AZHunter
Iowa Boy At Heart
A while back, I posted a story/picture of my 3 year old son and his 1st bullseye. In that post, I mentioned my daughter soon getting a Nuclear Ice for her 7th birthday. Her birthday is actually a week from today (25 April), but we gave her her main birthday present (the Nuclear Ice) this past Friday night so that she would be able to get everything set up for her and she can have fun over the weekend before we go camping/turkey hunting this coming weekend in NM (more on that later in another post) and take her bow with her to keep shooting.
Quick back story on my daughter/my life: 7 years ago, my dad died of a major heart attack on 10 April 2004. I flew home Easter Sunday for his funeral service, leaving my very pregnant wife behind because of the upcoming due date. I got back to Tucson, went to work for a week and Sydney was born just 15 days after my dad died. I won't even lie, I was a MESS! I cried uncontrollably as I held her tight in my arms and knew she was always going to be that much more special to me. Sydney has been very instrumental in my healing process over the last 7 years and this year was the first year I have felt completely at peace and not felt any real pain on the anniversary of dad's death. Being excited to give her her bow had a lot to do with it because I knew how excited she'd be.
Enough sobby stuff. She tore into her present Friday night and came unglued screaming and jumping all around! We got her the full set up with a release and a half-dozen inexpensive arrows that we were hoping could be cut down to size to give us a full dozen. Even though the bow wasn't set up, I let her go out back and shoot two arrows to see if she could pull back using the release. She was flying so high when she popped 2 arrows solidly into the target. I told her the guys at the archery shop were expecting her Saturday morning to set her draw length and weight accordingly and cut her arrows. We walked into the shop at 0930 and they were waiting for her. To say she was even more excited at the personal attention would be an understatement. We went into the range to see how her draw length was and make some adjustments:
Adjustments were made and then it was time for lessons on form and how to use all the components. As Mav was giving Sydney lessons and coaching her, not once did she elude to anything I taught her (maybe once on something small). Nope, it was "My dad's friend Mr. Wayne (aka Bowman) told me this..." or "Mr. Wayne showed me this...".
But that was ok by me because I can think of much worse role models out there!
So after a few more tweaks and cutting arrows to the proper length, she started grouping arrows and pulled her first bullseyes:
A few more tweaks and pointers later, she dead-centered it!
Of course, she doesn't remember 5 minutes ago that I asked her to pick up her toys, books, clothes, etc., but she remembers almost a year ago when I told her that we'd get ice cream at the place of her choosing when she got her first bullseye! Yesterday afternoon was one of the best trips to Baskin Robins I've ever had! The guys at the archery shop were great to her, let her go back behind the counter to learn what all the adjustments were, and let her pick her own fletch colors (2 blue, 1 pink) when all was said and done (2 hours later). I told her over and over how proud of her I was and that the bulls weren't flukes, because she did it 3 times and was grouping consistently. And as we were driving home, she grabbed my phone so she could call Mr. Wayne and tell him everything. She shot some more that afternoon in the backyard and again yesterday. We still have some tweeking on form to do, but she is grouping arrows consistently and she looks so darn cute with that bow in her hands!
Sorry for this super long post, but thanks for indulging a very proud father!
Quick back story on my daughter/my life: 7 years ago, my dad died of a major heart attack on 10 April 2004. I flew home Easter Sunday for his funeral service, leaving my very pregnant wife behind because of the upcoming due date. I got back to Tucson, went to work for a week and Sydney was born just 15 days after my dad died. I won't even lie, I was a MESS! I cried uncontrollably as I held her tight in my arms and knew she was always going to be that much more special to me. Sydney has been very instrumental in my healing process over the last 7 years and this year was the first year I have felt completely at peace and not felt any real pain on the anniversary of dad's death. Being excited to give her her bow had a lot to do with it because I knew how excited she'd be.
Enough sobby stuff. She tore into her present Friday night and came unglued screaming and jumping all around! We got her the full set up with a release and a half-dozen inexpensive arrows that we were hoping could be cut down to size to give us a full dozen. Even though the bow wasn't set up, I let her go out back and shoot two arrows to see if she could pull back using the release. She was flying so high when she popped 2 arrows solidly into the target. I told her the guys at the archery shop were expecting her Saturday morning to set her draw length and weight accordingly and cut her arrows. We walked into the shop at 0930 and they were waiting for her. To say she was even more excited at the personal attention would be an understatement. We went into the range to see how her draw length was and make some adjustments:
Adjustments were made and then it was time for lessons on form and how to use all the components. As Mav was giving Sydney lessons and coaching her, not once did she elude to anything I taught her (maybe once on something small). Nope, it was "My dad's friend Mr. Wayne (aka Bowman) told me this..." or "Mr. Wayne showed me this...".
But that was ok by me because I can think of much worse role models out there! So after a few more tweaks and cutting arrows to the proper length, she started grouping arrows and pulled her first bullseyes:
A few more tweaks and pointers later, she dead-centered it!
Of course, she doesn't remember 5 minutes ago that I asked her to pick up her toys, books, clothes, etc., but she remembers almost a year ago when I told her that we'd get ice cream at the place of her choosing when she got her first bullseye!
Yesterday afternoon was one of the best trips to Baskin Robins I've ever had! The guys at the archery shop were great to her, let her go back behind the counter to learn what all the adjustments were, and let her pick her own fletch colors (2 blue, 1 pink) when all was said and done (2 hours later). I told her over and over how proud of her I was and that the bulls weren't flukes, because she did it 3 times and was grouping consistently. And as we were driving home, she grabbed my phone so she could call Mr. Wayne and tell him everything. She shot some more that afternoon in the backyard and again yesterday. We still have some tweeking on form to do, but she is grouping arrows consistently and she looks so darn cute with that bow in her hands!Sorry for this super long post, but thanks for indulging a very proud father!
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