Fishing Trip: Prince William Sound

Last weekend we were able to go on a fishing trip with my dad, Rachel, Calvin, and our family. We headed out of Whittier to the Prince William Sound. That's the place that you always see on commercials of cruise ships next to glaciers. We went in my Dad's new boat and had an amazing time. We launched the boat friday night and found a place to lower our shrimp pots. After baiting them up and setting them down we went back to the harbor to pick up Lee who flew in from Fairbanks that evening. After picking Lee up we decided to check the pots. It hadn't been very long, but we decided to check them anyway just in case. We were so surprised to pull up pots that were full! We collected 90 monster size shrimp and then lowered the pots to sit overnight. As we started pulling away, Dad looked back and saw the bouey (however you spell it), dragging behind us. We had run over the rope and twisted it around in the motor. We ended up having to cut the rope and we thought for sure we had ruined the pots, or lost them by dragging them in the mud. That night we drove for an hour or so and found a nice little cove to spend the night in. We slept in the boat under the bow, the boys loved that! I didn't wake up all night, slept like a baby.
On Saturday we got up and started fishing for halibut. We ended up catching 3 small ones, a red snapper, and few other assorted rock fish. Dad also caught a ling cod by the tail, but we couldn't keep it yet. We spent the day fishing and sight seeing. We lucked out and saw a whale, dolphins, and otters, but I couldn't get any good pictures of those with my little camera.
On our way back to the shrimp pots we saw a boat with some guys waving for help. Turns out it was our good friends and neighbors from Palmer, the Hillis'. They had run out of gas and somehow we were the first boat in the whole ocean to come across them. We shared some gas with them and were on our way.
When we checked the shrimp pots again we had another 85 shrimp for a total of 175! That's the most we've ever caught and we hadn't lost any pots! On the way back to the dock we were hit high seas. We were bouncing up and down for over an hour. Overall it was an amazing trip. Dane and Ty loved it!
We enjoyed fresh shrimp and halibut on Sunday and Monday night, it was delicious!

Spring in Alaska

Our Buddy Bryce is a huge fan of large fires.

Dane and Ty were a bunch of Goobers and loved the camping like crazy. Dane rode his bike around like a mad man. He is so daring and surprisingly good on that bike.

We had the trusty ol Trooper out for the weekend. It is sure nice to load camping gear up for the weekend and not be completely stuffed in a car, we actually have room for the gear and the kids.

Amy and her babies hanging out with Tara and here cute little one. It was kind of nice to hang around the camp fire and not worry about anything at all for a while.

Ty and Dane go nuts when its time to get into the sleeping bags. They get a crazy burst of energy and just go wild in the little tent and it takes a while to get them in their bags. That night the boys slept pretty good until Amy got so cold that she pulled Ty out of his bag and used him as a heater in her sleeping bag,... poor kid!

The other day I turned on my camera to show Lee some pictures I had recently taken. When I started flipping through the pictures there were a lot that I didn't recognize, watch the slideshow and you'll soon figure out, as I did, exactly what happened.Oh, and the disclaimer, Lori and I were upstairs helping Rachel and friends make corsages for prom. These kids were happily playing downstairs!
Sad to say, these pictures are better than half of the ones I take, Lee will agree.

Amazing Pictures!