Well, we're home from the 3600 mile dinner drive, and it was awesome! What was my favorite part you may ask? Was it the two days at the hotel with a waterslide? Was it all the messages Jeremy and I left on Mom and Dad's home phone? Was it seeing Jeremy get drug down the road by a vehicle whose driver's throat was firmly in Jeremy's grasp? Was it Ethan hiding in the bathroom while the above happened? Or was it the cops showing up on Thanksgiving? Good times, good times. I've got some pictures I'll post soon, as soon as I get a chance to get them off my camera. We're going to cut a Christmas tree this weekend, it should be fun. Two other families are going with us and we cook lunch in dutch ovens and let all the kids play in the snow, all though there isn't much snow this year yet. Hope everybody's doing well.

I just found this video of the boys dancing and thought some people may enjoy it. Other than that, nothing much new is happening. I went duck hunting last weekend with some friends from Bend that come up to north eastern Washington to hunt every year. I only shot one duck, and some people say it had already been shot by the guy next me and was falling out of the sky, but I say it was the only duck that came within shooting range that day, so what the hell. The guys I hunted with are pretty famous for wanting to shoot things, then give the meat away because they don't like it, or don't know how to cook it, or whatever, but I brought home 17 ducks, so that's not bad. Simon even ate it, which is good, because for awhile there I was worried he would turn out to be a vegetarian, and I ain't raisin' no hippies. We're getting ready for our 3500 mile road trip to have dinner, which is pretty exciting. Hope everybody's doing well.

And one more thing, that awesome Jedi cloak that Simon is wearing, Faith made it. I tried to get her to make me one, but she wouldn't. I tried to tell her she was contractually obligated to do what I tell her, but after a careful review of our wedding vows it seems I was mistaken. I haven't totally given up on the idea of divorcing her and marrying her again to make sure that gets in the vows, but I need to think of a clever way to make her buy into it. Any ideas let me know. The cloak I'm refering to is in the video and pictures below, by the way. For those keeping score at home that's three posts today. I rock.

Hah, it finally loaded. Hope you enjoy. And by the way, Melanie, that's two posts in one day, so I don't want to hear any more of your lip for awhile. If you haven't heard about Mom and Dad's trick or treating experience, I suggest you call them immediately to hear it, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

I had some awesome video of them doing Jedi moves, but it wouldn't load. It rained like a ...(you get the idea) last night, so we didn't go trick or treating, we just stayed home and watched movies. Faith took the boys to the store and they got some candy there. Not much else has been going on, I've been working alot, trying to get all our burning done before it snows on Tuesday. Faith is going to start subbing for preschool, she had to go get finger printed in Spokane last week. Hope everybody's doing well.

This is at the hotel with the indoor water park we stayed at in Missoula. Now, I've had some great ideas in my day, but I would have to say that picking a hotel with a water slide is my best idea ever. Don't tell Faith I said that, when I said that on the way home she gave me a dirty look, so I quickly said that marrying her was my best idea, but I was lying. That water park was way better. We're already trying to figure out when we're going back, there's a bigger one in Kellog, Idaho we might try, it's a little shorter drive. I hope the video of Dylan swimming loads, I've had problems loading video lately. He loved the water. He liked the water slide until I talked him into to going down by himself. Faith caught him at the bottom, but he didn't go anymore after that. It took me longer to convince Simon to go down by himself, but when he got to the bottom he was shrieking, jumping up and down, and waving his hands in the air in absolute joy. It literally took about 2 minutes after each time he went down to get him calm enough so he could walk back up the stairs to go again. It was hilarious. That happened on Sunday morning before we left, and I left the camera in the room, so no video, sorry. In the room you could order movies on the TV that were still in the theater, so we got Kung Fu Panda for the boys to watch. Even after swimming for two hours and running up the stairs for the water slide, the boys both lasted the whole movie, then wanted to watch it again. Dylan made it another half hour, and Simon made it all the way to the end and then talked to me in the dark for another half hour about how much fun the water slide was. He finally fell asleep at about 1030, woke up at six and stood by the door in his swim trunks waiting for me to tell him when the pool opened again at 0800. We stayed until 1000, and then headed home. That's about it. I went back work after being gone for a month between the fire assignment and Idaho Falls. I have to go on field trip tomorrow to look at something called a Collaborative Work Project. I have no idea what that entails, other than some people must have collaborated on some work. I've got a bunch of reports and plot data to be familiar with before the field trip, and because nobody told me about it until today when I was walking out the door to go burn on the next forest over, I get to go into work early in the morning to read it all before the field trip. At least it'll be fresh in my mind. Hope everybody's doing well.

Screw you and your pool Arizona Curtis', we Republic Curtis' bought a trampoline that we jump on in the rain. While the kids are smiling now, it quickly degenerated into a fight. And has ended in a fight everytime they jump on it. Good times. Not much else has been going. I did have a very educational day today however, and will list the things I learned in chronological order:

1. My supervisor can apparently change my schedule without informing me, causing me to sit at work for 45 minutes this morning before I try to call him, get his voicemail repeatedly, leave a message saying since nobody else is here I'm leaving, then stop by another foreman's house, to have him ask me why I'm wearing work clothes. He found it all very amusing. I guess somebody should laugh.

2. I can loose a pair of $100 sunglasses within 50 feet of my rig.

3. Next time I buy a new pack, I need to remember to switch the toilet paper over, otherwise Simon will tell me he needs to poop and won't use anything but toilet paper, necessitating a walk back to my rig to get toilet paper.

4. Just because Simon has to poop "really, really, really bad" does not in anyway mean he will try to move in any fashion that could be referred to as "quick".

5. Even with the use of a GPS, or maybe because of it, I still have the ability to walk in a very large circle through the woods.

6. Even a four year old knows when you're lost.

7. Four year olds apparently don't know the difference between having to poop and having to pee.

8. Once Simon says he is sure he doesn't have to poop, and you've used all your toilet paper to change Dylan's diaper, Simon will have to poop again, necessitating a walk to the "If You Build It, They Will Come" outhouse I found last year in the middle of the woods.

9. When a two year old says he doesn't want to walk anymore, he means it and will sit in the middle of the trail crying. Even if you offer to carry him, he will throw a fit and say he wants to stay right here. And he means it.

Hope everybody's doing well. Considering.

I'm home from the Rattle Fire. It was pretty fun, just SUPER steep. One section of line dropped 2000 feet in a little less than 3/4 of a mile. My camera is in my rig, so I'll post some pictures of the fire blowing up in a few days. In the middle of the assignment I got sent to Tokatee Ranger Station to stage for initial attack that never happened. In the three days I was there the fire grew 11,000 acres. The fire quickly realized their mistake and ordered me back. I had all sorts of interesting things happen to me. A bulldozer operator asked me what the plan was one day and when I told him he said he didn't want to do it and went home. Wierd. I was supposed to be a trainee, but they never had a trainer for me, so I had to do everything on my own, which isn't supposed to happen. Whenever I brought it up my Division Supervisor would say I would do something I was qualified to do, then end up having half the division checking with me for their work assignments. We're going to buy a trambampoline tomorrow, so I should be posting pictures of me in neck brace that I'll have to wear after Faith takes me to the hospital because I'm too darn old to be learning how to do backflips. I don't have to go back to work til Sunday, when I'll begin my four month detail as the Assistant Fire Management Officer of fuels. I'll be doing all the planning for fuels treatment on the district, which I don't really want to do, but I got tricked into it. Apparently the FMO is quite a bit smarter than me, which is the only way I can explain how he got me to agree to a detail into an AFMO position with out me finding out if it was the operations of fuels AFMO. Operations is what I wanted, but we'll see how this goes. Probably too much desk time for me, but I'll get paid more and I can work pretty much whatever hours I want. Hope everyone's doing well.

So this morning before I left for work I told Faith I didn't think I would be going on any more fire assignments due to the fact that I can't really talk about, but I'll fill you in later when I find out for sure, anyway, then I showed up to work, took some Job Corps students that we had working for us to breakfast and my head boss shows up at the resteraunt and tells me I'm leaving at 1200 for the Rattle Fire in Oregon. I'm going as a task force leader trainee, which means I have a bunch of different resources working for me, the typical configuration is usually a 20 person crew, 3-5 engines, and a dozer, though that can change depending on what the mission for the task force is. I brought my camera this time so I'll be able to post some pictures when I get home. Two of my bosses just came back from that fire, and they said they're starting to spike people out in the wilderness, which means they fly people in to a remote camp and you stay there until your time's done, which means I won't have access to a computer like last time. Should be fun. Hope everybody's doing well, talk to you in a couple of weeks.

Oscar is really concerned about this guy:

Faith and the boys caught him yesterday. They're going to feed him grasshoppers today. That's about all that's going. I'm working all my days off this weekend. I went grouse hunting one night after work, but didn't get any, and a few of us at work are planning a big hunting/camping adventure with wall tents and/or backpacking in to an old camp one guy's grampa used to ride horses into. Should be fun. Hope everybody's doing well.

Here's the boys with a fish. And here's Faith with the first fish she has ever caught.



It was the only one that got caught today. Faith and I both had a lot of bites. I got most of mine whenever I set my pole down to get something for the boys, then I'd pick it up and start reeling and discover that my cheap reel had started shedding line in all directions. So by the time I got it all untangled the fish was always gone. Oh well. I decided to buy a new reel on the way home. Found a nice one for $30. Then I walked into the aisle with the fishing poles and saw the EXACT same reel ON A POLE for $21. I don't get it either. So I have a new pole now. On the way out to the lake Simon said "Hey, I saw a cow climbing on top of another cow! What are they doing!?" I didn't even know where to start with that, so I just played dumb. For those of you who like music you should go to youtube and search "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color For Your Eyes" There are two videos there, one by Kristen Andreason and one by Sometymes why. They're essentially the same band, but kind of different. Anyway, they're both pretty amazing. Make sure you watch both of them. It's pretty cool. That's about it. Oscar's sick, he won't eat, and both of them have been eating grass and throwing up all day. Faith's going to the vet to get them some medicine. Hope everybody's doing well.

I'm home! The boys were outside when I got home and Dylan kept asking me "What are doing here? Do you want to come inside?" It was pretty funny. Nothing much happened yesterday, I did all my laundry and got repacked, I wanted to go to the county fair today, but they jacked all the prices up this year so it would cost $30 to get in, and frankly the Ferry County Fair isn't worth $30. I think we're going fishing instead. I'll make sure to bring the camera so I can post some pictures later. Hope everybody's doing well.

After 17 days I'm leaving CA! I'm going to Redding, CA today, getting a hotel room, then going to see the new Star Wars movie. Then I fly out tomorrow morning at 0800, and land in Spokane at 1430. Then it's a 3 hour drive to get home. My time has worked out perfectly just like it ALWAYS DOES, so I get back on my days off, which means I don't get any paid days off. 12 years in fire and it always times out so I don't get paid days off. That's a bunch of crap. Oh well. At least I'm coming back on my 3 day weekend. One day will be sent sleeping trying to recover from only getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a night for the past 14 days. That's about it for now, hope everybody's doing well.

These pictures were taken from the fire camp a couple of days before I got to the fire. Pretty neat. Last time I was in this area was in 1999, and I woke up at 3 in the morning to trees torching on the edge of camp and a mad scramble to get everybody out. I'm still on the Iron Complex. I'm working swing shift now, from 11 am to 330 am. Which means I get to sleep for about 4-5 hours before it gets too hot to be in my tent. I'm working in Communications, which is entirely different from what I usually do, being that I work in fire camp for the day instead of out on the line. I mostly answer the radio when people on the fire call into camp for supply orders they need on the line, and all in all it's pretty boring, until today. First somebody found a loaded, burnt gun in the fire, so I had to get law enforcement to send somebody out to pick it up, then there were two new fires that started down the road, then the helibase called in the most panicked voice I'd ever heard on the radio with an emergency broadcast to say that one of the helicopters had lost an engine, but would try to make it back to the base. I ordered and coordinated all the resources sent to where the helicopter would have a "hard landing" (they don't like to say crash), had to listen and make sense of everything about 15 people standing behind me were ordering to send out there, and talk to the helibase manager trying to get all the information about how many people were on the helicopter, how much fuel it had, updates about it's current location, AND I had to stay calm and try to be a reassuring presence to the people on the ground so they would think everything is alright and would end well. I know it makes me feel better when things are going to hell and the person in dispatch is staying calm, I just never knew how much they really wanted to freak out too. Anyway, all ended well, the helicopter landed safely, and when I looked at the clock what felt like hours later only 14 minutes had passed since the orginal call. Pretty fun, overall looking back I suppose. I think I'll probably keep working in various positions in Communications when I can, but I'd still rather be on the line. That's about it, I've got 9 days left til I go home. Hope everybody's doing well.

I'm in Northern California on the Iron Complex. I'll be home sometime at the end of August, so there will probably be nothing new until then. I got put on night shift, so I got to try to sleep in my tent today, it was 112 inside the tent. Didn't get much sleep, but hopefully I'll be in an air conditioned building tomorrow. Hope everybody's doing well.

Not much has happened this week. I jacked my back up at work and spent the week lying on the couch while Faith took the kids over to friends houses so they would quit practicing their WWF moves from the top of the couch onto me. One of the other supervisors will be back to work on Tuesday, so hopefully I can leave on a fire assignment, probably back to California, as that seems to be where most of the action is year. All the fires in the Norhtwest are only lasting a few days, while fires that started in June in CA are still burning. That's all for now.

We went on our first camping trip on my days off this week. We forgot the camera. We found a great camping spot next to a creek that was only about 8 inches deep where we were, so the kids could play in it. Dylan had some issues with sleeping in the tent at about one in the morning, saying he wanted to go home, but we got through that. We found a great patch of huckleberries the next day. Simon and I picked about a quart. I was letting Simon carry the bucket and he tripped and dumped them all out, so we had to start all over. I fed a huckleberry to Oscar, he ate it, watched me intently for a couple of minutes, then went over to another bush and started stripping it of berries. Then Arlo picked up on it and started eating them too. We went back to camp and made huckleberry ice cream, which the kids picked all the huckleberries out of. Oh well. We camped another night, but I had to work the next day, so I left at 5:00 to get to work. That's about it for excitement around here. We're going to go again next time I get some days off I think, we'll make sure to bring the camera.

Let me just let you know there are no pictures in this post, so if that is all you are here for you can leave now. This is a tale of sadness and pain, and pictures cannot adequately define it.
I took the boys fishing last night, by myself, to give Faith a chance to go for a bike ride and have some time to herself. All started well, we caught some grasshoppers to use as bait, got to the lake, got all the poles set up, and set to fishing. Simon got his line, hook, and bobber wrapped up in a tree branch about 30 feet up within 2 minutes of starting. I cut his line, put a new hook on, rebaited it, added a bobber and off he goes. Dylan starts yelling because his line is snagged in some bushes. I get it free, at which point he starts swinging the pole everywhere, and I take a hook in the leg. I yelled "Ouch, stop moving" and I must have scared him because he tried to run off with the pole in his hand. The hook was apparently set well enough I was going wherever he was going. Got that out, cast my line in the water and Simon has to use the bathroom. I tell him to pee on a tree, and he says no he has to poop. The bathrooms are aways up the road, but nobody's at the lake, so I stash all the fishing poles in the bushes, turn around and realize I've left the lights on on the Pathfinder. And the battery's dead. And there's no cell service. And did I mention there is noone at the lake. I take Simon to the bathroom, figure a solution will present itself, and try to fish some more. Dylan snaps his line and reels the remainder into his reel. Despite warnings that they will get cold, both kids wade out up to their chests in the lake, throwing the biggest rocks they can find into the water. I'm still fishing, but it's mostly just going through the motions at this point. Then salvation arrives in the form of a drunk guy in a big pickup who parks down the road. I walk down and ask him for a jump, he reluctantly agrees, says he'll be there in a minute. I walk back, put all the fishing stuff in the Pathfinder, tell Simon to get in his seat and put Dylan in his seat. As I'm buckling Dylan in Simon says "Dad. Dad. Daddy, daddy, daddy" with increasing panic in his voice each time. I look across the seat to see his hand right next to the edge of door, it looks like he's trying to pull it away but one of his fingers is stuck. I run over there, and all I can think about is Matt Philip's little brother. Do you remember Matt Philip? I went to school with Matt, his dad was a mailman, he had a little sister, two little twin brothers. He lived off of St. Clair. One of his brothers cut off the tip of his finger when it got shut in a car door when he was little. Or I dreamed that he did, either way, that's what I was thinking of. I ran over to the other side of the pathfinder, opened the door and something fell to the ground, I got sprayed in the face with something warm, wet, and sticky, and Simon's screaming to beat all. I pick up the end of his thumb off the ground, throw it in the cooler and.........Just kidding, his thumb didn't fall off, but it was smashed flatter than a pancake. I figured with all the talk about Matt Philip's little brother I had to have a big finish. Luckily he didn't break it. I got a jump, drove home, and told Faith I would probably stab her in the heart with an icepick while she was sleeping. Then the kids asked to watch a movie and I said no because it was past nine and two hours past one of their bedtimes, and an hour past the other one's, and then they both threw a tantrum. Laying down hitting and kicking the floor, screaming for all they're worth, the whole nine yards. I told Faith I wasn't going to stab her anymore, it needed to be more personal, I would probably choke her. Got the kids put to bed, they both fell asleep within two minutes of laying down, and reflected on the sainthood of Dad, who used to take five boys fishing. Two is enough for me to taking a long walk off a short dock, or however the saying goes.
I left the camera at home because Faith said she wanted to take pictures, but she hasn't taken any. I'll take some on Thursday when I get my one day off and post them in about 2 weeks when I get another day off.

Simon playing in the sprinkler. It's hard to tell in the picture, but he's actually completely off the ground.

Simon and Dylan sharing a candy necklace.

Well, today's the last day of my three day weekend. Simon broke his sandals on our way to a BBQ last night, then we discovered that all of his shoes that fit him a month ago don't fit anymore. So we get to drive for an hour to get to someplace that sells shoes. And go see a movie, WALL-E. Simon and I set the tent up and slept outside all weekend, Dylan came out for about 20 minutes before he decided he liked his bed better. That's about it. Except for this

I've decided to copy Jeremy and Tricia and my friend Ken and start blog. That way those people I don't get a chance to talk to very often can still see what we're up to if they're interested. Nothing much has been going on, I went to Northern California for 18 days, came home for a couple of days then went over to Sullivan Lake for 3 days. I think I'm locked down at home for a few weeks now, which has made Faith and Simon and Dylan pretty happy. That's it for now, more to follow at least once or twice before I forget to do it anymore.