First Steps

Denzil took his first steps today. Yeah!

Denzil's words

The things that Denzil can say right now are toys, shoes, socks, blocks, peek a boo, story, daddy (he says it all the time), mommy, cracker, cookie, eyes, honk, beep, bee, baa (sheep), moo, please, thank you, pumpkin, this, that, hat, fish, cheese, Jesus, Denzil, baby, car, truck, bus, plane, ball, bird, squirrel, uh oh, buzz, cherrios, snack, bye. He loves trying to repeat back words that we say.

He is growing up so fast but still not ready to walk on his own. He loves climbing up on the kitchen chairs or any chair for that matter. He is so proud of himself. He has only fallen off once so far but he didn't get hurt. He loves to play with his caterpillar and have you wrap him up in it. He is a big fan of legos and blocks. He loves looking at pictures and he likes having his picture taken sometimes but especially if he gets to look at it afterward. He loves playing with cars and trucks and he loves the air plane that is hanging in his room. He loves to dance when music is playing. He loves to play outside too. He is a sweetheart. He gives the cutest kisses and sometimes the wettest but that's cute too right?! We are having a great time with him and watching his personality come out.

Utah Big Bull Elk Hunt 2010

This was the sunrise on the first day up in the mountains in Utah. We had 2 days to scout before the actual hunt began. The fall colors were beautiful and over the 7 days we were up there the leaves changed a lot.

The hunter. The weather was very nice every day we were out. I had way too many layers of clothing for this type of weather but who wants to be cold if you have to sit somewhere for a while to wait for the animals to come.
This is a tree that my dad carved our names in back in 1996. I just thought it was fun to see and think that I have been doing this for 15 years. I love getting out and hiking around and hearing the elk bugling in the early morning. The great thing was that on the day I shot my elk he was bugling in the middle of the day. Oh, the joys of the rut.
So, the first 2 days we hunted we were on private land. We had permission and it was the same area that my dad and uncle got their big bulls a couple years ago. Opening morning we got really close to a bull but I decided that I didn't want to shoot him so we let him go. That may have been a mistake because we didn't see or hear another elk the rest of that day. We hiked a lot and covered a lot of ground but nothing.

So we took Sunday off and Monday morning we went after them again in the same place. Early on we heard a few bugles far away but didn't see anything. Then about 9:30 am we could hear one not too far away and he sounded good so we started sneaking to get close to him to check him out. We were able to get within about 20 yards and after glassing him we saw that his left side was a nice 6 point and the right side was gangly. So, we passed him up. No one wants a gangly elk on their wall, at least not when it takes so long to draw out for this tag.

After stopping for lunch and a little nap in the woods we decided to split up and meet back at the truck about 4 pm. As we were walking my dad said to me "wouldn't it be nice if there was one right in these trees?" Not 2 minutes went past when a bunch of cows spooked. I got ready just in case the last one would be the bull. But, after 13 cows and calves went by, there was no bull. So we kept walking. A few minutes later I saw the hind quarters of an elk go through the trees and 4 cows running up above. So, we didn't get one there.

Back at the truck we decided that we'd take the 4-wheelers and drive over to Birch Creek canyon to see if we could hear or see anything there. We stopped to listen at south Birch but we didn't hear a thing so we went over to the north side in a slide area. We sat at the top and were just glassing the area when one bugled. I looked down at the bottom of the slide and there was a small 4-point bull laying down rubbing his antlers on a small sapling. Then we started hearing more bugles and they sounded like they were really close. Then we heard cows chirping but they never came into the clearing to be seen by us. When it came to deciding where to go for the next day's hunt I decided that we should come back to that spot in the morning and see what we could find.

Tuesday morning didn't disappoint. We sat back in the slide and the elk were bugling a bunch for us. We decided to try and go for the one that sounded like he might be the biggest. After a while we were able to get pretty close to him but we never did get a real look at him but we could see his shadow in the bushes and then the wind turned on us and he ran away just out of our sight. My dad thought that maybe they had gone to bed down in some pines a little farther away so we walked a little ways and sat and ate our lunch. We were just getting started walking when we heard some barking so we went toward the sound and came up on a small 5-point bull. They bark as a type of warning. He barked at us several times before he turned and ran away. We started walking back toward the slide area and decided that we would take a little nap and wait to hear some bugles to determine our next move. This was about 11:30 am and I decided to see if I had cell reception, which I did, and I sent Kris a short text about our hunt that day. Shortly after that an elk bugled. My dad was still snoozing so I decided I'd wait to see if he did it again before I woke my dad up. About 5 minutes later the elk bugled again so I woke my dad up. Then the elk kept bugling more and more so we decided to go after him and see if he was a shooter. The terrain is quite steep and there are a lot of logs and bushes so it makes it a bit of a challenge to sneak up on an animal but we were able to be fairly quiet. We got to where we knew he was just in the trees close by and my dad could see a calf. We stopped and then a cow started going down the hill parallel to us and we thought they were all going to spook. The cow stopped parallel to me and just stood there looking and listening. Then a small 5-point bull came out of the trees above her and after a minute turned and ran back into the trees. Again, we thought they were all going to spook but the cow started making her way down to the others just eating and not moving real fast. About this time I caught a glimpse of the bull. I put my gun up and had him in the scope for a split second but he moved out of sight again. I stood with my gun up for about 5 minutes and my arm was getting really tired. I couldn't sit or even kneel because the bushes were too high and I couldn't see. I thought I could see the bull's legs but I didn't have a view of the head so I wasn't about to shoot. This whole time he was bugling every 30 seconds or so. Then my dad said he could see the bull and that I should shoot him when I was ready. I used my hip as my rest and took a shot. The herd started moving out and my dad told me to get ready to shoot again. The second shot was the killer. He dropped right there but rolled a few yards because of the steep terrain and this is where he landed. My dad had me walk down to the area where I shot him so that he could keep an eye on the spot and direct me if I got off on my way down. When I got to where he went down and saw him I thought he was dead but there was no way I was going to get close without my dad right there with me.
He landed right in a raspberry patch. They were small but pretty tasty.

He is a 6-point bull but I don't know what he scored. My dad thought he was bigger than he is but I told him that it was big enough for me. There always is a bigger one out there.


I shot him about 1:30 pm and we were finally heading back to the 4-wheelers as the sun was setting.
Wednesday we went back with the horses to get the elk out. Thank goodness my cousin Chad and his son Caden were able to help us out. It took all day but it would have been longer with just me and my dad. We had to carry out the antlers because they weren't wide enough to sit on the horse without poking him and there were too many trees to have them upright.
This pic doesn't show the steepness really well but it was very steep.




Our own little butcher shop. We let it hang until Saturday then my dad cut and my mom and I wrapped steaks, roasts and whatever else.
Denzil got to hang out in the garage for a while til he was too cold and we moved him to the sun. He was so good during the whole trip. He really liked Grandma and Grandpa and aunt Justine. He did well with everyone pretty much.

Saturday night we ground some meat, 45+ packages that were probably around a pound each. My mom bottled 14 quarts of meat on Sunday after I left to come back home.

Fall fun

I don't believe I did a real Denzil is 1 year old update. At his doctor appointment he weighed in at 20 lbs 9 oz, was 30 inches tall, and his head circumference was 18.5 inches. That puts him about 15% for weight, 45% for height, and 60% for his head. He is really growing up a lot in the past few weeks. He loves to feed himself but me not wanting to deal with a huge mess, I'm a little reluctant. But, when we have some good finger foods I let him go to town. He likes to eat almost all the stuff we eat but some days he decides he doesn't want to. He loves to eat broccoli and carrots and on the fruit side he loves watermelon, bananas, and strawberries (which he prefers to eat when they are whole). He will eat orange slices but usually only one before he just squeezes it to death. He would squeeze the banana too if I let him hold it on his own. He has had 4 teeth grow in since the beginning of September. Some of the words that he can say besides mama and dada are this, that, ball (said like "ba"), ruff (dog), uh-oh, and sometimes he seems like he is trying to mimic what I'm saying. He is very curious and loves to get into anything. He loves his toys and especially his Little People Farm.

We got this caterpillar from the Dr. Handy's office and Denzil likes to lay on him and crawl on his back.

During our second Utah trip in so many weeks we took a walk to Wheeler Farm and saw all the animals. Denzil loved it! I brought a piece of bread with us to feed to the ducks but every time I gave Denzil a piece to throw it ended up in his mouth. So, Denzil probably ate half of the bread and the ducks got the other half from me. You may be wondering why I didn't get him out of the stroller at this time, well I did take him out for a few minutes but all he wanted to do was play in the water. Let me just say, gross.
Denzil had a nice little 4-wheeler ride with me. I know he doesn't have a helmet on but I think it would have been more dangerous for him to have the large helmets on his head that we had. It's a cabin community so we didn't go real fast. When I started going he said "weeeeee!"
Denzil decided to help out Grandpa Holman with weeding his flower garden. Yep, he pulled up a flower but there were only leaves left and I'm a bit surprised at that. He was pulling those off before he got the whole thing to come out of the ground.
This past weekend we went for a nice ride on the Virginia Creeper trail. It was basically all down hill on the section that we did which was 17 miles. We considered riding back up but decided that our rumpus' wouldn't be too happy with us. We need to ride our bikes more to be up for that but we want to go back again and maybe do the other half. Supposedly it is more level so we might actually have to pedal our bikes to get from point A to point B. Denzil loved being in the trailer. He was even making it a fun ride for Kris by rocking forward and back over and over again.

Denzil is getting a little better about not eating all the rocks, just trying to eat a few.

Labor Day weekend 2010

Denzil is showing how big he is getting. He had the right idea for riding this scooter.

On Labor Day we drove all the way to Wrightsville Beach and spent the day in the sand and sea. We went along with our pals and had a great time despite the bit of a sunburn afterward.
Denzil had a bunch of sunscreen all over his head, hair included, which helped the sand to stick really well to him. He would crawl around then stick his head in the sand and keep crawling. This pic is after he was playing with some sand toys and had sand in the shovel which came up and hit him in the face. He wasn't too happy about the sand in his eyes but he was even more angry when we went to the shower/hose and tried to get it out that way. It took 3 or more shampooing's to get the sand out of his hair.

Who knew a sunscreen bottle could be this entertaining.
I know, not too cute in the swimsuit on my part but we needed a pic by the water. We had some fun playing in the waves and Denzil loved the little birds that were at the waters edge eating something. He tried to catch them multiple times but was not successful.


A beautiful end to a wonderful weekend.