The highlight of the evening was the fight for the turkey legs. Since they were larger than the kids' legs themselves...they decided to share.
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| Thanksgiving 2010 with the Fowers Family |
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving with the Fowers Family
The Poly Family spent Thanksgiving with the Fowers Family this year.
The highlight of the evening was the fight for the turkey legs. Since they were larger than the kids' legs themselves...they decided to share.
The highlight of the evening was the fight for the turkey legs. Since they were larger than the kids' legs themselves...they decided to share.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
First Snow for 2010
Since our move back to Boise in 2005, we have not had a "snow day"...until today. School was cancelled for the entire Treasure Valley and many businesses remained closed due to the massive snow fall. We enjoyed the morning shoveling sidewalks, building a snowman, and of course, a snowball fight.
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| First Snow 2010 |
Monday, November 1, 2010
Fall 2010 soccer season
Another soccer season: the boys competitive spirit keeps them counting...two for Sid and two for Colin.
Sidney improved on his foot skills this year and is less distracted during his games. He even managed to score two goals for the season, one of them being the game winning goal during the final game of the season...a proud moment for Sidney.
Colin joined a competitive soccer team this year, as recreational soccer was no longer a challenge. As a young nine year old, he played in the U11 league and was quite intimidated at the start of the season, and rightfully so. Playing against boys a head taller and a stride faster, Colin realized he would need to be a lot feistier if he planned on touching the ball. By the end of the season, he was holding his ground. Colin managed to score two goals during the season and also played in his first tournament: the Gem State Challenge in Boise.
Sidney improved on his foot skills this year and is less distracted during his games. He even managed to score two goals for the season, one of them being the game winning goal during the final game of the season...a proud moment for Sidney.
Colin joined a competitive soccer team this year, as recreational soccer was no longer a challenge. As a young nine year old, he played in the U11 league and was quite intimidated at the start of the season, and rightfully so. Playing against boys a head taller and a stride faster, Colin realized he would need to be a lot feistier if he planned on touching the ball. By the end of the season, he was holding his ground. Colin managed to score two goals during the season and also played in his first tournament: the Gem State Challenge in Boise.
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| Fall 2010 soccer season |
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Surprise Trip for the Boys
We managed to sneak away for a four-day weekend to visit some of our favorite sites: Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Jackson Hole.
The Animal Hunt: The boys carried an Animal Checklist the entire trip...here is what was tallied up: 1 swan, 1 blue heron, 150 bison, 24 elk, 1 white-tailed deer, more bison, 4 coyotes, 3 black bears, more bison, and 1 Moose.
The Geyser: This was the surprise of the trip...Old Faithful. The boys patiently waited for the geyser to erupt and were in awe the entire duration of the show.
The mud pots were, of course, another attention grabber.
The boys had a great time during this quick whirlwind expedition and they are begging for some more Yellowstone visits...
The Animal Hunt: The boys carried an Animal Checklist the entire trip...here is what was tallied up: 1 swan, 1 blue heron, 150 bison, 24 elk, 1 white-tailed deer, more bison, 4 coyotes, 3 black bears, more bison, and 1 Moose.
The Geyser: This was the surprise of the trip...Old Faithful. The boys patiently waited for the geyser to erupt and were in awe the entire duration of the show.
The mud pots were, of course, another attention grabber.
The boys had a great time during this quick whirlwind expedition and they are begging for some more Yellowstone visits...
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| Yellowstone |
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sid and Colin's races
Sid and Colin raced at Hidden Springs this weekend in the inaugural youth only sports night. Sidney ran a 1 mile (1.609km) race in 6 min 56 seconds. He finished first place in his age group and fifth overall out of 27 participants.
Colin participated in the triathlon. After swimming 150 meters in the pool, he biked 5km and then ran 1km. He also finished first in his age group with a final time of 23 min and 17 sec. There were 24 boys and girls in his age group.
Finishing with a first place ribbon certainly gave a boost of self-esteem for both of the boys.
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| Sidney's 1 mile run |
Colin participated in the triathlon. After swimming 150 meters in the pool, he biked 5km and then ran 1km. He also finished first in his age group with a final time of 23 min and 17 sec. There were 24 boys and girls in his age group.
Finishing with a first place ribbon certainly gave a boost of self-esteem for both of the boys.
 |
| Colin's triathlon |
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Fourth of July in the Sawtooth
For the extended Fourth of July weekend, we headed to the Sawtooth National Forest to attend a three day seminar at the Church of Mother Nature. We left on Friday afternoon and drove to Stanley Lake, which is located in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The SNRA is a 756,000 acre portion of the Sawtooth National Forest, which was established by Congress in 1972 to “…assure the preservation and protection of the natural scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to provide for the enhancement of the recreational values associated therewith..." Located at the northernmost end of the Sawtooth National Forest, SNRA comprises one of the largest and most magnificent National Recreation Areas in the United States. Four mountain ranges (Sawtooths, Boulders, White Clouds, and Smokies) provide scenic landscapes in every direction with more than 50 major peaks over 10,000 feet and 250 miles of trails. There are more than 1,000 high-mountain lakes, as well as the headwaters of four of Idaho's major rivers (Salmon, South Fork of the Payette, Boise, and Big Wood).
We arrived at the campground on Friday evening around 8:30pm and set camp just before the rain started falling. In fact, it rained most of the night. As you can imagine, at 6,513ft (1,985m), the morning was pretty chilly. With temperatures in the high 30’s, the warmth of our sleeping bags was irresistible...
Considering the slight possibility of rain on Saturday, we decided to postpone our hiking trip until Sunday and stay in the valley for the day. After attending an early morning Junior Ranger presentation on the life cycle of salmons, we picnicked on a little sandy beach at Redfish Lake. In the afternoon, Laura led us to a horse riding outfit just outside of Redfish Lake. We rode horses for an hour on the hills between Redfish Lake and Little Redfish Lake. Colin was a natural. He particularly enjoyed the guiding and steering aspect of horse riding. It took a little bit of convincing for Sidney to warm up to the idea, but once on the saddle, he loved every moment of it. Walter was given the stubborn horse who managed to stop at any opportunity to fill his mouth full of fresh grass (perfect personality match). As for Laura, well, her cowgirl genes quickly took over…
We finished the day with a wonderful Dutch oven meal; sausage and rice pilaf with apple crisp for dessert, courtesy of Chef Laura.
The next day, we hiked to Sawtooth Lake. What better way to celebrate Independence Day than reuniting ourselves with nature, freed from all the distractions of our daily routines. The trailhead is located at Iron Creek (6,710ft / 2,045m), just a few miles west of Stanley at the end of a forest road. The morning air was still chilly and the parking lot (dirt and wild grass clearing within the lodge pole pine forest) was almost empty. After an ultimate inventory check of our food and water supplies, we started the hike on a well marked trail. The lower portion of the trail had been retraced since our last hike and we were now closer to Iron creek, at least for the first quarter mile. The beginning section of the trail takes you through a dense lodge pole pine section of the forest and large trailside boulders on which the kids love to climb. As we passed the turn off to Stanley Lake, we imagined how fun it would be to one day hike directly from Stanley Lake to Iron Creek. Following the turnoff is a series of switchbacks. At this point, the scenery really opens up. You emerge from the trees onto a subalpine avalanche meadow where the jagged peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains dominate the northwestern landscape. Above us, the bright blue sky formed the perfect backdrop for the shining rocky walls.
We traversed a log bridge in order to cross Iron Creek and moved on to the steeper portions of the trail to reach the Alpine Lake junction. Two years prior, we hiked to beautiful Alpine Lake and, as we were starting to tire, we debated whether to make Alpine our final destination or keep going to Sawtooth Lake, our original goal. In our state of altitude induced confusion, we decided to continue higher. The trail was now harder to find, much steeper and filled with loose rocks. We exchanged words of encouragement as the going got tougher. We manipulated Sidney’s mind by telling him he could be the first six-year-old to climb up to Sawtooth Lake. It worked! He marched on, determined and focused on the ultimate goal.
Past the junction, the trail took us on a steep ridge overlooking Alpine Lake some 200 feet below, offering us a bird’s eye view of the azure lake, the surrounding avalanche prone slopes and further down in the valley, the little hamlet of Stanley. After a few more switchbacks, we encountered our first reward: a snow field. It was so surprising for the boys to hike in a landscape of trees, shrubs, flowers, and boulders on a warm, sunny afternoon in July and, suddenly, around a corner, be walking on snow. Snow balls soon started flying, Sidney slipped and Colin was sliding down the slope on his back side. Winter Bliss in July! We marched over a few more snowfields and even traversed a snow bridge to cross Iron creek, once again.
We then contoured a small, unnamed lake to eventually take our first glimpse of Sawtooth Lake (8,430 ft or 2,570m). Three hours after starting our hike, we were greeted by such an impressive panorama. The lake was almost completely covered by thousands of little ice sheets assembled like the pieces of a puzzle. Slopes of the surrounding peaks were covered with snow. The air was fresh, the sky was blue, and we were simply mesmerized by the majestic beauty. We ate lunch on the rocky shore and entertained ourselves by throwing rocks on the ice sheets covering the lake. Surprised by the fact that the rocks we were throwing on the ice were not breaking it, we realized that the ice sheets were still anywhere between 6 and 10 inches thick. Sidney even dipped his feet in the freezing water. For sure, he was the only six-year-old boy to put his feet in a frozen lake at this altitude. As the wind started to pick up, we covered ourselves with a sweater and reluctantly started our journey back down the mountain. After a few stops along the creek to play in the water, we made it back to the car in 2 ½ hours.
Back at camp, Laura and I made an executive decision to skip the Dutch oven cooking routine and go into town for a bite to eat. We were all pretty toasted after such a long day at altitude. After dinner, we headed to a little unknown natural hot springs situated right along Valley Creek between Stanley and Lower Stanley. As the sun was slowly setting, we enjoyed the “natural hot tub”all to ourselves with unbeatable views of the Sawtooth range. Our legs were feeling rather soothed at this moment. Since the boys wanted to watch the fireworks, we found a spot to park outside of Stanley along the highway. The 30 minute wait was entertained with reading stories shortly resulting in snores made by Sidney. The rest of us were on the verge of dozing off when the first rocket lit the sky. The bang of the explosions echoed on the mountains. The cows in the field started mooing. We even heard thunder in the distance as dark ominous clouds were moving in over the mountains. I don’t think we witnessed the grand finale because fireworks were still lighting the sky as we were driving back to camp for a very deep sleep.
The next morning, after lifting camp, we headed to the fish hatchery pond to throw a few lines in the water. Sidney caught a 6 inch trout and although Colin did not catch any fish, he became very proficient at casting. Suddenly, we looked at our watch and it was already 1:30pm and we had not yet eaten lunch. Time flies when you are having fun… Unfortunately, it was also time to start driving home. In the car, the boys were soon begging to go camping again: As soon as we can…
We arrived at the campground on Friday evening around 8:30pm and set camp just before the rain started falling. In fact, it rained most of the night. As you can imagine, at 6,513ft (1,985m), the morning was pretty chilly. With temperatures in the high 30’s, the warmth of our sleeping bags was irresistible...
Considering the slight possibility of rain on Saturday, we decided to postpone our hiking trip until Sunday and stay in the valley for the day. After attending an early morning Junior Ranger presentation on the life cycle of salmons, we picnicked on a little sandy beach at Redfish Lake. In the afternoon, Laura led us to a horse riding outfit just outside of Redfish Lake. We rode horses for an hour on the hills between Redfish Lake and Little Redfish Lake. Colin was a natural. He particularly enjoyed the guiding and steering aspect of horse riding. It took a little bit of convincing for Sidney to warm up to the idea, but once on the saddle, he loved every moment of it. Walter was given the stubborn horse who managed to stop at any opportunity to fill his mouth full of fresh grass (perfect personality match). As for Laura, well, her cowgirl genes quickly took over…
We finished the day with a wonderful Dutch oven meal; sausage and rice pilaf with apple crisp for dessert, courtesy of Chef Laura.
 |
| Sawtooth trip in July 2010 (Day 2) |
The next day, we hiked to Sawtooth Lake. What better way to celebrate Independence Day than reuniting ourselves with nature, freed from all the distractions of our daily routines. The trailhead is located at Iron Creek (6,710ft / 2,045m), just a few miles west of Stanley at the end of a forest road. The morning air was still chilly and the parking lot (dirt and wild grass clearing within the lodge pole pine forest) was almost empty. After an ultimate inventory check of our food and water supplies, we started the hike on a well marked trail. The lower portion of the trail had been retraced since our last hike and we were now closer to Iron creek, at least for the first quarter mile. The beginning section of the trail takes you through a dense lodge pole pine section of the forest and large trailside boulders on which the kids love to climb. As we passed the turn off to Stanley Lake, we imagined how fun it would be to one day hike directly from Stanley Lake to Iron Creek. Following the turnoff is a series of switchbacks. At this point, the scenery really opens up. You emerge from the trees onto a subalpine avalanche meadow where the jagged peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains dominate the northwestern landscape. Above us, the bright blue sky formed the perfect backdrop for the shining rocky walls.
We traversed a log bridge in order to cross Iron Creek and moved on to the steeper portions of the trail to reach the Alpine Lake junction. Two years prior, we hiked to beautiful Alpine Lake and, as we were starting to tire, we debated whether to make Alpine our final destination or keep going to Sawtooth Lake, our original goal. In our state of altitude induced confusion, we decided to continue higher. The trail was now harder to find, much steeper and filled with loose rocks. We exchanged words of encouragement as the going got tougher. We manipulated Sidney’s mind by telling him he could be the first six-year-old to climb up to Sawtooth Lake. It worked! He marched on, determined and focused on the ultimate goal.
Past the junction, the trail took us on a steep ridge overlooking Alpine Lake some 200 feet below, offering us a bird’s eye view of the azure lake, the surrounding avalanche prone slopes and further down in the valley, the little hamlet of Stanley. After a few more switchbacks, we encountered our first reward: a snow field. It was so surprising for the boys to hike in a landscape of trees, shrubs, flowers, and boulders on a warm, sunny afternoon in July and, suddenly, around a corner, be walking on snow. Snow balls soon started flying, Sidney slipped and Colin was sliding down the slope on his back side. Winter Bliss in July! We marched over a few more snowfields and even traversed a snow bridge to cross Iron creek, once again.
We then contoured a small, unnamed lake to eventually take our first glimpse of Sawtooth Lake (8,430 ft or 2,570m). Three hours after starting our hike, we were greeted by such an impressive panorama. The lake was almost completely covered by thousands of little ice sheets assembled like the pieces of a puzzle. Slopes of the surrounding peaks were covered with snow. The air was fresh, the sky was blue, and we were simply mesmerized by the majestic beauty. We ate lunch on the rocky shore and entertained ourselves by throwing rocks on the ice sheets covering the lake. Surprised by the fact that the rocks we were throwing on the ice were not breaking it, we realized that the ice sheets were still anywhere between 6 and 10 inches thick. Sidney even dipped his feet in the freezing water. For sure, he was the only six-year-old boy to put his feet in a frozen lake at this altitude. As the wind started to pick up, we covered ourselves with a sweater and reluctantly started our journey back down the mountain. After a few stops along the creek to play in the water, we made it back to the car in 2 ½ hours.
 |
| Sawtooth trip in July 2010 (Day 3) |
Back at camp, Laura and I made an executive decision to skip the Dutch oven cooking routine and go into town for a bite to eat. We were all pretty toasted after such a long day at altitude. After dinner, we headed to a little unknown natural hot springs situated right along Valley Creek between Stanley and Lower Stanley. As the sun was slowly setting, we enjoyed the “natural hot tub”all to ourselves with unbeatable views of the Sawtooth range. Our legs were feeling rather soothed at this moment. Since the boys wanted to watch the fireworks, we found a spot to park outside of Stanley along the highway. The 30 minute wait was entertained with reading stories shortly resulting in snores made by Sidney. The rest of us were on the verge of dozing off when the first rocket lit the sky. The bang of the explosions echoed on the mountains. The cows in the field started mooing. We even heard thunder in the distance as dark ominous clouds were moving in over the mountains. I don’t think we witnessed the grand finale because fireworks were still lighting the sky as we were driving back to camp for a very deep sleep.
The next morning, after lifting camp, we headed to the fish hatchery pond to throw a few lines in the water. Sidney caught a 6 inch trout and although Colin did not catch any fish, he became very proficient at casting. Suddenly, we looked at our watch and it was already 1:30pm and we had not yet eaten lunch. Time flies when you are having fun… Unfortunately, it was also time to start driving home. In the car, the boys were soon begging to go camping again: As soon as we can…
 |
| Sawtooth trip in July 2010 (Day 4) |
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Colin's 9th birthday party
Josh, Nick, Cole, Isaac, Sidney and Colin were in attendance. We played in the pool for a few hours and then played a few rounds of baseball... For the occasion, Laura made another fantastic looking and of course delicious cake.
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| colin 9th bday |
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Photos de la famille Meurisse
Voici les copies des photos de la famille Meurisse que j'ai passe au scanner:
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| Meurisse Photos |
Sunday, May 2, 2010
2010 Spring Soccer Season for Sidney and Colin
Another soccer season flew by... It was a rough start for Colin as he was sick for the first couple of games. By the time he got his groove back, we were already on our last Saturday of soccer with a double-header. Colin redeemed himself by scoring 10 goals over both games for a total of 11 for the season. As for Sidney, we lost track after a dozen.
Beyond goals and scoring, they both made some noticeable improvements in their foot skills and soccer IQ.
Check out the photos and a video of Sidney:
Beyond goals and scoring, they both made some noticeable improvements in their foot skills and soccer IQ.
Check out the photos and a video of Sidney:
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| 2010 Spring Soccer for Sidney and Colin |
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Photos from the ski season...
What a slacker!! I have been neglecting this blog for a while.
Here are some photos of Colin and Sidney at Bogus Basin.
Colin is hunting like a bloodhound for every possible jump on the hill. He loves to catch (inches of) air! Sidney is also making progress. He went down his first black diamond in January.
Here are some photos of Colin and Sidney at Bogus Basin.
Colin is hunting like a bloodhound for every possible jump on the hill. He loves to catch (inches of) air! Sidney is also making progress. He went down his first black diamond in January.
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| Skiing at Bogus Basin 2010 |
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