocolate pecan pie if he did.  Olivia makes the best chocolate pecan pies!  Jake said it was well worth it.  🙂

We pulled out of our BFFs’ house on Sunday.  The kids are missing being connected at the hip with their friends, and we are all missing the sweet fellowship we have with these special people! 

This past Friday, Eli and Greg drove 4 hours east to little Reed Point, Montana, to take part in the Stillwater Tactical Challenge.  They stayed 2 nights in a public campground, in a tent, in the rain, ‘roughing it’…

This was their first Stillwater shoot, and the only information they knew about it was from the website.  The fees were $100/shooter/course.  Initially, they were going to sign up for all three courses, but they decided at the last minute to only do one.  They signed up for the Dynamic Short Course since it sounded like the course most like what their training would prep them for.  They ran a mile, shooting various targets from all sorts of positions, with both their ARs and their 9mms.
The experience was definitely a new one to them, and they were pretty disappointed when they saw the courses and found that the descriptions weren’t very accurate and the boys would have done much better if they would have signed up for the short standing course instead.   But, considering that Greg shot with open sites (takes more skill than using a scope), they believed the site for shell count, and they didn’t have enough mags for their pistols, I thought that they did great!  They placed 13th out of 17 teams; and some of these guys had really expensive and tricked out guns and traveled a long ways to the shoot!

On Sunday, the guys participated in the .22 Round-Robin competition.  Initially, the top 8 guys were supposed to go into a Round Robin double elimination event, but the weather was rainy, so at the last minute they changed it to the top 3 shooters getting prizes.  Guess who was in 4th and 5th places… 

The boys enjoyed their brotherly-bonding time.  They didn’t get home until late Sunday, and were already talking about the courses next year – now that they know what it’s really like, they will shoot all 3 courses, take different uppers for their ARs (they have them, they just thought the course was different and the ones they took would work better), and be more accurate on their shell count.
They both won door prizes (everyone wins something); Eli won a single-point tactical sling and a Sure-Fire flashlight ( 🙂 ), and poor Greg – he won 300 rounds of 9mm brass! LOL!  He has thousands already at his apartment waiting to be reloaded! ROFL!!!  Even though he wasn’t too excited over his door prize 😉 , he still had a fun time…(with Eli’s camera)

As for the rest of us, we are CAMPING at a local campground.  Dry camping – no water hookups, no electric, no sewer.  We’re pretty thankful for our onboard generator, 30 gallon fuel tanks, and big fresh water and waste tanks!  Ever since we got back this year, I’ve had the oddest feeling that I needed to get everything in order and be ready to hit the road again at any time.  I just got off the phone after 20 minutes with Vaughn trying to figure out a way to pull out again.Right.Now.  We SHOULD be on our way to Oklahoma to help with the tornado cleanups.  It’s become our passion.  But the reality is that we haven’t been home long enough to have the $6k it would take for the 12 of us to drive the 1458 miles down there and volunteer for a month (we really need an online job we can take with us!).  Vaughn can’t concentrate on his work, and the bigs are trying to figure out a way to go without us! LOL!  There were tears in his voice as he was imagining what it must be like down there, after seeing, first hand, in Tuscaloosa, Calhoun, and Shuqualak, the devastation and hopelessness a tornado brings to an area.   He also knows the renewed hope, and the encouragement and love, that having people come in and volunteer their time to help those in need brings to those same storm victims.

If you can help those being affected by these storms, in any way, especially volunteering elbow grease to help clean up the debris, please do so – and let us know so we can live vicariously through your love for others!
Our prayers are with Oklahoma City…