A little piece of sunshine

Aunt Marae and her friend Ben stayed a night with us on their way up to David and Jeanne's. We wish we were their final destination, but we'll take what we can get :) Every time Marae's around it's like a little piece of sunshine. The children absolutely light up in her presence! I wish I had a picture of Lydia's face when Marae first got here; her excitement was far from containable.

For those of you that know Hyrum, you know he LOVES to play games. Ben and Marae were sweet enough to spend a few hours in the morning playing games with the kids before they left. Ben was kind enough to let Hyrum make up his own Checkers rules, which ultimately led to his defeat. Marae played Cooties with Lydia and their Cooties went shopping for hula hoops. I think that was the first time Lydia had ever heard the word hula hoop and it made her laugh hysterically each time Marae said it. Little children are so precious and bring so much joy! Thanks for stopping in Marae and Ben! Hopefully you'll bless us with your presence again soon!

Crappie galore at Brownlee

We spent two days at Brownlee Reservoir basking in the sun, walking the trails, playing catch, picking wildflowers, hunting turkeys (Jon & Hyrum), and catching TONS of crappie (pronounced "crop E" for those of you non-fisherpeople). The weather was beyond beautiful and we had a fabulous time! Yes, Elise, Idaho is a lot of fun; you should seriously consider joining us!

Lydia took to fishing quite naturally. If you look closely you'll see the fish in the water that she's reeling in.

Lydia enjoyed petting the fish. They were just her size :)

A close up of Miss Lydia reelin' it in.

Jon and Hyrum after fishing with our bucketful of crappie. I didn't get any pictures of Hyrum reeling in fish, which is a shame, because he alone filled over half that bucket. He'd drop his line out and seconds later he'd pull in a fish. That happened over and over again. He's quite the fisherman!

Bless Jon's heart, he spent 3 hours filleting our fish. What a great dad/husband he is! He's very selfless when we go fishing. He takes care of setting up all our poles, changing our lures, taking off our fish, getting our lines untangled, freeing our snag, and all else that goes with fishing. Then when we're done he cleans and fillets the fish and even cooks them!Jon does very little cooking, but any form of meat is his specialty and my weakness so I GLADLY step aside :)

I find it kind of humorous that my childhood memories of fishing are fairly similar with that of what happens in our family now. My memories are of my Dad running from kid to kid getting lines untangled, putting bait on hooks, getting hooks out of trees or body parts, taking fish off, begging us to be quiet so we wouldn't scare the fish, and rarely ever peacefully fishing himself. (Now that I'm older I realize being loud doesn't scare the fish, it annoys everyone around you!) I know there were times when we were younger that he actually did very little fishing and a lot of running from kid to kid. It was a selfless act to take 6 children fishing. Thank you, Dad! You're the BEST! (My husband thanks you also because now I have a love of fishing.) Writing this has made me realize again that so much of what we do as parents is for our children. Our goal is to enjoy time with them while helping them form fun, happy, enjoyable, and lasting memories. Then when it's time for them to be parents, they will naturally do the same for their children and the cycle just keeps going. Isn't the plan of life beautiful!

A short video of Hyrum and Lydia both reeling in a fish.

PS I found a few more pictures from our other camera and thought I would add them just so they can be part of our book.

Mom and Dad are gone again (posted by Jon)

Mom and Dad were working on an all time record (if you don't count the 6 month move to Fruitland while in this house) I think Rachel said they were here almost 4 1/2 years. I don't know she might be off by a year. From my recollection the only move longer that that was the pullman drive house in Wasilla AK, which was....wait a minute, 3 years... we have a new record(not official yet). Well they are Yearington Nevada bound. We enjoyed living by them, Lydia and Hyrum love going to Grandma and Grandpas house. Hyrum and Grandma are best buds.

Happy Easter (By Jon, with a little editing by Rachel)

We finished Easter off at Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey's house with dinner and an Easter egg hunt. We are going to miss them.

We hid Easter eggs for the kids and hid snickers bars for Grandma and Grandpa. Jon threw Grandpa's on the roof of the house and Grandma's was appropriately hidden on the moving van.

Grandma colored some hard boiled eggs and hid them in her yard for the kids to find.

We started Easter in Grangeville. The kids and Rachel went to the park for an Easter egg hunt in the rain while Jon was fishing in the rain.

Lydia proudly showing off her treats from the Easter egg hunt.

A family pose after church

The boys

What cute girls!

What a handsome husband! (Yes, Rachel added this one)

Idaho adventures March 29-April 11 (By Jon)

Coming back from Steelhead fishing Saturday night before Easter we stopped at Zims Hot Springs in New Meadows. It was nice and warm and the kids loved it.

Here is a picture of Rachel when 3 years old or so. What a cute girl. I guess Lydia does look like her mom a little bit.

So I hook into a big steelhead, and to be sure to set the hook I jerk back real hard, ok now the hook is set. Just to be sure I better set it again. We used to say in Alaska, try and break your pole when setting the hook. Well sure enough that I did. All I had was the butt and the reel, about 15 onlookers were like a cheer squad in the background. It felt like 5 seconds left, down by one and I had the ball. He nearly took all my line but I managed to wear him out and bring him to shore. I got a loud applaus and It was talked about for hours after wards.

Hyrum bringing in his second steelhead. He gave it all he got and brought him in by himself

Hyrum dropping the steelhead in the water. Oh well, it was a native steelhead which have to be released anyways.

My first Idaho Steelhead

We walked in at 2 am(Kent Noethe and Brian and I). Across the river they had generaters running powering up lights so they could fish all night. We did not catch any at night. I started a fire to stay warm.

Camped at Oxbow reservoir, caught this trout and saw a thousand or so Elk and Deer

Several Elk and deer on the hill side. hard to pick out

I could not believe all of the deer and elk feeding together, I have rarely seen it before.

Here is an antler shed found while out looking for sheds

out at the sand dunes and foothills with Dad. He liked to see how steep of hills he could go up and down. He out did Ben and I

Eagle while camping at Brownlee, there has been a lot of them down there