Almost time for school!

     I swear it seems like every time I blink another week goes by this summer!  I don't know if its because were in a new town and have so much we want to go see and do, or if it's cause were having so much fun, but the time is just flying by!  On some level I feel like a kid again, remember when on the last day of school you thought 3 months off was the greatest thing in the world and then those same 3 months blew by like a storm and you had to go back to school much sooner than you'd hoped, that's kind of how this summer has felt.  Here we are on the verge of heading into August and I feel like June was just starting yesterday!  I guess this means we'll just have to soak up the most from each day from here on out until the leaves fall.
     This last weekend we did our best to soak it all up as we got invited out to Coeur D Alene lake to hangout with some friends of ours from Missoula.  They had their new ski boat on the water and were camping for the weekend and Kelli and I went out to spend the evening with them.  We had a blast sitting around the campfire getting caught up with friends, getting to know some new ones, and of course sharing a few stories:)  I told Kelli on the way home that I feel more relaxed around a campfire than I do the ocean, she thought that was the craziest comment she's ever heard until she realized it's probably because I'm a bit of a story teller!  She's probably right but either way it was extremely relaxing and we had a ball!
     Our time at the lake got me thinking and I think we have at least one more camping trip planned for the summer, but I hope we can squeeze in a few more.  I enjoy sitting around the campfire so much that I don't want the summer to come to an end without being able to have as many campfires as possible!  I know we can always have a fire in the backyard, or go out to the Nagles so Tatum can teach me how to make the perfect smore, but you just can't beat the tranquility surrounding a campfire in the woods!  When the only other sounds you hear are those of your neighbor campers and nature it truly is difficult not to become totally relaxed!  Of course it always helps if your steps away from a body of water to dream of cooling off in the next morning:) 
     As our summers come to a close I hope you all soak up the most of each and every day, cause it wont be long and we'll all have to go back to school!

Remember, every one of us can learn a lot about the important things in life from a 4 year old:)

Not just another day

     Well Curtis and I fell just a little short at the golf tournament this past weekend, mostly due to the fact that I did not perform that well!  We arrived at the course Sunday morning to find out that we were tied for the lead after day one!  I was just a little excited and couldn't settle myself down until it was too late!  Neither one of us played great but we had a blast and now know that it is better to have to make up a little ground the second day rather than keep a lead, I'm not used to that!  Either way it was an absolute ball and both of us have come to enjoy this annual tournament just as much as the big ones we used to play in back in Glendive.  We will definitely be returning to try and win it next year!
     Monday was a travel day for Kelli and I and after we got settled in from our weekend she took me out for an early birthday cupcake downtown!  Last night we all gathered at mom and dads for a birthday dinner for me as I officially turned the corner towards middle age and turned 36!  All day long I kept telling myself that it was no big deal, just another number, much like many of us have I'm sure.  But when we got over to my parents house and my niece Tatum pointed to my seat at the table and said "that's where you sit uncle Mooley, your the birthday boy!"  I realized that it doesn't matter if we're turning 6 or 36, it is more than just another number, it's a special day!  Tatum reminded me of that with the excitement in her voice and the joy she showed from picking out my birthday gift all by her self!  So as we sat around and socialized, ate WAY too much cake, and capped off the evening with a cruise around the lake in the kayaks, I couldn't help but feel just a little bit special yesterday.  When we loaded up to head home and my mother gave me a hug and told me happy birthday one more time she began to tear up and I began to realize that yesterday was the opposite of just another day, it was an extremely important day!  So important that both of my parents can tell you detailed accounts of exactly what they were doing the day I entered this world and they became a family, even 36 years later! 
     So the next birthday you have, whether it's your 21st or 81st, don't just look at it as another day in your life that may not be that special.  I promise you that someone holds your birthday very dear to their heart and never looks at it that way so neither should you!

Remember, try to approach every birthday through the mind of a child, with excitement and joy, eager to reach another milestone!

The fun continues!

     Well we have entered the month of July and Kelli and I continue to enjoy every free moment we have!  Our 4th of July holiday weekend was the first fun thing we've done this month as we joined some good friends of ours, the Vullertsons, on Noxon reservoir in northwestern Montana for a few days of camping!  Luke and Kristy live in Kalispell with their two kids, and Matt and Julie live in Helena and have two kids of their own, all ten of us, including 3 four legged children, met up on Thursday and set up our camp.

     Kelli and I had bought a tent nearly 7 years ago with some wedding money and up to this point we had never taken it out of its original package!  For some reason every time we had gone out on a recreational outing in the past it was in a cabin, on a boat, or some other form of sleeping arangement!  When we moved to Spokane I told Kelli we were breaking the seal on that thing come hell or high water, nearly even setting it up in the back yard one weekend, and here was my chance.  Now I'm sure many of you have either struggled with one yourself or watched another person nearly collapse emotionally trying to set up a tent so I was a little nervous heading in to our first attempt at this.  Much to my surprise though, we had our tent set up and ready for use in less than 20 minutes!  

     Now that we had our lodging set up we were ready to relax and enjoy our time on the lake!  Luke and Kristy have a camper and they arrived the night before us so they were all set up, once the rest of our gang showed up and got their tent set up we headed out on the water for some fun.  We brought our canoe, Luke brought his raft with a small motor on it, and Matt brought his fishing boat which was big enough to pull a tube.  So between the three of us we had just about every facet of water recreation covered!  We spent a lot of time with both big boats on the water, one carrying a viewing party, and the other pulling my triceps off of my arms!  After a couple different trips on the tube behind Matts boat I quickly remembered that I am a 35 year old(at least for another 2 days) who sometimes thinks he is 25!  My arms felt great all weekend but when we got home and I went to take the canoe off the top of our car I immediately felt like that 35 year old, a very sore one at that!  All in all we had a great time, hanging out around the campfire, fishing, boating, and just relaxing.  Kelli mentioned on the way home that it was the first year she could remember not seeing one single firework on the fourth!  We had so much fun spending quality time with each other and our friends that I didn't even really notice:)

     Overall we had a fantastic weekend of fun with some great people!  We didn't get too much of a break in the action either as this weekend Curtis and I are playing in the Anaconda Country Club mens invitational.  Kelli and I came over to Stevensville Friday afternoon and made it to the Dobsons house just in time to watch my little sister be immortalized through the world on television!  In case you missed it the murder trial she had a couple months ago was covered by Dateline and they aired the two hour show on Friday night.  I followed the trial extensively, even sat in court one day with Ryan hearing testimony, and as you've read on this blog when the verdict came out I still believe the wrong man went to jail for this crime.  But thats a topic for a different day:)  We watched the Dateline with Dan and Donna then early yesterday morning I came over to Butte for the golf tourney while Kelli stayed behind to hang out with her parents.  The girls had a busy day of shopping yesterday and today Kelli's going to get caught up with a couple of her friends who still live in Missoula.  Curtis and I played pretty well yesterday in the best ball portion of the tourney, shooting -11, now today is the accumulate portion of the tourney which means we both have to post a score on every hole.  Last year when we played in this tourney todays format we found out fits our games pretty well as we made up a bunch of ground on the leaders.  Today we should be sitting in a much better position though than last year and wont have to make up nearly as much ground.  If we play well enough we might just even win it!:)  

     So as I get ready for another fun day of golf with my little brother I look forward to the rest of the month of July.  It's a busy time of year in our family as we have like 2 anniversaries and 4 birthdays to celebrate, i kind of loose track theres so many!:)  I hope you all continue to enjoy your summer as we have and don't forget to take a moment as we near the midway point to reflect on all the fun you've had so far!:)

Remember, whoever said to feel young you have to think young must have been a young person!!

No disappointment!

     As we enter the month of July so far there has been no disappointment at all in our summer of fun!!  Even though the weather has caused my work to get busier and busier with more claims coming in daily it seems like, we still have found time to get out and have tons of fun on the weekends! 
     Last weekend we were invited by our friends the Ralstons to spend a night on Hailey's parents boat which was in the Bellingham harbor.  We jumped at the chance since we did this last summer with them on a different boat on Flathead and it was awesome!  Kelli said sleeping on a boat is so much fun because the gentle rocking of the boat form the waves keeps you sleeping like a baby!  We had an absolute blast hanging out with good friends, ate a great meal at Anthony's, and as Kelli would put it slept like babies!

                                             "Yacht Server", our lodging for the night

                                            Captain Mooley and his first mate:)
     I must have slept too good cause I got up on Sunday morning at 4:45 wide awake and ready for the day.  So I snuck out of the boat and took a walk over to a tiny peninsula on the opposite side of the harbor which had a small park with a fisherman's memorial on it.  I was also in search of a cup of coffee:)  The fisherman's memorial was pretty neat, I was shocked to find out that the most recent death on the plaque was from 2009!  I guess the reality shows don't lie, it truly is one of the most dangerous jobs out there!  I spent a good hour sitting on a bench overlooking the ocean thanking God for all that he has given me in my life, I feel more blessed each day and experiences like that morning make me feel like I'm the luckiest man alive.  The only thing that made that morning better was Kelli waking up and joining me out on the point, and I finally found that cup of coffee!:)

                                        A shipping container between me and the San Juan's

     On a morning like this when I am the only one around I can't help but feel like God created this sunrise to only be seen by my eyes!  Almost as soon as I saw another person up moving around the clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared.
     Overall the weekend was a great time, one that we both hope to duplicate again before the summer is out!  Maybe next time Hailey's parents can join us and we can take the boat out to sea! 
     As I'm writing this I'm getting ready to go back down to Hoopfest, the biggest 3 on 3 tournament in the world, to watch my nephew Christian play another game.  Kelli and I spent the whole day down there yesterday watching not only Christian but his dad, my cousin Jamie, and boy did we get a show!  Not only was the basketball exciting so was the weather!  The weather man's predicted forecast of 90 and sun failed as we saw more rain than sunshine throughout the day.  Never the less it was a great time and we had ton's of fun spending the day with Jamie and his kids as well as my Aunt Linda.  Unfortunately Jamie's team lost their first two games but Christian's team went 2-1 on the day, Christian even hit the game winning three late in the evening yesterday!  It looks like the weather man has a better chance at success today so hopefully the boy's teams play well and have their own success!  

Remember, None of us know how long we'll be here so fun isn't an option, it's a requirement! 
 

Summer Fun!

     Well after a couple weeks, here I am getting ready to go board a plane again bound for Klamath Falls, OR for work, and I am finally over the events that caused my last little outburst on this blog about our justice system:)  Now I am on to bigger and far more positive things, like summer fun!
     I figured I'd update this thing with monthly recaps of all the fun things we've been blessed to be able to enjoy so far:)  Through the halfway point June has already been full of good times!  A couple weeks ago Kelli and I got to put the canoe on the water for the first time as we took it to the lake mom and dad live on, Shelley Lake.  Our tour guides, GG and Daisey took us around the entire lake, including pointing us in the direction of the turtles favorite sunning rock.  Unfortunately the turtles were nowhere to be seen, but we had a blast anyhow!

     Just days after our time on the water, we celebrated both Kashi and Duchess's birthday.  Since we don't have any two legged kids yet we get to spoil our dogs a bit on their birthdays, something that I don't think will change even after we have a baby.  Their birthdays are a day apart, just like Jill and I, so we celebrated them together by taking them on about a 5 mile hike which was capped off by a doggy biscotti and a thorough round of fetch in the backyard!  It's hard to believe that these two are 10 and 11 already!  It seems like just yesterday that I brought the curled up tiny ball of black fur home that was Duchess.  I never thought the day would come where either of them slowed down at all, especially Duch, but as they both enter their senior years they seem to spend more and more time curled up sleeping, just as they did as puppies!

                                                             Kashi-10    Duchess-11

                                                        Duchess-2 months old
     Last weekend was the latest installment of fun as Kelli's parents came over to spend Fathers day weekend with us.  We had a great time hanging out and showing them all that we've done to the hose since the last time they saw it we were moving in.  Then on Sunday the girls shopped until they dropped and Dan and I took to the north fork of the Coeur D Alene river in search of some cutthroat trout!  Even though it was more of an exploratory trip, since neither of us had fished it before, we had a blast and even had a couple chances at fish!  This time around though the cutties were smarter than we were and we didn't land any thing.  It's a beautiful little river though and I know we'll be back again with better results:)

                                                               Dan working a seam     So with this month only half over I eagerly look forward to even more fun to be had!  I simply can't wait for some of the stuff we have planned, and summer doesn't even officially start for 2 more days!!  I hope you all are getting out and having just as much fun during your summer as we are!

Remember, he who rises first does not always catch the most fish, but he most likely will have the best chance to:)

Justice?

     If you've talked to my sister Jill anytime in the past 2-3 months, chances are you have heard her mention how hard she's been working lately.  This is because she has devoted the majority of her time picking through the details of one of the highest profile murder cases Spokane County has seen in a long time.  For those who don't already know she is a public defender, now I know when you hear that you either think one of two things about her.  Either you can't believe she helps the scum of the earth, or you admire the fact that she is willing to take on the cases no one else wants for half the pay of a private attorney.  I fall into the second category and have been more impressed every year with the level of BS she has to deal with on a daily basis, all while honestly loving her job!  I know this sounds cliche, but if you give yourself 10 minutes with her on the subject you will realize she truly DOES love we job!

     Most of her time is spent in a futile effort to prevent the guy who just received DUI number 7 from spending years behind bars, not exactly a glamorous job, but every now and then she gets a case that grabs everyone's attention.  This murder case was one of those.  

     I'm not going to go into details for many obvious reasons, Im simply going to say that the jury came back with a verdict today of guilty.  This came as an absolute shock to me!  I know I wasn't in the court room for all of the trial, I was only there for half of a day, but being as my little sister is one of the defenders on the case I can say I've followed this case enough to know that the evidence simply was not there to support a guilty verdict!  I have been trying to figure out how they came up with this, even mentally going through various hypotheticals that could lead to a guilty verdict and I simply cannot.  In my tiny little pea brain this can only mean that the jury must have just pegged him as a guilty man from day one and nothing  was going to change their mind.  In the defense of the jury however the judge would not allow a boat load of evidence and testimony that I believe was crucial for the defendant, leaving them with only half of the story.  

     So I wonder this as I sit here waiting for a flight, all good thoughts seem to happen while waiting for a plane:), how can we deem our judicial system fair?  I understand that we sit in front of a jury of our peers when in trial, but if that jury is being dictated on what they get to see and hear aren't we really sitting in front of one of our peers?!  And since every one of us humans has a different opinion on nearly everything how can one single person, who's not going to have a room full of fellow judges to discuss his opinion, have so much say in a persons life?  I know he has to mediate the trial as best as he can, knowing what some of the stuff he deemed in admissible is though, I just don't see how that is always fair!  

     But, it is what it is and no matter how much I gripe about it or try to understand it, at the end of the day I have to move on and hope that I never have to watch someone I love put their life in the hands of our system!  I admire my sister for what she does on a daily basis, it cannot be easy to take blow after blow like this and just keep getting back in the ring with just as much determination for the next client as she has for this one!  

Remember, some days it's harder than others, but we simply have to cinch up our boot straps and put on a smile tomorrow morning!:)

Relaxation

     This past weekend Kelli and I had the privilege of being invited up to West Glacier for the wedding of a family friend of Kelli's.  We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend our Memorial Day weekend!  Kelli's dad Dan had booked one of the cabins where the rest of the wedding party was staying and when we arrived on Saturday afternoon it felt like one big family reunion.  There were 5 total cabins at the lodge and we had them all to ourselves!  Over the years I have become close with all of these friends of the Dobson's as well and many of them we haven't seen in a very long time, like since our own wedding!
     Saturday evening we went back into Kalispell and enjoyed dinner followed by church with some good friends of ours from our time in the Flathead, the Vullertson's.  We quickly realized their two kids are no different than any others we know and they are growing like weeds!  Our time with them was fantastic as it always is and we capped it off by stopping for ice cream on our way out of town!
     The wedding was Sunday afternoon and since we had a little time to kill in the morning and we were so close I told Kelli I wanted to drive up to Hungry Horse dam.  I'd never been there in all the time I've spent in the area and since it is one of this countries engineering marvels I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check it out.  Within a matter of minutes word spread through our camp that we were going up and seven of us decided to go.  I could go on for hours about the magnitude of the dam and the fascinating process that it took to construct it, but I'll spare you the details and just tell you if you haven't been there and are in the area you must check it out for yourself!

 

     After viewing the dam we came back to the cabins and simply relaxed!  I feel like I give myself a fair amount of relaxation time while at home but I can tell you when your on vacation like this and take some time to simply enjoy a cup of coffee on the front porch while looking at the mountains with absolutely no agenda, you realize what true relaxation is.  People often say that relaxing is good for the soul, I don't see how anyone could ever argue this as after simply siting on the porch for a coupe hours I felt completely rejuvenated!
     The wedding ceremony was beautiful!  It was held at the Lake McDonald Lodge just inside Glacier National Parks West entrance.  The ceremony was right at the waters edge next to where a creek, bursting at it's seams with spring run off, poured into the glass like surface of the lake.  The groom and his family are native American so they closed the ceremony with their tribes dove song which was amazing! 

     After the reception, and way too much sugar for this guy, we headed back to the cabins for more relaxing:)  Dan and Donna rested in the cabin while Kelli and I decided to go for a hike before the sun went down.  All of the really good trails were too far away to make it before dark so we ended up just going for a walk through the town of West Glacier.  Our journey came to an end when our asphalt stopped at a bridge over the Flathead river.  We walked over to the sign on the other side of the bridge and read that it was the Belton bridge.  This bridge was the only way into this end of the park for many years.  During the flood of 1964 the bridge was completely submerged in water leaving those who lived on the North side of the river detached from needed supplies.  Somehow when the water receded the concrete arch of the bridge remained intact!  Locals quickly rebuilt the bridge on top of the old concrete base and it's still there, serving as a constant reminder of just how well things were built in the good old days! 

     We snapped a few photos of the bridge then headed back to join the rest of the crew for dinner and some socializing on our last night together.  Of course like most family reunions we had our share of excitement, one of the brides cousins and I went to light up some sparklers late in the night and somehow his flared up in his hand, burning three of his fingers pretty badly!  We had a few nurses at the cabins so they assessed the situation and quickly realized he needed medical attention.  The closest hospital was in Kalispell, 30 miles away, and the only people who knew how to get there were Kelli and I and the bride and groom.  I didn't feel like taking your cousin to the ER on your wedding night sounded like very much fun so I volunteered to ride along with the cousin and his dad for directions.  Everything went good at the hospital, they put on some burn cream and bandaged him all up, then on the way back to the cabins we got a speeding ticket going through Columbia Falls!  The local cop took it easy on our driver, only giving him a $20 ticket for going almost 20 over the limit, and we finally got back to the cabin around 2am! 
     Everyone got up at their own pace the following morning and we all headed our separate ways.  Even with the ER scare on Sunday night, we had an amazing time and arrived home thoroughly refreshed and relaxed, just in time to make it over to my parents for a Memorial Day BBQ!   As we settled into our own bed that night I couldn't help but thank God for what I consider to be a perfect weekend!

Remember, there's no such thing as too much relaxation!