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.

Gobble - Gobble

Well I finally killed something in Oregon, besides brain cells.  A few friends and I have been doing some turkey hunting and have had a pretty good time.  This particular hunt reminded me of goose hunting with my dad when I was a kid, it was freezing cold, snowing sideways, and I wasn't dressed warm enough.  We called in an elk and a turkey, and at one point I think I could have got them both in one shot.  His beard was 9 inches and he was a good looking bird.  Hopefully there will be another post soon of turkey number 2.  Stay tuned.....

Obstacle Course

 

The long winter days, have us trying to get our exercise indoors.  Here is Hannah completing an obstacle course, set up for her by Robbie.  I apologize for the clarity of the footage.  After playing the shot on the computer, I realized the munchkins fingerprints are all over the lens.  None the less, you get the point.

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.

2010 Caribou Hunt

I was fortunate enough to make it up to Alaska for a caribou hunt while Naomi dealt with Hannah and her tests. We had a great time and excellent weather. Here's a few photo's of the trip.

The Ranger, loaded to the hilt, and headed for Coldfoot.

Marsh Fork of the Canning River, Bench Strip.

Our first camp site, next to The Bench landing strip. Complete with electric fence to ward off Kushtaka's.

Heres a photo of Mark. Across the river is the camp and the strip.

Finally, we saw some bulls and Mark shot the largest in the bunch. Then shot it again, and again, and well he didn't have a rest. However, it was a morale booster as we'd hunted for a few days and hadn't seen any bulls.

There are sheds and critter remains littered all over the hillsides, so I carried a few back to camp for a photo.

The water levels were getting low, so after Mark shot his bull we figured it was time to head on down the river. In this shot you can see Chad in the Pro Pioneer raft. Mark was well ahead of us in the Kayak.

Then on the 5th day Chad and I connected with a couple of nice bulls. Chad even hit 2 for 2 on his farthest shots ever.

So here's the raft loaded with most of the gear and caribou. The payload is 1500lbs, so technically it could hold more weight, but I don't know where it would have fit.

Here's a picture of Chad on the final float of the trip. We took out at Plunge Creek and got picked up 3 days early. It was a mixed blessing, but we were 51 miles from the Beaufort Sea and this time of year the weather can change in an instant.