Vicki could see this large bald eagle from up on the highway but had no idea he was in our front yard until see drove up to the Riverhouse. It cooperated nicely by waiting until see came in, got the camera and took his or her picture. Unfortuenatly it was evening so his white plumage didn't show.

These turkeys have a novel way of eating from our 'small bird' feeder

Wayne feeding the turkeys pretty red berries from the tree. They said yummy!

Lezlee, we hope you'r feeling somewhat better. Our mission has forced me to establish my own email. It is wshays@gmail.com. Would you please give me blogg access and add me to your email list.

Calling All Fisherman!

On July 14, 15 & 16 a salmon fishing charter will be leaving the banks of Lake Michigan... Ken would like to extend an invitation to anyone who wants to attend. The charter has already been paid for and there is 5 more slots for people to attend. The charter includes hotel room, licenses and stamps, and fishing gear. The charter is completely taken care of all you need to do is show up!
If you want to come along, just let Ken know. His work email is kenneth.burkhart@parsons.com
Visit the charter site to see the details, the trip that is booked is the Fisherman's Special http://www.nickyboycharters.com/index.html

Dale Chihuly v. God In Beauty Smackdown

Monday we took the kids to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens where they had giant glass sculptures by world famous glass artist Dale Chihuly intermixed with the cactus. The glass pieces were stunningly beautiful. But you didn't have to look far to see one of God's creations that challenged it in beauty. It seemed to me like the ultimate artist's smackdown. You decide who won.

Phone Numbers and E-Mail Addresses

I've added a list of everyone's e-mail and phone numbers to the side. Please review it and make sure the info I've got is correct. You can edit it by clicking on the tool symbol at the bottom. Please also add any of your kid's e-mail addresses. Jordan would love to keep in touch with her cousins.

Deleted Entries

I've deleted the two photo slide shows about the wedding. It seemed like it was taking forever for the blog to load and my best guess is the slide shows were causing that. If you did not get a chance to download the photos you want, drop us an e-mail and we'll send you a link.

Kirk

Where is Everyone?

It's been a while since anyone's posted on here. Where are you all?

Lezlee is scheduled for surgery on January 26th. It is very frustrating that it's taking this long for her surgery. In the meantime she's stuck in a wheel chair, unable to walk. She does get around a bit on her crutches but since she can't put any weight on her right leg, it makes balance difficult and she's had a few falls. Friday she fell in the closet and banged her leg up pretty good. She was stuck on the floor and couldn't figure out how to get up while it was hurting so bad so she ended up organizing all our shoes until she felt better.

The surgery will take the Achilles tendon from a donor (read dead guy) and string it through a hole drilled from her tibia up through the middle of her knee and into her femur. It will be held in place by a screw and a staple. This will replace her torn ACL. She should recover quickly from this surgery. Because she is getting donor tissue instead of using her ham string, the recovery is a lot shorter and so she will be able to put weight on it almost right away and be cleared to walk in about two weeks.

The wild card is the other damage to her knee. The fracture should heal on it own so they won't do anything with that. The MCL will probably heal with physical therapy and so they don't expect to do anything with that during the surgery unless they find its hurt a lot worse than they think. But they don't know how bad the injury is the meniscus. The Meniscus is like the shock absorbers for the knee. If the damage isn't too bad, it will eventually heal itself. But if its torn up pretty good then they have to stitch it back together. If that happens she won't be able to put any weight on her leg for six weeks. And we won't know which it will be until the day of the surgery.

It is sad that this happened but we sure had a lot of fun snowmobiling up until then. Here are some pictures of that fun and finally a picture of Lezlee getting wheeled into the ambulance for the 90 mile trip to Rexburg and the world's most incompetent doctors.



Lezlee and Jordan near Mosquitoe Gulch.




Three moose on the Ashton Hill--eagle-eye Brennan spotted them.





Near Two Top.



Brennan is somewhere under all that padding.



Amazingly Lezlee was not injured while Jordan was driving.


At Warm Springs.


This is why we love West Yellowstone in the winter.

Lezlee about to be dropped by her rescuers who didn't know how to work the gurney.


Noelle in front of Sawtell.

In painting news, one of my paintings--Roxanne--was selected to appear in Scottsdale Magazine as the only painting shown under the gallery section. We actually didn't know it had been selected until Lezlee picked up a copy at the doctor's office and was flipping through it and saw the painting. Very excited. She also was writing a check the other day and when the person helping her saw the names on the check he asked, "Are you married to Kirk Hays the artist?" Lezlee said yes and the guy said he'd seen my work at Art One and I was one of his favorite artists. He then described a bunch of my paintings to her. That was pretty cool.

Jordan got back the other day from Catalina Island but she wants to do her own post about that.

Kirk

Christmas Thank You's

No pictures only THANK YOU'S I guess the biggest thank you goes to all of you. Being parents and grandparents of such a wonderful group of individuals is a great honor. Each one of you did an important part of making our last week great. Thanks to Kirk's family for breakfast and the good reading material,and family picture taking. Thank you to Kyle and his family for the cookies and family photo and help putting things together and taking them down again. Thanks to Monika's family for the use of their home , thanks for the family photo and we can't forget the chocolates. Thanks to Jen for having her wedding here so we could all attend, for the wonderful wedding dinner. We can't forget the New Year's Day football game party. Wayne and I would like to thank her family for the beautiful pictures of Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. We are all appreciative of the time and effort that Kristi put into the family quilt. We have the quilt on our bed. Each child and grandchild has a special spot in our hearts. It was so good to be with you, to hug each of you and to let you know how much we love you.