Floating the Kenai

Me in the pink cap, and Janelle in the dark waders fishing the very high Kenai River

We were able to borrow Aaron Swanson's drift boat and took Aaron and Janelle and Avery out to float the Upper Kenai River.  It was a beautiful day to float...love the sunshine!

The river is incredibly high this year.  We had record amounts of snowfall, and a very late spring which means that the snowpack in the mountains melted later than normal so at the end of July the Kenai river is pretty darn high.

That can make it harder to fish b/c there's so much more water for the fish to be in and the Kenai is a glacially fed river so it's full of silt so you can't actually see the fish you are targeting.  It is a very pretty river though.

Anyway...we didn't catch a lot of fish, but we did catch some.  It was mostly just nice to get out on the river on a sunny day.  We missed a couple of bears by just a few minutes...the people floating behind us saw them.

It was also nice company having Aaron and Janelle and their baby with us.  I was however, glad to leave my kids with a sitter.  :)

Crashed!

You know you've been playing hard when you pass out while laying on your dad's knee...and not like on a couch, laying on his knee...but sitting on a kitchen chair leaning over onto his knee.

This kid has fallen asleep in some weird and random places...I love it when he's been playing hard.  It means he's gonna sleep hard that night!

Soldotna Progress Days Parade

Hanging out on the church lawn waiting for the parade to start

He LOVES trains...so thought this was the coolest!

Running for candy while the cool Corvettest scared him with their loud engines

The Jacksons...Kam, Dani, and Brooke....with Tiny

So, we don't have a Day's of '47 Parade, or any Pioneer Day parades...but in Soldotna Alaska we have a Soldotna Progress Days Parade...and it happens on the weekend closest to July 24th.  Coincidence you might ask?  Nope...years ago we had an LDS Mayor and he started Soldotna Progress Days on the 24th of July.  Funny huh?

Anyway, Shayne & Aaron got up super early to go fishing, and Janelle had run to town with her baby, so I took Shordy and Tiny to the church parking lot with our lawn chairs to watch the parade.

I thought it was going to be a really nice day, but the wind was blowing and it was a lot cooler than it looks i this pic.  Oh well.

I was SOOOO glad the Jackson's (they are in our ward) ended up coming and sitting by me.  Kam (mom), Dani, and Brooke, entertained Tiny while I watched Shordy as he was running in the road for the candy. They made the whole parade experience way more fun and enjoyable for all of us!

Shordy LOVED it!  He thought the trains, fire engines, loud cars, and horses were pretty cool.  And he could not get over all the candy they were throwing at him.  The nice think is that we were at the start of the parade, and we didn't have any kids sitting real close to us so Shordy didn't have to compete with anyone for the tons of candy being thrown at him.  It was a perfect situation.

Yeah for parades that have lots of candy!!

Hope & Pinks for Shordy!!

Tiny and one of her very first little pony tails...I think this was only the 2nd time I had put one in.

It's not a very big pony, but I'm just excited she finally has enough hair to even have one!!  :)

Dad and Shordy reeling up his first Pink

One proud Daddy with his very excited little boy!!

It's an even year and that means lots of Pink Salmon on the Kenai Peninsula!  They run every year but for whatever reason the run is much larger in the even years.

One of the biggest runs of pinks is in a river that runs through the tiny little town of Hope.  I can't remember the name of the river...whoops.

Anyway...it's the perfect river to let kids learn how to catch salmon, b/c the pinks are runny pretty thick and when the tide is out the water isn't too deep and swift.  We are right at the mouth of the river, in fact you can see the ocean only about 150-200 yards away when you are up on the bank.

We had some visitors this week, Aaron and Janelle Bowman with their little 8 month old girl Avery.  Aaron & Janelle came up in 2009 with Kade & Ashley.  They were in the same ward and really good friend.  But it turned out that Janelle and Shayne were in the same nursing class as Ricks so knew each other pretty well.  Then Shayne & Aaron hit it off really well...they are two peas in a pod that's for sure.  Anyway, we thought we'd take them here b/c it's somewhere new and it's easy to fish, which would be fun for both Aaron (who's a very experienced fisherman) and Janelle (who's not as experienced as Aaron).

Dad took Shordy while I watched Tiny play in the dirt and sand and rocks.  It didn't take too long before Dad had hooked into a pink and then turned the fly rod and reel over to Shordy.  Other than Dad helping to hold the rod for him, Shordy did everything else.  He refused to let dad reel up the fish at all...he reeled that Pink in all by himself.  He was so excited!!  After landing the fish he proceeded to pick it up to take his pic with Dad.  It was so awesome!  I'm not sure who was having more fun...Shordy or his Dad who was about to burst a button he was so proud of his little buddy.

Shordy wasn't done though.  Dad hooked into another Pink and Shordy proceeded to reel that one in as well...then pose for pics too.  :)  Normally we throw Pinks back...they are smaller, have a lighter color to their flesh, it's a little softer, and doesn't have as much taste.  But...Shordy refused to let his Pinks go...so we had to keep them.

After catching his two fish, it started to slow down and Dad couldn't get hooked into anymore...but Shordy didn't mind.  He kept hanging around dad, wading in water above his Bogs, and getting pretty much soaked. But, he never complained...he just had a blast hanging out on the river with his dad.

Aaron & Janelle caught a couple too.  I think Aaron let Janelle do most of the fishing and I hope they enjoyed the experience.

After fishing we stopped at a little restaurant in town that serves some good homemade food...and pies.  It really is a very tiny town...it used to be a gold rush town, but now has like maybe 50 people that live out there...maybe a 100.  It's pretty quaint and is definitely somewhere we'll go back with Shordy and Tiny too.  Can't wait to see her land her first pink!!

Impromptu Pool Party...minus the Party

While Tiny was napping I was hanging out with Shordy, b/c it was another nice day outside.  Not nearly as warm as the previous day when the kids all played in the pool, but nice enough.

I'm not sure what I was doing, but before I knew it he had stripped down to his skivvies to play in the pool.  Now, this pool water was not very warm...it really had not been that warm the previous couple of days.  But...this did not deter this kid.  He proceeded to get almost every toy that was outside and put it in the pool.    I guess he thought it was like a bathtub?

You will notice however, that after putting his feet in the water, he never actually let anything other than his feet get wet.  Even sliding down the slide he only let his feet hit the water (notice the toe-test he does in the pics...and then easing himself down in)...that's a sign the water was not warm.

I just thought this 3 year old with his Buzz Light Year underwear was just too cute a photo op to pass on.  :)

Bye Papa!!

It was the end of the week and Papa headed home.  Thankfully he flew into and out of Kenai so we only had to drive him over the the Kenai airport.

Before he left I took some pics of him with the kids...they loved having him come visit.  And Tiny is especially fond of Papa...she took to him pretty quick.

I took these pics on the steps between our house and the garage.

The last three pics are of Tiny's new "thing".  I think it's her way of smiling really big...but I'm not exactly sure.  :)  It started when Dad would look at her and open his arms for a hug and give her a big open-mouthed smile...so she started giving him one back.  It's pretty dang hilarious!!

So...here she is showing you her BIG "smile'...while also showing off her Parana mouth set of teeth.

She made Papa laugh out loud every time she did this to him...it makes us laugh too.

Catching Reds with Shordy

For Dana's birthday I thought I'd take him fishing for some Reds so he wouldn't be just sitting at home on his birthday.  I had coordinated going dipnetting later in the after noon with some people in my ward, while Shayne was at work and then at an event he had coordinated for the high school football players and ER docs to do physicals.

Anyway...Jared, Dana, and I ran down to the Kenai river and hiked into a place about a mile in.  There were a few people there but we were all able to secure ourselves some good spots.  I must have had the honey hole, b/c I had my limit of 6 Red/Sockeye Salmon pretty darn quick.  Jared and Dana weren't far behind...the fish were in pretty thick.  (That happens when they shut down the commercial set-netters on the beach and severely limit commercial fishing b/c of an almost non-existent King Salmon Run).

The missionaries in our ward and the Sterling ward showed up and I ended up helping them figure out how to hook into and land the Reds...I'm not gonna lie...I think I impressed them with my knowledge and salmon fishing skills.  :)  Ha!

We ended up calling Shayne and letting him know the bite was hot, so we ran home after work and grabbed Shordy and came back to where we were.  I purposely stepped into the best spot to keep it for Shayne & Shordy and while I was just nonchalantly flipping my line into the water with no intention of catching a fish, I actually did hook into one and it was a good solid hook-set.  So, I wore the fish down and then just kept him tight at the end of my line but still in the water until Shayne showed up with Shordy.  Then I got Shordy down with me and he helped me reel in the Salmon while Shayne netted it.  Shordy thought it was great!!  I thought it was a blast!

Shayne then stepped into the hole and proceeded to hook into and land 5 more fish pretty quickly.  I was late for my rendezvous for dipnettng so we put a pile of fish in our backpacks while Dana put Shordy on his shoulders and we booked it back out to our vehicles.

Jared & I then went dipnetting while Shayne went to the sports physicals program and Dana got to watch grandkids.  :)

But...he got to go fishing so I hope it was fun!1

Happy B'day Papa...sorta

Yup...what better birthday present than coming to Alaska to fish and hang out with your grandchildren?

I don't think Dana could find a better present.

The Tuia's were still at our house from dipnetting, but  this time they were helping us get our fish, so Kaye was a gem and made a birthday cake for Papa Pond!  Then Dad, the kids, and the Tuia's sang to him and had cake.

Where was I...and Jared you might ask?

On a boat in the middle of the Kenai river with James Henderson and Brian Richardson with two gigantic dipnets, dipnetting 90 fish to split between the Henderson's, Richardson's, and us.

Where was Shayne?  Oh ya...he scheduled a group physical for the Skyview football/basketball teams with some ER docs coming in to do the physicals.  He could have changed it, b/c he ultimately is the one in charge of the whole event...but the football coach, whom I do not like, b/c he has a severe case of short-man's syndrome, claimed it the was only time he could do it.  Seriously?  You have someone putting on a FREE event for your entire football team to get FREE physicals and you are going to claim it's the only day you can do it?  Whatever.

Can you tell I was a little annoyed?  

So...instead of making a birthday cake and enjoying the day with Papa Pond and the grandkids, I was busy coordinating getting a boat and people to go out with, sitting on the boat pulling in a HUGE 5 foot hoop with Sockeye Salmon in it, until I wasn't very good at it, and then spent the rest of the time bonking the fish on the heads, cutting their gills, clipping their tails...which meant kneeing i about an inch of bloody water on the boat...until around 11pm.  Then we had to get back to the dock, unload the fish, and get them back to our place where we would all be getting together the next night to process all those 90 fish.  I'm just thankful Jared Tuia and his family decided to stay and help us out..it was a huge lifesaver!!

So..I hope Papa had a good time on his birthday watching his grandkids so I could leave...while Shayne was gone too.  

Sorry it wasn't a better birthday...but there's always next year...right?  :)

BTW...Shayne took a pic so I'm gonna have to get it from his camera and repost this with the pic of Papa with his birthday cake.

The Spectacle

What do you do for entertainment the last 2 weeks of July on the Kenai Peninsula?  If you're not dipnetting or fishing, or processing those fish...you go and watch the spectacle of it all!!

We ran Dana out to the north Kenai Beach on Sunday to show him the spectacle of dipnetting.  It actually wasn't nearly as crazy as it was a few days earlier when I stopped by with the kids to see how the Tuia's were doing.

Dana thought it was interesting enough though.  We had to put Tiny in the backpack b/c she would have been into the sand, the ocean, and everyone's fish if we hadn't.  She didn't mind being in the backpack though...as long as Dad was moving.  :)

Where was Shordy?  Same place he was when I went a few days before...asleep in the truck.  It's about a 25 minute drive out there from our house and it just puts him to sleep.  :)

You gotta love the absolute CRAZINESS of the last two weeks of July!!