Piano Recital

Morgan had her Christmas piano recital today and did a wonderful job.  This is her teacher, Julianne and it was in her home.

Morgans Christmas Concert

These clips are of Morgans Christmas Concert last night.  There are 4th, 5th and 6th graders in the choir.  Of course this is all that my camera batteries had in it and then it died, at least I got her two solo parts!  They did a great job and Morgan smiled more than anyone there, all night long.  She has such a fun energy about her... it does stress me out sometimes (like when her sun glasses were stuck in her hair before the show started), but that is why I have Troy to remind me to just enjoy it!  And we did, it was the best concert the school had put on so far.  Morgan did wonderful and looked beautiful, good job babe!

Gone One Month

I can't believe the kids left one month ago, today.  I found these pictures that we hadn't printed or posted so I thought I'd share them.  Marina reading, Anya taking pictures of herself (we have lots and lots of those) and Ivan playing basket ball with Troy, Grant and Nick.  

I finally got their Christmas boxed today so I can mail it tomorrow, hopefully it will make it by the end of the month.  The post office here said it only takes 6 days for packages to get to the Ukraine, but a friend told us it then take 2-3 weeks to get from Kiev to it's destination.  And that doesn't guarantee that it won't be opened and rummaged through.  Makes me grateful for standards and regulations.

Thanksgiving trip to the South Fork

Troy here to tell the story of Grant's good-looking rainbow above (nicknamed "Phatipus") and about the rest of our trip.

Grant and I left the thanksgiving wind-down around 6 pm Thursday (strategically avoiding a good chunk of clean-up) and made the 3 hour drive to Tiffany's house in Rigby, Idaho.  Tiffany and Jason were up in Salmon with Jason's family, so we had the place to ourselves (thanks guys).  We slept great and were up at 6 a.m. Friday morning to hit the fish.  First, though, we had a big breakfast at "Me and Stan's" diner there in Rigby.  Grammar obviously is not so good at Me and Stan's, but the food was solid.

Our expectations for the day were humble enough.  Do a little exploring on the South Fork of the Snake and hopefully not go away empty-handed.  It is a big river, and without any experience there to speak of, we knew we needed to keep our eyes open and gather information where we could.  So we pulled over at the first sign of potential help: an old-timer gearing up at around 7:30 a.m. at one of the many turn-outs.  We chatted with him for a minute.  He said that it was real simple.   Commodity patterns, like pheasant tails and prince nymphs, were the order of the day this time of year.  Easy enough, right?  Oh, but you have to find the fish.  He suggested a turn-out a bit down the road with some fast runs and deep pools.  "It will be obvious enough what to do when you get there," he said.  We thanked him and jeeped our way down the gravel road.  

Unfortunately, the spot he directed us to was taken, but no problem.  The thing about this river is the abundance of gold medal water.  So we kept driving.  We found a promising looking enough place and went out to wet our lines.  But the air was chilly (33 degrees) and it was misty and the fish were definitely not awake.  On top of that, we were spending a lot of time with tangled lines.  The only action we saw was hooking into a white-fish, and (momentarily) a solitary rainbow.  Patience boys.  

Things finally warmed up a bit (ok, 35 degrees, but it was enough), and the mist lifted.  We ended up driving as far as this road would take us, and got out and trudged beside the river until we found another good-looking spot.  We knew things were turning up when we spotted fish actually rising periodically on this chilly day.  Excitedly, we put our lines in the water and started catching fish.  The technique that worked the best turned out to be just "walking the dog" down the bank (i.e., walking along with the current to give our flies a good long drift).  We would hook into a fish almost every time this way.  Most were fine-looking 14-15 inch browns of the type shown in the pictures below, with an intermittent rainbow.  And of course Grant's big, fat bow, which really made us work.  I went to a dry fly at one point with much less success, but did have a take on a tiny brown baetis emerger, and can still feel in my fingers the rod vibrating from the fly bouncing around in the mouth of that nice brown before it popped out.  Argh!

We wrapped up our day as the sun went behind the mountains, and we hiked back for the long drive ahead of us.  I was surprised as we drove along the river to see fish rising like crazy in the last bit of light of the day.  Not what I would have expected this time of year, but it was nice to see.  And reason enough to go back!

Day After

Cousin Whitney stayed on after Thanksgiving dinner and had a little sleep over with Morgan.  Mom and Kathryn came back over and we watched Jane Austin's Persuasion, not one of her better stories made for TV.  So we were left still looking for a romantic fix.  Twilight (good high school flick) started this needing a romantic fix, we were all excited for some romantic tension, but there was no tension or romance in it and that is why we loved the book.  So we are on a quest to find a good love story.  Any recommendations?

So the next morning, my dear friend Diane called to see if she and the kids could come over.  YEAH!  We love having them come over when ever they are in town.   The girls all played, the boys played and Diane and I just got to visit and visit and visit.  The kids all had some pumpkin pie for lunch.  Definitely a holiday around here.  The boys did have a pear before their pie.

  Right after they left Brady picked up Morgan and Whitney to go see Whitney's new hamsters.  So Ethan and I were just going to hang out when my mom and Kathryn walked in with another movie!  So we watched a BBC movie called North and South.  Tad long, but a good love story with tension building until the very end.  Cute main character too, he grows on you kind of like Darcy in the Kiara Pride and Prejudice movie.  Which is what Kathryn and I watched late last night.  I just haven't found a movie better than that.  Although I do like Emma, mmmm maybe tonight...

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!  

Yesterday we got lights up in the trees out front, thanks for the lights mom.  Made the cranberry sauce and a chocolate cheesecake.  Finished cleaning the house this morning, Troy sure can get the kids to work.  Made mashed potatoes this morning and set the tables.  We were ready, we just needed friends and family to come!  And they did, yeah.  This is Jessie's cute family, Brady came with his girls and Mom, Dad and Kathryn came.  The food was yummy and we ate almost everything.  Good thing Dad brought extra Turkey and rolls so we can have sandwiches tomorrow.

Me with my chocolate cheesecake and Kathryn with her dessert.  My camera was set on a funny setting and everything is a little off.  I didn't even think to take any pictures until all the tables were cleared.

Alysa and Morgan eating Jessies yummy chocolate desserts.  Besides all these yummy desserts we're sure grateful for family and friends and the opportunity to spend a little time with them.  Happy Thanksgiving!
Everyone hung out for a while and the kids all got a long really well and played and played.  Everyone left as Troy began packing up his fishing gear.  He and Grant headed up to Tiff's so they can do some fishing tomorrow in Idaho.  They even ran to get some waders and boots for Grant this morning so he could stay close to Troy in the freezing river tomorrow.  I think we'll have some hot chocolate and watch a couple movies tomorrow.