McCall, ID

Joe's 2 week break between finals and his first rotation out here in Oregon has come to an end.  In order to squeeze in just a little bit more fun before work starts we traveled up to the beautiful McCall, Idaho with Joe's parents, sister- and her friend Joey.  It was too cold to swim in the lake but man, did we have a good time at the cabin and seeing the sights of downtown.  Rocky was one of the happiest kids out there.

Kaylee- I got my caramel apple too!

Rocky thought the shoe cleaner device was the perfect little seat for him.  He usually sat on it everytime we came outside- which was many times a day.

The cabin was tucked away at the end of a long driveway and even though there were neighbors, you couldn't see them anywhere.  I thought it was BEEEautiful.  Best part for Rock- the deliciously cold water that came out of this pump.

Other best part- the hot tub.  If anyone knows the feeling of sitting in a hot tub in 50 degrees or less with a light rain on your face- then they know relaxing.

Other good parts not picutred but worth remembering- raspberry bush in bloom. Rock has become adept at using those little fingers to pick berries.  Also, Joe and Rocky and I took a little family walk (without the camera- dang it) through a trail above the cabin property and found our perfect land.  Not necessarily, but definately in a dream world.  Best walk I've been on, ever.  

"I'm your Huckleberry"

We woke up early Tuesday morning and decided to take a day trip to the West Eagle Meadows in hopes of catching a glimpse of that well known but also very reclusive Sasquach. In my childhood this campfire tale brought on some interesting late night conversation, while being mesmerized by the dance of the fire, is the Sasquach and Cane (the same who was banished to roam the world from the Old Testament) merely two different names for the same creature? We weren't so lucky as to make contact with the elusive beast, but we did see our share of wildlife. Rocky even attempted to create a form of camouflage that he rubbed all over his face (which consisted of dirt, huckleberries, wild strawberries, kit-kat bar, Mt Dew, and hot dogs roasted over a fire) to better spy wild game. We saw a fawn, several doe, a proud buck, two coyotes, several hawk, and some fish.  

After we sent Rocky all camo'd up out in the woods to scavange some wild berries and keep an eye out for bears, me and Sarah tried our hands at fishing. 

This was my beautiful catch, don't be deceived by this picture, the angle of the photo only makes it look like it is less than six inches and had to be thrown back in search of bigger and better fish.  While I was busy fishing, Rocky decided to get even more at one with the woods, and stripped his shirt off.  Obviously he had to throw down with a baby grizzly bear cub and came out victorious, and is just seconds away from getting his greedy paws on my prize fish.

Keep in mind this is Sarah's first time fishing, and she has already figured out the secret.  Cast your line out, then find a nice comfy place to sit and wait. 

And of course she is successful.  Catching the biggest fish of the day.  To which Rocky's only reply is, "my precious", in a really creepy voice for a 19 month old.  Did we say that we brought the dogs, not just Bear as shown above but also my parents dog Rosco the boxer. 

Here we find the Rock in his natural habitat, picking tiny huckleberries with his big paws with such dexterity.  We had found a perfect picnic area and were preparing the fire to roast some hotdogs when me and Rocky found some delicious wild strawberries.  Later while we were eating Rocky had disappeared behind a tree and was picking at some bushes.  Our first thought was, "That silly boy, thinks that those old red leaves on that little bush are strawberries."  To which Rocky's thought response was "Do I look like a confused idiot Mom and Dad, I know exactly what I'm doing.  Go get me a basket."  Rocky had actually found a huckleberry bush and was picking furiously.  After later inspection of this photo, he does look like he knows exactly what he's doing, and thus earned the nickname "Huckleberry". 

Now he is showing Mom how to apply the specially prepared camo salve.

I love his big ol' fingers and how nimble they are.  Unfortunantly this picture does not show the ferocity of Huck's two handed huckleberry feed.

After a good morning of wildlife, berries, picnics, fishing, and falling... I may have failed to mention this earlier, but while attempting to cross the stream with Rocky we took a spill on some freshly wetted and slicked rocks (thanks to Bear) straight into the glacier fed stream.  But don't worry, my elbows, forearms, and head broke most of the fall, Rocky just got a good wake-me-up from a freezing but good humored mother nature.  Like I was saying, after a fun morning, we decided to end the afternoon with some rock skipping.  Here I am searching for that perfect rock.

Op and there he is... OK i'll admit it that was corny, but dang that boy dosen't get more perfect. 

It was interesting and fun to see how much "Huckleberry" was in his element.  Make no mistake, this boy is a dandy in the outdoors, but after a long day of running around free, he didn't mind a nice relaxing drive home.

For the benefit of the readers, I will provide definitions for the previously mentioned word

DANDY  

  1) excellent: very good, excellent, or first-rate

  2) too concerned with appearanc: characteristic of a man who is excessively concerned wiht his elegant appearance

  3) excellent person or thing: somebody or something considered to be very good or the best in its class

Missouri

After Tahoe Rocky and I met up with Joe, who just successfully finished up finals and the in class portion of his Pharmacy program! Yeah for Joe.  We met in Missouri to visit his older brother Dan, Marci, Morgan, Owen, and Ruth.  Rocky can't get enough of his cutie girl cousins!

Rock and Ruth are spectating Joe and Morgan's big race.  Morgan challenged Joe to an obstacle course when she found out we were coming!  It was a really intense race.

Ready for this?

Joe's looking confused... who tripped me right at the finish line?  Morgan is looking triumphant!

This is my guy.

All time favorite thing to do- slide down the basement cover.

Rocky was the only one that appreciated his self-elected calling of keeper of the hose.

Owen and Rocky were BEST cousin buddies.

New favorite show: Thomas the train

We went to this apple picking place that unfortunately had no ripe apples to pick, but lots of grounds to explore and old equipment to play with.

Look at that Morgan girl!

Rock found his street sign!  (Cameron, this one was dedicated to you)

Joe and Rock and I stumbled upon another apple orchard that actually had apples ready for picking- He was in HEAVEN.  At my parents house he couldn't stop picking their apples so to have free reign without getting in trouble from his mom- he was in his element to say the least.

The whole orchard was on the land that had animals to pet, a darling country store, and these wacky hanging gourds.  Joe and I could totally see ourselves living like that when we are older.

Lake Tahoe Family Reunion

The reunion in Tahoe this year was great- forgetting one HUGE exception, and that was Joe.  We got along as good as we could without him.  Here's our proof:

Someone made some cool forts in the land around the cabins we all stayed in.  Those went over really well for Rocky...

He LOVED exploring the woods- and would have gone as far as his legs could take him if mom had let him.

We walked to a park where Rocky acted like a true Bear cub- he found this old dead log...

and put his fingers in the log until the ants came out...

and then he would pick them up!

There was some other great stuff at the park too.

Rocky held hands with the backseat Olivia all the way home.  They were the cutest little friends all week.

Rock and Olivia took turns pushing eachother in the stroller.

Our days at the beach were a blast- the great grandkids were doing all the same things I remember doing when I was their age.  Pictured here, building crawdad castles.

Rock was as comfortable as you can get down at the shore.

He's not even looking for anything, he's just being an ostritch.

He found someone's kayak under the shade of the dock, and never wanted to get out.

Uncle Jonathan giving Rocky his first taste of a big boy swing.

Very typical pose for Rocky, buckling his stroller or anything else that buckles for that matter.

I wish that cutie Ramona was turned around too, Rocky adored her.

Look at all these great grand kids!