Remembering Pepper

This is a picture of DaNae with her swimsuit on backwards. I think it looks alot like Ella.

The best pictures of Pepper were with Parker and Pepper.

Ella was thinking about Pepper yesterday. She wanted to draw a picture for him and OC and mail it to heaven. She remembered pepper being put in a box and being mailed to heaven, and wondered if he would get the picture. So I'm posting a couple of pictures of Pepper for her to remember him.

A Few Favorite Pictures

It's slow at work this afternoon, and the machine is down, so I'll try a little blogging from my iPad.



Grace was our Mary for the Christmas story reading.



Fun to have Sonny and Rosabelle here.



Sure cute kids.



Grandma gave Ella a wedding dress for Christmas



She really loved her AMG girl doll and matching night gowns.






New Years was fun in Buffalo at Autumn's blessing.



The kids had fun visiting the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.






Luckily the giant shark didn't eat them all.
We had a great time tending Dianna's little boys. Miss them already.

Thanksgiving in Phoenix

We had a great time in Phoenix for Thanksgiving. Half of the family made it down. Drew was a great host to share his home and heat the pool. We had ten adults and 12 kids for the dinner.
It was a great meal and we had lots of fun and games with the fam.
Dinner prep by the girls.

Boys watching football

Sometimes dinner just takes too long. Brit couldn't quite make it.

We had a great time in Drew's pool. He heated it so that the cool days were fine to swim.

Playing thanksgiving bingo with grandpa.

Songs with the cousins and then opening the Christmas jammies.

Fun in the pool.

Foul Hooked Like A Fish

It was Wednesday and the tide was in and the fishing was slower. Dave Bowers and I were working hard to catch our limit of 5 fish. I just caught my 5th and he was throwing hard to get his fifth, when whack, I got the lure in the side of the head. It was a pretty lime green vibrax treble hook. One hook cut my ear, but didn't catch. The other hook caught the side of my face. In the picture below you can just see the tip of the hook where is was cut off with pliers. Unfortunately the barb on the hook wouldn't come loose.

We went back to the cabin, had lunch, and then Layne washed it with betadine, numbed it with xlyocaine, and used a scalpel to cut through the skin and release the barb, and free the hook. He did a great job.

Layne put on a waterproof bandage gave me some keflex and I was back in the fishing business with no infection.

The end of the week and the cut is healing well. No sequelae. Dave Bowers really felt bad, but it was just an accident. He was much more careful casting though the rest of the week.

Fish & Bears on the Karluk

We had lots of fun fishing in Alaska on the Island of Kodiak on the Karluk River. The silver salmon were large this year, mostly around 15 pounds each. The first of the week the weather was good and the water calm. This is Dave Bowers showing his little fish in his right hand and my big fish in his left.

This was our morning catch. We had some good fighters and we had our limit by 11am.

This is the mornings catch, we had 10 salmon and on the end 2 steelheads we had for lunch.The bears were everywhere. One morning Dave and I counted 6 bears we could see around us. These two bears walked on the shore 50ft from where Bowers and I were anchored. For the Karluk fisherman this is at the point by the tank. We thought we were fine since we were out in a boat and they were on the shore.

Then right in front of us the swam into the deep water and caught a salmon right in front of our boat. They then just swam out into the more shallow area and kept fishing. Enough salmon for everyone. Often we would come in from fishing and have to move the bears out of the way to get our boats in. These bears were there every day.

We liveed in that brown cabin just above the river.Last year one tried to get in that door you see. That was Bowers and my bedroom. There is just some plastic over the hole in the door where the bear tried to get in. Those two bears live in the bushes off to the right. We would see them walking by the cabin.This is Layne & Malyn taking pictures of the bears while we waited for them to move off. We had a great time. The weather became bad later in the week and we had 50 mph winds that shook the trailer and kept us off the water 2 days. In my next post I'll show you pictures of me getting caught with a lure.

Home from Atlanta

We had a safe and good trip from Spokane to Atlanta. It was a long hot drive. The first day we went to Rapid City, where there were tons of motorcycles from nearby Sturgis. We did go see Mt Rushmore, which was very nice. Next day went to Indepence Mo. and went to Liberty Jail. Here is Ben and Ella at the jail.

We went Monday to Stone Mountain. It is one big rock. We looked at the faces and then to the gondola to the top.

Knox and I at the top of Stone Mountain. You can see around you forever.

A quick kitchen update. Looking good. Finishing touches of backsplash tomorrow. I'll send an update next week with better pictures.

Happy Birthday Dorianne

Happy Birthday Dori. We had a pool party and dinner on the deck. Since we don't have a kitchen yet. It was a beautiful day. Dorianne received some great presents. We surely love her. Dori had her favorite ice cream cake.

Love the kindle.

Construction coming along. The cabinets look great. The white island really sets it off. Can't wait until next week when the granite countertops are in and the tile floor done. Getting closer.