Pianist AND Singer

Andrin, I am so sorry ... I thought that we only had an aspiring pianist in the house. But now I realized that we have a pianist AND singer in the house. At the moment, Andrin is into music (according to Clemens, that is my "department" and responsibility of parenting). He loves to bang everything on surfaces, shakes his little shaker eggs, and works his piano. And then he makes all these noises and sounds. I think I really have to get him a drum set as well :)

Annual Memorial Day trip to the Deschutes; Part II

Posted by Clemens

Sorry Kevin, it took longer than anticipated (these feisty "22inch" fish from the town run keep me busy in my spare time!)

The sun disappeared behind the canyon walls and the river lies in shadows. I make my way up to my favorite spot. I cast my Clark Stone (dry fly) close to the bank, right into the seam where the fast moving water meets the slow water. On my third attempt, a fish swallows my fly. For a brief moment I see the crimson red stripe on it's flank and the dark spotted body. The fish immediately dives into the deep fast moving water and my reel starts to scream....

The winter was long and dark (in several ways...). All hand tied (by Clemens).

Stonefly larvae (Salmonflies & Golden Stoneflies) could be found under every rock, inches from the bank! They are as long as your little finger!

After 3 years of larval life, finally an adult...

...and heading straight for the beer!


A nice redside caught by John (on a nymph).


John fighting a (presumably) large fish (lost it shortly afterwards; the fish took him for a walk though).

Our camp neighbors. In anticipation of John's catch (...they got disappointed since he lost the fish).

My most precious catch!

The Deschutes! World famous for it's backeddy fishery (according to our camp neighbors; again, thanks for the beer, the informative "fishtalk" and the great companionship!)

...using the current, the fish moves downstream. In order not to loose this fish, I have to follow it, wading through the hip deep and fast moving water. Finally, the quiet water close to our campsite slows down the fish and I manage to bring it in. After removing my fly from it's mouth, I revive the fish and release it. This was my best fish and like last year, my best fish was caught on a dry fly.

Pianist

May we introduce you to the next world famous pianist? He has been practicing diligently and has been making lots of progress. We are enjoying our nightly recitals and will share today's recital with you!

Annual Memorial Day Trip to the Deschutes River, Part I

To start out with, let me tell you that we are crazy, naive, adventurous, and Swiss :) ! But .... we had a wonderful weekend and a great time! Some of you might remember that we took a trip to the Deschutes River last Memorial Day weekend with our dear friends, John and Keiko. We decided to make this an annual event and went together again this year. Last year, we stayed at the campground by Trout Creek (about 12 miles from Madras). This year, we decided to hike in (first crazy idea) to a campground about two miles from the other campground. Clemens, Andrin and I left on Thursday in the morning. We had a nice drive and stopped in Sisters to feed Andrin and have lunch ourselves. By early afternoon, we were at the campground and started hiking to our campground. Let's just put it like this: it was difficult and Andrin cried most of the way. We are still not entirely sure what was bothering him ... was it the heat? or him teething? (we discovered this later) or him just being unhappy? At one point, I sat down in the shade with Andrin and Clemens went ahead with his backpack and then came back to pick up my backpack and I just carried a much happier Andrin. The tent site was great! There was another group of people there, but they did not bother us at all and the boys even enjoyed talking with some of them because it turned out that they were fly fishing guides that had guided on the river for decades. We had a great place by the river where it was shady and cool because of the nice breeze from the river. And the boys also discovered early on that the water there was nice for fishing (Clemens will write a little bit more about the fishing part later on :) Andrin loved being outside all the time. He played for hours and loved all the attention and entertainment that he got. As I mentioned above, he was teething ... one of his top teeth is breaking through. It was painful for him and he was not happy on Thursday. By Friday, he was doing much better (just in time when John and Keiko joined us .. they floated down the river and met us at the campground). Andrin had some problems sleeping and it was rather difficult because our usual tactics to help him get back to sleep are difficult to perform in a little three person tent (crazy idea number two). But even though he struggled and kept waking up, it was wonderful to introduce Andrin to camping, a thing that Clemens and I just love. After all, we all made it home safe again today and are settled in again. Andrin had a nice bath to get all the dirt off his body and we are in the process of washing everything that got dirty and dusty. We are home, happy and tired, but glad that we took the chance to take Andrin with us for a four-night-long camping trip at such a young age! And even though we are crazy, we would not hesitate a minute to do it again (we are actually already planning our next trips, maybe just car camping and no walk-in camping though :)

Andrin is getting ready to hike in to our tent site (still all smiles).

Andrin and Mami are ready to hit the hiking trail.

New toy ... Mami's shoe laces ... (you have to become creative when you are away from home :)

Our tent site ... early in the morning (Andrin was awake early and Clemens took him for a walk).

Andrin happy as can be early in the morning ...

All these toys to discover ...

Playing with Godfather John.

First lesson in fly fishing ...

Even Andrin's teething toy is shaped like a fish!

Playing with my new friend Keiko ...


Who said that you have to sit in a chair?

Godfather John struggling with the assembly of the new Weber grill ...

At the river with Papi.

I can even eat my toes if I really get hungry and desperate ..

First try in knitting.


John's breakfast French toast ...

Keiko was the first one to discover this coiled up snake right by the cans ... Is it a rattle snake?

There is the rattle ... The snake did not use it at all around us and we were really close. And yes, I also saw the snake, even though I was not yet brave enough to make the pictures. But I was proud that I stayed calm, that my heart beat was normal, and that I was not screaming like I was going to die!!!

Giving Mami kisses.

Another new toy ... Papi's sun glasses.

I had ... carrots.

My first encounter with a salmon fly ...

And squish ...

Group picture.

Group picture ... (Clemens and I hiked out and John and Keiko took the boat and our gear).

Until next Memorial Day weekend!

Daisies ...

Yesterday was a wonderful summer day and I enjoyed being outside with Andrin. I had planned to go to the park, but he actually took a two-hour-long nap in the afternoon and we did not have that much time left before our swimming class. I just wanted to share some pictures of Andrin exploring our daisies ...

Busy weekend ...

Summer is here! We had a beautiful weekend. Clemens did not have to go to the lab and it was wonderful to have him around most of the time (he needed to take a little trip to the town-run to fish :) Andrin also enjoyed the sunshine and was really tired at the end of the day after so much playing and giggling. On Saturday, we went to downtown to run some errands (new sandals for Mami, some new books, and supplies for tying flies ...). On Sunday, we went to REI to get the latest things for our camping trip to the Deschutes. We pitched up our tent in the backyard today to see if Andrin's little Thermarest mattress will fit between Clemens and me. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we are taking the chance to take Andrin on his first camping trip. We went with John and Keiko to the Deschutes last year for Memorial Day weekend for the salmon fly hatch and we will do it again (the weather forecast looks great, we are almost organized). And then we also worked a little bit in the garden and put our pepper plants in our raised beds. Our salad is already growing like crazy and it looks like we might have our own salad next week!

Talking ....

Andrin has been a big talker in the last couple of days. It is amazing how long he can babble, how he will imitate when we say something, and how he just enjoys hearing his own voice. He also has this high pitched squeak that just makes us laugh every time. He seems to test what happens if he squeaks and then starts laughing when we smile and laugh as well.