Fishing Alaska

 Troy's parents go to Alaska to fish every September.  We are the lucky recipients of a box of salmon every fall, very delicious for us.  This year Troy decided to take the boys and go up and fish Alaska with his parents.  They just returned this evening with a couple hundred pounds of fish!  They had a wonderful time and here are some of their fishy pictures.  Troy will have to write stories if there are stories to tell...

This is the ferry ride from Ketchican airport to the larger island.  This was to have been the site of the famed "bridge to nowhere" as Ketchican is quite small and while it would have been quite useful to the few hundred residents there, probably not enough to justify the billion dollars.

I don't know.  Don't remember this picture.

Downtown Ketchican

Ethan on the footpath over some water.  Several streets of Ketchican are built over water, as the changes in tide are dramatic and the mountains come right down to the ocean, so there is not a lot of flat ground left over to build on.

Victor and Ethan spent a lot of time running around the docks finding starfish and trying to catch cod (which they did once on their own!).  The dock guys would yell at them to put on life jackets.  Why didn't I think of that?

Ethan trolling and waiting for a big one to hit!

Grandma trolling and waiting for a big one to hit!

The first day, Grant, Victor and Kim manned one of the boats and did well.

One of the few pictures including Grant, because after the first morning, Grant was in the boat with Grandma and Grandpa while I was in with Kim, Victor and Ethan.

This was our haul from just the morning of day 2.  We had quite the efficient salmon-fishing team going and it shows from the tons of fish we brought in (more than most all the other boats going out).  It helped that we had four rods in the water (most other boats had 2 or 3 people). 

This was the "triple" we scored.  Three fish on at the same time!  We must have gotten into a school of them.  It was a crazy 5 minutes trying to net them and keep them from tangling into each other as they rocketed back and forth and under the boats.

Ethan on the front of the boat.  I made them wear life jackets if they went up there, so Victor rarely did.

Trolling with the downriggers.  Those pretty islands in view were all over the place.

Not sure what to say about this picture.  Kim was taking care of some business in the back of the boat and Ethan and Victor shielded their eyes so as to not see something that would scar them for life!

This is the picture of the bear cub we saw.  Except that I was too slow and by the time the camera shot went, he had disappeared.

Ethan driving the boat.  He loved it.

Biggest fish of day 3.  Yes, that is blood, but fish blood.  We had to wack them to keep them from flopping into everything on the boat, and sometimes the blood would fly!

Last day we went to see some sites.  This and the next several pictures are of the local indian totem poles.  Grant took pictures of each one for the report he has to do for school.

The whole Keller crew, including Kim, Grandma and Grandpa, Klint and Betsy and me and the boys.

Ketchican walkway again.  I didn't realize I'd taken a very similar picture of Ethan the first day.

I tried to take a lot of pictures of the fish jumping up the crazy waterfalls so they could go spawn.  This is the only shot where a fish turned out visible in the foto.  See the tail as it is plunging back down.

catching up on homework so they can return to school bright and early in the morning!

Happy Birthday to Me

 Friday night Troy had invited a few friends over to my parents to give me a sort of surprise dinner.  It was a lovely evening and Troy was just amazing in the set up and cooking of a variety of sliders!  It was so sweet and I was so impressed that he did this for me, mostly that he took the time to plan it and execute it so well.  And of course it was wonderful to sit and visit with friends.  You are awesome babe and did a great job.  Thanks for a great night!

 Funny story: My mom had asked a neighbor to make a cake for the evening, some chocolate strawberry cake that is to die for and she forgot.  So they ran to the store for this lovely white cake.  Sunday she brought the forgotten cake over to my moms so we had it on my birthday and YES, mmmm it was so delicious!  So glad she still made it!

Morgan made me this apron for my birthday, isn't it so darling?!?! She is doing so well on the sewing machine and it's so great to see her get so excited to make things for people. 

 The to die for cake :)

Of course a little drama over the birthday weekend...  Ana sprayed water at Tanya while they were washing my Suburban and so Tanya hit her in the face and gave her a little shiner, it was about gone this morning, we put a little make up over it before church and you can hardly see it (under right eye in the picture, Ana's left eye). 

Troy left this morning with the boys to go fishing in Alaska with his mom and dad this week (yes, crazy, they are missing the second week of school - I'm hoping we all survive).  So I've been a bit stressed this week with back to school, mixed up classes and teachers, over scheduled appointments to pick things for the house - just too excited to have the kids back in school, scheduling lots of Dr. appointments and getting Troy and the boys off.  I did have a little melt down this morning and yelled at everyone left home, while they were trying to make me my birthday breakfast!  Really bad move on my part but it was related to some past birthday trauma after the kids were adopted, still bad move.  So before 7:30am 3 of us were in tears and thank Heaven for Ana, she just gave me hugs and asked me if I could do her hair.  It just snapped me out of it and got us back on track.  So after multiple "I'm sorry" and explanations I think all is well, at least everyone went to bed happy and peace has been restored to the house :)  Phew, one more year behind me!

first day of school - Monday Aug 22

 Troy made sliders for dinner Sunday night.  We had a turkey burger slider with humus in a pita and a beef onion slider on little buns.  Super yummy and super fun, especailly for me!  Didn't have to cook anything, just had to help them find things every five minutes - still much better than cooking it all!

 So funny to not see kids in uniforms!  Victor and Morgan are heading off to 7th grade at South Davis, Ana and Ethan look so cute in their uniforms as they are staying at the charter school (they actually started last week).  Tanya is staying at the Jr. high with the charter school, she left too early and didn't get a picture... I'll have to get that Monday.  Grant is going to High School this year, can you believe how grown up my cute little baby boy is?  He is thrilled he doesn't have to wear a uniform and was unusually willing to have his picture take this year.  Tall, hairy, no braces and no uniform, he feels like he is ruling the world!

 Morgan checked out her English book so that she could bring it home and read the stories in it!  Must have loved her first day of school.  Note: Monday and Tuesday were good days, Wednesday, yesterday a little rough.  Morgan saw a neighbor being teased on the bus, so she went to sit by her (Morgan seems to be the underdog protector) and so the boy started calling Morgan names. She stayed tough till she got home and then she fell apart.  Poor thing.  She knew the boy, loves his family, and didn't think he would be mean to her and so it sort of caught her off guard.  Victor's test scores finally were pulled from the charter school and they put him back a reading and English class so he was mad and upset, thinking I did it to him.  So he came home and fell apart and cried.  Tanya walked in while Victor was trying to explain to me the situation and she thought I had made him cry so she hid in her closet from me for a good hour.  I had to run an errand and when I got home Ana was screaming (this crazy three year old scream that drives me crazy) at Morgan and Tanya, Grant was trying to sort out who touched who's stuff in who's room.  I asked what happened and Tanya jumped back into the closet so I sent Ana upstairs and made Morgan pick up the basement.  Oh thank goodness for those hours that they are at school!  Otherwise I might have been yelling yesterday!