Champions, Heros, and Family - Part I

Champions, Heros, and Family. They are synonymous in my thesaurus. Everyone in the family is my hero. I look up to each member. I want to be just like them. We are all champions too. I was actually thinking that we could have "We are the Champions" as our theme song. We could each learn it on our respective musical instruments and then play it to kick off every reunion. :)

The first hero I would like to write about comes from the hunting trip that happened a little less than a month ago. Eliza, Hyrum, and I drove miles and miles and hours and hours and days and days to go spend some time with family and hopefully get some much needed meat in the process. Hyrum could be the designated hero for how well he did in the car, but this story is about another hero. We were all excited to be in the mountains together, but we were also very excited to perhaps get a deer. For some of us (John, James, and Cody), it was a first chance to shoot a deer. The excitement was high as we headed out the first morning. We walked up a mountain while it was still mostly dark. At the top we decided on what we thought was the best plan of action, and split up. After a couple hours we hadn't seen hair nor hide nor even feces of deer. The excitement began to fade and the two younger hunters who had never before shot a deer went to try their luck for rabbits using bows.

We decided to try a new location. It took a couple of stops and some serious map studying before we found something we liked. Papa Tillery had James, Cody, and Mckay in his truck. Luke and Papa Erickson were in the front of his truck with Joshua, John and me in the back. One of the curious things about all the stops, was what happened each time we got back in the truck. There seemed to be a ceremonial scuffling that took place before the back seat of Luke's truck was filled. I can't quite pinpoint the origin of the ceremony, but once inside the truck, I do know that the brother in the middle seemed to get roughed up by the other two sitting on either side. John seemed to spend a lot of time in the middle. I also spent my fair share, but Joshua, either by his knack for lollygagging or smarts, didn't ride in the middle, until finally John and I cornered him. This turned out to be a bad idea. It was like cornering a badger or getting between a mother moose and her calf or like trying to get a peaceful sleep with a toddler between you. Joshua was "rowdier than a bull in a china closet." John and I did all we could to restrain him, but I think we both knew that sitting in the middle was the better alternative. Before we even got to our destination, all three of us were worn out and we ended up playing bobblehead in the back. This is where you fall asleep and let the bouncing of the car determine where your head goes. This was fun. I think that I only hit the window with my head a few times. :)

We arrived at the next camping spot mostly unscathed and started to get excited for the evening hunt. Somehow we started talking about who would get the first shot if we saw something. Luke said that it should go to the person who had traveled the farthest. Although I appreciated the gesture, I said that those who hadn't shot a deer yet should get the first shot. Somewhat jokingly I said I would be happy to claim the first deer meat. The evening hunt came, we split up, heard gunshots, wondered who got the deer, and went back to camp. Come to find out, Cody made a great shot and downed a doe. The first thing he said to me was that I could have the meat as long as he could have the heart. Now that is a Hero. He generously gave Eliza and I his first deer. Not only that but his example of wanting to say a prayer of gratitude right after getting the deer made him a hero worth emulating.