Gosh, what a Thanksgiving weekend we had this year! We have spent the last three years hunting with our friend Tim in South Dakota, but for our 4th Thanksgiving, we decided to stay here in Colorado and go back to Laybourne’s, where we hunted about a month ago. Since we stayed local, we were actually free on turkey day — something we were pretty excited about since we spent the last two at the Pizza Hut in Winner, SD!
Our friend Gail was kind enough to have us over for a full Thanksgiving spread. To make it even more exciting, Gail has a 3 month old puppy!! Fenway is SO cute and has such a great personality. After a great dinner with even better company, we headed back home to pack up the car and head to Eastern Colorado.
Since the weather can be so unpredictable this time of year, we already winterized the RV, and instead made plans to stay with a family in Akron. We were joined by Tim and Alison this year and the bed and breakfast we all stayed at was completely amazing! Our hostess Dianne is just about the best cook (next to Jenny’s Mom) we have ever met. Marc made sure all weekend that Jenny was paying very close attention to how Dianne did things 🙂
We arrived around 7:00 on Thursday night and were just in time to finish watching a big rivalry game. The game didn’t go quite as Jenny would have liked so we’ll just leave it at that — no need to relive the misery. Then it was off to bed for an early morning start. When we stumbled up the stairs, we were greeted to a cup of coffee and a big smile from Dianne. She then made us omelets (made to order!), potatoes, and poured us a big glass of juice. What a way to wake up! The best part of breakfast may have been Cary Grant — their teacup poodle! He was the cutest little thing and even made Schmav look big! We think he knew we were poodle people because he followed us around all weekend. Needless to say, Cary Grant spent very little time walking around on his own four feet 🙂 Then to further spoil us, we walked outside and realized it was about 50 degrees!! So nice to have such perfect hunting weather.
After breakfast, we all geared up and headed to Laybourne’s. Today we would be joined by Mike (who works with Marc) and his son Braden. We don’t let people shoot over our dogs unless we trust them immensely. Mike is a true sportsman, growing up hunting everything from upland to large game. He even does archery! Braden is 14 and is the Douglas County 4H Champion Trap Shooter. Needless to say, he is a better shot than us! The first time we hunted with Mike and Braden a few years ago, Braden gave us the following safety tip, “If it’s low let it go, if it’s high shoot for the sky.” Cute, right? It was nice to be around such great hunters who we were confident wouldn’t be taking dangerous shots around our dogs (or us!)
With Mike, Braden, Tim, and Marc, it was a bad day to be a bird! Karma, Mariika, Gavi, Caymus, and Indy worked the field beautifully finding 11 pheasants and 6 chukar! Alison and Jenny were busy doing some photo journaling, be sure to check out the link to Jenny’s pics at the bottom of the page. This was also a VERY exciting day because Karma worked her first bird all on her own. Karma hit a beautiful point and all the other dogs honored her work. Marc went up and flushed the bird and then dropped it hard about 30 yards away. Karma hustled to the bird and retrieved it all the way back to Marc’s hand! Then she did the cutest little celebration dance! After that it was GAME ON. Karma had several more points, and retrieves, and between photos, Jenny was even able to help Karma honor through the shot and retrieve of other birds. It was a great day in the field with our little bird dog — she definitely had some *BIG* enthusiasm out there!
After cleaning birds, we said bye to Mike and Braden and headed back to our home away from home. Tonight we had such a treat — Steaks (SUPER FRESH) grilled up by Roger, with glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin or coconut pie for dessert! YUM!!
Saturday morning we headed out into some windy conditions! But first, we had another amazing breakfast by Dianne. German Pancakes with cinnamon apples and whipped cream, potato cakes, steak, and an amazing asparagus quiche! Amazing, amazing, amazing! Then we headed over to Laybourne’s and those windy conditions I was mentioning. After Tim shot the first bird of the day, he ripped out some feathers and threw them into the wind. It was crazy to see how they swirled all around — a good demonstration of how hard the scenting conditions were for the dogs. Despite the conditions — we got our birds!! Karma learned a lot today, but it was more of a day for Indy, our experienced bird dog to shine. What a great couple days watching our pups loving life!
Saturday night we took it easy and just planned a little outing for Sunday morning. We unpacked, watched a movie, and chilled with our completely exhausted V kids 🙂
Sunday we met up with Gauge and Ila (and their respective parents.) Gauge is Karma’s half brother (same dad) and Ila is Gauge’s half sister (same mom) — confused yet? 🙂 We met up for coffee and pastries at our favorite Park Hill spot — Cake Crumbs Bakery — and then headed out for a long off leash run. Between Clare and Jenny you can bet little Ila didn’t spend much time on the ground! So we started our holiday with a Vizsla puppy and finished it with another — how lucky are we?!
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