Mother's Day and fishing

What's synanamous with Mother's Day? Fishing, of course! My parent's we're camping out at Prineville Reservoir so we drove out there for the day. They had just upgraded their trailer and wanted to do a test-run. We enjoyed spending the day out there and I caught Xander his first fish (a small-mouth bass). How do you fish with 5 month old? Simple, strap 'em on!

Defying winter

I just got back from a three day fishing / rafting trip down the John Day River. Our friend Michael joined me on the float. We were blessed with awesome weather and had the river all to ourselves the whole (50 miles) way. Here's a shot of Micheal enjoying the sunshine and scenery.

Warming up

With the weather getting all warm (mid 60s) and sunny, we decided to head outdoors for some hiking. Our good friends Aaron and Russ had given us an awesome REI pack for Xander's birth, so we headed out for a test-run at Smith Rock State Park. The pack's manual states the intended ages of 6 months - 2 years. However, Xander is not you average sized 4 month old (in retrospect, we should have asked for 9-12 month aged clothes at the baby shower).

Since he's proven trail worthy on previous expeditions and doesn't resemble a bobble-head, we geared up and hit the trail. We decided on the "loop" which follows around the Crooked River and summits at Monkey Face figuring the skree slope would be better tackled on an ascending, rather than descending approach. (note for future trips: trekking poles are a God-send when packing 30 lbs. of child with a center of balance slightly above your head.)

Anyhow, the hike was a success if measured by getting from point "a" to point "b" without injury or loss of life. Realistically, we probably pushed him a little bit. On the descent via Misery Ridge (aptly named of course) he had a melt-down of Chernobyl proportions. This could have been caused by the heat, hunger, or time spent battened down by REI's overzealous 7-point harness. Anyhow, he was over it. Once past the technical section, we got him out and Chelle carried him the rest of the way while I followed with the child carrier sans child. Nice.

Back at the car Chelle noticed some serious hickeys on her shoulder. Turns out, Xander was teething again. Poor guy just gnawed on mom's shoulder for comfort. Sadly, I don't have any photographic evidence to post. Well, what can you say... we're learning. :) Here's some pics from the trip:

Back

Really no excuses for the lack of umm... updating. Do trips to Boulder and Seattle count? I didn't think so. Anyhow, how about some random thoughts in bullet point format?

1. Still no news in the future employment category. Coincidently, I've been doing a lot of thinking/studying/praying lately about discerning God's will. Fascinating subject when you really think about it. There are a lot of different opinions out there. Here's one and another. The last one I read was interesting. Did you know that the word "discernment" is only found once in the bible?

"...this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ." Philippians 1:9-10

2. I won some NCAA tournament pool$.

3. Punxsutawney Phil was right this year, but I think he was a bit off on his time frame. Winter is still hitting us hard here with snow on the ground a few days ago and freezing temps. Forecast? More snow and cold.

4. Mom, we saw you on the news tonight. Dang, give us a heads up or something! Then when I was trying to find the video to link, I ran across this article where they interviewed Al J.

5. I updated the menu links over there --->

6. Xander keeps getting bigger every day. Seems like every time I pick him up he weighs more. Maybe I just need to visit the gym a little more often.

8. Opening day of fishing recently happened here. Unfortunately, nobody could fish because all of the lakes were frozen over.

9. May is coming, and you know what that means.

March Madness

For a hoops junkie like me, the next three weeks are the best in sports (NCAA Tournament). For the first time ever, I will be able to see all of the first round games live. As a person who bleeds Duke blue but living in Oregon, I'll have two teams to root for. So what are my picks for these two teams?


Win vs Belmont (1st round)
Win vs West Virginia (2nd round)
Lose vs Xavier (3rd round)


Lose vs Mississippi State (1st round)

I'd love to see Maarty Leunen (senior F/C from Redmond High School, my alma mater) advance farther into the tourney, but I just don't see it happening. They have just been wildly inconsistent and one dimensional this year. You beat Kansas State but lose to Oakland, Nebraska, and Saint Mary's?

Speaking of Kansas State, I have to apologize to my brother Josh (USC grad school). I'm predicting them to upset USC! So sorry bro! =)

Waterboy

Rochelle took Xander swimming today at a local pool. While his breast-stroke still needs some work, he seemed to be a natural in the water. Here are a couple pics from the trip:





I've also uploaded some new photos to the image gallery.

Dedicated

Yesterday we dedicated Xander at our church Antioch. My parents also got to attend, so that was neat. Here's the prayer we read to him:

Xander, this is our prayer for you…

1 John, Chapter 5: 1-4

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.

As your parents we pray that we will reflect Christ’s love. Even before you were born we have been praying for you. Our hope is for you to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Through God’s grace we aspire to teach you about the Lord we love and serve.