Happy Turkey Season Opener! I can't wait to get out this weekend!
We sighted my bow in at my parents place and then headed to the archery club with the kids to shoot their bow and let my husband fling some arrows as well.
It was Freddie's first time shooting - and he loved it! He kept walking around with the bow very proudly exclaiming, "MY BOW!" Which, to be fair, he is next in line to use it. It was actually my bow 34 years ago. Which then got passed down to my sister, then LK, then Zippy and then Daphne. Much to my surprise, when I had Lauren, Daphne gave the bow back for my kids to use. It was a very surreal and full circle moment. Even had the original aluminum arrows! So now Freddie and Lauren use it - although I see a new bow in Lauren's future now that Freddie seems to have claimed that little orange bow.
While walking around the course, we were searching under logs and pieces of bark for creatures, mostly salamanders. My kids love looking for them, and the club is known to be a salamander haven. We found over 30 Eastern Red-backed salamanders and potentially a Jefferson salamander - which is very rare! We also found lots of salamander eggs, a giant woolly caterpillar which will turn into a Giant Leopard moth and we even saw a pond dinosaur (snapping turtle).
The greatest gift my parents ever gave me was a wildhood - and now I get to do the same for my kids.
Check out the reel/TikTok to see all the critters we found. The kids are still talking about it. They can't wait to go back on their next sally hunt.