a "little" fish story

My little guy was the first to hook one yesterday.  He brought him up from the lake on the pole.  Eeewww!  Big mouth bass, or "little mouth!"  As you can see, he was thrilled with his catch!
Not too much later, brother comes up the deck stairs with another.  Since I do not touch fish, I was yelling for daddy!!!  He came in from the garage and removed the hook.  Meanwhile, Carl thought this was a treat/toy.  Both of the boys requested for the fish to stay in the sink and swim around for a little bit.  Luckily, daddy thought we should put them back in the lake so they could grow some more.  Then we can catch them again!?!?!

AFA

When we were in CO we visited my husbands very special Aunt in Colorado Springs.  When you pass the AFA on I-25, in the distance you can see the chapel and the football field a few airplanes but that's about it.  We decided to go to the Visitors Center on base.  The drive is about six miles from the gate.  The road meanders around, passing small buildings where deer graze unaffected by cars.  It was amazing to see base housing tucked behind the mountain.  There was a little snow on the trees making the drive even more beautiful.  Once in the Visitors Center, I am overwhelmed.  I have a step-brother who went to USMA.  At Westpoint, all the buildings are grey stone each of them over 100 years old.  The AFA was built around 1959, all the buildings are glass and steel, very modern architecture.  There is something about the military academies that makes me very emotional.

I love the honor code.  Duty, Honor, Country.  What if we all lived by those words?
The architectural pinnacle is the chapel.  Inside the stained glass goes from bottom to top.  When the sun is shining, the stained glass makes the entire church glow.  In the loft, there is an amazing organ with contemporary pipes.  The event coordinator told us that he schedules 150 weddings a year in this church.  Can you imagine 3 or more weddings a weekend!  That's alot of brides and mother of the brides!!!

we're back from vacation

Oh Brothers!  These two had a fun time at Beaver Creek, CO.  We went with neighbors and had more fun than we could have imagined!  Our little guy did one day of lessons then skied with us. (He has had lessons before.)  He has improved so much.  There are some great greenish/blue runs so it was fun to watch him ski!!!
We skied for two days.  This was our first time at Beaver Creek, like all the ski resorts, the views from the top are amazing.  The last run of day two was our last for the trip....see below!
G-man has been snowboarding for at least three or four years.  This year he decided to try a grind rail...he made it to the end without falling off....then threw his arm back and nailed his left wrist.  As you can see in background, we watched the basketball games while we waited.  Dr. says four weeks and he will be playing baseball!!!  

wow!!

This weekend, the boys needed a picture taken with Carl....
This one was taken January 28th, whoa, this dog might just be gigantic at the rate he's growing!

new beads

I had a really productive weekend.  I love these light pink with frit and bubbles.  On Saturday I visited my favorite little bead shop... www.mainstbeadstudio.com ....Cheryl has a 'supercute' shop!!  I am inspired to make beads again!!!
Black base with frit and bubbles.  These beads go so well with black and denim..i.love.them.
An old signature..black and white dots with a new twist.  Click on the picture to see up close.  I want to do a series of these for the Bead Bazaar on April 5th.  I think the Bazaar will be really great, lots of great people participating.  For those of you are interested I have a few discount coupons for admission.

carl & the wood floor

It's hard to tell where Carl ends and the wood floor begins!  He looks so sad, but I think it's just a Golden trait.  
He is almost 20+ pounds, seems like it gets heavier each day!  He is definately fitting in at our house, the barking is so loud it reminds me of the other boys in the house.  This dog can DIG, Carl has exposed our underground soaker hoses!  My husband says he is still in pre-school training.....think we could have some classes on barking & digging????