HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!

35 YEARS OF FUN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!

Today Brooke is 5 years old! I can't believe it. I've been super emotional all week and couldn't figure out why, but I think there's just something that tugs at your heart strings when your only baby girl is growing up. Here are some pictures from her last 5 birthdays.

Brooke's final moments in utero! This was just minutes before they came in and broke my water!It's my birthday! Mommy, Daddy and Brooke just hours old.
I'm ONE!
2 Years old!
I'm "free" (3)!
4 years old!
I'm 5 and I'm the birthday princess!

Brooke's favorite colors are pink and purple. Her favorite animal is the elephant. She loves to dance and play with balloons. Brooke is the sweetest big sister, most of the time. She likes to help Tyler use the potty and change diapers. Brooke is so gentle with babies and loves to see pregnant women. Her face lights up every time she thinks someone has a baby in her belly. Brooke's dreams are to grow up and be a missionary and get married in the Temple and be a kid dentist! She has started to read and does a great job with writing and math. She loves to learn. I'm so proud of my baby girl. I love you Brooke.

Mike's List

Well, I thought I'd make a list today:

Mike's List
The Great Wall of China
Mick Jagger
Rectal thermometers
Lego's
Hide and go seek
The Great Salt Lake
Disposable diapers
Toe nail fungus
Cashews
The (fish-less) desert
Mandarin oranges
Clothing
Non primary color names
Taxes
Cockroaches
Snow
Enemas

Oh, I guess I could have named my list "Things that are older than Crystal, and less enjoyable to hang around with than her."

Happy 30th Crystal!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

(You don't look a day over 29.....but, maybe a 1/2 day over 29) :-)

10 to 4 (and 1/2 if you ask Mike)

So, in need of some rest and relaxation, i took my wife fishing (for the 1 hour left we had with grandma watching the kids). We ended up at my favorite local puddle and shared the only 20 feet of shoreline this place has to offer.

I was fishing a damsel fly nymph under an indicator and quickly connected with a fish!





I then caught another one, and was leading the competition with 2 fish to Mrs. Oatka's zero.

Well, sure enough, she wanted to switch rods so i gave her mine and I took her rod that had her favorite fly, a red tailed sperm. A classic fly we've fished successfully for years to get bluegills on the surface.



Unfortunately it's a bit early for this fly so i had no success with it either. Mrs. Oatka on the other hand had my damsel fly and was starting to catch up.





I decided to switch to a Czech nymph and started casting.

Well, things started to deteriorate even more, and my lead was wiped out, and she had caught up, 4 to 4. Well, at one point I cast my line out and she catches another fish, but couldn't get the hook out. So, with my line still in the water, I hand her my rod and she hands me her fish. As I'm releasing her fish, she catches a fish ON MY ROD!!! (i had a picture of her with 2 rods in hand, fighting the fish, but until LG makes a phone with features I think it should have, then the pictures will consistently be lost due to closing the phone before it's completely saved.....dang you LG!)

Well, at this point, she must have started to feel a little sorry for me, and for catching more fish, because she handed back my rod with the damsel fly. Well, it might have started off as a kind gesture, but apparently the fish had started to catch on, and knew not to eat that anymore. So, Mrs. Oatka, now armed with a new to the fish Czech nymph, starts pulling them in with that fly.....and I sit there practicing my cast.

"Get a shot of the fight! This one is big!"



Now, we've gone from a nice hour out fishing together, to full on smack talk. She's dishing out the smack like she's Dig'em Frog!!!



Well, I let her continue (since of course, this was an RR trip for her)

Here's one of my favorite shots!!!



By the time it was all said and done, I caught 4 (4.5 if you count the fish she caught on my cast), and she caught 10.....and she wouldn't let me forget it. She even TOLD THE KIDS!!! How can I live that down now?


So, after a little lunch and putting my youngest down for a nap, I did what any self respecting fly fisherman (who just got spanked on the water) would do......I took my 4.95 year old daughter out fishing.....to prove that I could out fish a girl!!! well, we got there and it had started raining, and got worse, so I didn't pull out my fly rod. She had on a Czech nymph and had 1 fish on, but lost it after a few seconds!



(although I was out fished, by 2 girls) it was a great day!!!

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