#1 of my #1

I said I'd post the first picture I took with the new camera, so here you go - Mia at gymnastics class. And another one from the walk home. I love them both (Mia and the Canon)!

Rainy Saturday

Kind of lame weather today so Jacob thought Erik and I should go mountain biking with him. Jacob lived in Oregon so long that he forgets we don't have to wait 3 months for the rain to go away, so instead it's raining lightly and 45 degrees at 8am with J proclaiming a 'perfect day for a ride'.
I hadn't ridden for a good 9 months, so the old legs were a little slow. While grinding up the climb I kept picturing all those hamburgers and donuts I'd eaten in the last 9 months, and how much further I'd have to go to burn through all of it. I don't think I burned 9 months worth today, but I know I took a pretty good whack at it.
The rain stopped and we sweated, so in the end I think everything came out just right. (note: pics not with new camera - can't wait till Wed.)

A flood of photos on the way...

I am really excited this week, because we bought a new digital camera! I finally bit the bullet and bought the Canon Powershot S3 that I had my eye on for the last few months. The price dropped $150 from previous, so I figured that gave me the perfect excuse to get the camera AND the .75X wide angle lens.....
I've griped to anyone that will listen how much I would like a wide angle lens to capture Idaho's broad landscapes, and then I saw Derek's excellent use of the wider angle on people too and I knew it was the next big thing. But I couldn't afford the Right SLR, and it's too big and bulky for day to day shooting anyway, so that's when I focused in (no pun intended) on the next size down. The only drawback is no support for RAW, but I guess that just gives me something to look forward to in a few more years when the new camera suddenly turns old.
It's an odd phenomenon with technology, to have this device that we just had to have and loved so dearly suddenly morph into something that is clunky, too big, battery sucks, slow, dim and not bluetooth enabled. However, this same trait keeps me gainfully employed so I'm not at all complaining. Just pointing it out as a fact of life more than anything.
Anyway, I should get it by Wed of next week, so I promise to literally post the first picture I take, even if it's my foot or something.

BSU 42, OSU 14

This clip on ESPN.com says it all.

Labor(less) Day

I had worked the last 19 days straight, so we decided to just get away for a while over the Labor Day holiday. The campsites were all booked at Ponderosa State Park, so we rented a little cabin in McCall from inIdaho.com that ended up being not so little - but it was all they had on short notice. Took the kids bikes and the boat, and just fished, sightsee'd, relaxed, ate and watched football all weekend. Wow, was it nice to take a break.

On the way up Hwy55, I kept telling the kids to watch for Roger because I knew he was on the river that day, and sure enough we saw his truck on the side of the road. So we hopped out and watched him go down "Houndstooth" until he floated off into the smoke. Speaking of smoke, just look at the picture to see how thick it was from the local forest fires. Luckily it cleared out as we headed north.

Over the weekend, we fished Little Payette Lake (beautiful and quiet, but no bass)....

....Payette Lake (busy, beautiful, no bass)....

...and Cascade Lake (Nice Bass Shanna!!).

Shannie scored this nice 3 and a half lb smallmouth on a watermelon/chartruese tube. Just about took her to the cleaners a couple of times before we finally got it in the boat. I think she just discovered a new favorite camp/fish area! Most people fish for trout at Cascade, but I'm kind of ignant of all that so we caught a bunch of smallmouth instead. The perch were thick as flies, so Mia nonchalantly hooked a couple. Coop, meanwhile, simultaneously tried to play his new GameBoy, assemble a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, and solve two jigsaw puzzles, all with minimal success. His TFAS (Total Fishing Attention Span) is about 90 seconds so he didn't manage to hook anything but me.

Overall we had a really nice time, which I think goes without saying (so I won't).

Cooper is Tree

Well, Coop had his third birthday on Friday night. He eventually settled on a Soccer theme after considering Spider-Man, Cars, Football, Motorcycles for months on end. I don't know if it's unique to our kids or not, but they are obsessed with planning their birthday a good 6-9 months in advance. And Cooper will be glad to argue with anyone that his next birthday he'll be five......because five is when he might be big enough to get a motorcycle.
Grandma Linda brought the soccer field cake, which he thoroughly enjoyed (and we did too).

After the party we went to the Mountain View High School football game, which the kids seemed to enjoy. The girls of course watched the cheerleaders and the boys ran around causing trouble just like you'd expect them to.

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