Matt's Side Job

While I was busy loafing, um, I mean working on the house this summer, Matt was busy working 40+ hours for the BLM AND umping baseball games on the side. After walking 10-13 miles every day this summer, Matt somehow mustered up enough energy to stand on the field for a few hours before coming home for the night. He umped half a dozen games in Rifle, and then someone gave out his name to the Meeker Park and Rec, so Matt ended up umping the same amount or more games up there, too. I went to a few of the games in Rifle to watch Matt, and boy, was that ever an experience. I promise, my almost-3-year-old nephew has waaaay better skills than half of the kids on some of those teams! Matt had a lot of fun umping the games and his season went out with a bang - tons of controversial calls (by the other ump) and even a kid getting ejected from the game (again, by the other ump). And those kids were ages 10-12! It was crazy!

Catching Up...

Jill and Kathy came out for a 5-day trip in July... which just shows how far behind I am! We had such a fun time laughing, talking, getting a pedicure, riding the tram up to Glenwood Caverns, swimming in the Rifle city pool, roasting marshmallows over a bonfire, garage saling, etc, etc, etc. It was super hot while they were out here, a far cry from what they had been experiencing in the midwest. I'm pretty sure the girls lost a few pounds due to water loss from sweating! It was just such a great time together. It was also humorous to see Kathy and Jill try to pack their bags again after all the great things we found at the garage sales! I'm not sure when a weekend like this will happen again what with kids and husbands and the distance and all, but I sure enjoyed every moment we had together.

Willis Lake

In the middle of July Julie's sister's came to town to hang out, so in order to give them their girl time and get out of the way I took an overnight fishing trip to Willis Lake. I was trying to pick an area where I'dsee the least number of people. I ended up seeing four that weekend, so I guess I chose well. I backpacked about 6 miles into the lake, but had a hard time finding a place to set up a tent because it was a very steep "V" shaped valley. Here is a picture of the lake below.

There were some really nice trout in the big lake, but I couldn't get any of them to hit. Apparently I'm not skilled enough for that yet, so I settled for a ton of fish this size (10-12 inches)

I caught all of these fish in a couple of smaller ponds that were connected to the bigger lake. It seemed that every cast if I didn't catch one, I had at least a couple hit my spinner. I really had a blast.

This is a picture of one the smaller ponds. Also, I had to get a picture with myself in it since nobody else was there to take one.

Here is a picture of my campsite on the flattest ground I could find in the valley. It ended up working out well though.

I just thought this was a cool picture of columbine (the state flower) with some mountains in the background.