Family Photos

Our dear friend, Shelley Banks, is in the beginning stages of developing her photography business, Shelley K Photography.  Luckily for us, she needed some family shots for her portfolio. As Hannah soon approaches 4 years old, we have yet to have family photos taken.  So imagine my surprise when Shelley asked if she could shoot our family.  Of course, I jumped up and down, and said yes!!!  The following shots were taken in the afternoon in mid December, on a very cold and snowy day.  Hannah, God bless her soul, was tired and cold, but Shelley was able to capture a few good shots of our family.

Thank you, Shelley!

 

Happy Halloween 2012

 Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween, and enjoyed all the goblins and ghouls that came trick or treating.

 

Here we are in this years costumes.  Hannah is dressed as Princess Aurora from "Sleeping Beauty", and Robbie and I are Charlie Brown and Lucy from the "Peanuts."

Summer 2012 Vacation, Sawtooth Wilderness

Thank you for bearing with me, as these posts not only come few and far between, but also very late.

Our second stop on our summer road trip en route to Red Lodge, MT, was Stanley, ID and the Sawtooth Wilderness.  This area had very few year round residents and was very beautiful.  I always thought John Day was tiny, but we've got little to complain about in comparison to the 63 residents of Stanley.  We spent two nights in the area, and looking back on our trip should have spent at least another.  The Sawtooth Wilderness offers plenty of recreational opportunities.  We spent the evenings at a campground on Red Fish Lake, and spent our afternoons hiking.  

 Sawtooth Mountains, hiking up from Stanley Lake to Bridal Veil Falls.  Hannah's hitching a ride with Daddy.

Hannah was rock climbing, and struck a pose.  I think she was mocking me with her hands on her hips.

 A family photo in front of the falls, but I didn't position the camera correctly.  We got a nice family shot either way.

 Hannah stretching her legs, and hiking along with us on the trail.

 Beach combing at Red Fish Lake.

 Hannah and I saying "cheese." 

Robbie and Hannah hanging out and enjoying the view.

The next few shots are a bit messed-up, as the camera has a few issues occasionally.  None the less, I've chosen to include them and represent our travels anyway.  We did a day hike, to Bench Lake, about 8 miles round trip into the wilderness.  

 Break time, we were starving for lunch by the time we arrived to the lake.  Luckily we had the view to ourselves, just like wilderness is supposed to be.

 This photo reminds me of the quality of some photos I was in as a child.  

 Robbie having us pose for the camera.

Hannah hitching a ride on the way down.  She actually fell asleep in the pack, she was like a limp noodle bopping around in there.

I got the camera positioned right this time.  Much easier to stand behind a sign, then in front of the falls.

Summer 2012 Vacation, Idaho City

*This entry is just a few months late.*

 This summer we were fortunate to take another two weeks off and travel to Red Lodge, Montana for a college friends wedding.  Our first stop took us to Idaho City, Idaho; to visit our wonderful friend Chad Hood.  Here are a few shots of us trying to find, and then enjoying some of nature's wonders - Hot Springs.

 

Robbie and Hannah wading the  very frigid creek to get to the hot spring.

Naomi, Hannah, and Chad taking a snack break before the work begins.

The hot spring was blown out from the high water of the creek.

Robbie and Chad playing the role of Engineer.

Good times with great friends.

Chad, as usual, never lets us down. 

We made our way to another hot spring, and all were happy.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Naomi helping Hannah carve a warty pumkin into a jack o lantern.



Hannah with her Jack o Lantern



Carving Mufasa from the lion king.



The finished products. The cow was carved to take to the FS, the middle is Hannah's, and then there is Mufasa.

Halloween

Hannah's request this year for Halloween was for our family to be a ghost family. Well here we are in all our glory.

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day was very mellow in the Piehl household. We began the day with omelets and smoothies, as requested by Daddy Piehl. After we finally got around to getting out of the house, we headed to the park, for a little kite flying adventure. Unfortunately the wind wasn't constatnt and Hannah was growing impatient with Mother Nature.









During the evening, after eating dinner, another request from the man of the house, Boboli mini pizza's, we headed to Clyde Holliday State Park for a walk. Our walk was cut short due to a flooded trail. But we didn't let that stop us, we just hopped in the car and drove around to the other entrance and walked around the bullfrog pond. Hannah enjoyed copying her father throw rocks at the bull frogs. Robbie vows next time to bring a net to catch the bullfrog polliwogs, which are huge by the way. I managed to get off a couple of cute photos while on our short adventure, not so far from home.

Now you see it now you don't!

Hey everyone, check out my new hairdo. On my birthday, I went with my mother who was visiting, and got my hair cut to donate to Locks for Love. I absolutely love it, and it is so easy to care for.

Catfishing with Naomi

Hey Everyone, our friend Chad made up this video footage of some Mekong Catfishing in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He did a great job putting it together, music and all. Let's see what you think.