My Birthday and the RMEF Banquet

My birthday started out nice and slow.  With a little bit of this... snuggling :)

 It was nice just hanging out with the baby.  I was gone most of yesterday and didn't get to play with him much, so today we had some snuggle time...

 Then the eight year old brought me my diet coke in a nice glass with a hand-made note taped on it (with LOTS of tape).

 My sweet husband picked out this cute bear figurine.  I collect bear things (and moose) and this one was rocking her baby in a rocking chair - how perfect is that?  It completely sums up who I am.

 My in-laws dropped by with these pretty flowers.

 And my daughter bought me some goodies and an owl journal.  (I'm into owls too.)

My parents each sent cash, which I'm sure will make it's way to Amazon.com in the near future ;)

Then this evening my husband and I went off to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation banquet.  We love going there and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  It made a great birthday dinner.  They served garlic shrimp and smoked prime rib, which was excellent.  The ducks in the photo above were sold for $20 each on a chance to win a 1986 Ford truck with a camo wrap on it - basically a hunting truck.  We didn't win.  And we didn't buy all four of them either - only one.  The other ducks were given to us after the auction. I'm sure the boys will appreciate them.

 Every membership purchase also came with a hunting knife with the RMEF logo etched into the blade.

There were several raffles too, rows of tables set up full of items.  You just walk around and put your raffle tickets in the buckets for the items you're interested in.  We won this one.

 Sorry for the poor picture quality - it was late and I had to use a flash so it didn't come out very well.  It's a message board made to hang on your wall, with a metal piece and the cutest magnets.

Here is one of the magnets.  They are the ends of bullets - very clever. And the magnets are very strong.  The message board is a "bragging board" so you're supposed to put your hunting pictures on it.

 The prize came with two of these plastic cutting board mats...

 And some seasoning salt.

I also played a game where you spin a wheel and win prizes.  Problem was they were out of most of the prizes by the time I played, so they gave raffle tickets instead.  Next year we're going to have to hit that game first.  My spins would have won a hoodie and a gun case, but instead I just got raffle tickets.  Oh well.

Oh, and then there's this little thing.  This is a gun safe - a huge one, with a custom wrap featuring the Teton Mountain Range, which is just up the road near Jackson Hole. This was one of the items available for the live auction, which we can't afford to even consider bidding in.  But they have a little game before hand called Pick of the Herd.  Before the live auction begins, they sell individual playing cards for $20 each.  You buy a card, tear it in half, turn in half of it, and then they draw the winning card.  Winner gets their choice of any live auction item, minus a few of their really big prizes like week-long hunts in New Zealand or Argentina, and guns that will sell for $5,000 or more.  Long story short, we bought two cards, and WON.  Our pick was this gun safe.  We've wanted one for a long time, and this one is absolutely beautiful.

 It will hold 30 rifles or shotguns, (10 on the door alone), plus has places for pistols, ammo and anything else you want to put in it.  It is fireproof too - I think someone told me it's fireproof for up to 60 minutes at 400 degrees or something crazy like that.  The only problem is that it's ridiculously heavy, and it has to be moved in the morning before church.  We're still working on all that... 

 I mentioned that the wrap was beautiful.  The front has the RMEF logo, and the Teton Mountains.  It's hard to see in this picture (I'll try to get better ones in the light tomorrow) but on this side there's a background image of the Wyoming flag, and the opposite side has the image of the American flag on it.  That side was right against their speakers, so I couldn't get a picture of that.  Anyway, not too bad of a birthday present!  It's worth over $2,000!

Speaking of flags, one neat thing that happened tonight was that the first item they auctioned off was an American flag which had been flown overseas on a military base.  They had just had all the veterans stand up and be recognized, as well as doing the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Star Spangled Banner.  The person who won the auction for the flag spent over $1000, then had the auctioneer give out raffle tickets to all of the veterans, and draw for one of them to have it.  It was an awesome gesture.