So on the Wednesday morning I got up at 9am, I wasn't too sure of what to do, in fact the only thing really on my list of things I wanted to get done, was just to make sure the house was cleaned up. I knew Jake was going to be leaving right after work, I was hoping that me and the kids would be able to have some kind of late night fun. Movies all night or something. In fact on my facebook wall I put a comment of being stuck in the middle of the week and lost because I couldn't find friday. I probably shouldn't have put that there, because Friday certainly found me.
Jake called me at like 9:30 in the morning and basically told me that Ryan's family was going and had planned on our family going, so either we were going with him to camp, or I would be stranded without a car while he drove, because they wouldn't have enough room in their car for him. My gut told me that I should have stayed home, especially after 3 days of rain and checking the weather, but I didn't want to be stranded, I ran around with my head cut off all afternoon, searching for all of our camping equipment. I decided to call our bishop which owned a sporting good store and has told us that if we need to use anything at all, to let him know. So of course we're short on sleeping bags, and fishing poles, and coolers. I gave him a ring and he certainly hooked us up. Making a list of things we needed. Jake got off work a few hours early to help me pack the van and make a run to the bishops house before we needed to head out. We needed to be on the road by 3. It was about a 4 hour trip to Kenai River where we where going to be staying. Jake and Ryan and Ryan's brother-in-law Tim would be needing to be in Homer to get on the charter the next morning by 6am. After our stop off at Wal-mart for bear spray, food, and rain gear, we headed out on our journey. It was a gorgeous drive, down through Anchorage passing the Anchorage temple. Along the cook inlet, passed the
Indian River where the fishing looked awesome and through a ton of different cities I'm not familiar with. There was this mountain that had a glacier on it. If you look in the snow you can see the blue ice at the top of the snow. Kind of cool I thought.
Then on our way we also saw my favorite weed of Alaska, the purple fire weed, it's everywhere, the cool thing, is you drive and see the valleys speckled with purple fireweed, it's said that the blooms start at the bottom and it tells Alaskan's how many weeks left of Summer, the closer to the top the short time we have. We're watching it and waiting.
Then we were off to Soldotna, and finally to Kenai, it sprinkled some of the way, not to bad though.
By the time we got there it was about 9:30pm, cold and windy. I strapped Theron to me with my moby wrap and put my coat on, he loved it while we hauled everything to the "stinky" beach where we'd be setting up our twinner tents. Aparently great minds think alike.
We own the same tent, of course, because I've loaned ours out to the YM in our ward back home there was some pegs missing, very irritating, I'm for surely not loaning out our camping gear every again, I've learned our lesson :) Jake and the guys ran to buy pegs for the tent, down in town, and then to grab some dinner because it was too late to be making tin foil dinners. By the time they got back, Andrea (Ryan's wife) and I had gotten all the sleeping bags set up in the tents and kids ready for bed, We ended up having Carl's Jr for dinner(great camping huh?). Jake fixed the tent and off to bed we went. It was after midnight by then. I didn't sleep at all. I laid there, not on a air mattress because the pump we brought required a cigerette lighter to operate, so that was out, being we couldn't drive to our camp site. So I couldn't sleep, and the sleeping bag we borrowed wouldn't stay zipped up. In Orem I was used to hearing trains, and cars, and the occational fire engine while I slept. When we moved up here I had to get used to all the lighting at night, and the piece and quiet. That is an adjustment I'm still trying to get used to. On this beach I could hear the waves crashing on the shore because of the crazy wind, at about 2 or 3 am the Seagal's were going crazy fighting over dead salmon carcusses all over the beach. I couldn't sleep AT ALL!! I looked at Jake at one point and he was awake to. He looked at me and said "mine.....mine.....mine" I couldn't help but laugh. If you don't get it, go watch Finding Nemo. It was so anoying to say the least. Jake, Ryan and Tim got up and left at around 5am or so. Andrea and I then were playing single mom on a camping excursion, she does this often I take it, but I don't, usually when we go camping it's with Jake and we have never had 5 kids when we go camping. I think the last time we went camping was when EmberLee was a baby, and I wasn't ditched. I learned that Bridger wonders, even if he has no where to go, he still wonders, kind of scary when there's water involved, not just normal water, but glacier water with a crazy tide schedule. I couldn't let him out of my sight. Very aggrivating and frustrating to say the least. There was a point when Bridger seemed very occupied with playing in the sand with the other kids, and I was nursing Theron, when I looked over at the kids and did a head count, he wasn't there. My heart went into my stomach. He would disapear so fast without warning. Luckily Andrea had all 6 of her kids and assigned her oldest daughter to Bridger so that I could nurse Theron. Andrea, Tyler and Braden got their dip nets out and went fishing. The nets are HUGE, they get waiters and stuff on, wade in with these massive nets and hold on to the big handle while they wait for the fish to go into their nets, you can only fish like this in Alaska if your a resident, so next year we can do this. Once you feel the fish in your net you turn the net to trap the fish in and come out of the water and there you will have fish :) Andrea caught 1 red salmon, and Tyler caught 3 red slamon. If you all didn't know there was a difference, you do now. Reds and Silvers are the best I've heard, pinks are what we're used to down in the lower 48. While they were dip netting the kids were playing in the cold, wet, stinky sand. Austin wanted the kids to barry him.
Then they thought it would be funny to put in stick in the sand and Austin would play dead. Goofy kids.
After the fishing deminished we decided to pack up and find a river that the kids could use the poles and try to catch something. As we were packing up our campsite the kids were passing around Theron, Braden seemed to have a nack with Theron. He put him in this very odd position and he fell asleep I couldn't resist. I had to take some pictures.
Once we packed up, we headed back to Soldotna where we found Centenial Campground, where we were told the fishing was awesome.
Kurtis got a bite, he said that when he was fighting it, it had given him butterflies in his stomach, because he had to put the pole on his hip to reel it in. He said that before the line popped he was getting so excited to be able to fight something so big. It made me nervous to have him in such cold water, this is glacier water, it looks kind of dirty to me, but it's got a blue tint to it, It was very fast and deep. I was scared to have him catch a king and have it drag him in. At the bottom of this stair case Kurt is standing on, there's supposably a walkway along the bank, but the river is so high from the glacier run off. It doesn't make for very good fishing either. This is also the place we were at when Bridger ran from me. It scared the tar out of me. When I finally caught up with him, I put him in the van for a good 20 minutes.
He was scared to walk down the stairs, and he was definately afraid to walk on the Bridge to get to the lower level. He could see through the grates in the bridge and didn't like the un-easiness of the metal grates. I thought it was funny that he felt so unsafe.
After we got done trying to fish, with no luck we decided to get some dinner going. The dinner we were going to have the night before we put them on the fire and tried to have them ready for the guys when they got there. So around 7pm or so they finally got there, They all got there limit of 2 halibut each, Jake had caught 2 pink salmons, and Ryan had caught a silver. I forgot to mention while we were packing up our cars earlier in the day, the boys were playing on the beach and some guy had dropped one of his salmon's and had given it to Kurtis, because the guy didn't want to clean off the sand, he was in a hurry. So Kurtis and Austin got a Red salmon that way. Way cool of the guy. So after we ate, we got packed up and headed out. Got some gas and headed home in the pouring rain. Jake loved Halibut fishing, he said that at one point they had 4 halibut on constantly, their guide could barely keep up with them. We've agreed that next time it will be my turn to have fun, and next time he could babysit :) Next time there will definately be a leash for Bridger. I couldn't stay awake on the ride home to save my life. We got home around 12:30am and off to bed I went, Jake unpacked the food and the car. Friday morning I took Jake to work, and stopped off at wal-mart and picked up a food sealer so I could pack our Halibut. About 20lbs of Halibut is now in our freezer, well. Less than that now, for lunch I couldn't resist, I baked Halibut in the oven, in Butter and lemon pepper. Then for Dinner was beer battered halibut. I didn't have too much fun camping without Jake, but I am definately enjoying the Halibut that we have in our freezer now. So needless to say my Friday came early. Now I'm truly grateful for my Sleep Number Bed, more than anyone will ever know.
Indian River where the fishing looked awesome and through a ton of different cities I'm not familiar with. There was this mountain that had a glacier on it. If you look in the snow you can see the blue ice at the top of the snow. Kind of cool I thought.
Then on our way we also saw my favorite weed of Alaska, the purple fire weed, it's everywhere, the cool thing, is you drive and see the valleys speckled with purple fireweed, it's said that the blooms start at the bottom and it tells Alaskan's how many weeks left of Summer, the closer to the top the short time we have. We're watching it and waiting. 
Then we were off to Soldotna, and finally to Kenai, it sprinkled some of the way, not to bad though.
By the time we got there it was about 9:30pm, cold and windy. I strapped Theron to me with my moby wrap and put my coat on, he loved it while we hauled everything to the "stinky" beach where we'd be setting up our twinner tents. Aparently great minds think alike. 
We own the same tent, of course, because I've loaned ours out to the YM in our ward back home there was some pegs missing, very irritating, I'm for surely not loaning out our camping gear every again, I've learned our lesson :) Jake and the guys ran to buy pegs for the tent, down in town, and then to grab some dinner because it was too late to be making tin foil dinners. By the time they got back, Andrea (Ryan's wife) and I had gotten all the sleeping bags set up in the tents and kids ready for bed, We ended up having Carl's Jr for dinner(great camping huh?). Jake fixed the tent and off to bed we went. It was after midnight by then. I didn't sleep at all. I laid there, not on a air mattress because the pump we brought required a cigerette lighter to operate, so that was out, being we couldn't drive to our camp site. So I couldn't sleep, and the sleeping bag we borrowed wouldn't stay zipped up. In Orem I was used to hearing trains, and cars, and the occational fire engine while I slept. When we moved up here I had to get used to all the lighting at night, and the piece and quiet. That is an adjustment I'm still trying to get used to. On this beach I could hear the waves crashing on the shore because of the crazy wind, at about 2 or 3 am the Seagal's were going crazy fighting over dead salmon carcusses all over the beach. I couldn't sleep AT ALL!! I looked at Jake at one point and he was awake to. He looked at me and said "mine.....mine.....mine" I couldn't help but laugh. If you don't get it, go watch Finding Nemo. It was so anoying to say the least. Jake, Ryan and Tim got up and left at around 5am or so. Andrea and I then were playing single mom on a camping excursion, she does this often I take it, but I don't, usually when we go camping it's with Jake and we have never had 5 kids when we go camping. I think the last time we went camping was when EmberLee was a baby, and I wasn't ditched. I learned that Bridger wonders, even if he has no where to go, he still wonders, kind of scary when there's water involved, not just normal water, but glacier water with a crazy tide schedule. I couldn't let him out of my sight. Very aggrivating and frustrating to say the least. There was a point when Bridger seemed very occupied with playing in the sand with the other kids, and I was nursing Theron, when I looked over at the kids and did a head count, he wasn't there. My heart went into my stomach. He would disapear so fast without warning. Luckily Andrea had all 6 of her kids and assigned her oldest daughter to Bridger so that I could nurse Theron. Andrea, Tyler and Braden got their dip nets out and went fishing. The nets are HUGE, they get waiters and stuff on, wade in with these massive nets and hold on to the big handle while they wait for the fish to go into their nets, you can only fish like this in Alaska if your a resident, so next year we can do this. Once you feel the fish in your net you turn the net to trap the fish in and come out of the water and there you will have fish :) Andrea caught 1 red salmon, and Tyler caught 3 red slamon. If you all didn't know there was a difference, you do now. Reds and Silvers are the best I've heard, pinks are what we're used to down in the lower 48. While they were dip netting the kids were playing in the cold, wet, stinky sand. Austin wanted the kids to barry him. 
Then they thought it would be funny to put in stick in the sand and Austin would play dead. Goofy kids.
After the fishing deminished we decided to pack up and find a river that the kids could use the poles and try to catch something. As we were packing up our campsite the kids were passing around Theron, Braden seemed to have a nack with Theron. He put him in this very odd position and he fell asleep I couldn't resist. I had to take some pictures.
Once we packed up, we headed back to Soldotna where we found Centenial Campground, where we were told the fishing was awesome.
Kurtis got a bite, he said that when he was fighting it, it had given him butterflies in his stomach, because he had to put the pole on his hip to reel it in. He said that before the line popped he was getting so excited to be able to fight something so big. It made me nervous to have him in such cold water, this is glacier water, it looks kind of dirty to me, but it's got a blue tint to it, It was very fast and deep. I was scared to have him catch a king and have it drag him in. At the bottom of this stair case Kurt is standing on, there's supposably a walkway along the bank, but the river is so high from the glacier run off. It doesn't make for very good fishing either. This is also the place we were at when Bridger ran from me. It scared the tar out of me. When I finally caught up with him, I put him in the van for a good 20 minutes.
He was scared to walk down the stairs, and he was definately afraid to walk on the Bridge to get to the lower level. He could see through the grates in the bridge and didn't like the un-easiness of the metal grates. I thought it was funny that he felt so unsafe.
After we got done trying to fish, with no luck we decided to get some dinner going. The dinner we were going to have the night before we put them on the fire and tried to have them ready for the guys when they got there. So around 7pm or so they finally got there, They all got there limit of 2 halibut each, Jake had caught 2 pink salmons, and Ryan had caught a silver. I forgot to mention while we were packing up our cars earlier in the day, the boys were playing on the beach and some guy had dropped one of his salmon's and had given it to Kurtis, because the guy didn't want to clean off the sand, he was in a hurry. So Kurtis and Austin got a Red salmon that way. Way cool of the guy. So after we ate, we got packed up and headed out. Got some gas and headed home in the pouring rain. Jake loved Halibut fishing, he said that at one point they had 4 halibut on constantly, their guide could barely keep up with them. We've agreed that next time it will be my turn to have fun, and next time he could babysit :) Next time there will definately be a leash for Bridger. I couldn't stay awake on the ride home to save my life. We got home around 12:30am and off to bed I went, Jake unpacked the food and the car. Friday morning I took Jake to work, and stopped off at wal-mart and picked up a food sealer so I could pack our Halibut. About 20lbs of Halibut is now in our freezer, well. Less than that now, for lunch I couldn't resist, I baked Halibut in the oven, in Butter and lemon pepper. Then for Dinner was beer battered halibut. I didn't have too much fun camping without Jake, but I am definately enjoying the Halibut that we have in our freezer now. So needless to say my Friday came early. Now I'm truly grateful for my Sleep Number Bed, more than anyone will ever know.
1 comment:
Sounds like a busy, fun and cold weekend. Poor "B" :) Glad you're home safe and sound
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