Brian's Fishing Trip

Well, Brian has taken the fishing trip he has talked about for 10 years. He flew to Mexico, stayed in a one-horse town (Buena Vista), lived in yurt, and fished with his flyrod from the beach everyday. I think it was a bit of a culture shock, but he found the people to be easy-going and hospitable. For those who care about fish: he caught a 30 pound Jack Crevelle and a rooster fish, among many others.

We are off to Mexico (Part Deux) in a few weeks. This will be near Cozumel and will be more of a McVay family reunion. I'm sure he'll bring his fly rod, and he insists on nothing less than SPF50.

Skipping School & Hiking

It was Kindergarten Round-Up, for the up and coming kindergarteners. So Annie, now a veteran kindergartener, did not have class. So, I took the day off, and checked Jake out of school, too. It was a warm day to catch up on gardening, playing and we met up with some friends for a hike on Mt. Jumbo. I brought my camera along and snapped some pictures.

Spring Things

It's spring, complete with soccer for Jake, barbequeing and nieghbors playing in the street and yard. Warm temperatures (relatively speaking) have arrived, and we've been enjoying it. Everything is green and sunny, and between our higher latitude and proximity to the time-zone border, our days are nice and long.

Spring Break & Easter

April has been a busy month, mostly with the regular rhythm of life. And yes, I've once again been a bit lax in posting! Spring break was a week ago, and we stayed here in Montana. We went on a small trip with our neighbors to Fairmont Hot Springs. Natural hot springs that are directed into pools, complete with hot-tubs and water slide. The top two pictures are from the small petting zoo outside and our dinner in Anaconda. We spent about 6 hours a day in the warm waters!! Not generally my thing, but it was relaxing, especially compared to the brisk April wind.

Easter was great - we were invited to a friend's house for a egg hunt and dinner. It was the most beautiful day of the year, and we soaked in the warm sunshine. In fact, I think we only spent a few minutes indoors.

St. Patrick's Day

A bit late, but here are some pictures from St. Patrick's day parade. Grandpa John sent Annie some green leprechaun accessories, which she adored. She even got to wear them to school, which was perfect for Annie's attention-adoring personality. Thanks to Sunni for some of the pictures, since I've been a bit lax. Sunny spring weather comes and goes, only teasing us with what is hopefully to come. We've yet another week until Spring Break...

Pinewood Derby

Jacob had a great Pinewood Derby event. He named his car Rhino, and painted it black with his initials and a white skull. If you look at picture with all the cars, his is on the top row, fourth from the left. In the overall standings, he landed exactly in the middle of the pack. However, in one of the heats, he came first. That's all the excitement he needed! The bottom pic is one of Annie and her classmate, Dimitri, who's older brother is a cub scout. A fun night, and Jacob is already excited for next year's race.

Whitefish

We went up to Whitefish Ski Resort for a long weekend, to celebrate Brian's arrival upon a fourth decade. (It's isn't official until Wednesday.) The skiing was great. We had sunny skies and moderate temperatures for Thursday & some of Friday. You could see forever, it seemed, in the distance. At the top of the mountain, the trees are crusted over in snow, and they are referred to as snow ghosts - I tried to snap a picture of them, but it doesn't do any justice to their eerie presence. Then snow moved in on Saturday. The snow made it a bit fun, except when we drove home. That made for a long, stressful, slow ride. Little Annie was doing very well skiing, until she twisted her ankle at the end of the first day. Nothing broken, but she is staying off her foot, which is proving to complicate our entire world. We're all anxious for her to be back on two feet soon. We secretly think she enjoys being catered to a bit too much, and we are wondering if this is hampering the healing process. We'll see, I suppose. Jake really enjoys skiing, and he's doing well. While there, we made a cake, complete with 40 candles to blow out. Here's to hoping Brian made 40 great wishes!