Thanksgiving

I'm very traditional and I love all of the traditional things that come with Thanksgiving. Family, turkey, rolls, football, naps....

This year my family gathered at my brothers' new house in Coeur d'Alene. We spent most of Thanksgiving day cooking, planning and preparing for the big Thanksgiving meal. Jared found a group of guys playing in a turkey bowl and managed to join their game, I think they were glad he did as he scored a couple touchdowns for them. We ate, laid around, ate some more, watched movies and played some games.

Here's the Thanksgiving Feast!
I can never seem to get "normal" pictures with Jared around.

Friday we went to a water slide park. Linsey really tore it up going on all the different slides and loving every minute of it. Hunter went once and that was enough for him. The dark scary tunnel wasn't his idea of fun, especially since the tube practically dumped him out at the bottom. It took almost 2 hours before he mustered up the courage to try again and then he opted for the slide that required no tube... you know, those awful ones where you just sit on your bum and feel every bump all the way down. He loved it and continued on that one the rest of the day. Emma was too small for the slides, but there was a great kiddie pool area for her to play in. It was the perfect place for adults as well as kids. We went home for turkey leftovers and naps and then headed off to see a parade followed by fireworks over the lake. My brother thought to bring the makings for hot chocolate and boy were we grateful. It was really cold, but bearable with the warm, yummy drink. Everyone had fun.

Saturday, all the girls went out for breakfast (kid free) while the guys watched football and mentally prepared for the BYU game. We got home just in time to watch BYU play U of U... Everyone was howling and cheering right down to the last minute. What a way to end a fun weekend.

We left shortly after the game and our ride home was pretty quiet. Hunter and Emma both came down with a cough and had fevers by Saturday... I guess we really wore them out. Our plan was to leave in time to be back for our niece Olivia's blessing Sunday morning. We made it home, but unfortunately Jared and Linsey had to leave without us this morning. I was tempted to come anyway and just sit on the back row with my sick kids but Jared advised me not to.... darn. So, I sent him with the camera and made him promise to take pictures of Olivia in her blessing dress afterwards. We are so happy for Mat and Bri.

The Fishing Gene

I'm thoroughly convinced that some people have a fishing gene. Some things are passed down from parent to child, tutor to pupil, but fishing seems to come from somewhere else entirely. It wells up from the deepest darkest parts of the soul flooding through your whole body until you cannot resist it. Do you know someone with this gene? They can’t drive by a river or lake without staring off into the distance a little too long. And yes, they are imagining what type of fish is lurking there waiting to be caught. They will often make some type of comment if they see someone else fishing it. “Oh look, someone’s out there fishing, huh” or “wow, fishing on a Thursday, must be nice”. What they are really saying is “hey, if he’s fishing there, shouldn’t I be? What does he know that I don’t? What the heck am I doing in this car, driving to my kids soccer practice when people are fishing, look, they are right there, they are going to catch all the fish, oh why don’t I have my pole!”

Of course there are some more obvious clues that someone is addicted to fishing such as having the same fishing lures in different colors, or having more than 5 poles in the house or getting really excited about the Cabellas opening in Lacey. However, these things are just material compared to clues like having anything to do with fishing on your Tivo, making decisions about where to live based on the quality of fishing and thinking about fishing to help you fall asleep at night. These are the mark of a true gene enhanced fisherman.

It turns out that two of my brothers and I have this gene. Over the years, since we haven’t lived close enough to fish together regularly, we’ve started a tradition we like to call The Man Trip. We even have a theme song; fishin, fishin, fishin (sing it to the tune of the Batman theme song). The original Man Trip was invented by Dustin Olsen and myself as a “don’t-tell-the-wives-where-we-are-going-fish-for-4-days-without-
food-water-or-sleep” trip. It has grown to include my brothers Zack and Mike. This year was Man Trip IV and we traveled to the Rocky Mountains of Utah to assault the rivers of the Provo valley. The cold clear waters of the Rockies are perfect for our favorite type of fishing, catch and release fly fishing. In November the Brown trout go into spawning mode and become even more aggressive than usual.

We hit a secret river that I dare not tell you it’s name. We caught fish in this river bigger and meatier than any I have ever seen before. All of us landed the biggest fish of our lifetime on a fly rod. It was truly amazing. Here are the pictures to prove it because, as someone once said, “I wouldn’t believe you if you were telling me you caught fish like this…”

This was the biggest fish of the day. Zack caught it on a bead that imitates a fish egg. It measured a little over 24 inches. You can see that it doesn't fit in his net.

Mike and I thoroughly worn out from fishing.

This fish is so old that the hook on it's lower jaw is starting to split his upper.

Three Brothers

Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween!

This year Linsey and Emma wanted to be cheer leaders. Hunter is a football player. Cousin Brody is a cowboy and Chase is a sailor.


Trick-or-Treating downtown Auburn

Here is the newest McInelly addition. Mat and Bri had their baby girl last Saturday so here is our 4 day old little carrot. Her name is Madison Olivia McInelly. We think she is so adorable!

This was so much quicker than pumpkin carving!

Now, what to do with all this candy! Isn't Halloween great!