Fishing on the Eyak river

Yesterday we got up early to go fishing on the Eyak river. Bob, a friend of my parent's, took Brooke, Melinda and me out on the Eyak river on his boat.

There were many other fishermen on the river, but we still found a nice secluded spot. The river was very peaceful all covered in a low mist.
Brooke caught the first salmon, and Melinda caught one soon afterwards.

I lost a couple of fish, but we still got our limit of 3 silver salmon each. We had a great time on the river. Last time the kids and Melinda all caught fish and I didn't catch anything. I was so happy to actually reel some in this time. Catching coho salmon is really fun because the jump and fight and really try to get a way. Plus they were really big.

Here's our whole catch (plus 2 extra that Bob gave us).

Melinda love holding slimy fish.
Not bad for our first day of fishing.

Room with a view

This is the view from the large picture window in the living room in my parent's home in Cordova, Alaska.

Here's a zoomed in shot with a fishing boat coming into the harbor. In the distance is the mountains above Orca Bay.

We took all the kids down to the docks to get a close-up view of the harbor. Here are some fishermen repairing their nets.

Most of the boats in the harbor are working fishing boats, with a few scattered sailboats and even one yacht.

Over the side of the dock we saw many different varieties of jellyfish of different shapes and sizes.

Saffy loved it! We tried hard to make sure she didn't fall overboard.

This is Hawkins Island which is right across the way from Cordova's harbor.
Ian likes the moss that grows everywhere.

Here is a lone specimen of fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) growing near the harbor. This is probably Alaska's best known wildflower; it grows almost everywhere around here. It is breathtakingly beautiful. As if the landscape wasn't amazing enough already, these flowers make sure it always is.

We're leaving on a jet plane

Wednesday we woke up at the unholy hour of 5:30 to get to the Seattle airport to fly to Alaska. Unfortunately my new phone didn't get the message to change time zones, so we actually ended up waking up at 4:30am.

Finding the airport was pretty easy, but I made one wrong turn and had to flip a U-turn so Saffron informed me, "Daddy, you went the wrong way!"

All of the kids did great in the airplane. Saffron thought takeoff and touchdown was like a rollercoaster, so she put her hands in the air and squealed "wheeeeeee!"

The flight stopped at Juneau and then Ketichikan so it was almost a 6 hour flight. But it was nice it went straight to Cordova so we didn't have to actually change planes or have a layover.

Miles took some nice photos out the airplane window.
Snow on the craggy peaks.

Saffron was quite the trooper. She seemed to enjoy the flight more than the rest of us.
After a short rest Grandma and Grandpa took us all fishing.

Ian was the only one to catch anything. He scooped up some pink salmon with a net. Net and release.

Sightseeing in Seattle

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early, boarded our plane and flew to Washington state. My cousin Jeri and her family live near Seattle and she was very gracious to put us up for the night and play tour guide for us.

We went out for fish and chips for lunch and ate them on a floating pier on the lake. It was a beautiful day; the weather was just perfect.

Here are their cousins: the lovely Riley,
soccer hero Nate,
and the inimitable Lance.

We went downtown to the Seattle Center to check out the sights there. It's this really great park-like area that has the Experience Music Project, the Sonic's old arena, an amusement area, a children's museum, a science center all around the Seattle Space Needle.

The highlight for us was this great fountain. It was tons of fun. We tried to run up and touch it without getting wet. Some of us were more successful than others. I cut it a little too close and ended up with a wet shirt and water up my nose! Miles and Lisette both got completely soaked and Ian got fairly wet, too.The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

Saffy loved climbing up and down this humpback whale sculpture. While she was playing I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" being pumped out of the sound system; it was such a perfect moment, right in the center of the city that Nirvana built. Awesome!
Here's the whole gang waiting at the monorail station. The Experience Music Project is in the background.
We got off the monorail and walked a few blocks to the famous Pike Place Market with fish tossing and everything.

We had a great time at the market, even though the kids got tired of walking after a while.
We went back to their house after the market and had a little rest. The kids all bonded by playing with toys and watching a movie. They fed us a delicious dinner of ceasar salad and boiled crab. Yum! We got to hang out with Jeri and her husband Shawn, who we're both great. We had a lot of fun. A very good start of a vacation.

Catching up

Whenever lots of things are going on that I want to document and remember it unfortunately also means that I get too busy (and thus tired) and it seems like blogging is the first thing that drops of my list.

But late is better than never, so I am going to take some time to jot down some things. If you are a casual reader of my humble blog feel free to skip this one; I'll have some vacation photos coming up very soon.

Here is some of the stuff that we've been up to lately:

• We went to the Monet to Picasso exhibit at the Utah Museum of Fine Art. I was very impressed. They also had works from Dali, Van Gogh, Rodin, Manet. They had these great handsets that narrated information about all of the exhibits. Lisette really got into it and listed to most everything. I did hear "this is boring" from Ian, and "can we go yet?" from Miles, but I think deep down they really liked it.
• Lisette and I had a Daddy-Daughter date put on by our stake primary. They had a faux Italian restaurant complete with candlelight and dressed up waiters. Lisette and I had a very nice time together. We danced the waltz and the swing, ate dessert from a chocolate fountain and we made tinfoil roses.
• The kids finished their super summer session swimming instruction. Miles and Ian didn't want to continue, but since Lisette and Saffron were still swimming, they decided it was better to swim then just sit there and wait for them. Ian got much better and Miles was very brave and even swam across the deep end of the pool. We'll have a bunch of swimmers before we know it.
  
• We've been busy getting Lisette ready for school. She is going to attend public school in the morning, and then homeschool in the afternoon. We still love homeschooling and it works very well for our family. However, we've felt that Lisette has reached the age where she needs more adult mentors. We really like the unschooling philosophy were you give them free rein to explore and learn all on their own. But we also thought that it would be good for Lisette to try out a set schedule for some of her academics. It is also her last year in elementary, and we thought it would be a good time for her to go to some of public school just for the experience of it.
• Saffron had to have one of her front teeth pulled out. She fell on it when she was one and the tooth died. We took her to the dentist and unfortunately he found out that it had abcessed. So the dentist pulled it out while she was under anethesisia. It was so sad to see our little girl missing a tooth, but she is still as cute as ever.
• We drove to Brigham City to visit Ruth and Darius while they're still in Utah at my Grandma's house. Ruth made us the most yummy apple and cherry pies. We hadfun playing with Zach and Ben and visiting with everyone. Saffron even gave Great Grandma a kiss (after she gave her a dollar).

Saffron loves her little cousin Zach. Here's the kids meeting their cousins for the first time. Melinda is holding Ben and Lisette is holding Zach.
Ruth and Darius courageously took the bus and the train in the summer heat to come visit us. I love their little baby carriers; when Lisette was born Ruth gave us one of these.
Phew! I think I'm almost caught up now. Now I can get on to our vacation. Wahoo!

Boys night out camping

We had a busy, but very fun weekend. Friday night Ian, Miles, and I went up to the Uinta Mountains for an overnight campout. It was our ward's annual father and sons outing. There was a cabin, but we brought our tent and sleeping bags and roughed it. We brought tinfoil dinners of potatoes and buffalo meat (Miles had tofu-nuggets) and cooked them in the fire pit. There were lots of other kids there and they made marshmallow guns out of PVC pipe. They had great fun waging battle with mini marshmallows and roasted the big ones for s'mores.

We woke up to a beautiful morning in the pines and had a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and Tang. We took a little hike and found a beaver lodge and enjoyed the fresh air and the beautiful wildflowers. The outing was a big hit and everyone had a lot of fun.

In the evening we went to the Utah State Capitol to see the Declaration of Independence. It wasn't the official signed one, but it is actually an older copy. They made 200 originally, but only 24 are still in existence, This one was actually found behind a painting that someone bought for 4 dollars; quite the find. We saw some of Melinda's f riends there, and my cousins Paige and Chris were there, too.

Then we went to a friend's wedding reception. We cut it pretty close, because we were the last ones in line. It was fun because they had an ice cream sundae bar. Perfect for a Saturday night bedtime snack.

James and Brooke's Wedding Brunch

Here are some fun snapshots of family and friends at the wedding luncheon, and a few pictures and the temple afterward. We had so much fun seeing family, and it was wonderful seeing Brooke and James; they looked so happy together. It was a very joyous occasion.

I'm post dating this so they are in chronological order. I've been a real blogger slacker lately, but I'm going to try to catch up.

Michel and Analyse catch up with Marie.

Dad and his brother Ray enjoyed swapping stories.

Makenna looked lovely in her floral sundress.

Miles is glad to have so much family together.

It was great fun to have Joy around, and she is looking very fashionable, as always.

Mom and Stacie look great in their gerber daisy colors, and Mom is happy to be holding lovely baby Hope.

Snack time for Zach and Ben. Darius and Ruth are enjoying being parents of two very cute little boys;

Me with my very handsome, conscientious, considerate, and fun boys. I couldn't ask for anything else better.
Family weddings can take a lot of work, but I love them. I can't wait for the next one.

James and Brooke

Congratulations to James and Brooke who were married on Saturday!


They look very happy together.


Jame's siblings and inlaws.


Lots of nieces and nephews.


Brooke's family.