Drew's truck

Drew saved all summer to buy a lift kit, tires and rims for his truck and spent this weekend lifting it! Drew, Paul and Jim spent Friday nite and Saturday doing the modification.  It looks pretty sharp.  I think I have competition for my bad ass rig!

Ev and Jess' wedding

We specifically took some pics with the bride and groom because the groom was 4 months old at our wedding and I thought that was so cool to now be at his wedding!

Playtime

This is one of the first time I saw the puppies playing together.  They are still at the point where they eat and sleep most of the time so when they interacted with each other it was really exciting.  They also just started wagging their tails when we talk to them!  The little dogs in the them are coming out!

2 weeks old

The pups and Hops came home with us when they were 12 days old to stay for a couple weeks.

These pics are from there two week birthday.  We names them Cash (male) and Camo (female).

Rescue Raft Shenanigans

Lover J-man's giddy expression!

Jim has an expired rescue raft from the fishing boat that has been sitting in the garage taking up space.  So he came up with the bright idea of bringing it to Cherry to test it out.  You wouldn't normally just" test it out" as its a one time use item and its expensive!  But since it was expired and you don't want to risk using an expired one, it left it available for shenanigans!

Jim took it out in the water, threw it in and pulled the cord.  Normally it would be thrown over board on the boat while hanging onto the cord.

I good strong pull causes the boat to automatically inflate.   It took less than 30 seconds to inflate.

Once it inflated, Jim got in it and looked at all the gear that came with it:  a knife, two small wooden paddles, a bailing bucket, sponges for bailing, a mirror for sending signals, huge flares, a rocket flare...  The gear was as much fun as the boat!

The boat has a cover to keep you out of the elements.  It is a six man raft -- but that would be SUPER tight!

Grace and Jeremy were in on it all.  Note the GoPro on G's head! Jeremy is looking at something used to repair holes.

After we went through all the gear, we added the boat to our "flotilla" and went out to catch blue gill.  Jeremy and G rode in it while I pulled them with the kayak.  They filled the boat with water and we put the blue gill we caught in it!  Such fun...except for me who was trying to drag them around while paddling (with only one paddle!).  After awhile, Drew came along with the jetski and tossed me a tow rope.

He towed us across the lagoon where we continued to fish while Jeremy jumped off of the cliffs above us.  Fun for all!

Tonsil Stones

    

On our way home from dinner tonite, Jeremy informs us that he has a tonsil stone. 

Of course, we all say, "what"??  And he proceeds to tell us that every 6 months or so he gets a tonsil stone and he has one tonite.  We thought he was telling a tall tale.  But when we stopped at the lake to tarp up the boat, he proceeds to stick his finger in his throat and dislodge the stone.  And then he chased us all around that parking lot trying the get us to smell it because apparently it smells awful!  Drew and Amanda fell for it and were still horrified ten minutes later.

Jeremy's exact words:  "I am so honored to have tonsil stones because only one in fifty people have them!"

Cherry Lake - July 2016

We had an AWESOME Cherry Lake trip this year!  The highlights were:

1. The lake was FULL!  Which meant that you only had to walk your tent, bags, food, etc. 100 feet above the high water mark.  Last year we had to hike it about a quarter of a mile because the water was so low.  We had a great spot with our own little bay.

2.  We saw river otters in the Magic Fishing Hole!  First time ever!  And when we asked the Ranger about it, it was the first he had heard of river otters at the lake.

3.  We launched Jim's expired rescue raft - check soon for a blog post on the adventure.

 4.  Lots of water fun including:  walking on the log jam (above): swinging from the rope swing (below); cliff jumping;  and putting together the kayak, the SUP and the rescue raft to make a "flotilla" for blue gill slaying.

Jeremy

Jeremy

 5.  There was a lot of game playing (mostly liars dice) and hanging out on the boat.

All our toys

We start begging for the sun to go down after a long day on the lake!

6.  There were a lot of fish caught!  We caught our first trout in over 3 years at the lake.  The Magic Fishing Hole did not disappoint.  Nor did the blue gill!

G at the Magic Fishing Hole

 

 7.  Ahi got in the lake and swam back to the boat my herself after going to shore for a potty break!  So brave!

Magic Fishing Hole

Amanda catching her first trout....ever!

When at the MFH, I have to sit down with Daisy because I am afraid she will slip and fall into the river

Testing the rope for the rope swing

We ran into some trouble with the jetski but Jim and the crew had the problem diagnosed and fixed within about 30 minutes.

We went back to the MFH the second morning so the kids could see the otters...but we were skunked!  Luckily they saw one later that day.

Surfing Ahi

 This is Ahi sound asleep on her back in the tent at about 9:30 pm.  Camping makes her very tired!

Ev and Jessica's Wedding - July 3, 2016

Everett and Jessica got married in Newcastle, CA on July 3, 2016.  It was a warm July afternoon but was about 10 degrees cooler than the day before.  Jim, Grace and I met Anna and Roy there (Drew was in Cancun).

The ceremony was beautiful and especially touching because they wrote their own vows.

Catching up with the family

Unfortunately the Harvey's from Alaska could not be there as it is right in the middle of their fishing season.  Luckily Megan came from Colorado so she could "represent"!

Bean and Ev - mother - son dance

Mr and Mrs!

Anna and Roy had the honor of being the longest married couple at the wedding - 54 years!  Here they are with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Don.

Puppies - Day 6

No words needed

Day 5 - Puppies

They are growing like weeds!  Today is the first day that Hops willingly went outside to go swimming with the kids so the breeder was able to hold both of them at the same time.  Female on right, male on left and Uncle Dewey being a nosy butt and checking them out!

Day 4 - Puppies

 Day 4 showed the puppies gaining weight!  They now weigh 1 pound 7 ounces which means they gained about half their body weight in 4 days!  No wonder Hops seems so tired - she is making a huge amount of milk!

This is great to show scale!

We have decided to bring Hops and the babies home for a couple weeks!  We will go get them next week - which will be right as their eyes are opening!  The breeder suggested it since it was such a rough experience, because these two are clearly thriving and because Hops is one of the most careful and devoted moms she has had.  Of course, we jumped the opportunity.  Grace will be in charge since she is home for the summer.

We have been thinking up names because we have to call them something while we have them.  So far the male is Waylon and the female is Cash.

Pretzels

Grace made us home made pretzels with homemade cheese sauce for dinner last nite.  They were AMAZING!  They were better than AMAZING!