Tiger

Yes, we got a cat. I know, I know, you thought I would never budge and allow a cat in our home. Well, I was tired of being the kill-joy and finally said it was okay. It's not that I have anything against cats or dogs. It's just nice not to have fur floating around. The girls are also getting older so it's not so hard with the day to day stuff like changing diapers and feeding.

Becky called me from the pet store asking if she could bring home a cat. I surprised her by saying yes. She wasn't ready for that because I always held her back. She finally had to decide if she was ready too. Well, she went back later that day with Courtney and came home with a cat.

He's a really sweet cat and the girls absolutely love him. The girls call him Tiger or Tigidy Tige or Tigger or Tigs or Tige. I call him velcro cat because he can't be more than six inches from you. In fact, he sitting in my lap right now purring like a V8 motor.

I'm already to go for next summer when we get a dog. Becky gave me our first ultimatum since we got married (which by the way I've encourage her to got counsulling because you should never used ultimatums in marriage). She was tired of me saying no to a dog so she finally said that "we're getting a dog next summer so you have one year to get used to the idea." I'll either call Dr. Laura on her or I'll get used to the idea.

A Saturday at Home

Last Saturday, we stayed home and did house stuff. It was a beautiful day. We had a great time as a family. It was nice to be home from my business trip without having anything to do. I took a few pictures of the girls and got a great video clip of Courtney being silly.

Cute Pictures of the Girls

Pictures of Courtney doing some silly poses

Below is a link to a video of Courtney doing the "Silly Shoe Dance" as we like to call it. It's really funny. I love the little nuances like her expression when she accidently kicks the rose bush or her pursed lips and flared nose when she starts dancing with a stick. I've seen it at least 20 times and still laugh. She can be so silly sometimes.

Courtney's Silly Shoe Dance

Disclaimer: The file is big (~10 MB) and requires Quick Time Player 7. You can download the viewer here. It's a rather extensive install, requiring the iTunes components, but it's worth it. I use Quick Time because our camera records videos in that format. Quick Time

Ashlyn's 1st Day of Preschool

That's right. Ashlyn had her first day of school. She was so excited and has been ready for months. Last year when Courtney was in school and Ashlyn stayed home, she played school and called Becky "teacher" and asked for activities to do.

Ashlyn did great and loved everything about it. Miss Mary, her teacher, asked the parents to stay a while to help the kids make a book bag--also to help the kids transition into school. Well, our little miss independent kept telling Becky that she can go home now. Basically, she was ready for school. She wanted to be there on here own. She looks forward to school everyday and asks every morning if today is a school day.

More Pictures

Courtney's 1st Day of 1st Grade

Today ends Courtney's first day of first grade. She was a little nervous this morning but went with a smile on her face. We picked her up from school and she looked tired. She said she had a good day and liked lunch the best. She's a girl after my own heart. She said Mrs. Ota, her teacher, was really nice and pretty. She also met lots of new classmates.

Courtney goes to school all day now--from nine to three. The house was a little quieter too. Ashlyn wandered from room to room happy that she had the house and mom and dad to herself.

Courtney bought her lunch today too. Of course she didn't eat the salad because "they" put cactus in it and she didn't want to get poked. Who knew?

Becky and I hope and pray for Courtney to have a great year. We know she's going to learn a lot of stuff. Hopefully, it's not stuff like building rubber band guns or spit ball shooters like her dad. Don't get me wrong, those things are important but I have learned there is a time and a place for everything.

More Pictures

Priest Lake

Wow! That was the consesus about Priest Lake. It is so beautiful. The mountains, the trees, and the perfectly clear cold water are awesome to see.

We joined Mark, Kathy, Ed, and Sharon on their trip to Priest Lake. They were there the entire week. While we came and went as we had time. The first part of the week was warm and sunny; however, by the weekend it became cool and rainy. It's that time of the year were weather is so unpredictable. Priest Lake is also two hours north of us. It's located in the Panhandle of Idaho, almost to the Canadian border. A funny side note about the drive is that there are only two stop lights between the major road we live off of and Priest Lake. I still can't believe it. Have I mentioned how much we love this place yet?

We did a lot of relaxing. We boated, hung out, and did a little fishing. The highlight of the trip was the Thoroughfare and the camp fires. The Thoroughfare is a narrow stretch of the lake that connects Upper and Lower Priest Lake. It is a two mile no wake stretch that looks like a river. Upper Priest Lake has no roads to it and it is only accessible by boat. As far as the camp fires, we can thank Robbie and Ed for that. They cut up a huge tree and hauled it back for fire wood. I got to split wood--which I love. Ed and Robbie freaked most of the camp out and maybe some of the other campers at the campground when they decided to make a fire chimney out of a hollowed out tree trunk. It was impressive. It sounded like a blast furnace and shot flames several feet into the air. They ended up knocking it down because people were concerned about nearby trees catching on fire.

I also did a little fly fishing on the West Branch of the Upper Priest River with Emory. We caught a few Rainbows too. The highlight was seeing a very large moose. After seeing the moose, I kept looking over my shoulder for it and for something a little more ferocious. We do live in one of the last places in the U.S. that you still find grizzly bears.

Anyway, we had a great time and want to go back to Priest Lake soon. However, it probably won't be until next summer because Fall is here.

More Pictures