Long Absent and the Allan Lifestyle

I know....it's been a while, although I don't think all that many people noticed I was absent. We had some combination of family through the revolving front door until yesterday, and were just on the go and occupied. There was also some clean up of Christmas that had to happen. Really. It did. For my own sanity. The bins went out to the loft on Saturday, and (cue the heavenly angel choir) Bryce and my husband actually managed to get the January bin in as well, so some snowmen are appearing. So what's been going on during the family time? Well, I'm going to warn you that this particular post covers my husband's favorite pastime. I have kept the dead things to a minimum, so hopefully I won't offend anyone. My guess is that I'll offend all my boys by not putting more dead things in.

There were duck hunts down at the ponds, and you can see that my boys start their boys (and girls, truth be told) off pretty young. It was cold, but David's nose is red because he just fell down face-first in a pile of snow.

We usually go down to Utah to spend some time with my husband's parents the weekend after Christmas, and for the past several years that has entailed an overnighter at what I call the pheasant farm. It's further south than my in-law's house, so we drive for several hours to get there. This was the sunset as we got close.

It was unseasonably warm during our time there, getting up into the mid-50's. Usually when we're there, we're slipping and sliding on ice and snow and have really cold temperatures. It was a nice change to not be battling the elements to stay upright. We usually have dinner and visit with everyone in the evening, then the next morning whoever wants to hunt goes out after breakfast.

That's a whole lot of blaze orange there, my friends. 

The guys...and Caroline....had a great time. So great that they went out again in the afternoon, which in all honesty made it a long day of sitting around waiting for them for those of us who don't hunt. I brought thank you cards to write and stitching to keep myself busy.

And there was a little of this as well.

Comments

[AP Man]

Great picture! I love the orange army.

[Pam]

Well, I miss you when I don’t see an Allan family adventure.
That is really an army of orange,

[Carolyn F]

Of course we missed you!

[Alison]

I’ve been checking for a post! Glad to see the updates!

[Elisa]

We noticed you weren’t posting Mama, we just knew you were completely swamped this season, and figured something had to give. So glad to see a sense of normalcy has returned to your schedule! We love your blog! And that army of orange

[Elise]

I'm still sad I missed out on the steak!

[Collin]

I've been checking everyday, waiting for an update.

[Eye guy]

That was fun!