The Lake

This summer I visited a high mountain lake with my friend Dustin. This is one of my favorite lakes, but I haven't been there in over a decade. Anyone who has ever been there in the past refuses to go back. It is little tough to get there to say the least.

Here is a picture of me and my steads on the way in.

 Here is the lake.

The fish in this lake are especially dumb and hungry. At one point I heard Dustin curse. I asked what was wrong and he said he made an entire cast without getting a bite. Tough times!

 Here is a photo of Dustin and Mia with a fish.

I think I found someone who is willing to go back, so hopefully it will be less than a decade before I make a return to "The Lake."

Special Beverage

I was having lunch the other day and noticed that my Coke can actually had my name on it.

Are You Ready for Christmas?

Here is a photo I took of Elena on Thanksgiving morning. All of her Christmas presents are wrapped and ready to be delivered. I, on the other hand, will be shopping on Christmas Eve.

DIY Disaster

The flies were horrendous this summer. We've never had as many flies as we did this year. We actually decided it was necessary to place fly strips in our kitchen because the fly swatter and Bug-A-Salt couldn't keep up.


I found a nice website with DIY fly strips. It called for honey and paper bags, which we have tons of. I even went as far as to have the kids decorate the strips prior to dipping them in the honey to spice them up and get the kids involved. Here is a photo of our product cooling.

 The next morning I hung several of these around the house. I left for work confident that our fly problem was solved.

The person who posted this project neglected to mention two very important facts about honey. 1) It becomes runny when it warms up. 2) Flies don't like honey. I came home to a sticky mess all over the house and not a single fly in the bag.

Going Straight to the Big Guy

Elena REALLY wants a cotton candy machine for Christmas. During one of many requests for one at Christmas, Karen finally told her it absolutely wasn't going to happen.

Here response, "Fine, I'll just ask Santa then!"

Summer in Review

 

We did a lot of stuff over the summer, however blogging was not one of them. So here is a quick recap.

Marcus turned 4 in June. He really wanted a bounce house for his party, so we rented one for him. Now he points out the sign advertising the bounce houses every day when I drive him to school.

 He got lots of Legos and trucks for his birthday. As you can see, he was one happy kid.

Marcus also worked on his first shop project: training wheel modification. First he drilled some holes.

Then we cut off some excess metal.

and tightened the bolts.

 

 Here is the finished product!

Regarding training wheels, Elena ditched hers.

We started a 4-H club, the Sunnysiders.

We got some bantams for 4-H chickens.

We had horrible luck with the chickens, and only one survived until fair.

Early one morning the chickens were making quite a ruckus. I ran out there in my underwear without any shoes. I then did battle with a great horned owl. Did I mention I didn't have on any clothes or shoes? Anyway, I am currently working on new quarters for the 4-H chickens.

We also went to the cabin a few times.

While there we visited one of our favorite hot springs.

We did some hiking as well.

For the 4th of July we did fireworks and a pool party.

 

  

In August we went on the Idaho Power camping trip near Stanley. One morning Karen and Mia hiked to the top of the ridge while I hung out with the kids. 

Elena thought she was the Dog Whisperer on this particular trip.

While there, we all went for a hike near Redfish Lake. I dubbed it "The Trail of Tears" because the kids have decided they don't like hiking any more.

This summer we removed the last of the big maple trees at our house because it died. I rented a boom lift this time and it was actually pretty fun.

We also had a new roof installed on the house. Very exciting!

Elena loves to have sleepovers. I've come to learn that sleepovers don't involve much sleeping. Here she is after one of her sleepovers. She barely made it in the front door before passing out.

A couple of random photos:

Then it was time to go back to school. Elena started the first grade while Marcus is now in Pre-K.

Here is a class photo of Marcus.

Throwback Thursday

Marcus turned four this week. During Karen's prior life, while Marcus was still in the oven, she and her dad embarked on a welding project. Well, this spring their welding project finally found a home.

Dance Recital

Elena had her end of year dance recital over Memorial Day weekend. Don't get me started about the timing. Anyway, Karen took a couple of photos backstage.

First up was her ballet number.

Then she did tap to the beat of Jailhouse Rock.

As you can see, all of the dancers are perfectly synchronized.

Since Karen was helping backstage, I was in charge of Marcus. We did lots of running around in the wallways between Elena's dances. Here is a photo of him that he asked me to take.

 

Karen said one of the girls was really nervous and didn't want to dance. The same girl refused to dance in the winter program. She told Karen that her mom said she would lose her iPad mini, TV, camera, phone, video games, and wouldn't be able to go to Wahooz or Roaring Springs all summer if she didn't dance. She danced. Well-played Mom!