And so it begins.....

The paddling season is officially here. This past weekend was the first of the Black Canyon of the Bear releases. About 85 boaters from around the west showed up for good times and good paddling. I made the trip up to Grace Idaho with a great crew of people. Thanks to Shan for the pics I have stolen from her blog.

This pic is taken from the Grace Bridge looking down stream. In the lead is Johnnie A. Unfortunately, he is not in his boat, he took a bad swim. Chasing him is Ray, then Dowd is upside down, Shan superstylin behind Dowd, and I'm hanging on in the back just trying to survive. Nothin but good times!!

Basketball, and why I'm not scared of no Dirl.

Noah finished up his first year of Basketball last week. I couldn't commit to being the coach because of my unknown schedule, but in the end I only missed one game and his coach was more than happy to let me help out. As it turns out, coaching 2nd graders in Basketball is alot like "Herding Cats", that is to say it's damn near impossible to get them to do what you want. We had a good time though and improvement was seen.

lil' Johnny Stockton


Our "Post up" move needs some work, namely that you "post up" on the post blocks down under the basket, not so much at half court.


After basketball was over I was presented with two dilemmas that had me frightened, first we found out that we are having a girl, and second I was informed that Cub scouts and their fathers had to bake a cake for the Scouts "Blue and Gold" banquet, an event that took all of 3 minutes to remind me of my profound dislike of scouting. However, my desire to be a good well rounded father overcame my feelings for scouting and I dove in to the cake baking with Noah. I also figured my skillz with cakes will come in handy when my daughter (holy shit, did I just say daughter?) when my daughter gets an frickin EZbake oven.

Anyway, here's the finished product.


That's right, it's a Kayaker
what did you expect a fairy princess?



These three guys ain't scared of no little Dirl.
We can be "In touch with our feminine sides" without being a bunch-o-sissies!
My little girl's gonna be the best female kayaker in the family.

It's a Dirl

Max tends to struggle with his pronunciation of the letter G, but we went to the ultrasound folks today to find out that the first female Newton will arrive around July 26th. So as Max has been saying for the last 3 months, "It's a Dirl"

Hap, Hap, Happy New Year

I have really been meaning to post an end of year blog with fabulous pictures of all the great times we had in 09. But, alas, I am just too lazy. After making a Salmon River DVD and making Tiff's New Year Calendar, I have had enough of scrolling though last years pics. So here is what we've been up to thus far in the 2010.

I take Ani running most mornings but usually we walk her out in the fields 3-4 times a week.

This is her "can I please have a treat" face

This is the "You WILL give me a treat" face
Zoom in on this to really scare yourself


Pheasant Landing zone

Then we did some Baptizin.
Noah did fantastic, everyone did a wonderful job making it a special day for Noah. Uncle Greg even played his Guitar and sang. It could not have gone better. Thanks to everyone that came and participated.

The family on the big day.

The kids both got climbing harnesses for Christmas but the rocks around here are mostly under snow, so, we decided to practice rappelling from the tree in the backyard.
It was a success!


Noah tying a figure 8
(Yes mom, I checked it)

Just chillin in midair.


It's going to be a good year.

A Very Ghett0 Christmas

Due to some unfortunate circumstances at work I have ended up spending Christmas working in the lovely state of Cauleefournya, and specifically the wonderful city of Molesto for Christmas eve. Staying in a decent hotel, but the shining sun and temps of 60 are ruining even the Christmas thoughts I was having, and then, about 10 minutes ago a friendly woman started banging on the door next to me screaming "I want my mutha #*&^$% son right now you mfer, gimme my f-in son. This went on for a good ten minutes before the cops showed up to problem solve, or more likely to cause more problems. Due to my severe phobia of being tazed I choose to stay behind doors. So, let me wish you all a great Christmas. I'm thankful that I'm only in molesto and not Iraq. I'm thankful for my family, my wonderful wife and our wonderful children. Mostly I'm thankful that Tiff will never have to be beating my hotel door down on Christmas eve to get our kids back. So for now, I'll just listen to a little Johnny Denver Christmas and pretend I'm in Mapleton.

Peace out, Yo.

It's the magic number!

Here's my new favorite song, go figure?

This can't fail

I started running Westwater canyon of the Colorado 13 years ago, and I have since run it about 80 times. On one of those first trips I noticed this slide. Every time I have passed it since I have wanted to slide it in a kayak. Wednesday I took the plunge. We had beautiful weather. Greg came and brought his raft. It was nothin but good, good times.

The "Class V" climb

Do you know the last words you ever hear a redneck say before he gets hurt?
Hey Y'all, WATCH THIS!!
I prefer the phrase,"This Can't fail"

Helping to prove Newtons 1st law of Motion
(For you non studious types, it is that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by another force.)

Proving the Law of Gravity
Who knew that Science could be so enjoyable.
Next time I go paddling we'll work on the Space/Time continuum