September Updateroo

Summer is flying by as we speak. We've been extraordinarily busy as usual, the bulk of which consists of spearing carp. Not really - actually busy with birthdays and anniversaries and such. I promise to post a couple more times this month to get ya'll caught up.

Olympics Widget

(Coop) "Yeah, I Ride Alone"

1) Cooper begs Daddy to take the training wheels off his bicycle, so he does.

2) They make two unsuccessful trips around the block, and Cooper gives up. Moves on to the scooter, which is much easier.

3) Two months later, Daddy says 'it sure would be nice to ride our bikes down to DQ, if only Cooper knew how'.

4) Cooper puts on his helmet and disappears out the front door.

5) Five minutes later, Cooper reappears and announces 'I can ride a two wheeler!' - and sure enough, he can!

6) Cooper and Daddy go to DQ. The Beginning.

Photo ketchup.

Just some random photos for anybody who might be sitting around kinda bored...in another country...that rhymes with 'Marge and Gina'.

Happy Birthday, Country

We had a wonderful 4th of July with Kiddo's and the Clark's. And of course Gramma Linda and Uncle Steve. We stayed home and worked in the yard while I nursed a pork shoulder in the smoker to sweet perfection. This was the first year the kids asked for fireworks, so we got a couple and had some fun. Cooper liked the way we could duct tape an ordinary ground bloom flower and make it blow up the neighbors mailbox instead. Mia is a big fan of those old-school black snake pill shaped thingys that foam up all of the place while emitting caustic smoke direct from China.

Brad pulls out the perfect defensive weapon when rushed with six sparkler wielding freedom freaks - the propane powered megatorch.


Drove down the street to watch the fireworks from the speedway, which were actually pretty good this year. Then we came home and burned our own neat little piles of money out in the street.

Not sure where he's going - I mean look at those cool fireworks. Darn kids these days.

Back in the US, safe and sound

Shanna and I, along with Scott, Steve, David, and Johnny went to Baja for a couple of weeks to land the magical Yellowtail. I will be updating the SpudNuts website shortly, but I think this picture tells most of the story. What a pair!!!

Bigger, better, badder

So I got a new truck. Looks just like the old truck, this one is just bigger. With way more power and towing capacity. Hmmmm that gives me an idea.

Spring Smallmouth

We had a great spring smallmouth bite at Brownlee, with everyone getting their fair share of quality fish. The overall trophy goes to Dave for a 3lb 11oz fattie, but of course the real looker of the crew is Shanna Banana herself.

CLS - Cooper Loves Soccer

Cooper played in U5/6 soccer this spring, and just loved it. His team is called the Kamikazes and they are definitely a diverse group (read: disjointed, quirky, partly effective, etc..) . I don't think I'll be ready to help coach for at least 5 more years due to lack of patience, so I'm glad that Coach Cory has more than I do.

A picture buffet...

Cooper and Trevor looking like bobbleheads.

Heading out the door to Steve's breakfast birthday party with a coffee cake...cake. Mia is mad cause she didn't want me to take a picture of her in her jammies.
Steve, the kids, and I cooked an extravagant seafood dinner when Shanna went missing one evening. Sushi with Jello salad appetizer. Shrimp scampi, king crab, broccoli salad and rice pilaf with individual sparkling ciders for the main course. I don't remember dessert, but it may have the letters D and Q in it.
Mia photography at The Griddle for Saturday breakfast.

Family Pic

I got sick of waiting for someone to update this blog, so I thought I'd at least put a nice picture of the family up. Maybe that will encourage Spam Slacker to wake up and smell the coffee.

Appliances Ahoy

Over the last few months we've upgraded all of our appliances....wait, back up. A while back the refrigerator broke....hold on, correct that. Long long ago, we thought the fridge was broke, and it was exactly the opportunity that I was looking for to buy a bigger, shinier, stainless steel-er fridge. So we found a new fridge, but it didn't match the range, so we got a new one of those too. Of course at this point the microwave hood stood out like a sore thumb so it got the boot too. Then finally, GE was offering a rebate for Profile appliances that got bigger depending on the number that you buy (duh) so the dishwasher 'saved' us even more money and completed the mass exodus.

After a week of living out of coolers, I removed the old fridge to prepare for the newbie and - well look at that - there is dust caked all over the vents and compressor. Whoops, guess I should have checked that before jumping to stainless conclusions. Oh well, this minor oversight allowed me to sell the whole working set on craigslist to some goofy old dude from Fruitland that loaded everything into a poopy horse trailer and merrily headed back to the ranch. I didn't even know they had the Internet in Fruitland.

Cannonball!!!!!huuuFOOMP......repeat

What used to be the Football Bean Bag is now the Special Edition Herniated Bean Bag

Winter Fun

Around New Years we took some time to go up to McCall and play in the snow. It was very fluffy, very deep, and very hot.....we swam at Gold Fork hot springs as well! Mia, Cooper and classmate Savannha got wet and cold sledding down a logging road bank and then we walked over to the hot springs, changed in a little yurt and then jumped right in. Had a great time - wish we could do it every weekend!

- and my all-time-favorite-picture of the love of my life -

Baby Colton

Here are the aforementioned pictures of one half of our two new cousins!