Bill’s Blog

Taken at Lincoln City.  We found an awesome hotel on the beach.  The water was somewhat colder than I’m used to.

It’s been a while since I’ve been fishing.  It’s something I love to do.  Ever since my fishing buddy Len passed away, I’ve been stuck.  Ocean fishing (my favorite) isn’t something I like to do alone.  You need a buddy.  

I may have found a new fishing buddy.  Friday I took Emily fishing at a place called Horning’s Hideout.  It’s a wonderful little lake stocked with trout.  We had a blast.  Emily started out with one of those Barbie rods.  Right away the reel jammed, so I gave her my pole.  She fished and fished, touching the worm every time she pulled the line in (which was often).  She was determined to stay until she caught a fish.  We finally left after dinner time when we were both starving.  It was a good day.

The only question now is when we’re going again.

It’s interesting to see how much Emily has changed in the past few months.  On our last trip to the zoo, she sat forever watching birds practice their routine.  She had to read every sign and try every gizmo.  This was the best trip yet.

We had two good days of warm weather this weekend.  That made for all kinds of outdoor fun.  The whole neighborhood came out to play on Emily’s swing set, and then our neighbors joined us for some slip n slide fun.  A pity we were back to cold on Monday.  We’re all looking forward to the next spat of warm weather.

Karen’s been on me for a while about posting all of our pictures.  For some reason, things have been busy lately.  So tonight I finally uploaded a boatload of pictures.

• Getting Ready for Christmas – with Christmas decorations and baking Holiday treats
• Thanksgiving – Our Thanksgiving Trip
  
• Fall Leaves – More pictures from the Fall Leaves photo shoot
• Family Pics – Many many photos of various people
• JimB Portraits – Some of the best pics from Jim’s latest photo shoot
• Riley & Bailey’s Birthday -  A few friends
• The Hippo – A few more shots of the Hippo at the zoo
  
• The Girls

Enjoy!

This year was the first time Emily really got into Halloween. She knew to say “Trick or Treat” and she would get candy. She must have remembered something from last year, because there was one house that we walked by (that gives out very good candy) where she said “Dad, can we go to that house?”. While we were out, she asked if she could go there a second time!

Our house was full of excitement all day long.

We went out with some friends of ours and their kids. By the end of the night, everyone was tired. The kids couldn’t believe how much candy they got. Emily asked me today if she would get to do Halloween again some time. She also wanted to know if she could have her friends over again.

We went camping this past weekend.  Of the many things to do, fishing from a canoe was Emily’s favorite.  She was determined that she wouldn’t tip it over (and she didn’t).  She alernated between fishing and rowing – an impressive feat.

The camping trip was with 250 other people from our church.  The most interesting pictures of everyone else are here.

Yesterday I got the bright idea of camping out in the back yard.  Emily and I set up the tent, got out the sleeping bags, and settled in for the night.  Unfortunately someone forgot to tell Emily about the sleeping part.  She managed to stay up pretty much all night.  She zipped and unzipped the windows, read her books, talked to her stuffed animals, and did whatever else she could do to stay up.

By 6 AM, we’d both had enough and headed inside.  I ended up with a stiff back to boot.

She takes her shoes off when she goes inside because “we don’t wear shoes in the house”.