The Conservation Movement is Dead.

This evening, I heard a knock on the door. I met Chris, our UPS driver and accepted the shoe box-sized package he handed me. I opened the box to find five tiny batteries. And lots of packaging. I mean lots of packaging. I guess this is 'merica after all!

Feeling the Love

This morning I received a voicemail from Karen. She is planning an overnight trip to La Grande for work. In her voice mail she said she is never coming back because she is about to have a meltdown. Marcus plugged the toilet and proceeded to flood the entire bathroom. She wasn't able to fix the toilet.
I had to share the voicemail with my coworkers, who all enjoyed a great laugh. Later (hoping she cooled down), we had this text exchange:

Elena decided to illustrate the event. You can see Marcus (with purple hair) crying next to the overflowing toilet. Note her attention to detail: our toilet is a Toto brand. Apparently she decided that we should withhold Marcus's breakfast as punishment!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. Karen and I hosted this year in our "New" kitchen and dining room. Karen really loves to host Thanksgiving.

Karen went running with Bev in the morning while Marcus and I prepared the turkeys. I used basically the same method I used in 2013 and posted here. Marcus was actually pretty helpful this year. He helped me inject them with butter and apply the wet rub. The rub looked and smelled so good, he decided to lick the raw turkey. I said "no," trying to prevent it from happening, and then he cried. He pulled it together long enough to help me put foil on the legs and wings. I'm not sure where the girl was while all of this was going on. This might be why Karen is afraid to leave me alone with the kids for more than a few hours at a time.

Our family arrived (both of our parents and siblings' families). We proceeded to hammer Kory's appetizers.

A photo of the hostess:

The beer is all the way out in the shop and it's cold outside. Luis is a problem solver.

 Lisa was gracious enough to take some pictures while I did turkey carving and hosting stuff. Here are other family pictures thanks to Lisa.

 

 The kids' table, in chronological order from right to left.

 Gettin' me some!

 Football watching.

 I think Elena may have bribed Sylvia to do her homework.

Fall Stuff

This year the kids helped me with leaf cleanup. They were really excited to play in the leaf piles, as you can see.

 

Most of you probably know about Sprout's egg business. Well, recently some of our neighbors tried to collect their own eggs rather than purchase them from the refrigerator. Their names will be withheld to protect their identity. Anyway, they thought they could just walk in the coop and scoop up the eggs. Apparently they don't appreciate the skill required in egg gathering at the Bean house. Here is Elena collecting eggs from the honey hole.

Elena and Marcus (mostly Elena) have been learning to weave from my mom. They've been having a great time hanging out with their grandparents and I have been able to slip away to take the dogs for a walk with my gun.

 

Here is a picture of Mia (foreground, left) honoring Guinness' point (top of photo between the two rock piles) on one of those walks. It has been a lot of fun training a new bird dog and seeing her figure it out.

Last week I had to make a quick trip to the cabin to winterize it. Karen and the kids were sick, so I made a solo trip. I think I did it just in time, as the morning temperature was 5 degrees and it looked like a winter wonderland up there.

Happy Halloween!

This year we kicked off the Halloween season by getting some pumpkins from our local supplier (Uncle Frank). Here is Marcus showing off Frank's bounty.

Karen was gone one afternoon, so the kids and I made a jack-o-lantern and roasted pumpkin seeds. I somehow failed to take pictures of said jack-o-lantern.

 Elena dressed up as Elsa and Marcus was Lego Man. I was in charge of putting together costumes this year. As I rushed to finish Marcus's costume prior to my elk hunt, Karen said, "I'm glad to see you didn't drop the ball on this one." I guess she doesn't have much faith in me!

 After visiting some friends and family, we had a nice dinner with my parents. It was a great evening.

One of the things Marcus got for Halloween was a glow-in-the-dark mask. He wore that mask to bed every night for two weeks. I think it may be the best dollar Lory ever spent!

Here is a picture of Elena's dance class all dressed up for Halloween. Elena is at the bottom left.

Fall at the Cabin

Earlier this fall we took Katie with us for a trip to the cabin. We made a short hike to a lake north of McCall. Here are some pictures we took along the way.

Here is the lake.

Afterwards, we soaked at Burgdorf Hot Springs, followed by snacks. The hot spring is really nice and they have rustic cabins for rent.

The next morning Marcus enjoyed the morning sunshine on the deck.

We met up with the Macks and enjoyed some beach time in front of their cabin.

We also went for an ATV ride. Where do you put a puppy when you don't have room for them on the seat? in the cargo bag of course!

 

I'm not sure what is going on here. I think Katie made the mistake of letting Elena play with her hair.

Sleeping Kid Photos

Because kids can sleep anywhere.

Nice use of the stuffed giraffe as a pillow.

 

When you don't have a giraffe, just find the nearest dog.

Elena is training for college.

I think the dogs were upset because Marcus took the sunny spot on the carpet.

 

Want your kids to sleep? Take them to some hot springs!

 

 I'm really glad we bought him the new bed!

Because you have to lay on the headboard to get a good view at story time.

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight we planned to watch the supermoon lunar eclipse. We didn't do much research, and nearly missed it because we thought it would occur an hour later than it did. Fortunately Karen's dad called to let us know we were missing it.

We took the kids outside in their pajamas to watch the show. I set up the telescope (spotting scope) for the kids. I then proceeded to yell at them every time they touched it and moved the moon out of view.

We did not take pictures of the moon. I suck at low-light photos.

One thing about lunar eclipses is that they develop VERY slowly. Kids don't do slow. They both tired out and wanted to go to bed. Elena was the first to insist on going to bed. Rather than lying with her and missing the show, I offered up the sacrificial lamb. Mia did a great job.

Marcus held out, but he hit the hay pretty hard. I should forewarn any girls he meets in the future: he has a tendency to get cold feet.

If you look closely, you can see a cut near his eye. Apparently that's when happens when you fall on a plastic marker cap.

The Boy Started School

Karen and I are both second children. We really try to focus energy on Marcus and try not to treat him as an afterthought. That said, here are some pictures from his first day of preschool from like a month ago...

I don't know where he got it, but Marcus is pretty photogenic. This is my favorite picture.

 

More of a standard Picture.

  Here he is in front of his school.

Dads Go Camping with Kids. What Could Go Wrong?

Justin Mack and I took our kids camping near Fairfield over Labor Day weekend. Within 5 minutes of arriving at camp, we looked over to see Escher standing in the creek wearing his only pair of shoes. On the second night, Marcus came up to me with a bloody nose and said he had shoved a rock up there and couldn't get it out. Other than those two episodes our trip was a success.

Pictured above, left to right: Escher, Zarek, Elena and Marcus. Unfortunately they did not sleep like this all night. Justin and I slept on the ends, so the kids ended up sleeping on top of us while leaving the middle of the tent completely vacant.

Here is a picture of our camp setup.

And the inside...

We took the kids camping so they could experience the outdoors. So of course they played in the car...

...and the tent. Here they are singing "Shut up and Dance Now" while dancing on the camp box. You can see that Little Miss Bossy likes to make all the rules and steal the show.

On Sunday we went for a hike into this area. The kids all either raced down the trail or played in the dirt, but they more or less took turns doing those activities. I think herding cats would have been much easier.

Justin took the older kids for a short hike while the littles napped. He baited them to the top of the hill with cookies. Once there, Zarek reminded Justin that he was afraid of heights. Justin asked him why he hiked to the top of the rocks if he was afraid of heights. His reply: "That was the only way I could get a cookie!"

 

Temperatures were below freezing at night, so mornings were spent huddled around the propane heater.

Here is a nice picture of the littles playing near camp.

Of course, no camping trip is complete without a campfire and smores.

Here is a nice panaramic view of the road leading to our campsite.