Yesterday the seasonable weather came in, the morning was in the 70's and by the evening the wind and temps were both in the 30's. We are not sad by any means as the fall has been glorious. Little rain has also meant that the fall colors have held strong to the trees and we have been busy. Two weekends ago our little family pack headed West to separate destinations. Amy and Grace headed to Farmington, MN for a Lacrosse tournament, complete with costumed competition. The Friday night drive was met with news that the area had had a massive multi-day downpour and the school cancelled the tournament to preserve the fields. They did all the traveling teams to each play two games on Saturday morning to help off set the drive time. Grace enjoyed it, but they were both back home by Saturday night. Merrick and I, headed to the deer hunting woods for the annual scouting/camping/screwing around weekend. We drove over Saturday morning and the day just kept getting nicer. We checked our stands and found good sign, repaired our debris stand cover and spent the early afternoon tromping the swamps for grouse and woodcock. I expected to flush many but in the end we only heard multiple drumming grouse and didn't see a single flush or get a single shot. Merrick did see a nice grey squirrel, but had not interest in shooting it with his shotgun...and that was a fine decision. Early in the walk I thought I heard a deer 'blow'...but Merrick informed me it was only him trying to breath. To be fair for some strange reason he had put all of his clothes on...two pairs of pants and like three shirts/jackets...it was cold when we started but didn't take long to heat up. Back at camp we ate, chatted, prepped dinner and shot some clay pigeons.
We have been busy and while that was two weekends ago. Last weekend was equally fun. Early Saturday morning Grace, Amy, and I drove to Lacrosse to have brunch with Sophia and see her place. Then we headed to Great River Bluffs State park in MN picking up "DuBecks" on the way. The fall colors were beautiful, the walk was easy and it was a great way to spend an early afternoon before heading back to the Bryan homestead stopping first to buy some disgusting 'candy' at the local ethnic store. We chatted and waited for B-rad to bust out his hibachi skills. With our bellies stuffed with pho we all slide into the hot tub. Sophia came over too when she was done with work and soaked, chatted, and laughed with us. Sunday morning found us not yet ready to head home...we headed north through the beautiful Arcadia ridge and picked up Ella at her place on Water street and then headed to Bergen Ave for Daryll's 90th birthday party and say hello to the Wold Clan. Ella had picked a nice brunch spot for us to go so we invited Grandma Nancy and Grandprize along and wonderful meal and chit chat before driving back home.
Back to this weekend....Merrick and I are going to go sight in our deer rifles under a sunny sky...Grace is going to continue to heal, having had her wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. Ella is in St. Louis with the band and Sophia is planning on playing Halloween in LaX.
