Simon got his new glasses after throwing his last pair out the car window, and two hours later Owen chewed up the nose and ear pieces pretty good. He recently discovered his pockets and loves to use them, but since he doesn't walk very well you can see how this is a problem, especially for a kid in glasses. It is like he is wearing hand cuffs.

 

Karlina got the boys a dog as an early Christmas gift. If he lives through the boys he most likely will have issues. Jet is his name.

 

The boys and Halle.

 

Tom and Cait stayed for a few days. The boys loved the Aunt and Uncle and Halle. She was always up for a ride in the wagon with Wilson.

 

Merry Christmas 2008!

 

Ashleigh Chery (the boy's oldest cousin)is living with us and working at the salon with Karlina. She is very popular with the local boys.

Owen'sArm

 
Owen has what they call a broken arm. It looks to be just hair line up by the sholder. No idea how this happened. They can't do much for it and he doesn't like the sling. This is why we have multiple children, backups.

Happy Birthday Karlina!

It was a fun Birthday, but it was exhausting.

More Halloween

 

Carter and his freind Alec Fletcher were both super heros for Halloween. Fitting.

Wrestling Practice

 

We like to work on wrestling in the evenings sometimes. I imagine this is the same frustration prehistoric man felt when he learned you couldn't train chickens.

Fall Branding 2008

Halloween 2008

Grandma painted pumpkins with the boys and they love them. We got some pictures in their Halloween costumes even though we still have a week to go.

August Kayaking Tip

My first time on the Clarks Fork outside Missoula MT. It is a great stretch. The two rapids shown are tumble weed and fang.

Carter Gets a Hair Cut

Every time Dad buzzes his hair Carter wants to cut his. Finally this morning he begged long enough that we let him. The picture of him on the counter is from this morning. The middle picture is where we would have stopped if he would have got the role of Scrooge in the Christmas Carol. The first picture is where his hair cut finally ended. It will take a while to get use to the new Carter look but it will come back. After we got done he wasn't sure he liked it, then he smiled at Karlina and said, "I thought maybe I didn't like it, but I do".

Sacajawea Peak

A beautiful day in the Bridgers. Sacajawea Peak is the highest peak in the range at about 10,000 ft. A lot of wind this day in September 2008.

Family River Day

A fun day with the family and the Fletchers on the Yellowstone River past Livingston, MT. It is a really calm stretch except for one wave that is fun to play on in the Kayaks. You can easily miss the wave with the boat. We pulled the kayaks down to the island and had lunch with the family. Kevin and I played on the wave in our kayaks. Click the below link to watch a video of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DlP_M5BC08

Tube Time

Even though he can't walk Wilson gets included in most of the older boy's fun. If he is smiling it means he hasn't been hurt yet. This tube has provided hours of activities for the boys.

Mountain Lion in Back Yard

The big news for the weekend was the lion in the back yard. The kids went out to play in the snow and were out for about 5 or 10 minutes by themselves before Karlina went out. They played for about 45 minutes and then came in. Right after this the neighbor that shares a fence in the back with us notified us that there was a Mountain Lion in their tree that over looks our back yard. Scary. This could have had a bad ending. We were blessed. Fish Wildlife and Parks came and got the cat.

Toughening up Wilson

Although he is much smaller than his brothers Wilson is learning to stay positive even though he gets picked on. He is pretty tough for a little guy and takes the punishment well.

The Boys

It is crazy how fast everyone is growing. Carter is 4, Simon and Owen are 2 and Wilson is 8 months.

Schmidt Family 2008

This is all of us. We don't always look this organized and in control.

Boys from left to right. Wilson, Owen, Carter and Simon.