Last summer Tim scheduled a September hog hunting trip to Oklahoma with a co-worker. One thing led to another & they each had to back out of the September date. Since Tim had already made his deposit they let him reschedule it for February & we used it for our annual Birthday/Valentine's trip. We also invited another child-less couple to go with.
So on Thursday night, February 9th, we all loaded up into our truck & headed South.
This is the best shot I could get of the GPS on the trip down from the back seat.
We got in rather late but the guide & Tim had been texting so he knew to come get the guys @6am. They thought he'd take them out, show them the area, take them back to the cabin to get ready & let them walk out, but he had other plans, "no sense in making 2 trips," he says, "you 2 get ready & I'll be back." as he headed to the cabin next door to gather the other hunting party to take them out. The guys hurried around showering & descenting & such as hunters do & us girls managed to sleep thru the majority of it. It seemed like they had just hopped on the 4 wheeler & left when my phone started to ring next to my head. On the other end was a very excited Tim, seriously, he had his first hog already & they'd only been out 30 minutes! YIKES!! So I jumped up, threw on some warmer clothes & headed out the door to take pictures of it before the guide took it to the shop.
Hupp stayed out hunting & Tim headed back out for his second one (the package included one hog any size & one under 100#). While they were gone we dug into the ADORABLE & YUMMY dipped fruit I had ordered locally & taken w/us. What a great breakfast!
Tim soon wounded his second hog but was unable to track it (even tho it appeared to have blasted a shoulder) & after tracking it a while, he was done for the day. Hupp on the other hand had gotten his first, but neglected to bring it to the cabin before having it taken to the shop. So I have no photos of it. Since they each had one hog in 'hand' they decided to come to town with us & do some sightseeing! The best place we went was the
Pawnee Bill Estate. The museum was under construction but was still full of fun stuff to see. Then we got to tour the mansion next & it was so neat that it was kept as close to original as possible & that was REALLY close (but of course no photos allowed inside) but his wife May's boots were by the bed, her mirror on the dresser, dishes on the table. here are a few details of the property I was able to capture outside:
tile work on cement around the house:
the view from the side of the house:
this is the front of the house
I forget what this tower was built for but we could see the entire property once inside it.
here is a sample of what one of the traveling wild west shows may have looked like.
then we looked around town a bit in search of some antique malls/thrift shops but nothing to be found we headed back to the cabin for naps/scrabble. Oh yea, we had to play ball w/Sammy because he'd been in his kennel the time we were out sight seeing.... here is Sammy & Tim looking under the couch for the ball.
Sunday morning Hupp was able to get his second hog & this time remembered to bring it to the cabin for photos.
Then we headed into the nearest college town of Stillwater & tried to shop around but most places we spotted were already closed. Trying not to be bummed, we stopped for appetizers & cocktails @
Mexico Joe's. Fun time!!
this is just a station different than anything we have in Iowa so I had to capture it 'on film':
Since it was close to Valentine's Day the guys had the foresight to have our guide make reservations for us for dinner at the only restaurant in town open in the evening! our reservations were a surprise to us girls & not until 7:30, which seemed late to us but that place was hoppin'!! Our first experience with a place that didn't serve alcohol but let you bring your own in. So of course, we did :) This is a crazy meringue pie in the cooler:
the outside of the building:
hehe... oh the sights we see that are different than home....
once back to the cabin w/tummies full, we had a photo shoot of heads: (my apologies to those of weak stomach)
Sunday before heading home we did some photo shoots around the sights we found over the weekend:
(evidently in really bright sunlight but cold wind)
Oh the technology on the way home! I discovered (with Lauren's help) pinterest on my blackberry while Hupp & Lauren played each other in Words with Friends. We only made 2 stops on the way home for food or gas. We were all READY to be HOME!
For those wondering, we did bring the meat back on ice to have processed at our 'local' locker-loins, chops & 2 kinds of sausage YUMMMMM. the heads also came home, our one went to a taxidermist for processing. We were delighted to find out that we could get 2 trophies our of the one head, the skin is stretched over a foam form leaving the skull useless. So we had them clean the skull into a European mount as well as mounting the head. We just got these back last week & are both very pleased with the results!
not exactly traditional way to spend Valentine's day but it was fun & relaxing & we each got to see a new state & a few sights we hadn't seen before. How did you spend Valentine's Day??
Complete is not something I get to say very often about a project! I am almost a master of planning, starting & even getting almost finished then either getting distracted by something new & fun or I get stuck by it not going as easily, or quickly as I had planned so I just quit. I cannot tell you how many projects I have started & laying in progress around my scraproom, there are even a few in different rooms around the house. But Anyway! I did finish the hog hunt mini album right before Labor Day, that I started early in July! I think I might enter it in the Iowa State Fair embellishment catagory next year... It was so fun to do, I love the opportunity to get out of my 12x12 page, acid free, relatively flat, photo friendly 'rut' & go 'no holds barred' once in a while! 
So, Yea, this is my idea of getting wild & crazy in the scrap room ;) I took an old Iowa map & cut circles for page covers for part of the traveling pages. that was new & different for me. & it coordinated really well w/the (fuzzy) picture of the garmin & the photo of the toll stub (there is a toll receipt behing the flap).
Here is a side view of the entire completed album! I love that it won't close, had different size & shapes of pages & even some tabs on some! 
I received this mini album in a box of stuff from a friend when she was decluttering her scrap room. I put it in a basket of other mini albums I have collected to some day complete & when I started thinking about creating a mini for this trip, this one came to mind immediately. I think its the perfect masculine texture & color for such photos!
