My Bubba's a Wrestler

We've gotten past the barbaric nature of this whole wrestling thing and are starting to have a lot of fun with it. Chase has wrestled in three tournaments. Last week he came in 3rd and this week 2nd in his weight class. He is getting stronger and learning more every week and the best part is that he doesn't even know if he lost or won a match when it's over. For now it's all just fun (and a little painful). We have taken a few pictures of him actually wrestling but none that are very good...so I will work on that this next week and hopefully post them soon.

Deer in Lamoille

Mmmm...them are gooood seeds!

(after living in Arkansas I am convinced deer speak with southern accents and have horrific grammar...even the Nevada deer)

Sunday, the kids and I took a drive up to a little town at the base of the Ruby mountains called Lamoille. There is a residential street there called Deer Ln. Apparently every year a whole crew of deer come down the mountain and winter in this little neighborhood. They were so beautiful (yes, I like to look at them...not shoot and eat them). They were completely nonchalant about our gawking. The deer in the last few pictures walked right up to our car so we rolled down the window and it seemed almost as curious about us as we were about it. The kids found some sunflower seeds and began throwing them out the window. The deer seemed to love them...hopefully sunflower seeds aren't toxic to deer...

Feeding Ducks

I think I've mentioned that my kids love to feed the ducks in Spring Creek. I don't think these particular ducks need any more feeding...they are rather fat and are happy to hang out through the frigid northern Nevada winters.

I don't think, though, that I've told the story of the first time we fed these ducks. We found them last winter right after a huge snowstorm. Everything was a sea of white. I stayed in the car with the heater and a newspaper and the kids got out and started running around throwing bread. For just a moment I looked up from my reading and surveyed the landscape. All of a sudden it occurred to me that the perfectly flat round area the kids were running across was not an empty field but a body of water.

The moment I realized it, Megan was literally in the very middle of the pond, Brookelynn was on the shore and Chase was near the shore. While, obviously, from my ice fishing posts you are aware that whole lakes freeze over quite nicely in this region, this particular incident was rather early in the season.

As soon as the light bulb went off in my head I tore open the car door and screamed, "You're on a pond. Get off the ice!!!" Ironically, Megan made it safely from the middle to the shore...but Chase fell through the ice just a few feet from shore. Thank goodness the water was only about chest level where he fell in. After a lot of screaming and ripping every shred of clothing off his body he did manage to warm up. I don't think I had the heart to write about it on here right after it happened. It may be one of the scariest things that has ever happened to us!

Spring Creek

Just a few pictures of the Ruby mountains just south of Elko. At the base of these mountains is the little town we may end up living. So many around here complain that Elko is ugly...While it's true that there is a whole lot of sage brush and very few trees, I think the mountains are simply breathtaking!

More Ice Fishing Pics

These are from another ice fishing outing...and this time they got to sled down a hill and onto the ice AND they caught a fish (a rainbow trout according to Brookelynn)! Good times.

A Proud Moment

I'm well aware that bragging on myself like this is not very kosher. But I worked my butt off this semester for these grades and am having a proud moment...

Ice Fishing

Beau and Rocco

Rocco

Beau and the kids have done some ice fishing the past few weeks. They love it and so does our big lug of a dog, Rocco!

Sledding

We have had some great snow (I guess like most of the rest of the country) already this year. The kids are at the perfect age to be loving sledding! I have to work on keeping the camera out to get better pictures though. There was only the one of Chase way at the bottom of the hill.