First Fish

Miss E caught her first fish ever on Saturday when my dad came into town and we decided to hit the lake. If you will note in the bottom right of the top picture, I brought a barney cushion seat for Miss E. She sat in this for a few minutes when we got started and then she told me she was scared and I held her in my lap for several minutes while she worked out her fears. She has been in the boat a couple times but it is nerve racking for her every time because there has been a large gap in between each trip. I finally was able to put her back in her Barney seat and she sat there expressionless while Dad and I set up for fishing. My dad immediately caught three fish and I was gettning frustrated because I was at zero and last time I went fishing my friend caught around 15 and I caught four. Fortunately after a few minutes I started catching them and it was on. I never caught up with him but in my defense I was captaining the boat and dealing with Miss E but my dad doesn't take that as an excuse and I suppose I wouldn't if I was him:)

Miss E has never seen me catch a fish before so I was not sure how she would react. At first she seemed intrigued but did not want to touch the fish. After a few fish she asked to touch it and responded, "It's cold". I can't quite adequately explain how cute it is when she talks though because it sounds more like "Iss cold". Anyway, she touched them for a while and got comfortable and moved to the side of the boat and watched me for a while then she wanted to help and started grabbing my pole. I had to explain that we had to wait for the fish to bite which of course meant nothing to her. We finally got a bite and she helped me bring it in for her first fish. I was so happy for her and had my dad take this picture. She then spent the remainder of the time getting in my way, dipping her hands in the water, grabbing my line, splashing me with water, and laughing as I brought in a fish that splashed water all over her.

When it was over my dad had caught 21 and I had 17. Not too shabby. It was one of the best days I have ever had fishing. Not because the fish were big but we were catching them nonstop and it was fun to spend time with my dad and Miss E on a beautiful Oct day. This one will be in my memory forever.

I forgot to add that Miss E is getting very bossy and on the way back my dad got out of his seat and leaned back to talk to us and she turned to him and said, "sit back down" I had to explain that he did not have to sit down if he did not want to but it was pretty funny.

Getting Miss E to smile

She didn't really want to smile so I told her to show her teeth and...there it is.

Pumpkin Patch

She did like the pumpkin patch. She likes little pumpkins much better and has some trouble with the bigger ones.

Farm Animals

So we decided to take Miss E and Bonesteele to the pumpkin patch/animal petting. It did not go well. We thought Miss E would be excited to see some of the animals from her books but when the calf started mooooing, she freaked out, "Wanna go home. Wanna go home now". She can be seen smiling in the first picture which I can't really explain but what you see in the second picture is more representative of how she felt about the animals. In the third pic you can see Bonesteele not really caring about anything.

peek a boo

Playin in the water

Going to the Ocean

Fun times with Uncle T-Bone

Rafting

The other week I went rafting with a group a youth from church. We went on the Deschutes and had a blast. I decided to go fishing also after reading that it was supposed to be an awesome river for fishing and that there are more fish in this river than any other in Oregon. Well, maybe on paper but it didn't translate into catching fish. I caught two and it was more than anyone else I talked to. One was a 14 inch redside trout which was one of the most beautiful fish I have ever caught because it was native and was two or three times as fat as a stocked lake trout. The other fish I caught was a suckerfish.

I did get one of my wishes though and that was to get thrown from the boat when going over some of the big rapids.

I swallowed a lot of water and I had some stomach discomfort last week that may have been lingering effects from drinking 10 gallons of riverwater. I guess I didn't respect the river enough:)

Olympics

I never watch swimming but boy do I love it during the Olympics. Lochte, Lezac, Phelps, and Torres were amongst my favorites.

Who can of course not love what Phelps did. I didn't think the first relay could be topped with the excitement of having Lezac make the amazing come from behind and win by .08 seconds(a fingertip) until Phelps won the 100 butterfly(I think) by .01 seconds(a fingernail). I was resigned to him getting a silver going into the last moments of the race and bammmmm-he miraculously gets the gold.

Lochte won my heart because I love cheering for the underdog though he isn't much of an underdog, he had never won an individual gold medal but was still breaking world records but couldn't beat Phelps and Piersol who were also breaking world records. He finally won his gold and I was so happy for him. I also can't help but be amazed that he somehow ate all you can eat McDonalds during the Olympics and still raced as well as he did. I guess it wasn't too many years ago that I could eat whatever I wanted and it didn't seem to faze me too much but this is the Olympics where apparantly .01 seconds decides your place in history. How many cheeseburgers does it take to lose .01 seconds?

Lezac goes without saying but I'll say it again anyway-talk about one of the coolest come from behind wins and against the trash talking French. I love it. I also love that Ian what's his name from Australia ate his words against Phelps. I think he is just jealous.

Torres-41 and she's the second fastest swimming sprinter in the world? WOW. She also seemed to be really nice which weighs heavily for me when I decide whether or not I like an athlete.

I am glad that the IOC strips medals from people for poor sportsmanship and representing themselves and their countries, athletes, and the sports poorly. How embarrassing that the wrestler threw down his Bronze medal because he was upset about a call in the semifinals. You know, I have always been taught in sports that if you really want to make a statement to prove how good you are, be so good that a bad call won't make a difference. You could have made a dozen bad calls against the original Dream Team and it wouldn't have mattered.

While I have fun watching the Olympics, it is also hard for me to watch. I actually don't watch too many sports(particularly football) because it makes me want to play. To be anywhere near the level I would need to be at to be in the Olympics or play football at the level I wanted, I would have had to give up everything else. I lost my opportunity for greatness when I gave up football in Cali and decided to move on with my life. I don't regret it in the least but I do think about those kinds of things all the time. Now I have two kids and I'm not in very good shape anymore(though I can still kick your butt-ha). My point in all this seemingly nonsensical blubbering is that I hope that I can work as hard at helping my children and my family grow as the Olympians work at perfecting their sport. I hope that one day I can smile and know that I have done everything that I could do and it all worked out. That I will be able to bow before God and that he will give me what I desire more than anything else...and that as a family we will enjoy that time forever.

Bonesteele is sick

Bonesteele and wifey are in the hospital.

He has not been sleeping well for the last couple weeks and wifey, after reviewing the literature, decided that it was time to have him cry it out. He did not sleep well and sounded like he was hoarse but we let him cry it out anyway. In the morning, he sounded like he had asthma but we thought that it would go away. He was in a good mood and smiled at us and didn't seem in pain so we figured it wasn't a huge deal. Later, it started to get worse and we became concerned enough to call the Kaiser advice nurse who suggested we take him to the ER immediately.

Wifey took him as Miss E was sleeping peacefully. Wifey called a short time later to let me know that he was being admitted and had what is known as "Crout" or something like that.

I skipped church and thankfully I was able to have some friends take Miss E off our hands and take her to church with them as my truck does not have seating suitable for Miss E and the hospital really is no place for a 2 year old.

Upon arrival, Bonesteele was still not doing very well and made wimpering noises and seemed miserable. They continued to treat him and he appears to be improving but they decided to keep him another night so I am calling in sick tommorow and I will take care of Miss E.