SHOT Show 2012

I have been trying to figure out how I was going to get to the SHOT Show for about a month now... I got it worked out late Thursday night to attend the final day on Friday. So.. there I went, sporting my SLAM Outdoors polo and a couple of SLAM business cards in my wallet just in case I happened to run into someone like say.... oh I don't know........ BENNY SPIES MAYBE??

Yep! It's true folks.. I met our Mentor, Benny Spies himself! I have been on a high ever since! What an honor! Here's a little about how the conversation went:

Me: BENNY!, love your show. Best hunting show on t.v. by far! We love it because it appeals to normal guys like me.
Benny: Thanks man, that means a lot.
Me: My friends and I love your show. In fact, we are even in the market for an old winnie.
Benny: Oh, A toaster?
Me: Yep (we shared a quick laugh).
Benny: This is so and so....(forgot the name of the girl with him)
Me: Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Quinn Hadley (and we all shook hands).
Benny: She's the reason we can do what we do. She keeps us on the air.
Me: So.. did NBC Outdoors pick up you show?
Benny: yep, we just signed for 9 more shows coming out later this year. Gotta keep the old toaster on the road.
Me: Awesome! Would you mind if I got a picture with you? Maybe one on my phone and one on my camera?
Benny: Sure (we take pictures)
Me: Thanks, my friends are gonna freak when they see this
Benny: What size are you?
Me: XL
Benny: Here, have a shirt. Not sure if it is XL... Oh, it's not. Let me look. Here's one... You know what? Just keep both of them.
Me: Thanks a lot man!
Benny: You're welcome
Me: Nice to meet you
Benny: You too. Take care. Thanks for watching.....

THAT WAS SOOO AWESOME!! but, unfortunately, I froze during all of that because I was nervous and didn't give him a business card.... what was I thinking??? I guess I didn't want to be rude and it looked like he was leaving. I just felt lucky to even run into him. I mean... there are 10,000 people at this thing and I just happened to be right were he was walking out at that exact moment. I almost couldn't believe it. It caught me off guard because I didn't expect to see him there that late in the week so when I did, I wasn't prepared. I am going to post that pic on his facebook wall but there are a lot of other morons on there asking him to go hunting with them and stuff like that. But, If I could do it all over again, I would have talked to him a bit longer and ask him if he liked it out west, introduced myself better, and told him how much we watch and love his show. And then I would have invited him out to Lake Powell (which was the first thing Nicole asked me if I had said) for a Striper fishing trip. Just think if he had that card right now.... If he didn't throw it in the trash right after he walked away, he would have had it in his pocket and found it one day and thought, "hey, I should check out this website, that guy said I was on here. What the heck." And then who knows if it would have turned into a friendship. I would love to be considered one of his "good buddies" like on his show.

Anyway, not that it mattered after that, there was still a whole show to see. There were like 2,000 booths at this thing! We were there for 4 hrs and barely saw any of it. It was SOOO awesome! I have never seen so much cool stuff in one place. Every major company and tons you have never heard of were there. We're talkin', Browning, Mossy Oak, Realtree, Remington, TC, Smith and Wesson, Colt, Glock, Benelli, Savage, DB, Nikon, Leopold, Vortex, Wolf, Tul Ammo, Barnes, Hornaday, Gamo... You had to be a buyer to get in. Good thing I have a few friends in high places in law enforcement.

-Quinn

Ho Ho Ho

I really want to edit these but if I take them into photoshop, there is no telling whether I'd ever take the time to finish and get them up. I used to be so good at this. Now all I want to do is watch Netflix or go to bed. I think maybe a blog re-design might motivate me to pick up the pace a bit. So here is Christmas 2012 as is:

CHRISTMAS EVE: Annie is obsessed with leading the music. She lead the entire Metcalf Fam as we sang Christmas Songs. Owen was our Baby Jesus again only this time he took his costume seriously and came out in "swaddling clothes."

CHRISTMAS MORNING: Annie was super thrilled this year over presents, the tree, lights... But once she saw her piano, we couldn't get her to look at anything else. She wouldn't even bother opening any of her other gifts for a few days. This was the perfect present for her. She plays and leads the music at the same time!

YDNIC & NOR'S: We had a big breakfast over at Ydnic & Nor's this year. I thought Annie might need another year to get excited about opening presents but, once we got her away from her piano, she was totally into it. My parents gave us a nice TV which is awesome since our current dinosaur requires us to use subtitles any time we want to watch something and know what is being said. Really, it is a wonder we actually ever watched anything on it. Now thinking maybe the new TV isn't such a great idea. I can't wait to waste hours with it. If only we had cable!


GRANDMA POLLY'S: I'm not sure how she keeps doing it, but Grandma decorated her house from head to toe again. We had a terrific dinner and a huge wrapping paper fight. I feel bad though, I may have gotten largely mad at Q and berated him to no little extent for decking me with something only to find out it was Grandma Polly behind the injury.

Ho Ho Ho Facts:

• I wrapped my first present of the season at 11pm on Christmas Eve. School went late this year and I can't remember a quicker more stressful week of Christmas ever! It was a long night. Good thing the gifts were sparse this year.

• A few days before Christmas we decided we better get some sort of tree. So Q went to the mortuary and found an old Jubilee tree already decorated. That's why we have a Triple Deuce theme going. We didn't even fluff it. I have a feeling Annie won't let us get away with this kind of behavior again.

• After months and months of looking, I didn't find our heirloom Christmas ornaments {the one's we've been collecting for 8 years} until January 6th. It was the only thing lost in 8 years of moving every year and storing all our stuff in random places for that long. At least I know where they are now.

• I know you'll think we are totally lame and un-romantic, but Q and I haven't given each other anything for Christmas for awhile now. We decided the last 5 Christmas's and the next 30, we will just count the house {which sounds pretty good to us}. But... in the spirit of having something to open, we allowed one cheap gift to pass this year. He gave me a teeny egg frying pan and I gave him a toothbrush sanitizer. We were both pleased as punch. In January Q bought a gym pass and I bought some much needed MAC so I guess that could count for something as well.

• Annie is bonkers over Christmas lights. Our defective car baby could be strapped in her car seat all night long in December! She goes berserk every time she sees a house lit up. It's funny though, not sure how she knows but her favorite lights are the ones Mark put up at Ydnic & Nor's. She cannot even contain herself when we drove by. "What is it! What is it!" followed by cheers, laughter into the sky, and applause every time.

• Christmas morning we went in her room to get Annie and she pointed to my tummy and clapped. Then she hugged and patted the new baby inside and said "awe," and "who is it?" We have never mentioned the new baby around her or even talked about it so we were both dumbfounded. I asked her where the baby was and, matter of factly, she pointed straight to my tummy and started rubbing it, laughing and smiling all the while.

State of the Union

Currently:

• I went back to work which is always painful after a long break but especially so this time.

• I've been exceptionally, and I really do mean horribly, depressed over Harry Potter again. After my last bout with the Harry Potter blues I swore off them. I just can't handle the pain of finishing the last book again. It's like a death in the family. But last weekend I decided to finally watch those last 2 movies so we had a Harry marathon; watched them all in row ending with that final torturously emotional scene 19 years later. You know the one. I thought I shed my last Harry Potter tears back in 2007 but alas, I had a whole heap more to expel and these perhaps the most painful of all. I've been in a wretched rut ever since, moping round the house and snapping and Quinn. It's awful. I finally resorted to reading Jeeves again to at least try and take my mind out of Hogwarts and off of Snape. OH SNAPE!!! Did you know Harry Potter is the reason I am a Language Arts teacher. Well it's true. I'm still depressed that it's all over. First ever author billionaire. JK deserves every penny.

• Today I resorted to Velveeta Mac & Cheese as the "healthier" option. I mean really, Velveeta? When was the last time you ate Velveeta? Here I am actually reading the directions whilst wearing sunglasses to use my computer since it sits right in front of a direct sunlight window. Oh, and I'm 4.5 months there. Halfway to baby squared. I dream of days like this when I can wear sweat pants all the day long!
  

• I go to the thrift store to buy toys now. Why haven't I been doing this all along. Yesterday I walked away with a huge play kitchen, a barbie ride-on SUV for toddlers, and some sort of musical wobble contraption and Annie played with them for more than 5 minutes. The damage: 19 bucks!
  

• THIS little cutie is wild and crazy and all things difficult but she is also our entire world. We think she is the smartest, most talented, cutest 18-month-old on the planet. As it should be I suppose. This has been a demanding year at work for both Q and I. Lots of long hours away from Annie. Seems like we have to work a lot harder to pull the same income we use too. It's worth it though if we can hang on. We have this amazing house that is perfect and huge and gorgeous on the inside and now I can watch HGTV with this smug little look on my face because we did all that and it worked out and you really can get more for your buck if you renovate. So after an entirely exhausting day at work, Annie discovering sunglasses for the first time totally makes it worth it!
  

• Piggies. Annie can have real piggies now. Can't believe she is a girl... still, after all this time. I found all these little blue boy clothes I bought for her before she was born. We were positive she wasn't going to be a she. We are so glad she is though. There is nothing like doing hair and having tea parties (which she is so into). She even puts her little pinky up when sipping from her tea cup and her favorite thing in the world is to try on shoes. So Annie is the best. She is exhausting, but the best.
  

• Sometimes we have dinner parties. They usually involve Meree cooking and us inviting ourselves even though we live here. If it weren't for Meree, we would starve.
  

Firemans Dinner

8/20/2011: We went to the annual fireman's dinner in Pine Valley again this year.

8/21/2011: Grandma Metcalf's Birthday


No one likes to rock like this girl!

The End of Summer

I am now free to blog my own blog! I have just completed a major blog project that took all 365 days of 2011! I kept a blog journal of my parents' lives everyday of the year complete with quotes, pictures, and things they did. It was a huge project and I can't believe I actually accomplished it. So that is partly why I have been amiss being here. Done now though. Let's play a bit more catch up shall we:

September 20th, 2011
We took Annie to our college homecoming parade and she sat perfectly still watching the entire thing. It was so dang hot, Q regretted his choice of outfit.

September 20th, 2011
When it finally cooled off enough to stand being outside, I took Annie on a ton of bike rides. She loves riding in the bike buggy way more than her posh stroller (Q never fails to remind me that the posh stroller is lost Annie and I might as well have got one at the thrift store). January has been so warm lately that we have been a several bike rides again. I'm trying to get as many in while I can still fit on the bike.

October 6th, 2011
We spent the night at Michelle's on our way to Provo to see Meg perform with the BYU flok dancers in the Homecoming parade. Annie is absolutely gaga for Becky and laughed for an hour straight at Becky who sat on the couch entertaining her. Did I mention Annie had an evil muhahahaha laugh that requires the use of her entire body and head thrown back into the air? It is hilarious. Mom has a video, I'll have to put it on.

October 7th, 2011
We were just in SLC last weekend and it was summer! In a few days, Northern Utah went straight from summer to the dead of winter. We were freezing but it was fun to see Meg dance. Ydnic deemed this Annie's last road trip ever since Annie is the most defective car baby on the planet and true to her word, she hasn't invited Annie and I on a single trip since.

October 13th, 2011
We borrowed a tractor to try and level our land. I say land because we have almost an acre of dirt on figure out. The problem now is that we ran out of money renovating the inside of our fantastic home so, though the dirt may me level, dirt it will remain until we can win some sort of lottery. I told Q, an acre of dirt is still way better than a yard of perfect landscape. Annie begs to ride on the tractor with Q.

July 29th, 2011
I started to have a little faith in Annie's Lake skills toward the end of the summer. She finally stopped getting sick at the lake and let me tote her around in the water on a little raft. Ydnic says I'm ruining yet another lake season by having my next kid in the summer again. I couldn't agree more but school teachers only have 2 months to choose from so I didn't have much choice.