Day of fishing on the Columbia River

Each year we drive about 1 1/2 hours to the river to fish near the "pens". A company from Eugene, OR owns HUGE fish pens in which they raise tripiloids to sell to restaurants or whomever will buy them. The pens are just big nets in the water so when they get holes in them some fishies can swim out. The workers feed the fish each day so the fish that escape stay around the pens to get "free" food. We are able to fish right next to them and boy, have we seen some BIG fish!

Ken, Josh, Clint and Aaron were in our boat.

Tammy reading in Big Blue (Pops' boat - Tammy's dad)


The many poses of Jacob while fishing!The messy work of fishing!

Marcus is exhausted after a hard day of fishing.

He is sitting with Grani while Pops is driving us back to the boat launch.The cattle are open range around this area and have a trail down to the river to get water.

It's the first time I've seen cows lounging on the beach!

The boys examining their catches. The dads got skunked but between the boys we got 8 fish!

Josh caught the biggest one we have ever caught. It was 8 1/2 pounds. He had a great time bringing it in and had to work his muscles overtime! Even with his bum finger he was able to land the fish!

On Monday, July 6, we decided to go to Pizza Hut for the Lunch Buffet! Little did we know that was good planning because there was a HUGE storm that blew in for the 2 hours we were gone. The rain drops were the size of gumballs (according to Jacob). It rained and blew and then it was over and the sun came back out!

Fishin' Stories

The fishing was good! Ken cleaned the boys fish (he didn't want to end up in ER with a severed finger incident - Darren didn't have enough tape for that!). The boys really enjoy fishing for bass since they are always casting and reeling in. They get a bit bored still fishing for trout. Our friend Angie cleaned her own fish! What a gal! She even built the best campfires!!!

INJURY

On July 4th, after dark of course, the dads took the kids up to the earth dam and shot off fireworks. It is fun for all! And the best part is going on July 5th to look for fireworks that got missed in the dark. The boys usually come away with some fun treasures. This year, Josh came away with an injured pinkie finger. We thought it might be broken but once again, Darren came to the rescue and tapped it up. I was ready to run to the clinic but the men all conferred that for fingers the Dr.s do the same thing if it is broken or sprained.....tape and a popsicle stick.
Good thing Darren came prepared to rescue us more than once this week!

July 4 Parade

It's the big day- the Conconully July 4th Parade. The boys have been waiting all year for this.....and Jacob had some problems. First, they each decorated their bikes so they could ride behind the Liar's Cove Resort's float (that is the resort that we stay at - just remember it is a fishing "resort" no spas around here!). Well, here is Jacob's bike all fixed up and ready to go.
As he was taking a ride through the campground to test out the decorations, he blew a tire. Not just got a flat but it popped! What a BUMMER. But our friend Darren came to the rescue and said that Jacob could ride on the back of his bike.....so we transferred all the decorations to Darren's bike. They did a test drive and Jacob thought that it would work.

As soon as that was finished, Jacob got a bloody nose that lasted for a while. He was just about ready to throw the towel in. He said, "Maybe I'll just skip the parade." Poor guy! I told him that we could find the float and see if he could ride on it instead of the bike. That made him feel a bit better.

Off to town we went, the kiddos on the bikes and the parents walking (just a few blocks through a trail)....did I mention that it was a hot day? I heard one person say it was around 103*. All I know is that it was hot and I was sweating. Jacob and I walked around the 3 blocks a couple of times trying to find the float....it was at the front of the line and we were looking at the back! Anyway, we found it and Jacob was able to ride on the float. He was sure happy that it all worked out!

I'm not sure if you noticed that Jacob (in the red shirt) is in 2 different spots in the pictures. The parade is so fun (and a bit short) that they go around the parade route (2 blocks) 2 times. So, he must have gotten bored and moved himself once they were in line again.

First Day of Camping

We arrived at our campsite in Conconully on Friday evening. While we set up camp the boys started fishing.

Josh caught fish - which of course is the purpose of this trip!

Jacob caught three different kinds of animals in about one hour between dusk and dark......this was after he caught a few fish.

First, the turtle.......

Then the HUGE frog (which he promptly put right in my face so I could see it better!).......

And FINALLY the bat....yes, I said BAT! He was fishing for bass but the bat must have done something wrong with his echolocation sensors and ended up wound up in the fishing line.Yes, my son gets the award for the most "unusual" catch of the trip! And it was just the first day! Ken was able to get the bat unwound from the line but the little bat was not happy. He kept opening his mouth like he wanted to bite all of us. When it finally did get free, guess where it landed? ON ME!!! I did run around yelping but thankfully it didn't bite me. I didn't really want to spend our first night camping back in town at the hospital getting rabies shots. So, he flopped off of me and sat stunned on the gravel for a few minutes. Then Ken took a branch to touch it to see if it was alive and he flew off. WHEW! What a start to our trip!

Jacob's Smilebox for our 2008 Conconully Trip

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Josh's Smilebox for Pasco fishing trip

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Another NATURAL Happy Face

Nancy, this one is for you!!!

Jacob got a scrape on his arm and if you use your imagination......you can kinda see a face - the 2 eyes, nose, and the straight mouth - not really smiling 'cuz it hurt a bit!

Memorial Day

We went to visit my brother and sister-in-law for Memorial Day weekend this year. What a great time we had. The boys went fishing on Sunday and the girls went to lunch and did some shopping! That is my kind of relaxing!

My brother was in the military so he took us to their local cemetery to see the Memorial Day celebration. There were flags everywhere! Each flag stands for a soldier who has passed away and has a small name plate on it. Talk about a powerful visual! I have been very interested in supporting the soldiers - especially since a boy that I watched grow up in our church went to Iraq a few years ago to drive tanks. I was blubbering on the back row of the church when the pastor prayed for him before he left for his mission. I was holding Josh who was quite small at the time and just kept thinking - "I couldn't do that - let my baby go off to fight in a war!" His mom was very well put together and she told me "If God is calling him over there, then who am I to say no?" WOW! What maturity she has shown me over the last few years.

So, needless to say, I saw all these flags and just couldn't help but think about the family members who were remembering those who fought for my freedom. I did get a bit teary eyed while walking through the cemetery. Boy, this sure does make it very clear that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!

Thank you to all who are willing to sacrifice time and life for our freedom! Our prayers are with you!

Here are the boys with their cousin Seth. He is 4 and did not want his "new friends" to leave.

Here is a pathway with the flags displayed along the sides.

In the center of the cemetery there was a pond with a couple of swans and some REALLY BIG fish - the boys wanted to get their fishing poles but we calmed them down and explained that you can't fish in a cemetery! They were not happy since they could see the HUGE bass just being lazy in the shallow pond but they did cooperate.

Here is a picture of the area for the service that they had set up on the other side of the pond (with the HUGE fish -did I mention that already?)

More flags on display.

More flags.....

My brother decided that he wanted flag with his name on it. Then I reminded him that he had to die before he could get one! I told him not to rush it.....we might just have to get him one for Christmas as a joke!