Valentine's Trout Dinner

This blog has been a work in progress for the past month now. Time to hit the presses!

As Valentine's Day was approaching, I was dreading the idea of having to find a restaurant to go to and having to put up with all the waiting to be seated. So I decided that it'd be fun to go fishing, hope to catch a fish big enough to keep and to have a home-cooked trout dinner instead of going anywhere. The Saturday before Valentine's, I went to a fishing hole that produces large trout time and time again and in no time, I had landed this 20" trout. Every time I decide that I want to keep a fish, I feel like to zit-faced schoolboy who confidently and bravely accepts a dare but when on the brink of carrying out the dare, gets cold feet. I had decided before hitting the river, "I'm going to keep a fish this one time. It's for a good cause and we'll eat it all (no wasting)". However, once the fish was netted, guilt rushed over me and I nearly let him go. I'm glad I didn't let him go. When we got home, I discovered that the fish was actually a cutthroat/rainbow hybrid. On the river that I fish, cutthroat trout are the native species that are actively protected. Rainbows on the other hand aren't. Hybrids are even less protected. Wonderful!
Come to find out, the fish was too big for any of the pans we had. I had to sacrifice a bit of the tail in order to get it to fit. We prepared it by simply breading it with flour and corn meal seasoned with salt and pepper. That's the way Catherine's dad prepares them and it usually turns out good. It looked delicious before we cooked it...
...but it wasn't too tasty afte the cooking; I don't care for the "fishy" taste of fish. Thank goodness for tartar sauce! There was a ton of fish left and fed us for a few more meals. I think I'd like to try something different than fried fish next time. Amy gave me some recipes that I'm anxious to try sometime...
Happy (belated) Valentine's Day, everyone!

Peter's Graduation!

Here is our anticipating graduate.

Peter was apart of the first graduating class to be in the new BYU-I Center. It was really impressive. Peter is standing over the left top corner of the department sign. He is in the 10 court gymnasium behind the 15,000 seat auditorium where we are waiting for commencement.

Here is Mom, Dad and Tim,

Along with Mom, Kyle, Dad and Shane.

After the great commencement address by Elder Marlin K. Jensen and Elder Johnson, we moved into the Hart gymnasium for the department convocations. I appreciated the great comments by all who spoke. Elder Jensen also gave me permission to take as many pictures today because he suggested we do so we can remember how good we looked now, and when we get to be alumni for 50 years like he is, we'll have fond memories of those pictures. Peter was a great sport to let me take his picture too. Thanks Peter!

Oh boy!! There it is! Too bad it is empty. They email the actual certificates after grades are posted for the last semester.

There he is with his diploma and rose!

Congratulations Peter!!

Everyone is soo proud!

We really appreciated all the support from our family! Thanks to everyone who made it to the big day, and also those who were unable to attend, all your encouragement and well wishes along the way!

After all the pictures and formalities, Dad Hale took us to Olive Garden for a nice lunch to celebrate. Thank you so much!

Not sure if this video is going to work, but if it doesn't we got Peter walking in to the big auditorium and he waved to us all. So cute!

10-10-10

As many of you know and celebrated the once in a century event that occurs with the rotation of the date being, for example, 10-10-10. This year was October 10, 2010, and it just so happened to be Peter's 26th birthday!

We had the family over for lasagna dinner and Mom made a delicious funfetti cake, Peter's favorite. It was an enjoyable afternoon. We watched little Michael play around on the new truck Grandma brought up. This was also the first time Hailey and Andrew's new baby Brandon was brought out for a social.

With Peter's new calling in the Elder's Quorum he has been pretty busy every day of the week. Here we have a glimps of how Peter winds down most Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. Here he is trying to get a game in before dinner.

We also have a new little neighbor who was kind enough to stop by to wish Peter a happy birthday. He has been visiting every night since. Peter went fishing the Saturday before with Ryan up to Ashton and St. Anthony, (we'll blog about the success of that trip later) so here "Wilson" is sleeping on Peter's gear that was sitting out drying.

Our Exodus East

As many of you know, we returned home from our vacation to the east coast several months ago. Since we’ve been home, Catherine has been preparing for school and has since begun teaching her second year of general music/choir at Madison Middle School. I, on the other hand, had three more weeks until school started up again. They went by quickly as I spent much of my time unpacking boxes, getting our house in order, and making the initial attempts to refinish a bookshelf Mom and Dad let us have.

All of that aside, what we really want to do is share with you our favorite parts of the trip. I’d be delighted to share the whole trip with you, but even verbally explaining it takes nearly an hour! I can’t imagine typing it all out!

I initially thought that identifying my “favorite part” would be easy, since I’ve visited nearly every stop on our trip before. However, even I had a ton of fun. Ironically, one of my favorite stops was Manassas National Battlefield, a spot only 40 minutes from my house growing up! I believe that with aging comes a greater appreciation for culture, be it classical music, history, or art. As a kid, I remember being compelled to accompany dad on his Civil War battlefield excursions. Then as a teen, it became an optional outing, so I rarely went (I remember Cath and Tim being good sports though). One could spend an entire week on the east coast just visiting Civil War battlefields, so we decided to give Catherine a “taste” of it by visiting the battlefield of the first battle of the Civil War: the 1st Battle of Bull Run.

It’s surprising to think that drizzly weather would be embraced on a vacation, but after a few days of trudging around D.C. in the hot sun and intense humidity, an overcast, rainy day was such a relief. We took part in a guided tour by a young man from the National Forest Service who had such a passion for the Civil War. He was very articulate and captivated us with each sentence. We walked around to several points of significance and listened as Hank would treat us with a play-by-play of the military strategies utilized by the Union and Confederate troops. It was a blast!! After our short visit to Manassas Battlefield, I gained considerable interest in the Civil War, a passion held not only by my dad, but also by my brother-in-law Kyle. We both agree that it would be a dream for Catherine and I to go back to the east coast with Kyle to take in even more of the history encapsulated in that area.

As for me, Catherine here, it is so difficult to say what I enjoyed most. We did so many new things I have wanted to do. Wandering the mall and seeing all the sights was sweet, meeting all of Peter's high school buddies was a treat, going to the battlefield was awesome, attending the temple was memorable, the wild ponies and light house where fun, the beach is always refreshing, seeing family in their natural habitats was special, riding the roller coasters at Busch Gardens was a thrill, Colonial Williamsburg was fascinating, and Mount Vernon was amazing. (I get tired just recalling the crazy 10 days) Really if I had to choose one thing, I'd say that each night no matter where we were staying, whether at the Gallo's, Jon's, the B&B-fast, or a hotel (which we didn't plan on paying $150 for, just for 8 hours) going to bed feeling exhausted and reminising of the day's events with Peter was wonderful. Even though I was in charge of planning much of the trip I didn't realize how busy the itinerary was going to be. What a great feeling it is to cuddle up next to a wonderful husband and feel like our days were well spent and many wonderful memories were made. This also marked our two year anniversary. Thanks Peter for taking me on the trip of a life time!!

Another Reunion- Palmers

It isn’t too often that we get together with the Palmer side of the family for an extended period of time, so this was an important reunion to attend. We went up to Island Park, our old home from last summer, and camped at Riverside campground. There was really nice weather for the first day and a half but then there were thunder and lightning storms the rest of the time. It was still a great time to be out together. Mom and Dad yet again provided amazing meals. Like our brother-in-law Andrew says “We eat better camping than in our apartment.” We had stuffed green peppers, sweet and sour chicken and rice, sloppy joes and hoagie sandwiches, and to top it all off Mom made an amazing Huckleberry Cheesecake to die for!!! Wow!

How nice! Dad willing to share his watermelon with us.

We stopped by our old job at the Angler’s Lodge to say hi and check up on how their summer is going. It was great to see the old place, but great to have the night off from work in Island Park. We both found ourselves checking the time in the mid afternoon worrying about being to work by 4:00. Not this time! The cook that Peter worked with for 2 summers, Irvin, has recently been diagnosed with pretty severe lung cancer so we wanted to see him most of all. It was fun to chat with him like old times about all the sporting and professional athlete news and the local drama. He really admires Peter and considers him family. They are quite a pair.

It is difficult to keep clean out in the woods. It had been a while since I had my hair washed so I asked Mom for assistance to freshen up.

But Peter was also wanting to keep clean too. Cute smile Peter!

We spent a lot of time enjoying one another’s company around the campground. We also made several float trips down the Buffalo river which Michael wasn’t too sure about. It’s a slow flowing river and doesn’t get deeper than 3 feet. We used to float it as kids every summer.

The hardest part about family reunions is planning a time when everyone will be available. Sometimes we try to plan a year in advance and think that will be plenty of time to schedule. But poor Shane didn’t know a year ago that his soccer team would be in tournament that same weekend. So we went and supported Shane in Rexburg. His team ended up getting 2nd place in a late 10:30pm game with the lightning storm creeping in all around us. He had played 3 games in 24 hours. Come on, the world cup doesn’t even expect that much from the top athletes. It was still fun none the less. He also scored his only goal this season at the game we were at. He plays defense so that is why it was his first one.

It was a cold night watching soccer so Peter and I snuggled up into one of our sleeping bags to keep warm. Two peas in a pod literally!

Peter has wanted to register and participate in Relay for Life but hasn’t been able to. Mom was excited to give Peter a shirt that she picked up for him; he didn’t even have to run.

Aunt Suzy also celebrated her birthday the weekend of our reunion so we made sure to enjoy some of the German Chocolate cake Grandma made special for her. It was a great time, well spent with another amazing group of people. Everyone agreed to schedule the same weekend for next summer, but we’ll see how well our planning goes. Thanks to everyone for making the sacrifice for the great memories!

Sage Hen Reservoir

We’ve been wanting to blog about the things we have been doing out here in Boise, but we’ve been so busy doing them that we haven’t had time!


For Father’s Day weekend, we rounded up our camping gear and took to the mountains of Idaho for a weekend camping trip. After consulting local specialists and doing some research of our own, we set out for Sage Hen Reservoir. We got an early start Friday afternoon, inched our way up the hills, through pastures, up to the tree line and finally caught a glimpse of the picturesque lake. Unfortunately, the thing we were hoping we wouldn’t see was visible in abundance: other people! One reason we chose Sage Hen Reservoir was because we thought it would be far enough in the country that there wouldn’t be many people. However, probably due mostly to the fact that it was Father’s Day weekend, all six of the campsites were full! There were trailers all around, four wheelers rumbling to and fro, and families packed in the sites like sardines. I was appalled—this was not at all my idea of camping. Luckily, in talking with one of the camp directors, there was a camp site farther back that was “tents only”. It’s amazing to me that “camping” no longer implies sleeping in a tent. Anything more than sleeping under the stars, on the rocky ground, breathing the cold air isn’t camping to me. So, we were able to get into a camp site that was nice and quiet, isolated from the craziness that was the other six camp sites.




Each year we try to add an item to our camping equipment, and since it’s winter in Idaho eight months out of the year, it had been a long time since we’d used our equipments. Since last year, we have added a water purifier so we were excited to try it out. The water looked clean, but it still tasted kind of fishy.





Of course, we had to have roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner and dessert (no camping trip is complete without them).

The next morning, I got up bright and early to do some fishing on the reservoir. The fishing was better in the morning than in the afternoon, but I didn’t have our camera with me to prove it. That afternoon, we hiked all the way around the reservoir and did some fishing along the way. It was a beautiful area and we’d recommend it to anyone wanting a pleasant place to camp.