Kiera's First Hunt

So Kiera has been bugging me all summer to go do real camping. She doesn't feel that throwing a tent up at the cabin is true camping. She said that she wants to do the stuff like the bear guy that we watch on TV. You know, the "bear" guy that eats snakes and lizards, bugs, fish and all the other fun stuff. We all know him as "Man vs Wild". She has decided that is true camping. I really want to take her on a back country camping trip, but I am not certain that she will really like it yet, so I decided that we would take the next step and get her out in the wilderness to do some activities that are not quite so extreme yet and just let her get a taste of what's out there. A few weeks ago, my cousin Steve and I took her out scouting for deer one night. She loved being with the guys and had the time of her life sitting on top of a mountain with her binoculars watching all the deer around us. She was convinced that we had gone hunting and informed me that she was disappointed that we did not shoot anything to bring home to eat. So this last weekend was the opening for the Grouse Hunt here in Utah. My dad and I took her up on the four-wheelers and took her out on a walk through the thick brush and trees to see if we could find any birds. She was a trooper and actually made it through the three mile hike and only needed a little help in spots where the brush was too thick to get through. In the end, she helped find the grouse in which I shot. She retrieved it and was so excited to finally have something to take home to Mom for dinner. She made me promise her that the next grouse we saw, she wanted to shoot it. Unfortunately, we did not see any others to shoot. To my amazement, she even helped me pluck the feathers and clean the bird. She was awesome and I had a great time sharing in this little adventure with her.