Day Trip to Bonneville Dam

On June 12, 2010 mom and dad came up from Salem and we took the kids to Bonneville Dam. It was free fishing day for kids under the age of 12 and the event was held by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is dad's stomping grounds. He knew MANY of the people volunteering to help at the event.

This was the site from up at the visitor center. The kids wanted to know why it was steaming and why you couldn't swim in the water. So through the adults explaining in kid language, we think they got it....kind of. LOL The gist is, no you cannot swim in it and there is steam from the waves crashing together and the water moving so fast.

When you walked around you could see the channels in which the fish had to go through to get through to the river. This is them swimming up stream.

This was one of the 300 lb. + sturgeons that were in a pond at the dam. It was gigantic, and very cool.

This was from up above at an overlook bridge above the pond.

This was one of the many trout ponds. They were beautiful and Kai definitely has Rainbow Trout figured out. He loves the rainbow on their sides.

There was also a stuffed deer that the kids could learn about and pet. Kolbie was absolutely infatuated with the deer. She could have cared less about fishing or anything else at that point.

I think if she could she would have brought the deer home. She LOVED IT!

The kids then moved on to learning about water safety. Not only do you wear life jackets when swimming, but also fishing and on boats. :) They got to put on the life jackets and go to the next station. In order to fish, the kids had to go from station 1-6 in order to fish at station 7.

So we didn't get any pictures of Kolbie fishing, for two reasons. One is that the kids had to fish separately because of their ages and skill level. Two is that when Kolbie went to fish in her pond, the little boy next to us fishing caught his fish and it came out flopping - as they all do - and Kolbie FREAKED! She dropped the pole and ran and wouldn't come back to fishing. She was DONE. So we went to watch Kai.

And after much waiting for his turn to come. HE casted off his first time and caught his first fish in about 5 minutes. This is him holding his first fish! So happy and excited, he wanted to catch another fish and the limit for each child was 2.

Thankfully, volunteer dude, turned away from Kai to knock out the fish and take out the hook. Notice the smile still on Kai's face. :)

So again he casted out, but through a little bit of struggle the volunteer casted the second time for him and he caught fish 2 in about 3-5 minutes.

Here is fish 2!

And this was the look on the trip home. Kolbie was exhausted, but could not under any circumstance let go of the Cheetoh in her hand.

Kai made it home awake and very excited to tell his friends both in the neighborhood and church that he caught his first 2 fish in a real pond/river.

The very next day, Kai finished his custom built fishing pole that he made, in a fishing club at the church. Bobby, the teacher, was so happy to hear that Kai had caught two fish and is now taking Kai fishing on Saturday the 26th!

Abbie's Owie

On June 2, 2010 I was getting ready for our Moms and Tots playdate that Kolbie and I go to with ladies from our church and walked out of the bathroom to find blood all over my kitchen, hallway, and living room. In a panic I yelled for Kolbie, and when Sahaan and her both responded, we knew some thing else was up. After pinning the dogs into the kitchen and lifting paws, we found Abbie's back right pad of her foot was split open and the tissue and blood were open to the air (and my floors). So after a long morning at the vet, we determined that for the time and cost involved that surgery was the best solution.

This was Abbie after surgery that afternoon. She had to be lifted into the truck and then also lifted into the house. She was very groggy. She did not walk until the first time at like 7:30pm that night.

The sewed up the pad on her foot and she went back on the Friday (4th) to be rechecked. They said she looked great, unbandaged it and sent us home. Little to our dismay, she woke up Saturday morning, with NO stiches in her foot. She had chewed, licked or some thing them out.

So then came the sock approach for the weekend. She had a sock on with Kai's WALK/RIDE shoe laces woven through it. She didn't mind the sock at all and walked around normal until we could get her in Monday (7th).

Though they told us to do the sock plan and they had rebandaged it Saturday morning, on Monday it had not allowed any air to it, and so they had to strip all the coverings off it it and allow it to air out. They recommended we not do surgery again, and to just allow it to dry out, put her on antibiotics and let it heal from the inside out. So that is what we are now doing.


However, to keep her from licking her paw and to allow it to heal, she gets to wear this lovely cone around her neck. She doesn't try to get it off, however she runs into anything and everything with it and it hurts like the dickens. This is a much "prettier" picture of it, now it is cracked and missing a chunk out of it, due to her strength and not caring when it's stuck on some thing. She just keeps going like a bulldozer and gets through, no matter what happens to the cone.

She will be wearing this for 4-8 more days, and then we will be taking it off and doing the booty idea for night time. We are hoping after 4-8 more days it will be mended together well enough, that she will just leave it alone. The Vet has said it looks great and is healing well with no infection. I just think it looks grose and am glad Abbie loves taking her medication. Dakota doesn't quite know what to think of it all, but is patiently waiting for Abbie to be 100% so she can get back to being chased around the yard.

Gardening 101

I thought for this summer and for a good home project and for hopefully for a long time, we would start our first garden. I grew up having gardens, but mainly weeding them or harvesting them. So that being said, I have never started one and I took alot of advice from family and friends and began one.

We first had to prep the dirt and make sure it was level.....Kolbie was so excited she started planting right away. Well she was really planting a weed, which is not exactly what we wanted, but her little "plummer butt" was too cute to make her stop. She was so devoted the the task....all the other neighborhood kids were playing hard in the backyard, and she kept to planting.

We got some zinneas and pansies for in the front. They looked gorgeous, but the zinneas had a hard time surviving because of the cold weather that came in for the following few weeks.

I really didn't care what the kids did as long as no one got hurt. So after 10 neighbor kids asked to come into the yard, we had quite the playtime in the back while I was laying the weed block in the dirt.

After about an hour and a half the weed block was down and then came to moving in the raised beds that Sahaan had built for me the night before.

Through means of my own LOL, I was able to maneuver the beds in and lay the stepping stones that we had extra of laying around the yard. Then came the mulch and mini fence to keep the dogs out. The mini fence was this genius idea to keep out the dogs. I set the whole thing up and while admiring the job well done, Dakota walked right through the wires and to the otherside of the garden. So yes, we still have to keep an eye out for her because she is still so little. Abbie on the other hand couldn't fit through if she wanted.

We planted the strawberries first and got them into the planter boxes and a cynder block. I thought it would work well and be a good support structure and so far it has worked.

We then had to start our seedlings. Kai had been learning about the growth process and seedlings in school, so this was a cool project for him. We started purple bean plants, radishes, onions, green onions, garlic chives, cilantro, cabbage and spinach.

Our first sprouts were the radishes. They came up good and were able to go into the garden like 1 1/2 later.

To match the otherside of the patio, we decided to weed block and mulch the side with the dog house. Now it is clean and organized with the stepping stones in place and the mulch down.

I guess this was the first of the planting. We started planter boxes with flowers, but quickly had to fence them in, as Abbie would just eat all the blooms of each plant. Now they are beautiful and unharmed.

We also started 2 cucumber plants, bell pepper plants, 3 tomato plants, blueberry plant, carrots and a sunflower. They are all growing wonderfully and I can't wait for the warmer weather to see the veggies grow to full potential. Eating veggies and fruit from the garden will be so rewarding I think for all the hard work put in to setting it up.

This is the garden June 7th, 2010. Can't wait to see the outcome.

Whitaker Pond Field Trip

Wow it's been a while since posting, but we have been pretty busy here, as I am sure most of you have been. :)

Mid-May I went on Kai's class field trip to Whitaker Pond. It was really cool for the kids.....especially the dead racoon they all saw on the way. LOL

So I thought it was pretty amazing that this pond and all this land is right in the middle of the industrial area and like 15 min from our house. It was very beautiful land and it really does teach and let the kids see animals and plants in their habitat. WHICH was the subject for the day.

The pond is behind them and we walked around the whole thing.


When we got to go to the pond, they gave the kids nets and they were able to pull things from the pond so they could observe them. We caught 2 fish while at it.

We were given scientific tools to observe our findings. Some were not so "scientific" - the bug sucker (aka: turkey baester). The "scooper" -(aka: laydel). Ok so with out spell check, my spelling has gone south as I have aged LOL Sorry. It was funny though when we went grocery shopping a few days later and Kai saw the "scientific tools" in the baking isle. Kai to me : "mom why do they have the bug sucker and scooper here? Do people cook bugs too?" And so the explaining began. As you can see, he is not the one who stands right by me while I cook. He would rather play until the last moment before dinner.

The great part of this trip was how excited the kids got and that Kai can name most of the pond bugs. He did really well.

I have more pictures, but I didn't think you wanted to see fox poop, owl pellets (barf), and other discoveries made along the way that Kai had to have pictures of. So I leave you with this one. A little more peaceful, pretty and not so scientific. LOL