Since this was a “male thing” and since Manfred is vehemently opposed to firearms (even for police), I took him shooting, with a couple of 13/14 year old kids for good measure. I asked Wyatt (below) to do the safety briefing and demonstrate to Manfred that even the kids around here know how to properly handle firearms safely. After discussing everything for a few minutes, and after hanging up a few targets in a safe place (near a hill so the bullets wouldn’t travel for a mile…) we started shooting. First up, was Manfred with the S&W MP15T (ie AR-15, semi-automatic version of the military M4 Carbine).
Manfred commented how easy it was to shoot the big black gun accurately. That’s thanks to the $500 holographic sight on top… Here’s Wyatt shooting with both eyes closed…. or hopefully he actually has his other eye open… even though it’s a sight not meant to be shot with one eye closed. That’s Aaron in the background…
Here’s Manfred shooting the .45caliber single action cowboy revolver. It’s a lot of fun to shoot. He really liked this one and taught those glass bottles and metal cans a lesson they’ll never forget. Unfortunately, we only had 6 rounds of this to shoot since it’s so expensive… Karen says I’m a nerd, but that’s not the appropriate word, what’s the proper word for a gun nerd? (“weirdo” or “redneck”?)
Aaron looks very comfortable shooting this one… his Dad is in law enforcement though. Maybe they practice in their yard… Upon holding the gun, Aaron said, “I just love Tactical stuff!”
Then it was on to the 12gauge shotgun. Notice Chris throwing the “clay pigeon” disks and Manfred attempting to shoot one. He missed a bunch, at first, if I remember right, but then he got it down on the second round and started hitting them.I think Aaron had the most hits.
Just for fun, we decided to shoot an old piece of metal we found to show what a 12 gauge can do. I made Manfred pose next to his piece of artwork so I could effectively blackmail him if he ever becomes a politician in Austria. Karen remarked when we got back to camp that they could hear us shooting the entire time. Luis, Manfred’s 6 year old son, was very sad and cried a lot because he didn’t get to come. Too bad… I would have brought him!
Marion had fun around the camp fire at dinner time.
Oliver found a pink chair, which he appropriated… notice all the nice “particulate matter” floating in the air that was illuminated by the camera’s flash.
Elora is kinda crazy… and she’s on fire. She had such a great time chasing around all the other little boys at camp. We’re definitely, “those people” that brought the girls along… boys can’t be boys if there are girls around. At some point, I suppose Elora won’t be able to come anymore, which is too bad because she’s as tough as most of the boys.
Here we are together in our little tent. Maybe it’s getting time for a new one? We were sleeping 5 people in this tent with 2 sleeping bags and some blankies.
You might think these little kids didn’t take up much space, but since they (and I) roll around all night, it was a sleepless night to say the least. And it was freezing. Note, Elora’s clothing even though it was late June. Here’s Elora eating her pancake breakfast in bed.
Then we took everyone fishing. Oliver was really excited about the concept because of a Curious George book we have, but he didn’t really care too much for the actual experience.
Elora loved the worms. Here she is holding a worm we cut in half to stab on to a hook. It’s pretty funny how excited she is and not bothered by the concept of cutting up worms and using them to catch a fish, which we’ll then kill and eat. But we didn’t catch one 🙁
Most of the “bites” we felt on our line was actually just seaweed tugging on the hook… we let Elora think it was a fish though to make things more fun.
Here’s Manfred fishing with Elena. He said he could do this all day, but alas, they had to be back on the road to go to Bryce Canyon. It looks like Elena is going to push him in!
Oliver got bored with fishing and went to drive the car. You can tell Elora is going to be a nature-hippie girl, and Ollie will be a jeep driving redneck.
One last picture together with our friends from Vienna! Elora looks sad because she didn’t catch a fish and she wanted to eat one for dinner. She said, “If I don’t catch a fish I’ll be heart broken for ever!”
So after our friends left, we went back down for a few more minutes to pacify Elora. Here’s Marion enjoying the breeze.
Ollie got a turn too, but he just wanted to play with the reel. Still no fish, but all in all it was a great time! Except the sleeping part…as usual…when camping.
