Recalculating

It snowed almost seven inches on Tuesday, which (for the record) was October 20. Further proof that 2020 is bat crap crazy! Wednesday morning, I got up to go for a run. I ended up feeling like the Garmin GPS lady as I was constantly "recalculating," looking for routes that were plowed and/or not sheets of ice. It was not a fast run, but I didn't end up on my butt, so we called it a success. 

Fall break (or as it is known in Minnesota - MEA break) was last weekend. Mike and I found ourselves recalculating our plans several times. We usually do our Baker Boo camping trip over that weekend. That was canceled weeks ago. We thought we'd go north to the hunting shack. Then that fell through. So we found a little house on the Soo Line Trail and rented that for a few days. Fell through. We made plans with Gma and Gpa to go hiking. Then they had a possible Covid exposure. I told Mike the universe clearly did not want us to do anything. 

Thankfully, Gma and Gpa ended up with an all clear on the exposure (yay!), so we resurrected the hiking plan. We met at Banning again, but this time, I brought a second adult mountain goat to help chase the troops. As we packed up our picnic lunch and the car, giant snowflakes began to fall. The kids were thrilled (and I grabbed snow pants for the troops). The snow wasn't sticking to the ground here, but we had to brush snow off the picnic table at the state park to eat our lunch. 

It was definitely colder than our last trip, but once we started hiking, it was very pleasant out. However, I did not wear shorts this time! The snow had stopped, but the rocks were wet and slippery. So we were more careful in our climbing than last time - and definitely hung back from the edges. But it was just as much fun. Since I had Mike to help, Gma and Gpa were able to hike more of the main trail (and then doubled back to meet us) while we scaled up and down the bluffs. They claimed it was easy to pinpoint our location because they could hear Q's shrieks of delight. [There was a chasm that I wouldn't let Quinn jump last time. Mike helped her jump it. Pure happiness for her. Partial heart attack for me.]

Around 2:30, Gma and Gpa hugged us good-bye (we were still on the trail) and high-tailed it back to their car. They were heading down to the cities to spend a couple days with Auntie. We meandered our way out of the woods and headed north to Gma and Gpa's house for the night. We got there just in time to test out the new Legos, order our favorite Sammy's Pizza, and eat the apple pie the Gma had left for us. Not a bad start for what felt like Plan J in the recalculation exercise.