Fall odds and ends

The weather has turned wet this fall with somewhere around 9 inches of rain and counting for the month of October.  We've gotten a little outdoor activities in but not too much.

Morgan and Maizie enjoyed some indoor activities....painting some ceramics.

Morgan hard at work on her "fish"  She spent the night with Char and Maizie and had a "girls" weekend.

Making cookies...I think more toppings went in their mouths than on the cookies...just a guess.  They seem to be discussing something important.  Most likely which topping tastes the best.

Then Brad came up and we harassed some fish.  It was a choppy wet day but still got a few fish in the boat and had a good time.

If you notice Lane is bracing himself pretty good here.  You can't really tell from this view but once you got sideways in the waves things got a little choppy.  Lane turned a bit green for a while but got his sea stomach back and managed to keep things in.

Morgan has been enjoying her Paint by Numbers she got for her birthday.

This buck showed up on my "game cam" earlier this year and I hadn't seen him much but the other morning we were getting ready for work and school and Lane started shouting "deer"... "buck"

So I fit in a quick hunt in between making lunches, packing backpacks, and herding kids.  Its nice not to have to travel far to do this.  I managed to get it cleaned and hung up and even got the kids to school before the bell rang.  Should be another tasty fruit fed deer.  They roam around the valley neighborhoods filling up on everyone's fruit trees I think.

Quick Trip to Bend

The kids had this past Friday off from school due to a teacher service day so we decided to hit the road and go visit our friends in Bend.

One of the 1st orders of business was to suck hornets out of a tree with a vacuum.  This is more entertaining than you may think.  The vacuum was a Dyson so we could see as the hornets piled up inside the vacuum.  We also found it to be much more effective to beat on the tree with a baseball bat while we put the vacuum over the entrance to the nest.  Logan was very pleased to get in on this "important" project.  What was even better is nobody got stung!

Then we headed down to the river to try a little fishing.  Lane wanted to try out his fly-fishing skills he has been working on in the grass with his plastic fish.

Success!  This ones not plastic. A nice chunky rainbow trout.  His first trout on a fly rod.

Meanwhile back at the house their were others that were enjoying playing and making truffles. Morgan made a new friend, Lilly, and they had a great time together.

Yup these truffles are delicious!

A Couple More Birthdays

I'm not sure it is good or bad to have 2 kids with birthdays only a couple days apart.  It makes for a very wound up house I know that!  Usually we like to take a trip to the Silver Rapids water park up in Kellogg around this time of year so the kids wanted to do that for their birthday.  I picked them up from school on Friday and we got a room up in the park resort and made a weekend out of it.

Lane and Logan playing in the big structure.  Lots of fun things that you can turn water on and off as well as water guns.  Its a little kids dream.

Then there is the Lazy river that you can float, tube, swim, or do whatever you feel like as you drift around it.

And lots of different water slides!

Some underwater exploration.

Pool side pizza!

 

Goofy!

They had a great time and we all got sufficiently wore out.  I did learn that I need to make sure I bring shampoo and conditioner for Morgan......Yikes! chlorine does not make for easy hair combing.  Chock that one up to a learning experience.

Then Sunday we had a little evening party for the kids with family and friends over.  More pizza anyone?!  

Logan was very pleased with his construction cake.  Char baked the cake and Brad did the dirt work.

Happy #6!!!  

Morgan's request was a shark cake.  Not sure where that came from but sometimes its best not to ask.  Again Brad and Char teamed up with the cake skills and Morgan placed the candles.

Happy #8!!!

Logan digging through some loot.

No dolls for this girl...she would rather have things like remote control cars and art stuff.

They were both spoiled beyond measure.....I guess that's not so bad once or twice a year maybe. :)

Jeannie's Birthday

We have had a lot of comments from people about the "firsts" after the loss of Jeannie.  They tend to be the hardest.  It hasn't taken long to hit many "firsts" it seems.  Our wedding anniversary was only a few weeks after Jeannie passed away and now we have her birthday and kids birthdays, first day of school, ect.  I guess with each passing one the finality of death is just brought into focus a little better.  We tend to focus so much on the things of this natural life but we can't take any of that with us.  The focus needs to be on the life to come.

The cemetery got the grave marker set on Jeannie's birthday.  We went out to eat to mark the occasion and then went to take a look at the grave site.  I really like how the marker turned out.  It is sobering to see ones own name on a gravestone.  The kids do very well going to visit the site.  This morning on our way to our Sunday morning meeting Logan said "I wish mommy could tell us what heaven is like"  Yes, that would be great wouldn't it!  We all need to make sure our steps take us there so we can find out for ourselves.

It is a very beautiful spot and they keep it well maintained.  You can see the lake from here and the moon is just peeking up over the horizon.  My grandma used to spend quite a bit of time at the cemetery where her husband was buried and would often bring us kids there when we were growing up.  I didn't have much appreciation for it at the time but now with a part of me buried here it is a memorial and a natural connection I can appreciate.

Hunting

I got to get away for a week to do some hunting with our good friends Brand and Char and my cousin Lyle.  It was a really great week even though we didn't get anything.  We managed to see a very nice bull elk as well as some cows and smaller bulls and more moose than I think we could count.

Speaking of Moose that is how the week started for me.  I was giving my cow elk call a good work out and finally got a response.  It sounded big...made some good deep grunts...and I was getting excited.  Then I had a bit of a let down when this cow moose came in to investigate.

Then there is the gourmet eating of camping and hiking.  Last year Brad was feeling a little out done when we were hunting together and stopped for lunch after putting in a long morning and lots of miles.  I pulled out my Jetboil stove and cooked some top ramen and even added a little chicken from packet if I remember right. A delicious hot meal right in the middle of nowhere.  Well....Brad pulled out a sandwich from the bottom of his pack that had gotten good and smashed and soggy.....and was feeling like the kid at school that has the worst lunch ever and nobody would trade anything for it.  Brad said at that moment after smelling my hot meal and looking at his soggy sandwich he just wanted to quit and go home.  So that leads into the picture above.  This is a year later....Brad is smiling......He has a jetboil....He has a freeze dried meal....He has a plate...He has a napkin...He has a table cloth!!!!....He has a candle!!!!  Ok that is a little over the top now don't you think.  He was not to be out done this year!  Lyle picked up a Jetboil and freeze dried meals on his way out as well and he is a total convert now too.  He even thought he would make a special holder in his tractor for it.....no more soggy sandwiches for Lyle in the tractor either!  Some of the reason for our poor hunting success might have been the laughter emanating from us scaring all the critters hither and yon.

Brad and I checking out a drainage.

Lyle and I stopping for a pose.  You might notice that it is hard to see Char in any of these pictures.  I think that her camouflage was so good that you just couldn't see her.

A sliver of Lake Couer D'Alene in the background with the setting sun.

Might as well add in a "selfie" as well.

It was a good week and fun to be out in the woods with good friends.  

Back to School

Time does fly by.   I think the start of school each year is the reality check once kids hit that age.  This year all three are in school.   I looked back through some old posts that Jeannie did on the first day of school and it is amazing to see how they grow.  I had an archery hunt planned that coincided with the first week of school this year.  I guess when we planned the hunt this spring we didn't really look at the timing that closely.  Grandpa and grandma came to the rescue though and navigated the kids through their first week of school.  Grandma got a picture of each one before heading off for their first day.

They all look pretty excited to be going off to school.  It has been going well for them.   They have really good teachers which helps a lot.  Logan started kindergarten, Morgan moved into 2nd grade,  and Lane is now in 4th. 

After school activities have ranged from painting rocks to playing with Legos for Morgan and Logan.

Lane on the otherhand has been sharpening his skills on learning to fly fish.  Here he has a few plastic fish scattered in our dry creek bed and is practicing casting to them.   You would think he gets enough fishing in but apparently not!

Back to Lake Roosevelt

Dad finished up his harvest and was able to come out for a week and help with the kids so we decided to take a few days and head back to Lake Roosevelt and give him a little taste of some of Washington country.  The kids were very excited to go back as well and I figured maybe with my Dad with me we would get in some "serious" fishing.

The first day we headed north on the lake nearby where we were earlier in August.  The weather was absolutely beautiful without any smoke to deal with.  Most of the summer crowd had decided to stay home as well and we had a lot of space to ourselves. 

We stopped by a rope swing but unfortunately the water was a little low to make full use of it.   That didn't stop the kids from swinging on it though. 

Its amazing how something this simple can entertain them for hours.  It brought lots of laughter and giggles.

After plenty of swinging, swimming, and beach time I finally couldn't take it any longer and suggested we really ought to get some fishing in before it got to late.  Turns out we located them and put the right combination in to catch a good batch of Walleye and a few Trout.  I think we ended up catching something like 22 walleye and 3 trout in a couple hours.  Here are some good smiles at the fillet station as we get ready to clean them.

We enjoyed some slower paced mornings and the kids found some good dirt to play in.  I find that I notice things that I didn't before, like how dirty their cloths are getting and wondering if I'm going to be able to get them clean.  They need to stick with the "easy" stains while I'm still learning the laundry business.

After the sun got up a little we headed south on the second day to a beach that we had been to with Jeannie before.  We called it the "snake eggs" beach.  You can review in the archives of 2013 as to what Jeannie posted on it then.  I broke down and got a new phone not long ago and these new phones do take amazing pictures.  This picture is from my dad's phone but we both have Samsung's and are quite pleased with the photos they take.  Most all of my pictures are now just phone pictures.  Makes it convenient and easier to document life's fleeting moments.

Morgan and Logan trying their hand at catching a bass.  We do catch a few small-mouth bass right off this beach.  I believe we caught 4-6 this day but wasn't really keeping track.

I don't believe Jeannie's family have ever been to this beach before, but I'm sure that will change now that they know there is a carving on the cliff wall of their college emblem. (WSU) No doubt carved there long ago by some very intelligent form of early man.

After some more fun in the water and sun we decided we really did need to go back to our fishing spot up North again and see if we couldn't get a few more walleye out of our fishing hole.  This time we managed to get about 3 hours of fishing in and put about 33 walleye in the boat.  We ran out of room on the fillet station this time and had to start stacking them.  Some good smiles again after this fine catch.  You get a few heads turning when you bring this many fish to the fillet station.  Lots of fine eating as walleye are one of the premier white meats out there.

You'll notice Morgan did not make the picture.  I think she had enough of "fish" by this time.  She was a real trooper putting up with all us "boys" though and especially enjoyed her time in the water and on the beach.

More great memories were made and it was fun to have my dad out to an area we have enjoyed as a family ever since moving up here.  Jeannie enjoyed this lake as a girl and it is fun to have our kids make their own memories of times here.

August Days

August is a really beautiful time of year here in our little place.  We try and take in as many of these beautiful days as we can because we know winter is not far away.

This picture sums up what Lane likes most about summer....taking in the sun, swimming, and a fishing pole at hand.

Logan is happiest when he can be playing in or on the water in some fashion.

And Morgan bounces between soaking up water and soaking up sun.

And as the saying goes, I have been just trying to keep my head above water through it all!

Fishing of course is a staple activity.....Lane and Logan with "money" fish.  We get $15 a fish to catch and kill Lake Trout so the kids love to pull these in and add to their piggy banks.

One of the ways we love to close out the evenings is a trip to one of the restaurants on the water.