Fishing with dad and grandpa, Day 1

Dad and grandpa came on Saturday. That night they decided to make preparations for fishing. I told them that there were kings in at fish creek and so we decided to spend the first day working to get the kings. We went down to fish creek in the morning. Braving the no-see-ums we threw out cast after cast. I went to the mouth of fish creek and was not having any luck so I came back to the pond and found that dad had traveled to the other side from Grandpa and they both had not yet snagged the goal. After fishing for a few minutes with Grandpa I saw that dad had snagged his first fish. We watched him bring it to the shore from afar and I knew if I did not catch a fish now I would not hear the end of it. After a few minutes Grandpa spotted a school of fish not too far from where we were and I cast into them and hooked a fish. Dad had the gaff so I was forced to drag the fish ashore and keep it at bay until I could get it on a stringer. Then dad was lucky to get another fish on and the bugs got the best of me. It was a fun day of fishing.

Dad admiring my fish.

Working the fish over. With the three men going to work on the catch.

I have Irises!

...and some other random flowers! =)

More pictures from yesterday

After taking the four generation pictures, I decided to take some individual pictures of the kids and some candid shots as well.

The kids loving on great grandpa Jensen



Candid photos

Darwin and Melissa

Brooklin

Caleb

London

Isaiah
(desperately in need of a haircut!)

4 generations of Darwin

Darwin's dad and grandpa are here visiting us/fishing for a week or two. They just got in last night. Since today is Sunday and we don't fish on Sunday...we went out to the glacier after church. The last time Darwin's grandpa was here was seven years ago, and this is his dad's first trip here since we moved back. In 2002 when they both were here last time, I took this four generation picture...Caleb was only four years old. I think it is amazing that all four of my children have at least one, four generation photo of them with a parent, grandparent, and great grandparent. I think all of my great grandparents were dead by the time I was around 10...and my children still have six living great grandparents!

The special thing about this particular four generation picture, is that everyone in the picture is named Darwin. Darwin Ernest (grandpa), Darwin Melvin (Dad), Darwin Alan (my husband), and Darwin Caleb (our son). While we were at the glacier this evening, I was able to capture these other three shots of our four Darwins. It is amazing to see how everything has changed...including the glacier! Look how much more of the mountain you can see in the second picture than the first one!

The other two shots were just really funny. It took me at least three tries to get a picture of all of them with their hands on their chins, and the last picture is actually the first one I took. They are all doing something different! I am so grateful for family.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our great dad!!

The kids and I (minus Brooklin who was out babysitting) went downtown this past week and went shopping. I asked the kids what they thought their dad would like for Father's Day, and they all yelled, "Fudge from the Alaska Fudge Co.!"...so that is where we went! We gave him three half pound bricks of fudge, two t-shirts, two fillet knives, a tie, a belt, and Brooklin made him a paper mache gecko. One of the t-shirts says "Sometimes Life Bites" and has a bear attacking a stickman. The other shirt says, "The Pour Seasons of SE Alaska" and has four rainy pictures labeled spring, summer, fall, and winter.

We want him to know that we love him and we think he is a great dad. Thank you for everything you do for us!

Love,
Your Family =)

One down, ninteen to go!

Isaiah lost his very first tooth today! He had been complaining about it for weeks, and wasn't eating very good because it was hurting him. We were eating lunch (little microwave pizzas which he loves), but he was just sort of pushing his around and picking at it. Darwin asked me to pull his tooth out so he could eat. He whimpered just a little as I tugged it out...but as soon as it was free, he grabbed it and started to inspect it. He left his tooth in our tooth fairy pillow with a post-it note that said "Isaiah's tooth" on it, so the tooth fairy would know it was his. He also wanted to clean the tooth for the tooth fairy, so she would leave him more money...so funny! The tooth fairy left him a dollar bill and a pile of change that ended up being 101 cents, so he got a total of $2.01 for his tooth. His plan is to use that money and the $2.00 he got for his birthday to buy an otter pop, a soda, and a candy bar!

Playing at the glacier

Today the kids and I went out to the glacier for a few hours. It was a chance for us to get out of the house and for the kids to just play outside. We walked around the little raised loop trail first, then went to check out the sledding hill. The kids were sad that we couldn't get over to it anymore...the sledding hill is actually an island, but in the winter the stream is a lot smaller and there are planks to get across to the hill. They played in the water for awhile, and then we went to the base of the visitors center and they climbed on the rocks for at least an hour. I sat on a bench and watched the tourists. It was fun. I will post the pictures of my tourist watching below this post.

Brooklin took this picture of the glacier while standing up on the rocks.



Caleb and London climbing the rocks.

Caleb and London climbing the rocks

This is a picture of the sledding hill...without any snow. The kids are sad we couldn't go play on it. Maybe on a warmer day, we can wade across the stream and play. Isaiah is holding a piece of glacier ice he found in the stream.

Kids wading

Isaiah wading...
I can't believe that just a few months ago, we all hiked across this and touched the face of the glacier!

Brooklin posing in front of a locked door. =)

While the kids were playing up on the rocks, Brooklin found this bird skeleton, so she came down and grabbed my camera to take a picture of it.

Wading in the water.

Little rock climbers

Tourists will take pictures of ANYTHING!

This series of pictures were taken in a 27 minute time frame. I could have easily taken 3 or 4 other shots, but the crowds around the subject matter wouldn't have made for a very good picture. I laughed more (to myself) in the hour I sat there tourist watching, than I have in awhile.

See her camera?
She is taking a picture of something on the ground...



This woman sees something too...and she takes a picture.

I wonder what is so fascinating, there on the ground?

Honey...check this out!

Seriously!?
Think of the scrapbook pages these people will have of their trip to Juneau, AK!
Stunning whales...massive glaciers...beautiful scenery....
and bear poo!!!

(btw...I made Brooklin take this picture, because I didn't want to be the one taking a picture of bear poo!)



Video of the event too...since I had my video camera with me.