Fall Weather, Hunting and Chili......

Since my last post, we have been busy as a family, and have been enjoying this Fall that came to us practically overnight. The Fall weather came fast, and we have been blessed with some really amazing days. Yes, of course, there has been rain and wind as well.....but, there have also been plenty of beautiful days filled with sunshine and cooler temperatures, along with changing colors of foliage that just make everything so beautiful. For me, getting out and riding my bike during this time of year is a real treat...cooler temps, the colors, the smell of people burning leaves and burn piles, seeing the farmers all fast at harvest..... it is awesome, and I love it. :-)

We took a little trip over to Republic, WA for deer hunting for a week recently. We had a most wonderful time...the camping part was excellent! The weather was about perfect! The deer hunting was NOT successful. We worked hard for a full five days, and only saw about 15 does total. This was Evan's very first time as a hunter, and so he was a bit bummed. I didn't expect that he would get to necessarily shoot his first deer on his very first hunting trip, but I sure did expect that he would have at least had the opportunity to see a bunch of deer, and at least one or two bucks. It just didn't happen. As I said, the camping part of the trip was great, and all of us had a really great time.

Now that we are back home again, we are frantically busy this week with trying to clean out and clean up and organize the shop, so we can get set up for our 4th annual LBF chili cook-off and pumpkin carving contest!!! The shop is an absolute disaster area right now, and I figure these next couple of days are going to take all I have got to get it in shape and ready for Friday night.

In addition to that, I have to find time to get to the store for shopping, and time to make my award winning chili for the contest!!! :-)

So, I am finishing up my shift here at work this morning, and then heading home to get started on cleaning the shop.

Friday night...... CHILI, FRIENDS, PUMPKINS!!! :-)

Here are a few photos from our deer hunting trip....we had so much fun, even with no deer!!!

October Updates.....

Getting ready to leave town this Saturday, heading to the east side of the state (Republic, WA) for deer hunting.  This is Evan's very first time as a deer hunter, after successfully passing his hunter safety course last month.  He is just a bit excited about getting the opportunity to shoot a nice buck deer, but not nearly as excited as I will be should the opportunity actually present itself!!!  :-)

So, since we will be gone, I figured a quick update on this month is in order.  First, Evan's football season.... WOW, they are really doing great this year!  This last Saturday, they won their game by a score of 20-6, with Evan scoring two of his teams touchdowns!  His team is now undefeated, 5-0 for the season!  The toughest game, and hopefully most exciting game they will play, should come this Saturday morning at 9:15am.  Evan's team plays against the only other undefeated team in the league, and they get to play in Bellingham, at Civic Stadium!!!  :-)  Because of this, we have decided to miss our opportunity at opening day of deer season.....yes, we will be staying here so Evan can play in this all important and exciting game, on the big boy turf!!!  We will depart for hunting camp after the game is over.....and hopefully with another win, but even more, hopefully with Evan having played a fantastic game!!!  GO EVAN!!!  GO NOOKSACK!!!    :-)

As I said, immediately after the game, we will start driving over to Republic, WA... to deer camp.  Grammy & Papa are already there, with camp all set up for us, just waiting our arrival.  We hope to make it over there by dinner time on Saturday, so we can have a good dinner, get all ready to go, get a good night of sleep, and be ready for a full day of hunting on Sunday!!!  :-)

We will have five full days of hunting over there....and I am hoping that we do NOT need them all......it would be so nice to get our deer, then be able to sit back and just enjoy camping for a few days!!!  :-)

This past weekend, while Evan was having a great football game, Brad and I were in Oregon, riding in the Harvest Century ride, with good friends Scott Taube and Doug Peterson.  What a fantastic ride, and most wonderful day we had this year!!!  The weather was great Fall weather.....cool and cloudy early, becoming sunny and warm enough throughout the day.... NO RAIN!!!  Awesome!!!  Great 107 mile ride, with excellent group of guys..... we had so much fun this year.  And Brad did just awesome!!!  He has come a long way..... a very long way!!!  Makes me so happy, and so very proud  :-)

So, I am off to work today, then home tomorrow to get all of the hunting stuff put together and packed....should be crazy.  I spent the past two days making spaghetti sauce and home made meatballs for  deer camp, as well as a brand new recipe of chili.... which is for deer camp, but is so stinking good, I am planning to use it for the chili cook-off as well  :-)

This is a crazy, fast and fun month of October this year....... what a blur it will be in just a couple of weeks from now.  So glad I am blogging about it, so we can come back and remember just how good it all was!!!

See ya in couple of weeks, if the good Lord is willing it  :-)

October Ramblings.....

Today is October 6th already.  And the month of October for us is anything but slow and peaceful and quiet and relaxing!  The calendar is already filled to the brim with events, games, trips, and more that will have us into the month of November before we can hardly stop to think about it!!!  :-)

Evan's football schedule is keeping us busy.  He has practice on Monday and Thursday evenings, from 5:30-7pm.  He then has games each Saturday, at varying times and locations.  Evan is playing really well, and having a lot of fun this year.  He plays primarily the positions of running back on offense, and safety on defense.   He is also the special teams kicker.  It has bee so much fun to watch Evan grow as an athlete, and to develop into a football player.  :-)

Sierra has just started back up with dance classes again this month.  She is doing jazz dance again this year, and is quite excited about how it is going so far.  She has her dance class lessons on Tuesdays, after school, so at least we aren't dealing with two kids going two ways and the same time right now!!!

This weekend is the Harvest Century bike ride, in Hillsboro, OR.  Brad and myself are heading down to Beaverton tomorrow morning, and will be riding this great event with my great friend, Scott Taube.  I am excited and hopeful for this years ride, as the weather forecast looks to be much better than it was for us last year!!!  :-)  We will for sure ride the 75 mile course, and if everything goes well, weather especially, we may very well go ahead and push for the 102 mile course.  Should be a fun day of riding and friendship and fellowship together!!!  I am looking forward to it.

Next week, we will be very busy getting ourselves together and ready to leave on Saturday the 15th, to head over to Republic, WA for Evan's very first time deer hunting!!!  We will meet Grammy and Papa over there, and we will enjoy five days of deer hunting together.  We have a lot to do to get ready, shopping to do, meals to prepare, clothing to put together, hunting licenses to purchase, and more.  It will be a very hectic and crazy week, with a fair amount of stress, as we all try to work together to get everything done so we can have a fun and successful trip.

We will leave for our hunting trip that afternoon, after we go watch Evan play in his football game, at Civic Stadium in Bellingham!!!  That will be fun.  We will then return home the following Friday, October 21st.  Then, the next day, Evan and Uncle Brad and myself will head to Seattle, to see the OSU Beavers take on the WSU Cougars, at Quest Field!!!  :-)  I am so very excited for this day.  To spend some time with Evan, watching college football together..... with great seats, and watching our Beavers play.....should be awesome!!!  The only bummer about it I can think of...... so far, the Beavs are 0-4 this season!  :-(  Come on Beavs, time to kick it into high gear, start winning!!!

After that, we are already into the final week of October around here.  With that comes the Little Bearfoot Farm annual Chili Cook-Off and Pumpkin Carving Contest!!!  We will have a very busy week getting prepared for this year, as the shop is an absolute disaster area right now.  We have at least a full day, possibly two days worth of cleaning and organizing to get things ready and set up for the big night.  In addition, I still have to come up with an award winning chili recipe!!!  :-)  I am NOT keeping the "boobie" prize again this year!!!

So, the month of October here is already packed full.  There is much more we could try to fit in, and probably will along the way.  However, the month is going to be over before we realize it happened.  So, I will blog about so we can come back and read all about it later!!!  ;-)

For now, time to get this new day started.  Time to get ready for this weekend, and time to start planning out how to get everything accomplished this month that I just talked about.......

Fall is here!!!  :-)