Hunting in Arizona

Edward spent this past week hunting in Northern Arizona (just a few miles south of Flagstaff) with a good friend of ours, Jason. Jason and his wife, Amy, used to be our neighbors, but back in February, their family was transferred to Montana. Jason flew into Phoenix for "the hunt." Prior to that, Edward and Jason had put in for a turkey draw for Arizona. Now, some state have this process and some don't. With a 30% draw rate success, the guys were some of the lucky few. In addition to being drawn, they were given a specific area and time to hunt...so, yes, it was definitely frustrating having Edward gone for several days when I'm NINE months pregnant, BUT it was the luck of the draw, literally, so there wasn't much I could say. Amy, Jason's wife, probably had the better deal, as she just had their third baby, and while she was at home with three kids, she had her mom their for the week to help. The kids and I survived here, and the guys had a great time....BUT NO TURKEYS! That's right, in all of their hunting, they didn't kill a turkey. They heard a few gobble, but none came home in the cooler :) In addition, they saw a TON of elk (around 200 Edward estimates), three antelope (very rare for the area), cougar tracks, and bear tracks (black bear).In spite of that, I think they'd do it again (and plan to) in a heartbeat.

This is Northern Arizona...just a few miles south of Flagstaff. Locationwise, it is about 20 miles or so north of Sedona. Even though I've seen this area too, it still blows my mind this is the same state we live in where we have barren desert...this area looks so much like Maine and New England to me.

Jason

The guys

Edward with camo hat...

Edward without camo hat

While there, Edward sort of fell into a cactus and got a huge thorn stuck in his leg. Being the good doctor he is, he had taken his field medical bag (a recent, but very useful purchase we made!!!) with him. He actually was able to numb up the area and dig in to perform minor surgery on himself to remove the huge thorn :)

Their campsite...no particular location...they just found it. What nice wife bought Edward a new tent instead of the VERY old one he still had from high school???

Relaxing

Jason relaxing...no newborn to wake him up!

Early morning, and yes, it was cold. While it is still Arizona, the area they hunted was six hours north of here and about 7000 feet different in altitude. Yuma sits just about 200 feet above sea level, and the guys were around 7000 feet, give or take, depending on the day. Nights were in the 30's and 40's for them.

Flagstaff in the distance...that is the tallest peak in Arizona you can see, the Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff (great skiing area). The peak sits at over 11,000 feet.

Jason, THANK YOU so much for not letting Edward bring this car home looking like this!!! Yes everyone, this is Edward's NEW car!!!! Maybe letting him get all-wheel-drive wasn't such a good idea :) Apparently, it was covered in dirt, dust, mud everywhere!!! And, what a good, modern-day hunter carrying his cell phone to field calls from his pregnant-hopefully-not-going-into-labor-but-having-TONS-of-contractions-wife and all of his patients who needed medical info while he was gone.

Elk on the move

Serious hunters

A wildlife biologist and a doc...great combo for serious hunting :)

Elk

More elk

Antelope, which is a VERY RARE sighting for this area of the country (according to what Jason told Edward)

More of the antelope

I definitely see this as an annual trip, and really, since we're not planning to have any more kids, and I won't be nine months pregnant, that's okay with me...It will be interesting in years to come if they take the boys with them. Edward is already too excited about someday hunting with Luke and Alex, and I'm sure Jason feels the same way about taking Emmett. I'm sure Amy would agree this will probably be an annual trip...but Amy, we need to come up with our own getaway :)