The lake in February

Yesterday we played brige with Jim and Martha in Albion and stopped by the lake on the way. The  ice formations are back this year.

Another Fishing Post

Below is a picutre of Nathan holding a spotted Bay bass otherwise known as a spotty.  He goes out with his firends either with their boat or in the Kayak in the San Diego Bay.  Last week he caught 43 fish.  He releases all of them.  Yesterday we went on a 3/4 day trip into Mexico and caught a bunch of Rock Fish including Vermillion (reds), Copper, salmon grouper, and a sheep head (image below).  Nathan is holding several.  We brought home about twenty between the two of us.

Electric Run in San Diego

A couple of weeks ago Tui and I (along with Kong, Nong, and a couple of friends), did the Electric run in San Diego.  This is a night time run of 5K.  Every one covers themselves with various glow lights and LEDs.  Tui had a set of Christmas lights that ran off of a battery pack that wrapped around her whole body.  It turns out they make glow lights for many daily wear activities including eyeglasses, ear rings, belts, shoe laces and hats.  I made it about a mile then had to walk the rest of the run.  Below is a picture that Tui got off of the web site.  There were about 10K participants.  Can you pick us out?

Getting Out of the Rain

We drove, and drove, and drove this last weekend, and coming out of the rain, found ourselves in Oregon, in another world. South 3 hours to Portland, and then an hours scenic ride along the Columbia River, broguht us to The Dalles. A common stopping point for the pioneers who came West along the Oregon Trail. From there we headed due South into what seemed like a high dessert. Treeless, windy and sparcely populated by farms. We passed only 2 pick-up trucks in about 5 hours. Liam was heard to say that he could close his eyes to cross the street, and another time suggested that we drive on the wrong side of the road. (Both comments confirming the folly of 7 year olds driving cars). We stopped many times along the way. In the town of Fossil we explored a shale covered hill behind the school in town and hunted for fossils. There were tons of them! We could sit on the pile and split the shale up and find different leaves and sticks and pine branches. Not too far from there was an area that 50 million years ago had been tropical and full of early mammals. As we hiked passed boulders we could see fossils enbedded in them.....very cool. Geology in this area seemed everywhere. We drove over the plains and came to a point where we could see 5 vocanoes around us in various directions. In the photo with the windmills you can see Mt Hood, one of them.

Seattle

I'm finally getting around to posting pics of Seattle concert and water-park.  Ben and the two other saxophones did very well on their piece in the beginning band.  However, they were hidden behind the solid row of music stands so I only have an after-the-concert picture.  Both boys had great fun at the waterpark (as did their Grandma).  Ben wanted to go on the scariest water slide but couldn't get anyone else to go, the other ones were scary enough.

NOTE LIAM'S HAIRCUT!- I guess buzzcuts are in style now in 2nd grade.