It's All Good: July 2009

Matt took Brett and Ben to Alaska earlier this month. It was their first time joining the big boys. My Dad, and brother, Chris, were in for the week-long adventure as well. Brace yourself. There's a ton of pictures. :)

Killing time in the Seattle airport.

A "little" Kodiak grizzly in the airport. Nice. I'm sending my little boys off to a land where these things ROAM????!

Don't you love all the cammo luggage? The boys were in heaven already.

After Seattle, they flew to Anchorage, then to Dillingham where they caught this float plane to their river camp.

Doesn't this remind you of Indiana Jones??!!!

Not exactly my idea of a comfy plane ride . . .

View of the "camp" from their plane.

Unloading after a smooth landing in the river. How cool! I've never done anything like this! I think Matt's afraid to take me - I've thrown up too many times on his "high adventures!" :)

Heading to camp and then straight out fishing . . .

This is Brett - hooking a 33 pound king salmon!

I know this is fuzzy near his face - from what I heard, the fish was freaking out and splashing everything around it. I guess the camera got it too!

I've learned that moose are good swimmers.

Matt's gorilla!!

Go Ben!!

I guess this should be rated PG-13 because of this nasty picture. Blood and some would say - violence. My Dad LOVES it. I think it's gross. I kept asking Matt why they didn't wipe the fish off before pictures and he looked at me like I'd grown a third arm.

Chris caught the monster of them all. It weighed in at 35 lbs. Way to go Chris! Ben was really bummed because Matt promised $5 to the winner of the heaviest fish. Ben's always in it for the buck.

This is Ben's "trophy trout." He was so pumped to have pulled in a 4 1/2 lb. rainbow trout. I, on the other hand, can't stand trout. It was the only fish we ate growing up and all the bones were just too much for me. Blech. I'm completely converted to salmon though!

Here's the mess hall . . . yum. They look like they are really enjoying the food don't they? Notice the 4th of July decorations. I think that's pretty neat! Actually, they were eating prime rib, smoked salmon fetuccini, and pork tenderloin while I was home downing mac-n-cheese with Brik and Gracie. Sounds like Jen deserves a few nice meals out. :)

The sleeping quarters. Not your Ritz Carlton, but I'm told that they had some sort of heater inside.

Fireworks celebrating the 4th that the guides put on - notice how light it is outside -at 11:45pm!!!!

Matt tells me he is holding a sockeye. I have no clue what kind of salmon is what, other than I like to eat the king salmon best. :) I'm all about the food.

Now this picture just grosses me out (again) -but all the boys think this is the coolest. Here's your science lesson for the day. This is a male sockeye that has already swam upstream and fertilized eggs and is ready to die. That's why it's red. Still gross to me. (You don't want to eat them when they look like this!)

I LOVE this picture. All of this salmon is being smoked. Yum!

Brett got a nice chunk of smoked salmon to chew on.

The boys became pros at skipping rocks. I'm sure those fishing around them loved that.

No bat, no ball -who cares?

A stick and some rocks and Brett and Ben are happy. . .

I get that "Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn" feel when I see some of these pictures. A cool place to be a boy.

Their plane just landed to take them all home.

Matt, Brett and Ben brought 150 pounds of salmon home to cram in our freezer. We are loving it!

I'm just glad they are home safe and sound -the boys and the salmon. :)

Sure love my boys!!

When we decided to name Brik, "Brik," Matt had one hesistation. He was afraid that we would have a little, tiny, scrawny kid with a huge name like Brik. And that just wouldn't work for Matt. I googled the name "Brik Hansen" and only one link came up and it was some guy in Norway or Sweden. (He was cute too - so that was a bonus!) Since almost 90% of our ancestors come from Scandinavia, I figured the name would fit just fine.

Brik is the farthest thing from a little, scrawny kid. On his one year check up, he rang in at 34" tall- the biggest of all of our kiddies (and we seem to grow them huge).

With a name like "Brik," what else can you have for your first birthday cake, than a brick? (Or brick wall in our case!)