This has been one of the best days that I've had in the woods in quite a while. The morning started off with rain so Ashley (my fourteen year old daughter) and I let the rain pass so we were a little late getting in our stands. We set up in our favorite hardwood bottom but it was very windy and we didn't see anything. We always put our climbers on the same tree with her stand above mine so that I can coach her through what to do when a deer comes in. She got cold this morning with all the wind so we came back home and got the ground blind for our afternoon hunt. I set it up and brushed it in on the edge of a food plot. We were just setting there talking and having a good time when a spike walked in at 5:10. I wasted no time getting her ready and she made a perfect shot at 22 yards. The deer ran off so we waited for 30 minutes, which was all I could stand, before going to look for him. He didn't go far. I drug him back to the field and we headed back to the road to get the four wheeler. It was still plenty of daylight left when we got to the four wheeler so I told Ashley let's walk down to another food plot and see if anything was in it. We snuck real slow down a path that led into the back of this plot. I saw movement in the plot heading toward the path that we were on. Turned out to be a big buck. It was really thick between him and me but I knew if he kept coming I would have a clear shot at less than 25 yards. I drew and held waiting on him to step out into the path. Just as he started out of the thick stuff he saw me and froze up. I needed him to take two more steps but he only took one. I knew he was probably fixing to run and I thought that I could squeeze an arrow through the vines in front of him but it didn't work and I missed him clean at 18 yards. Turns out that there was a bigger one right behind him that I didn't see until they ran off. As we walked out to get my arrow there was a third buck (spike)still in the plot. We saw four deer this afternoon and all were bucks. All in all Ashley got to kill her first deer with a bow and watch old dad miss one stud of a deer. I wish we could have doubled but I thank God that he allowed me to be with her making memories that will last our lifetimes.