It was another great year at YHEC except for the fact that Colton didn't go with us. :-( Because of his broken hand, he couldn't shoot, so he stayed behind to take care of the dogs, attend State FFA Convention and spend time with Grammy and Grampa. We really missed him! We had fun with our Cady, though and are proud of her! We arrived on Wednesday night and joined Papa and Gramma in the campground. The next morning, it was time to go get her bow, rifle and muzzleloader all sighted in. After that, we needed a few things, so we all drove to Trinidad, CO together and had a nice lunch at a local pizza place and went to Walmart, Safeway and Big R. It was a very nice afternoon.
Friday after lunch, the competition began. Bullseye started with Archery. There had been a fire started nearby, the day before, so it was incredibly smokey out! So bad that Papa and Gramma had to go back to the camper so he could rest his sensitive eyes from all the smoke. Cady was ready to shoot, though, and she did pretty well for as tough as they made the course. There were quire a few long shots that her bow just isn't made for!
She shot as the only Junior individual this year and was invited to shoot with the group of senior individuals. It was a great group of great kids, coaches and parents!
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Back row: Coach Kevin and Coach David
Front Row: Kyle, Cady, Sienna, Monique and Sophia |
Archery took quite a while so the only other thing they had time to do on Friday, before going to take the test, was Safety Trail:
Saturday morning it was an early start at the .22 range.
She started out pretty good but then lost her mojo for some reason. She tried hard though!
Next was Muzzleloader, which she will tell you is her weakness. She hit 3 though, which tripled her score from last year, so she was very happy with that!
This was her smile after nailing her third one, which was also her last target. Way to finish strong!!
Next up was shotgun and she did pretty well there, too.
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| Pep talk from Coach Kevin. |
Last but not least was Orienteering:
She's finished!! This is the smile of a girl who completed everything in her 3rd YHEC competition and could spend the rest of the time relaxing with her family and friends:
Our 2nd day of YHEC was great - we even had time for a nap in the camper before the big, club Saturday night steak dinner!
Besides Papa and Gramma, Jeff and Tammi and the kids came up to check it all out. They had vehicle problems, though, and didn't get to see as much as they wanted to. I didn't get a single picture of them or the kids either! Hard to believe!!
The next morning was awards. Bullseye did well once again and we are proud to be part of such a great club:
More pics of our little shooter:
Then, as pretty much everyone else pulled out of the campground, headed for home, we were relaxing in the camper, drinking mimosas for Colin's birthday and waving to everyone as they drove out. We were excited to be staying and extra night!
After eating some lunch, we hopped in Papa's truck and went to Mount Capulin Volcano. Papa Gramma had been there last year and were excited to take us for our first time. It was breathtaking! This was the view from the parking lot:
The inside of the volcano:
We walked down a pathway on the inside:
Then we walked around another trail that took us along the rim. The views from there were amazing! There was one place where you could see all the way to Oklahoma.
They also drove us through an old town called Folsom, where we stopped and went through a really museum. It really is beautiful country up there!
That night we celebrated Colin's birthday back at the campers and we went for a drive to look for animals. Birthday celebration pics will be in another post, but here is a group of antelope we saw on the drive:
The next morning, we had to head out, but first, we took our shotguns and went and shot 5-Stand with Papa Jimmy. It was so much fun! There were 5 different stands to shoot from and each had 5 different clay pigeons shot from a different direction. We all did pretty good and it was my very first time to do it! Gramma Suzy didn't participate this time but hopefully she will next time!
It had been a great 4.5 days in the Raton area, but we were ready to get home to Bub and we know he was ready for us too! I wish it wasn't so far up there or we would go a lot more often! But we are thankful for the opportunities we get already to go.
