I've ran into this too, finally I just planned a weekend a way, got some fam to watch this kids. it was appreciated way more than I figured...bought some serious fun tickets
I fought countless battles when my kids were little. I was young, obsessed with hunting and trying to spend every waking hour in the woods. A lot of it was just the stress of little kids, but also just a lack of planning on my part. This is more of general advice than your specific scenario...
congrats! enjoy them when you get them! one of my buddies kids drew a good bull tag on the West side, his other kid had it year prior...heres hoping that kind of luck comes around at some point!
+1 on this, I have the same for my all around mountain rifle and as a klutz known to take some tumbles I love having a bomb proof optic. no issues running low mag when hunting timber.
I'm a Stone Glacier guy. I use mine for everything. I run the sky 5900 and just compress it down when I'm day hunting. Their frame has been my favorite meat hauler. only drawback is spending hours on youtube learning the configurations--but I'm a slow learner.
Finally signed up w/ Rokslide. Greatly appreciate all the content on the site and I've benefited for many years, hopefully over time I can pay that forward. Live in Enumclaw, have a day job, 3 kids, coach sports and my home hunting grounds are a lofty 15% success rate on deer---fortunate enough...