Fish Lake

September 26th-28th Rick and I went to Fish Lake with some friends and had a blast. No kids were there and it was nice. The guys all went scuba diving and spear fishing. Rick will have to tell you about the one that got away, the fish keeps getting bigger and bigger everytime I hear it. The girls did crafts, and relaxed, it was a nice get away. We have the best friends. We went with Dennis & Heather, Ryan & Chelsi, and Matt & Ramie.

Colton's Football

School has started and I have started my job as the kids P.E. teacher, and I absolutly love it. It's hard being gone all the time, my house is usually a wreak, but it's fun. Colton has started football, well it's actually over now, beacuse I'm so behind on blogging. Anyway he got on a team that wasn't the greatest, they only scored maybe 4 touchdowns the whole season. But Colton ran back a kick off return of about 70 yards to score a touchdown, he is really good, he is a fast runner and usually gets a lot of yardage. He played wide reciever and at this age they don't throw the ball a whole lot. My girls are happy to hear that they don't have to sit through anymore football games this year. As you can tell by the pictures, they usually just goof off anyways.

Seattle

It's been awhile and I am totally busy. So heres my blog for the month. I went to Seattle with Rick September 11th-14th. He had a business trip and I just tagged along. It was really fun. I went and toured all the sites by myself. I wished Rick was with me, but I still had fun by myself. I walked to Pikes Market, took the monarail to the Space Needle, and went on the Duck Boat Ride Tour which was amazing. I love Seattle and want to go back. I want to do the underground tour and go to all the museums. Now that I know what Rick does, I would love to tag along with him on more business trips, but a little thing called a job is now going to get in the way. (BUMMER!!!)

Sand Dunes

August 31st-September 1st.
Yes, again. My family loves the Sand Dunds we have to go all the time. As soon as Rick got back from Canada, we jumped in the truck and went to the sand dunes with Josh & Kari and their family. It was windy the first day but the next day was pertect. Josh has now bought a Rhino and Rick has fallen in love with it. I'm still not sure that I love the dunes. I love going, my kids love it, but the whole riding thing still freaks me out. I know I'm a wuss.

Rick's Vancouver Trip

August 28th-30th
This is Rick'sfishing trip in his words.

We’ll, I thought I would give you a quick report on the fishing in Vancouver.

Right off, our guide let us know that the fishing was a bit slow and that the salmon run had not really hit yet. About an hour and a half pass with no bites. So we talked and took in the great scenery and listened to the guide tell us a few of his stories. After that hour and a half of no action I finally get a big hit on my pole. So I quickly grabbed it and started reeling in! Our guide informed us to expect 13 to 15 pound salmon so when a 25 lb, 35+ inch monster hits my bait the fight was on!

After about 12 minutes and 4 runs later, I finally tired him a bit and started bringing him in. Well, no sooner was I starting to celebrate with the catch only 15 feet off the boat when a huge seal comes up from nowhere and grabs my catch! The seal immediately dives and my drag starts screaming. We all looked at each other and the guide says “Well, he’ll have to come up for air sometime” so we took off keeping the boat right on top of my line. Four or five minutes passed and finally the line starts loosening up so I quickly began reeling in the slack. The seal surfaced about 20 feet off the side of the boat so we immediately begin yelling and slapping the water trying to scare it off. Catching his breath the seal dove and again the drag on the reel starts screaming. He would dive down to about 70 feet and we continued to try to keep the boat above him.

With most of the harbor seals in the area weighing about 50 – 75 lbs, the guide proceeded to inform us that this seal was huge at around 175 lbs. So with about 200 lbs of weight on the end of my pole it was like trying to raise a soaked mattress off the bottom of the ocean!

So again, the seal surfaces about twenty feet off the side of the boat. The guide runs past me and returns with a sling shot and starts shooting wildly at the seal trying to get him to release the fish. Passing the sling shot around everyone on board begins taking turns shooting at the seal actually hitting him a number of times, but still no fish.

Well, after about an hour and five minutes both the seal and I were starting to get winded. The seal came up one more time, took a few good breaths and dove. Right away I could feel him violently shaking the fish around and then the weight of the fish was gone. I quickly reeled in the line and all I had to show for it was a huge jaw bone that remained on the hook and a good story to bring home.

While all of this was happening we got a few good pictures of the action. I hope you enjoy them! (Frickin seals!)

Pictures of it are just before this. If you blow it up you can see the seal. Pretty cool.