Our Annual Trip to Balltown, Iowa

 We go to Balltown, Iowa to Briechbach Restaurant every October to see the leaves on the trees and eat the delicious food that is served here..We went here on Friday afternoon.  I picked up Ben an hour early from school so we could get there before the crowd showed up..it was a good thing. When we left there was quite a few people in line..   Tracie's friend Brian came with us this year.. He is such a nice young man. Ben really likes him and if you notice they are wearing the same kind of shirt.. Iowa... Ben  was being really silly looking through the binoculars. It was a cold day even thou the sun was out shining..

Here is a picture of Tracie, Ben and Brian. We had a really great time eating and enjoying the scenery. Brian and I took Ben over to the feed store that is across the street . They have lots of dried flowers, herbs , squash, apples,pumpkins, gourds.. Ben picked out 3 large pumpkins and was so excited.. I love fall and all the color and pumpkins and all that is involved...with October. This time of year there are a lot of October fests.  

The is the view from where we were standing.. The Mississippi River is in the distance, you can see it if you knew where to look.   It's quite a view.  

On the way home the sun was shining brightly and we saw two sun dogs.. The sun was setting and the sky was so red.. When riding in a car it's hard to get just the write spot to get the picture one wanted. There's so many hills here in this part of Iowa that it was difficult to get the one I wanted.. If anyone tells you that Iowa is flat ~ tell them they haven't been in the North. 
       Today being Saturday ~ I decided to get out the big suitcase out of the closet. I keep my winter clothes in this suitcase and now that warm weather is pretty much over it was time to make the switch.  I went through my summer clothes and picked out the ones I wanted to keep for next year and made a pile for Goodwill. I put all my summer clothes and shoes in this suitcase and put my winter ones on the bed.. Got them all hung up in my closet and put some in my dresser. Now I'm ready for cold weather.. I love the suitcase method.. Not enough storage space in this house and this sure helps.. Plus I go through them and decide which ones go to Goodwill before they go back into the suitcase. 

      Made Ham and Bean soup today.. Was looking for a corn bread recipe and found one on one of the blogs I follow..  Crazy As A Loom   ... She has recipes on her blog and this one was so good..   Today was very cold and tonight is suppose to freeze.. I went out and covered up some of my flowers.. Does anyone know what kind of flower this is, it's blooming right now.. It is next to the sedum and the iris's..  Don't know if I need to bring it inside for the winter or hope it comes back next year..
Hopes someone can help ..
Have a great day ~ ta ta for now from Iowa:)