Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Another Archery Shoot - Anthony Lakes

We went to an archery shoot this past weekend with some of our friends. It was at Anthony Lakes Ski Resort near La Grande, Oregon. You wouldn't believe how gorgeous it was! We rode the ski lift to the top of the moutain, which was 8000 feet, and then shot the 3D targets all the way down the mountain.  To give you an idea, this picture was taken near the top of the mountain and the red arrow shows where we hiked down to.

Thank goodness most of the hike was downhill.  The hike was not straight down.  There were 30 targets placed in a zig-zagged pattern all over the right side of the mountain.  That was Saturday.  On Sunday the guys rode up again and shot the 30 targets on the left side of the mountain.  My friend and I decided we could take the boys to the lower 20 targets on Sunday so they wouldn't have to hike the mountain again.

Here's some of the terrain we had to hike across/up/down.

So, we rode to the top of the mountain and since I was ordered by my doctor not to do any heavy lifting for six weeks because of surgery I was there to just take pictures. All the guys (including boys) shot their bows (I may have been a teensy weensy bit envious of them).

Here are the boys at the top waiting their turn to shoot. Look at them all loaded up and ready to rumble!
Here's my sexy husband! Hubba hubba! This was only his 2nd time shooting in a 3D archery shoot. He's new at this.
The older boy shooting. 
The older boy's best friend. I caught the arrow in flight on this one!  See it on the right?
The little guy's turn. He didn't hit very many, but he had fun, and he was a real trooper!
Another shot where I got lucky and caught the arrow in flight. This is our buddy, Ryan, the father of my son's friend.
In case you've never been to an archery shoot, here's one of the targets we shoot at.  They are made of foam. This guy is our friend, Tim.  He's an excellent archery shooter and is even sponsored by Alpine.
We had lunch when we hit the bottom of the mountain. The boys loved their lunchables.
Since the youngest in the crew was worn out from the long hike down the mountain Amber and I decided to take him back to camp while the guys took the older boys through the last 20 targets. My little energizer bunny definitely needed a recharge.
The other part of the crew didn't make it back to camp until around 7:00.
Good thing too because we were all hungry! Hot dogs... the standard camp food.
Sunday Amber and I took the boys through the lower 20 targets and were done before 11:00 so we decided to be good wives and go break down the rest of camp. We made short work of the wall tent, the dogs, and all the rest and had it packed into our trucks in about 35 minutes. Since it didn't take us long we decided to ride the chair lift up to the top of the mountain and back down. I'm so glad we did that.

Amber and the boys went on one bench and I was on the other with my my own handsome escort.
And yes, you guessed it.  The end of day two. This is during the awards ceremony.
Remember how I said it was gorgeous?  I'll leave you with some of the proof.

Remember your blessings!
Amber

Friday, July 2, 2010

Longing for the Perfect Backyard Picnic

A few weeks ago this was our back/side yard; a muddy mess and a place we stored stuff since we never went back there (this was just after we started laying sod).

A few weeks later we have functional yard to hang out in and "join the stars" as my younger son puts it. He means enjoy the stars. I love sod!

Functional. Don't get me wrong.  I'm loving the privacy, and I'm so thankful for our functional yard, but it still has so far to go before it's the yard that I want to spend all evening in. I see lots of potential and I know what I want it to look like in the end.  It needs lots more plants and if it were up to me it would like something this.

There's a lot still to be done.  For instance, see the trailer?  How could you not?  I plan to add a trellis to hide that eye sore and plant climbing roses. Won't that be nice?  With the power of Photoshop you can see what I hope it will look like.
Then I was thinking maybe a little seating area for a picnic table would be nice in front of the trellis.
 
Everyone have a safe and fun 4th of July!  I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the back/side yard.

Some fun lights I hung for ambiance as well as the boys' blankets where they "join the stars."

Remember your blessings!
Amber