Dad's Fishing Trip

Dad went on his yearly fly fishing trip to the Green River with the guys this past weekend. He had a great time, despite some nastly weather the first day of the trip, and very high flows out of the Flaming Gorge Dam. The flows actually went from 800 cfs to 4200 cfs and stayed at 4200 cfs throughout the trip.....that's a lot. However, once the boys found out what the fish were keyed in on, the fish started to get caught. The guys always do a fun contest to keep the fishing a little interesting ( although fishing the Green is always a great experience). This year they had a prize going to the first to catch a fish on a nymph, streamer and dry fly. Who would have thought the dry fly would be the fly to get. Four of the five guys went into the last day tied and wouldn't you know it, nobody got the last fly. Chris couldn't get that dry fly on. He caught a brute on a Rainbow imitation Streamer pattern, and all others where on the classic size 20 and smaller BWO Barr's emerger. Even though the Cicadas were out in force. Had to be the high flows out of the dam. All in all, it was a fantastic trip, with lots of laughs, amazing views, and probably the best fishing in Utah.

PS.....I had to hijack my wifes blog to post this trip, as I highly doubt I was going to get a featured post with pictures of Fish. Heather will probably catch this post tonight and either laugh, smack me....or just delete it. If you see this blog before it's gone, please feel free to send encouragements for approval on another trip for Dad next year.....

PSS...I have the best wife in the world for letting me go on a 4 day fishing tip, leaving her at home with 3 kids, one of which you've most certainly seen in previous posts is...not such a good boy all the time.

Do you recognize any of these people?

So a few weeks ago I got together with my friend Nancy who I haven't seen or talked to in about 10 years. We got in contact again thanks to blogging. It was great to see her and catch up on life. Here is a picture of us back in the day. Nancy is on the bottom right. Can you figure out the people with the red arrows pointing to them?This was actually a picture from the trip to Utah where I first got to know Chris about 11 years ago. Yikes!!!!

This is a picture of me, Tanya, and Nancy. The guys framed this for us as a gift. We just realized that Nancy and I both named our first boys Andrew and Tanya(middle) named her first son Andy after her husbands best friend Andrew. Isn't that a crazy coincidence!This is us now. Nancy has two cute boys Andrew and Josh and her husband just graduated from med school. She is incredibly busy with her boys and her church activities. I always admired Nancy for a few reasons. She is incredibly smart (I wasn't suprised she married a smart guy) and strong in her faith. I remember her being a leader, especially in her family and I just really remember her being so kind and easy to like.
So a trip to Thanksgiving Pointe or anywhere else for that matter wouldn't be complete unless Ethan found something to get into. What's on his face you ask? It's MUD! He ran through a puddle and did it over and over again until he finally fell in it. Boys will be boys we kept saying. After awhile he was covered head to toe in mud. I think his cute little face says "take that moma, and you thought you could stop me"!
It was great to see you Nancy and we'll have to get together soon!!

Moab Family Vacation

This last weekend we took off for Moab Utah. Saying that we had an awesome trip wouldn't even give it justice. The kids and Chris and I loved it! I brought the trusty Fabreeze to spray down the beds before we put our bedding down. Chris laughed at me and told me I was not a camper. He also told me that I couldn't bring a blow dryer and make up. We were really roughing it.

We told the kids we would give them 5 dollars if they could catch a lizard. Ethan is playing with a little metal sculpture of one here. The kids were unsuccessful and I'm not out any money. Those lizards were so stinkin fast but that didn't stop the kids from trying. They were so fascinated by all the little creatures in the park. This is Balanced Rock and it was the first thing we saw. The kids were so excited to be in Arches National Park. When we entered the park, the attendant gave each of the kids their own map. Madilyn became our guide. She told us where to go and circled everywhere we'd been. She was our little tour guide.
We got to climb and stand in many of the arches. This is the North Windows Arch. We had so much fun hiking and climbing on the rocks. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend in beautiful surroundings. So cool! Andrew ran everywhere we went so we think he hiked twice as much as we did. He'd run ahead and then run back to us and run ahead again.
Is this kid cute or what? Our little trouble maker Ethan chillin on the rocks! Ethan did great on the first day in Arches but the second day, Chris spent most of the time holding him as we hiked. It also got pretty hot that day. Chris got quite a work out.

Moab Family Vacation Continued

This was my favorite arch, a cool arch with some fun rock climbing to get to it. Adventurous but safe for the kids. It was huge!!! Here's Chris and Ethan standing in it.
Here's are the kids in front of Skyline Arch. This was another favorite of mine.
Here is Chris and the kids standing in a cave they climbed up to.
The kids all wanted a turn turning the key to get into the cabin. Sometimes it's suprising how easily entertained the kids can be. We did have a fun action packed weekend. We hiked, climbed, swam, played life sized checkers, tetherball, blew bubbles, played on the playground, threw frisbees and balls, saw many ancient Indian writings, cool dinosaur tracks from an Allosaurus, went to the coolest rock store, and BBQ'd. And a Sparks family vacation wouldn't be complete unless somebody got sick. It was Andrew's turn a few minutes after we left for the drive home. Poor guy. He's ok now, we think he may have gotten heat exhaustion. All in all we had a wonderful time and plan on going again next year.