No Dinner Tonight

The Skagit river is home to 5 different species of salmon. They are all delicious and good for you. They are returning to the river after a lifetime in the Pacific.

So our boys set off to try catch one of them.

Finding the right bait is a big part of the end result

It takes patience and perseverance

But at the end, the wait was too long and the bites too few

And so, we had cold cereal for dinner!!

The Real Reason

Christian returned to Firwood this past weekend with his middle school church group. He had spent a week there in the summer and had a fabulous time doing all those wonderful things you get to do when you are a kid in summer camp, like playing, staying up late and brushing your teeth just once the whole week. "Bath?? I swam in the lake every day!" Anyways, this time it was no different, except for maybe even a little less sleep in order to play pranks on each other. Again, he had a wonderful time. The weekend ended with a picnic with the parents followed by a baptism of 5 students. In the midst of telling us all about the fun he had, he told us that this weekend had brought him closer to God. Which is what really counts, isn't?

Backpacking with Horsepower

Every time we hike in the mountains I think how cool it would be to backpack, and not have to turn around just as you get to this amazing spot. Then the thought of carrying all the stuff we would need for our family would keep me from acting on it. So we found a compromise. There is this beautiful spot high in the mountains you can drive to (if you have the nerves and a 4X4) and camp. So we loaded our car, as lightly as we could, and headed up (with Shawn behind the wheel). When we got there that evening, the fog was very thick and we could barely see a few feet ahead of us. What a surprise to wake up the next morning amongst some beautiful peaks and lakes! Maybe we will take up backpacking someday, but we all agreed that for now, this would be an annual camp trip.

Goat Mountain peeking out

Falling Behind

The strawberries were late this year due to the wet Spring we had, the apple harvest is about 2-3 weeks behind due to a cool end of August and warm days in September. So it's no surprise that I'm way behind on by blog either. The weather has a part here too, since we had to enjoy our beautiful warm days outside. When the rainy days came, my hours were consumed by getting Christian into Middle school, reading and signing bizillion papers that came home; planning and writing Nolan's and Ethan's learning plans, and executing them as well; getting trained for my new Cub Scout Den leader position and the list can go on forever . . . I think my head is above water now, so I should be able to stay a bit more current. Maybe??