Linville Falls

Back in the fall we hiked up to Linville Falls to admire the fall colors. For some reason Jake had to take a small broom and he swept leaves off of the trial. Brooke did most of the filming with our dvd camera and Nancy and I tried to make sure Jake didn't fall off of a cliff or go over a waterfall- which he would have tried.

Brooke's first painting

This Christmas I helped my daughter Brooke paint her first ever painting. I did the underpainting and mixed the paint. It was very gratifying to see her paint for the first time ever, then it was hard to let her make mistakes and not want to paint it myself. Patience. I forget she is ten years old.

The painting was a gift to my brother Jimmy and his wife Lori who love lighthouses. Their reaction to the painting far exceeded my expectations. Hopefully Brooke will want to continue to paint.

fishing on armstrong

On my birthday (Jan. 9) my cousin Wayne and I went fishing on the Armstrong River. Usually this river is fished out by late summer, but there is a private fishing club upriver of the hatchery supported waters- and occasionaly some big trout will wash down after a huge rain. Two days earlier we had a huge rainfall, (plus we have had a lot of heavy rain for the past two months) so we went out about 2:30 that evening. It was very cold and snowed on-and-off the whole thime we were fishing. We both caught 20" rainbows that day as well as a 16" and a 12". Not bad.

sunset

Jake...don't stare at the sun....JAKE...don't stare at the sun....JAKE... don't stare at the sun!

At the beach

Monday we left Brian and Amy's and headed to Sarasota. We had a great time and the weather was perfect. Brooke sculpted a seat in the sand, and Jake spent his time destroying every sandcastle I tried to make. Nancy sat there and looked pretty.

Playing at Brian's

We spent the weekend in Florida and Jake got to play with Brian's boys for the first time.