One Family

As I sit here thinking about this weekend that is coming to an end, I am overjoyed by the family that Jared and I have been blessed with. (And this is where my mom and Jared's mom will probably start crying when they read this) They say that when you marry someone, you marry their family. While I know that "the in-laws" tends to be an issue for many newlyweds, that is definitely not the case here. I'm glad that through my marriage not only did I get a fabulous husband, but added some awesome new members to my family as well. I know so many people who have to divide up all of their holidays, dinners, visits, etc. between "his family" and "her family". Unlike those people, we literally do everything together. It's almost as though we are no longer "Jared's family" and "Jacki's family", but more like one big family.

This weekend Jared's mom, Gina, and sister, Erika, came to visit. Gina made a New Year's Resolution to come and visit her kids once a month this year, which is a big feat considering she lives 7 hours away. I hope that she is better at keeping her New Year's Resolutions than I am, and I'm sure that she will be. Gina arrived from the Keys and Erika arrived from Tallahassee on Friday night.

Erika met up with us and the rest of the regular happy hour group at Wild Wing for our usual Friday happy hour. After dinner, we headed over to Boden's townhouse for drinks and cigars. Due to the cold weather, which I despise, Erika, Mary Ann and I stayed inside and enjoyed some wine while the boys sat on the back patio smoking cigars. Erika and I finally headed home to meet Gina and snuggle with the puppies. Gina showed us the beautiful photo book that she had made of our Christmas this year, which she is going to bring back when she has finished putting her personal touches on it. I can't wait to get it back :)   

On Saturday morning, we took Gina on a little "field trip" as she deemed it, quail hunting. After reading my blog about quail hunting, Gina decided that she wanted to experience this little adventure for herself. So the 5 of us, Jared, Boden, Rick, Gina and I made the journey to SSJ Farm in Hilliard for a beautiful morning of hunting.

*Gina took some video of our hunt; however, I could not get it to upload to my blog so please go to my facebook page if you want to see the videos.

The hunt began with Boden and Rick shooting. I was teaching Gina the ropes of quail hunting, most importantly how to not be a safety hazard. After killing our first 5 birds, we took a mid-morning break back at the truck. During this time, I had to fix a little problem I was having with the straw-like grass from the woods which had some how managed to go through my jeans and get stuck in my spandex that I was wearing under my jeans, and was itching like crazy. So Gina and I left the boys and ventured behind some trees to remove this straw stuff from under my pants. I ended up having to take off my spandex all together in order to solve this problem. Doing a complete wardrobe change with boots on in the middle of the woods was mildly challenging, so luckily no one was watching or I'm sure they would have had quite a laugh at my expense.

Once I put myself back together and we reconviened our hunt, and Jared took over Boden's hunting spot. One of the birds that Rick shot didn't die immediately, so we taught Gina how to kill the birds that are still alive even after being shot. It's kind of graphic and may possibly involve swinging the bird around by the head in order to break its neck. Anyways, Jared and Rick took care of the next 4 birds and then they decided to give me a turn.

Prior to handing his gun over, Jared informed me that we only had 2 birds left that needed to be killed and that if I didn't kill them, then he was never going to take me hunting again. No pressure. Luckily, I am a sharp shooter :)    

Rick and I took over the shooting and I was a little nervous about being brought in as the closer for our hunt. Our first bird got up and I let Rick shoot first. He missed and at first I didn't think that I had a shot, but as the bird got even further away I finally decided just to take a shot anyways and I killed it. I'm not sure if that was pure luck or skill, but I like to pretend that it was my stellar shooting skills :)

The final bird managed to get away from both Rick and I at first, but then Sadie pointed the bird a second time and I killed it. I was pretty proud of my shooting skills and excited that we managed to kill all 11 of our birds. We had a great time and I was rather flattered by the comment that Boden made to Jared after my shooting..."If an intruder breaks into your house, give the gun to Jacki".

After the actual hunting was over, I wanted Gina to have some hands on experience at shooting the 20 gauge. We didn't have any birds left for her to shoot, so we gave her an immobile object, a tree trunk. So Jared and Rick gave her some pointers on how to stand and hold the gun, and she got to experience the "kick" of the 20 gauge.

I'm so glad that Gina was able to come hunting with us and got to see Sadie doing what she does best. She kept refering to it as her "field trip" since she learned so much. I can't help it, I'm a teacher, so I turn everything into a learning experience :)

After Jared and Rick cleaned the birds, we headed back to Jacksonville. We had time for a little nap and then had to get ready for family dinner.

Jared, Erika, Gina and I met up with my parents, Chris and Melissa, Rick, Boden and Judy at Sakura for family dinner. We were celebrating Jared passing his Certified Financial Planner exam! After dinner, we all came back to our house for a bonfire and drinks. Josh and Heather came over as well and the boys went outside for a bonfire and and cigars. It was way too cold outside for the ladies, so we stayed inside with our wine. As usual, when we have wine and nothing to do...its game time! So I busted out The Game of Life.

We were having a great time playing Life and talking about our own revisions that we wanted to make to the game. We were especially entertained by Gina and my mom making their Life husbands ride in the back of their cars. Everyone finally left while Gina and I fell asleep on the couch, leaving Jared, Erika, Rick and Boden as the last ones standing at the bonfire.

We had a wonderful weekend and we were so happy to share it with such great family and friends. I can't believe that January is almost over, but I am sooooo ready for some warm weather!