Silly with Sally

Aunt Sally has been here for the last couple of days, so things have been pretty boring around the house....dance parties, hair salon pretend, dinner time games, tricycle races, you name it.






It's going to take us a month to recover from the impact (or at least re-assemble the guest room). Cooper has really enjoyed it this time because he's old enough to be goofy with the girls too. The kids just love spending time with her, and Shanna and I are thankful for the extra dynamic that only Sal can add.

Mia's Big Bike

So Mia got a big kid bike for her birthday, and she's been reluctantly trying to learn without training wheels. She is unbelievably timid, so we have to take it one small step at a time. I'm trying not to be disappointed that my kid is quite content with status quo. Luckily Cooper is out of control and I had to convince him to put the training wheels back on his little bike before he critically injures himself or those around him. Anyway, after a week, she is very close to riding by herself. She hopes to get it down pat before Sally comes so she can impress her!

Sorry

The only thing worse than a blogger 'that spews selfish nonsense about their cat' is a blogger that updates the blog infrequently! Here: Take This and run with it.

Climbing

*as dictated to Sam by Mia* "This is Mia. Climbing on the door jamb. Getting her picture taken. And this is at night."

I had no idea she could climb all the way up the door. It really is amazing how fast they grow up. The weirdest part of the whole growing up thing is how old it makes me feel. It's just odd to me that we have children that are old enough to climb the door jamb just like we did. Anyway, that's the way it goes I suppose. Next it'll be arguments about how long she can stay out on a date, etc!

Speaking of climbing, we should take the kids to a gym and see if they like it. I can't believe we haven't done that regularly. I always thought that I would at this stage. But then, I didn't think I'd have a boat, which takes up a lot of those times. And she starts gymnastics next month so that will take time too. But that is something I always pictured my little girl doing....

Football season approaches

It's almost time for a little pigskin. The grits and I went to watch BSU's first scrimmage on Thursday night. BSU has a loaded home schedule this year, so the expectations run pretty high for a perfect (or near perfect) season. Cooper was most interested in the field goal kicking.

Mia was less than enthusiastic.

About 30 minutes into the scrimmage, a thunderstorm blew into the stadium and the wind was really whipping around. Apparently there was some grass fires upwind somewhere because it also got really smoky. The kids were nervous and I was wheezing like a career smoker, so we went home. Here are some more pictures from the Statesman.

Let's get wet

The boys tried to go to the motocross races on Sunday afternoon, but the race got moved, so after watching them practice for a while (don't tell Coop that there wasn't a race that day - he thought it was all good) we decided to go up to the lake instead. Jacob jumped in first and said that the water was 'perfect'. Well, what Connor didn't know was that Jacob always says the water is perfect, so you should have seen his face when he popped back up! Talk about shocked - I thought he was going to spring a hammie just getting back in the boat...
Cooper knows better so, of course, he would have none of it!

Double su(prizes)!

We had a very nice little party for Mia down at Municipal Park. Everyone brought their favorite dish potluck style and I burnt some ribs on the grill. Grandma Linda baked an amazing doll cake that all the girls were quite impressed with.

And Jaelyn took an exceptional interest in the cake!

After a couple of water balloon games, the spoiling begins. Most of Mia's good friends were able to attend so she just loved having Amber and Cassia, Sophia and Olivia, Brenna and Annette, Jaelyn, and Connor all in the same place at the same time...Of course, when they come bearing gifts it doesn't hurt either!

Later in the evening, for the second suprise of the day, Mia FINALLY wiggled that bottom tooth loose. Connor thought we should "give her, like, 20 bucks because what are the chances of losing a tooth on your birthday.." and I gave him the usual "what, you think I'm made of money?" response. So Shanna slipped her a couple of bucks after she fell asleep and called it good. By now, she knows there is no Tooth Fairy, but she still can't figure out how we get that money in there without waking her up.

Mia is turning six today!

Little Mia is turning 6 today, and she's really not so little anymore. She is starting First Grade next week, she got a bicycle without training wheels for her birthday, and her #1 present request was a gift card to Marshall's (she says they have cute pants and shoes). No, she's not so little anymore. Makes me kind of sad, so here's a couple of baby pictures. By tomorrow hopefully I've moved on and I'll post a couple from her party.
Blogspot upload is not working, so I put them here and here.

No we're not dead

Just checking in. Been really busy lately so I haven't posted or fishded. In the meantime, check out these two cockpit videos from the Blue Angels. Pretty cool, I think. Later.
Video One

Video Two

Twilight Criterium

On Saturday evening we went to the Twilight Criterium downtown. For those who have never seen one, it is a bicycle race 90 times around a couple of city blocks with about 20,000 people watching. The pace is very quick, and the riders bunch up unbelievably tight going around the corners, so it is pretty exciting to watch. It was hot down there too. Here's a couple of pics.

Beyond Hot

For some inexplicable reason, last weekend we went to The Hottest Place on Earth on The Hottest Day of the Century. I forgot the camera so I have zero pics - probably doesn't matter because I bet it would have melted like one of Mia's crayons anyway.
We stayed at Lake Owyhee on Friday night with Karl and Lori. It is a nice campground with a bunch of paved and grass RV and tent spots, showers and electricity. The power is great for people with A/C in their RV's. As in not us. I was seriously about to have heat stroke at 3am in the tent. It was the only time in recent history that I 1) drank a liter of water in the middle of the night and 2) DIDN'T have to go peepee in the morning as a result. When we got home Saturday afternoon, the high in Boise had been 107. Generally, Lake Owyhee runs 8 degrees hotter than Boise. You do the math.
But we did have a great time swimming on Friday and Saturday. Mia is getting used to her life jacket, so now she jumps out and swims around whenever, wherever. Cooper on the other hand wades in up to his knees and calls it good. The fish were biting pretty well, and Shanna landed a 5.5lb catfish much to her disgust. Partly cause she was wishin it was a bass and partly cause it was so stinking ugly. I threw it back before Cooper could do any major damage (he likes to poka the eyes with the pliers).

Panoramic

I am testing out some stitching software called Panorama Factory. If you take a sequence of photos, it (supposedly) puts them all together and corrects the exposure to make one seamless panoramic picture. It would have helped if I had a tripod and a real camera, but I didn't so I figured I'd see how much the software could help correct my shortcomings. I tried it first in auto mode, and the results were less than splendid. So I did it manually, then adjusted the exposure in Photoshop, which seemed to turn out a lot better. With exposure lock and a tripod I think I could fix most of the 'seam' effect. Click the pic above to see the big one. Just for reference, this picture of Banff was done by a pro, and is one of my all time favorites. Let me know what you think!

Pucky Leak Thrilla of the Grilla

We went to Lucky Peak on Sunday evening at the spur of the moment with Zayne and Sheryl. Had some bratwurst to use up and what better spot than our own little picnic/dock area. A very nice evening after a very hot day.
I forgot the briquettes, so we stopped by Fred Meyer on the way to pick some up. Somehow I managed to exit the store with a WeberQ portable grill instead. Couldn't be more pleased with the impulse purchase. Shanna on the other hand was somewhat suspicious.

Chocolatte

Well, the camera dried out and it still works fine. Pretty disappointing because I really wanted a new one!
Our espresso machine has been malfunctioning since Joel and Cheryl were here (coincidence? - I think not!) so I cracked it open to have a look.

Come to find out, the water pump activation microswitch on the steam wand bypass port was being tripped by a misaligned rotary cam. So I deftly gave it The Wiggle and viola!!!....out pops this pretty Mocha in no time flat.

All's well with the Barista. Now I can resume full morning mocha production without having to stop at a drive thru, which is why I'm late to work most of the time. And other stuff.

Good thing it wasn't The Big One

The camera got wet. Now it takes pictures like this.

Good thing I didn't need to submit that photo to the world record books for 'smallest fish caught by whitest man' or something because they would have thought I took it back in '72.

We had an absolutely beautiful evening at Lake Lowell, and I would have taken a picture of the sunset but the camera wasn't working real good.

I think I would like to buy the Canon Powershot S3 IS next. But I've been dying for a digital SLR like the Canon Rebel XT for quite a while so I'm not sure what's gonna happen. The disadvantage of the d-slr is the size. We may not take it with us as much as we bring our little camera. But the pictures are SO nice.