


On Friday the 31st (Halloween), our very own Mario and Luigi had Kris and I (grown up Lucy and Charlie Brown) over as well as
a number of other “characters”. The evening was complete with good food, Pyramid Hef, and playing a little Beirut (beer pong).
Thursday morning Kris and I headed off to work and Heather came to hang with the crew. They relaxed, ate breakfast and received a tour of Heather’s new school and apartment. Kris and I played hooky that afternoon and met everyone at Harry’s in Hyde Park (now known as Hyde Park Pub) for lunch. After lunch we gave everyone a walking tour of downtown Boise and managed to squeeze in our first Liquor store of the trip. Uncle Ray collects the liquor miniatures and was able to find a couple mini’s from some of the Idaho distilleries.
Kris being die-hard Vandal that he is made sure to take us all to the Corner Club for a “tub”. We were fans! Ok, maybe not all of us since the NMSU fans we were tagging along with stuck out like sore thumbs! But they were good sports and so were all the U of I fans… even though we got a lot of funny looks J
Here is the link to our pictures from our trip to San Francisco and wine country. You still have to use the e-mail and password I sent out to view these pictures. We're working on that little glitch. Also, Kris will write more about this later...since he rocks at it!
Here we are at Pier 39...Golden Gate is in the background.
5 other friends. The Sawtooth relay is the 60 miles between Stanley, Id and Ketchum, Id. Each person on the team runs roughly 10 miles...5 miles the first leg and 5 miles the second. I however have an awesome team of experienced runners and since I am a beginner they were nice enough to only make me run a little over 7 miles. I'm grateful that Jadd and Tracy talked me into it. I was very apprehensive about running but I'm still enjoying and currently training for a 1/2 marathon that takes place in October. Pics can be found at: http://junerelay.snapfish.com/snapfish.
We were in New Mexico for the 4th...and let me tell you, the Provencio's know how to celebrate Independence Day! Our visits down south are always full of fun, food and festivities...and seriously they are! But this visit was special for me...it was the first time I've been with the Provencio's for the 4th...it was great. I loved the fireworks (but I'm not going to tell you what "kind" they were). I can't wait for the next 4th of July we get to spend there...I'm so addicted to the fireworks I'm trying to talk Kris into getting me some for New Year's. Of course we didn't leave until our bellies were full of Chico's Tacos and a little fondue, we sported some bowling, celebrated my birthday with an awesome birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant (a new find by Aunt Marty and a new favorite of mine), and 2 pairs of cowboy boots. Pics can be found at: http://krisandleahvaca2008.snapfish.com/snapfish.
birthday party for her and did our best to turn out backyard into a little something you would see in Austin, TX, complete with bbq, Shiner bock beer and of course live music! I can't tell you who the musician is yet...I have to get the ok from his attorney (let me know when I can disclose this information Kelly) but here are a few pics from the evening. I wish I was better with words and could describe the evening a little better but it was just great…and not to sound corny or anything but it was pretty magical...everything you would want in a summer bbq to honor a great friend on her special birthday! Pics can be found at: http://jennifers40th.snapfish.com/snapfish.
Next came the birth of Kellen, Joy and Jake’s little guy…he is quite the addition and I can’t wait to meet him! It’s killing me!
blog about that in more detail later. BUT we had a nice little surprise on Saturday the 30th when Madalyn entered our lives earlier than expected! John and Hanna welcomed little Maddie into the world…all 6 lbs and 21 inches! Another addition to the extended family I’m dying to meet face-to-face! I don't know that there is a lot more to say about this trip - this is truly a case where the pictures say much more than words could.
Brad and I made a mad dash up to Orofino friday evening so that we could get in some sleep before fishing early saturday morning. Saturday was a pretty good day for fishing according to many of the folks there. The two other guys we fished with, Bruce (who owns the boat) and his friend Matt, were very gracious to give me the first fish of the day and Brad the second since they had caught their limit the day before. I would say that within 30 minutes of putting the first line in the water, we caught this fish. Reeling it in was quite the experience, but I just can't say too much about the help I got from the other guys - it makes it so much easier when you have three other guys in the boat who had done this so many times in the past. Bruce netted the fish for me, and that was that. Brad caught his first fish shortly after that, and you can see the result below - it was huge! We weighed it in at 18.5 lbs., and when we went to check in with fish and game at the end of the day, the guy said that it was one of the biggest fish they had seen to date this season. After that, it was every man for himself and each of us caught one more fish, giving Brad and I our limit by about 1:00.
Sunday was a little bit slower as far as teh fish are concerend - it seemed like everyone on the river was struggling to catch fish. I ended up getting shut out on the day, but the other three guys caught 5 fish between them, so we actually did pretty well, all things considered.
We headed home saturday evening, tired but happy. Brad took the fish to a butcher to get them fileted sunday afternoon, and while I didn't find out the total weight of the meat, I can definitely say that we will have some salmon in the freezer for quite a while.
I really want to thank the other guys for helping out the new guy so much - I would have been lost without them. They were all great and really made my experience that much better. Of course, Brad must have more patience than could reasonably be expected of any individual for continuing to take me fishing with him, adn I can say that I am very thankful for that. I am already looking forward to heading back next year (Bruce said that we should get a good run next year, as indicated by the large number of Jacks we ran across over the weekend).
Dad and the huge-kahbungus!