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.

Karen is in Grad School...Again.

Karen started graduate school two weeks ago. She is pursuing her doctorate in nursing. You may not see any pictures of her on the blog for a couple of years, unless I start snapping photos of her sitting at the computer. She has been very busy writing and researching, so I have been taking the kids away for the weekends to the cabin or camping.

Little Entrepeneurs

 

Our kids have each started their own businesses. Elena recycles cans and sells eggs. If she sees you drinking out of an aluminum can, she follows you around until you are done with it.

Marcus is in the gopher trapping business.

Here is a picture of him turning in his gopher tails for fistfulls of cash ($10) at the local water office.

 

First Day of Kindergarten

Elena started Kindergarten at West Canyon Elementary last week. Here are some pictures from her first day.

Goats

Karen and Lisa took the kids to see Lisa's friend who has goats. I didn't go, so I don't know the details. Anyway, here are a bunch of cute pictures of our kids hanging out with kids. 

Fire in the Owyhees

The Soda fire in the Owyhees made life miserable for a couple of weeks. It burned over 200,000 acres in a short amount of time.

Here is a photo of the smoke Karen took from our backyard.

 

I took a picture at night which shows just how much the fire was glowing. The Owyhees are well below the skyline from our view, but the gigantic flames were putting out lots of light.

A couple of years ago I drove up on the hill to look at a small fire in the same area. I forgot Elena was in the backseat, so when I noticed the fire was in one of my favorite hunting spots she learned a new word.

Fast forward two years... I was at the computer looking at the fire perimeter map. Marcus was playing on the floor behind me. He got up, pointed to the computer, and said, "Oh I see the f... daddy! It's right there!"

Long Weekend at the Cabin

I took a couple of days off and we spent an extended weekend at the cabin (This was back in June). The grass has really taken off lately, so we brought our landscaping crew along with us.

 On Friday morning I found this next to our driveway.

I brought the kids outside so the could check it out. It is a polythemus moth. I have seen some really cool moths and butterflies in my day, and this one is very impressive.

One of my most favorite activities is catching high mountain lake trout. Many of my fondest childhood memories took lace at mountain lakes. Some fish are suicidal, but many are really picky. My advantage is that I can see how they react to my lure/fly/bait and change accordingly. I always bring such a huge arsenal of equipment the trout don't stand a chance. I remember packing a gigantic (and very loud) tackle box on my pony to fish back in the day. It banged against my knee the whole way in to the lake, but is was worth it. That was before soft packs were created. My arsenal is now relatively compact and quiet.

On Friday we rode the horses to three mountain lakes. I forgot my arsenal in the pickup. I did remember the 27 bottles of water, 4 bottles of sunscreen, 2 bottles of bug spray, lunch cooler, extra kid clothes, fishing rod, spurs, hobbles, and knife, but not the arsenal. I realized this about a mile or two into the trip. Karen nobly volunteered to watch the kids while I went back to get it, but I decided to press on without the arsenal.

Karen has been on many horse rides into the mountains with me. She knows that I like to see areas off the beaten trail. Karen likes trails. As we pull in to the trail head, she begins her analysis, which goes something like this. The scale goes from  1) Are there bathrooms? to 2) Has anyone else ever been up this trail? and 3) Where is the trail?

This trail began just above a 2. There was horse manure nearby and she could see an outline of a trail. Needless to say the trail sucked, but all horses and riders did well. At one point the horses had to step down a couple of feet to the water, then step up the same amount and scramble up a steep, wet, rocky section.

We had a new horse in the mix this time: Bobby. This was Elena's first time riding her own horse in the mountains by herself (with me leading Bobby). We discovered that he is really careful and athletic. He is a very safe horse. Karen and Marcus rode our youngest horse (Clyde), and she did an excellent job of keeping him in check. Here are some pictures of the riders:

As it turned out, it was a good thing I forgot my arsenal. The kids were more interested in the horses and wildlife than fishing. We walked through one meadow that had about a million toads. Here is Elena posing with one of the toads she caught.

 Here we are hiking through Toad Meadow.

 The trail to this lake was still covered in snow, so we just hiked close enough to get a good view of it.

The horses took a break while we hiked.

 

After visiting three lakes, we were ready to head back to the cabin. Then we saw Yoda hiking into another lake and we had to follow (we didn't realize it would be 15 degrees cooler and breezy up on top of the mountain).

Here are Marcus and Karen in front of a nice waterfall at Blue Lake.

The horse whisperer.

View of Cascade Reservoir from the top of West Mountain.

Here are a couple more pictures of the kids.

More on the Replacement Hunting Dog

I guess you know it's time to get a new hunting dog when the old one can no longer defend his food bowl from the chickens. Pathetic!

Mia is now over 4 months old and has really grown. Here are some pictures of her.

Here she is learning tricks from the old man.

Mia got a little too carried away at the campfire we had at the cabin.

Here she is pointing a pigeon in the hay field. She seems to be picking up the hunting thing pretty well.

Here, Elena and Ne'Rye (the neighbor girl) took her for a ride. She also rides on the atv when we trap gophers.