Mike had a good day of fishing the day before Thanksgiving. It was a rain/sleet mix with a temp in the low to mid 30's. State stocked 810 trout into a local 42 acer lake.


Good - 14 1/2 " 1.3 lbs Rainbow Trout




Better - 18 1/2 " 2.5 lbs Rainbow Trout



Best - 24" 6 lbs Rainbow Trout

J

U

M

P

for joy!

If this doesn't make you smile (even on a Monday) then it's hopeless.
Enjoy your day!

Getting Carried Away...

The other day when I was putting these pictures on the computer Mike said "gee how many pictures did you take?" He probably thinks I get carried away, but it's so easy to snap pictures when the subject is this darn cute and her expressions change so fast. I just want to stop time for a while and remember these lovely days of 9 and 12. I remember my sister saying as her kids have grown (Cody and Chelsea are 23 and 26 now) that she enjoys each age and stage as much as the others. I am just at a great place with my girls. They are so charming, funny, sweet and full of positive energy. I really enjoy hanging out with them and they seem to enjoy my company too and I know it's not always going to be like that.
Another reason I love snapping her photo is that she is a willing subject and that wasn't always the case when she was a toddler.

Sometimes when I am looking at Megan's face I catch a glimpse of my dad's ornery smile the one you see after he says "gotcha" when he has played a trick on you. When I get a shot of her with that sparkle in her eyes then I know I have caught her "Reil" smile.

I have been hearing "your girls are so beautiful" for 12 years now. I always say thank you...and think well all kids are beautiful. But sometimes when I see my kids I think "wow how did I have such pretty kids?" or when someone tells me they look like me I always think "yeah they resemble be but they are so much prettier." I have always thought of myself as more on the cute side than the pretty side. I always take it as a compliment when people tell me that they look like me because I think they are beautiful...of course I am their mom so I am probably a little prejudice.

The other day at Paige's riding lessons I was out in the arena snapping pictures of her and Megan was standing on a step stool. Then Megan says "take my picture while I shake my head". Luckily we have a Nikon D-90 so it just snaps away and catches all the action. I also snapped a few pictures of Cody, he is the new lesson horse. He just came to the stable a week ago so he is getting used to his new home before he starts being ridden by students. Paige cannot wait to ride him. He is really tall and so pretty.

I love that she has this big silly grin on her face the entire time that she is shaking her head back and forth...she cracks me up!

Happy Halloween 2010...our neighborhood actually had trick or treating this past Thursday. Don't ask me it's a central Ohio thing to have it practically any night but the 31st. I don't really understand it, but whatever.
The kids had fun trick or treating with Deb, Bud and Joe Boxer. Bud designed Joe's train costume and everyone wanted pictures with him. He was quite the hit with our neighbors.

Lauren and Paige has a horseback riding theme, Lauren was the English rider and Paige was the Western rider.

Megan and Ayva posed for a quick picture.

It's flashback time...October 2009.....
Megan was a pink and green haired witch for trick or treat.

It's a new year now and a new witch.....it's the "2010 version of Megan the dancing witch"
She will be absent from her ballet and jazz classes next Thursday because it will be trick or treat night in our neighborhood. So she got a little head start in dressing up last night for her dance classes. Plus she has a Halloween party to go to tonight.

We are not crazy about spiders...but snakes are no problem, especially when they are as pretty as Kovu. Kovu is the class mascot for Paige's Watershed class. We were supposed to have a class campfire at the fire pit at their school last night. It started raining about 45 minutes before it was to start (the 3rd time it got rained out) so we had an indoor potluck and played "Watershed games" in the gym. We all had a fun time and made lots of good memories.

First Trout

While I was working (sweeping and cashiering in the Nursery at The Anderson's) Mike and the girls were fishing. Last Thursday they stocked a local pond with trout. So Paige and Megan caught their first trout on Saturday, Oct. 09,2010! The weather was about as good as it gets for early October, sunny blue skies and in the low 80's plus there was a slight breeze as the day wore on. Wish I could have been fishing with my family instead of ringing up mums and mulch. Oh well, at least they remembered the camera!

Paige wore my old red boots (by the way they were made in the U.S.A. over 20 years ago) to riding lessons. I never wore them to ride in, back in the day I had a great old pair of pigskin boots that I wore when I was out riding horses in California. My red boots were my dancing boots. I'm glad that she is wearing them it's much better than their previous fate of sitting in a plastic storage container in the basement. They are feeling the love now!

Wednesday is her favorite day of the week...at least for the next 10 weeks! Paige is back in the saddle again for fall riding lessons and she is thrilled that her best friend Brittany is taking lessons with her. We pick Brittany up after school and take her to lessons with Paige then Brittany's mom swings by our house on her way home from work and picks Brittany up. The girls are thrilled to get to see each other for over an hour each week (they do not go to the same school and we live about 10 miles apart). Luckily the stable is just a few miles from Brittany's school so it works out perfectly and as you can see they are both happy.

Brittany looks like a pro in the saddle, look how nice and tall she sits. She has done some riding at horse camp so I think her and Paige are pretty close in their skills.

It was a bit dusty and warm , about 87 degrees...we are to get some rainstorms tomorrow maybe that will settle the dust for next week.

I asked Paige what they were chatting about and she said "I was telling her how we ride bareback when it's real cold out". That will come in a few months...about mid November when they are doing a lot of their lessons in the arena inside the big old barn.