The Big 6-0

This past weekend, the family celebrated Dad's 60th Birthday. Danielle, Ridge and I drove up to Mills River late Friday evening where we met up with Joe and his family to surprise Dad. All of us pulled into the driveway around 9:30 PM and crept around to the front door and rang the doorbell. Dad and Mom were half asleep on the couch watching TV. You should have seen Dad's face when he opened the door to find all of his grandchildren standing on the front porch.

Dad spent the following day playing with the kids, taking them on hikes and rides on Paw's old tractor. That evening, Mom had ordered several racks of baby backs and chopped pork and we gorged ourselves into a self-induced barbecue coma.

After supper, it was cake and presents time where Joe and I surprised Dad with a new hunting rifle. It was a gun he had been talking about non-stop for over a year now-a Remington 700 with a synthetic stock and detachable magazine, chambered in a 7MM. It's a great light-weight mountain rifle, perfect for knocking down elk in high altitudes. To say Dad was flabbergasted when he opened the box would be an understatement. (In fact, when I think about it, I believe this is the first time in my life I've actually used the word flabbergasted in a sentence. ) Dad, will never admit it, but I think he even got a little teary-eyed over the gift.

It was the least Joe and I could do. I mean for over thirty years, Dad has shelled out so much cash for us in order to satisfy our hunting addiction. Hunting licenses, elk tags, property leases, taxidermy fees and in some cases even game warden fines. The list goes on and on. A new elk rifle is our small way of saying "thanks." But to be fair, Dad is directly responsible for me and Joe's costly deer addiction. If he hadn't introduced us to the sport when we were small, hadn't made us pose in dead deer photo ops when we where just toddlers and hadn't showed us the proper way to sit a deer stand when we were just in grade school, we would have never caught the hunting bug in the first place.

But we are really grateful he did.

Hopefully, Dad's new 7 Mag will put a nice 6x6 on the ground this October when we head to Colorado. Happy Birthday Dad!