Annual boys fishing trip on the Grande Ronde

 What has become an annual Steelhead trip to the Grand Ronde River with Lance and his Dad took place last weekend. They enjoyed great weather, no rain/snow, but the low water conditions made the steelhead fishing tough. Thur-Fri they fished the river with their favorite guide Jim Gallagher. Lance and his Dad each caught+landed a steelhead with several others getting away. 

The fall colors where in full exposure making for some dramatic views.

Tom caught a large Bull Trout on day one. A Bull Trout this size could be 10-15 yrs old.

When they were not reeling in a steelhead they had lots of action with Rainbow Trout, White Fish, Suckers and Pike Minnows.

They encountered all kinds of wildlife from Big Horn Sheep, Otters & Deer  to Turkeys, snakes & Eagles.

It's always special when these two share their passion for fishing and make great memories.

Fall Ball/ Fastpitch season

 

Rylee's fastpitch team ended their season 8-1.  Rylee had fun, made some friends, and improved a lot.  She even hit 3 homeruns!  Now onto basketball and volleyball...

Carson had his last Fall Ball game today.  He had a fun season as well, and he ended up hitting 4 homeruns!  We lucked out with the weather this year, only one game was rained out! 

This is Carson and his buddy Landon.  They have been in the same class at school for 3 years now, and have been on many baseball teams together.  They are two peas in a pod!

Scuba dive trip to Monterey

After 10yrs of talking about it the Craig Brothers finally put together a dive trip to Monterey Bay. They waited so long that our Nephews Mathew and Ryan were able to join. Above-Peter and Mathew trying on wetsuits & Ninja moves

 San Carlos Beach was the 1st Dive. It was easy access from the parking lot to the water and a great 1st dive with sea lions swimming around everyone, which Lance totally missed while looking down 😢

Everyone but Lance incorporated getting their Advanced Open Water dive certification while on this trip. Lance already has his so he just tagged along for the 6 total dives over 3 days. 

Before the 2nd "night dive" off Del Monte Beach, everyone warmed up by dumping warm water into their wetsuits and grabbed a snack.  The night dive included many sea creatures not seen during the day. It was very cool since all you can see is what's in the beam of a dive light.

Mathew, Peter, Lance, Aaron & Ryan (Left-Right) in their gear ready to go.

The 2nd day was 2x beach dives learning skills for the Open Water Cert. that included underwater navigation and search & Recovery.  They also dove near & under the pier and had a seal swim around them for a while trying to figure out what they were up to.

The final day included 2 dives from a boat out in the bay. The 1st dive was a deep water dive down to 98'. The visibility was 30-40 feet and the abundant life was amazing. This was everyone's favorite dive of the trip. The final dive was in Tanker's Reef, a Kelp Forrest, where a project was underway to control the Sea Urchin population in order to save the Kelp. Info: https://g2kr.com/

Tamara hosted everyone at her house for the trip and took very good care of her brothers. She also had a delivery of her Birthday/Valentines Day present, a new Tesla. It was a great trip and the brothers are already planning the next one. Maybe this time it won't take 10 yrs to bring it all together.

Belated birthday girls sleepover

Every year we get the girls together around this time for some type of birthday celebration.  Madeline's birthday is in July, Alexis' is in September, and Rylee's is in October.

The girls chose to go shopping and then stay overnight in a hotel.  We had pizza in the room and some pool time.

It's fun now that the girls are getting a little older and want more independence.  This is the first year they wandered around the hotel without us, and then hung out and played games at a table in the hallway.

They had a great time reconnecting and just hanging out.  They've known each other so long they are more like sisters.  They don't see each other often, so it takes a little time to warm up.  But then it's like no time has passed!

They did face masks and played with Rylee's cloud dough.  They hung out at the pool for a bit.  They checked out all the boys at the hotel (There was a soccer tournament nearby, so the hotel was fun of teenage boys) 😊

The mom's got to hang out too.  I love this tradition and I hope it continues for years!

Happy 13th Birthday Rylee

 

We started Rylee's birthday weekend off with sushi at Wasabi Sushi and Izakaya in Seattle.  The sushi was delicious and the restaurant had a really cool atmosphere. 

After dinner we went on the Seattle Great wheel.  We timed it perfectly to hit the sunset.  It was such a pretty view and we got some great pics!

After the great wheel we decided to check out Wings over Washington.  It was really cool!  It was a virtual aerial ride through some of the best sights and experiences in WA.  We got sprayed with water near Snoqualmie Falls and could smell the tulips when it took us through the tulip festival.  Very cool.  The kids liked it so much they wanted to do it again!

The next day we continued to celebrate Rylee with some Starbucks, shopping, batting cages, go carts and dinner at Red Robin.  What a great day! 

We celebrated Rylee with family the following weekend as well.  We started the evening watching Carson play baseball, and then went to Aversanos for dinner and gifts.  We ended the night at our house with some doughnuts from Legendary Doughnuts (Rylee's choice).

Happy birthday to my special girl, my Smiley Rylee. 😇 We love you so much! 

Home run Hitters

 These kids have been on a crazy good hitting streak lately.  6 home runs between the two of them over the last 2 weeks.  Their games have been so exciting to watch!  I think the batting lessons are paying off...

Rylee's first home run.  Not a perfect pitch but she wanted to hit it so bad!  She was so proud.

Carson's first home run a couple of days later.  He had to compete with his sister!  Shortly after this hit his buddy Landon hit a grand slam.  Great game!

Rylee hit another home run the day after her birthday.  Happy belated birthday to her!

Rylee's 3rd home run.  Grandma and Papa were there to see it!

Carson's 2nd home run was a grand slam.  Still not enough runs to win this game, but so exciting for him!

Carson's 3rd homerun helped his team win this game 7-6.  He was very proud and his teammates were ecstatic!

Carson hit a grand slam in his last Fall Ball game.  It really should have been more like a single, but hey... It still counts!  What a great way to end the season.  They ended up winning 15-0.