Fathers Day

Olivia's first visit to our ward happened to be an important sunday, father's day. She got to meet all the other newborns in the ward, and there are actually a bunch with even more on the way. She slept during most of sacrament and did well in primary with Brodie and I. We made Daddy a big chocolate cake for Daddy's day.

Howdy Yall

Hi, hello, its me Olivia. Shout out to the fam who can't wait to come see me for Fourth of July weekend. I am as cute as the pictures would suggest. Who is the cutest in Montana? oh me, me

Salmon Season Is Here

Riggins, Idaho, confluence of Main and little Salmon rivers

I had a little time to try salmon fishing in Riggins before some work on Friday. It was very crowded as usual, but there were a lot of salmon being caught. It was crazy though, only about one out of ten of the fish caught were adults. There is a lot of jacks this year or something. I talked to Dad, and he thought that this might mean in the next couple years we could have a large adult run. I hope that that is the case. I caught my first salmon on the Salmon River after all the years of steelhead fishing on the river, in fact I caught a couple that morning...

Ok, this is actually a picture from fishing in Alaska last year. I caught a couple jacks and didn't bother getting any pictures. I will definitely miss going to AK this year, catching these big guys. I will have to get my fix in Idaho this year. Hopefully the run on the upper Salmon will be good in July.

Young Love

They grow up so fast. When we were in Idaho last, we stopped by to see our friends Shane and Heidi. They have a new little boy named Colson, and lets just say he was putting the moves on little Olivia. In fact, they tried to put him to bed when we were there, and he was not down with that. He wanted to stay up past 8 to hang out with Liv. Who knows, maybe Colson will be Olivia's first date when she is sweet sixteen. It was good to see Shaney and Heidi; they are really good friends.

Hello Dad

I came home from work on Tuesday excited to hold my little girl. She proceeded to say hello by spitting up all over me. She is getting her first scolding in the picture. Ok maybe I thought it was cute and had Ashley take a picture. I seem to be the one on the receiving end of whatever is coming out of her, maybe that is one of Dad's duties.

She likes to stretch right when she wakes up. I caught her with the camera with this big one.

Let's Go See The Fam

The morning of Thursday, June 11th, I got the idea that we should go to SEast Idaho to see my family. I needed to order equipment that day, do a few things with the rental, change the oil in our dodge, and return all of Brent Weight's equipment from when I worked for him. With all of these things I needed to do, I convinced Ashley and Squeeker to come with me. This was Olivia's longest trip yet, but again she did pretty good. We did have to stop to feed, once to Mcdonalds for momma and once on Monida for baby. We had a good laugh when we stopped at Mcdonalds. We ordered two dollar sundaes and a large fry and parked by a small tree for a little shade. Ashley got liv out to eat while we were eating. Quite a while after we finished, Ashley was changing sides noticing something in Olivia's arm pit. There was a Mcdonalds fry stuck in her onsie armpit. Ashley just started laughing and then ate it. I told her to check her dydie to see if there was anything good in there.


I think my Mom was very excited to see us; she even gave us their room to sleep in. Mom is always helping and serving others; she is a good example. It was also the first time for Taylor and Briannia and the boys to see the baby. They seemed to get along well. On the way home, Liv told us that they were pretty cool. Because Liv had slept all day Thursday, she had a rough night. I made fun that she sounded like Steven Tyler from Aerosmith with her screaming. You know I could see her in a big hair band; she has got some vocals.

We got the work done that we needed, relaxed and ate with my family (like we always do at my parent's place), oh ya and did I mention broke the law... We spotted some poor innocent ant piles on the back patio, and Dad informed us that he had bought some firecrackers in Wyoming that week. We brought Jaxon and Kannon out to participate in the Idaho boy ritual of blowing up ant piles with small explosives. Dad also pulled out the soup cans. You fill the larger can with a couple inches of water and poke a firecracker size hole in the top of the smaller can. Dad would stick a cracker in the hole, place it in the water, and light the fuse. It would shoot the can high into the air. The boys loved it. The funny things is, I remember doing this when I was a little kid with Dad.

Jaxon and Kanny were great with Olivia. They seem excited to have a new little sister of their own.

Olivia worked as a good center piece for dinner. She was a little out of it after all of the Dr Pepper.

Nationalized Health Care?

Judging by how well our government has run say social security, medicaid, or medicare, I cringe when they talk about how well they can run nationalized health care.

Weekend With Family

Derek called me mid week and said that they wanted to drive up to see the baby. They drove up Saturday and went home Sunday. It was a really short trip, but we were sure glad to see them. We went to dinner at Cracker Barrel, Olivia's first trip to a sit down restaurant. She did pretty good. We tested out our baby bike trailer on Jenntry; she seemed to like it. We also took baby J to the carousel and castle toy downtown by the river. She really liked the carousel.

Shower Fun

Babies are funny and a little gross. While my mom was visiting us she told me how sometimes she would shower with her babies when they were little and it was nice and easy. So a few nights ago I thought we should give it a try. Brodie was showering so I stripped Liv down and handed her into the shower with Brodie. I helped was her while he held on tight. Everything was going smoothly until our little angel decided to have an explosive poop on her Dad. I laughed so hard as did Brodie as he said "spray it off, spray it off." We got it off and kept cleaning until a few minutes later she did it again. Later Brodie found some baby poo on his underwear. What can I say, babies are gross but funny.

Hike To Morell Falls

We thought we should introduce Liv and Grandma to one of our favorite hikes close to Missoula. Morell Falls is by Seeley Lake. The hike has just got a few hills, and it is probably a little over 1.5 miles one way. Liv was fussy at the beginning, and then she calmed down and slept for most of the hike. Ashley did a great job too; she is getting around better and recovering well.

Ashley and I have hiked to the falls twice before, but they were both late Summer hikes. Lets just say that the falls are rouring right now. If we even got near the falls, it felt like we were getting rained on with a lot cooler temperature. We couldn't even rest and feed Liv near the falls; we had to hike back on the trail a ways. It ended up being a really nice day.

After the long hike, we treated ourselves to take out chinese. I accidently ordered enough food for 6 people, but we handled it well. Liv has a hard time grabbing things now, but she was able to play with the fortune cookies in the wrappers. Her brain was telling her hands to put the cookie in her mouth, but she just couldn't quite get it.

Another Photo Shoot