Raising Their Fish Limit

 

Olivia, Carrie, Josiah

Baby girl due Valentine's Day. 

Some people will do anything for an extra 10 salmon! LOL  We are so EXCITED for Josiah, Carrie and Livie. 

📷by Carrie

📷by Carrie

📷by Carrie

Fish Camp 23 - Day 1

And so, it begins....Fish Camp 23. Alex is staying with GG for the next 5 nights. He came over early and helped us get everything packed up. We were grateful for his help and grateful he is watching GG so I could come along this year. We are so excited to be away together for the next 6 days. 

Cory and Arielle left with our two cars to fill up with gas and get on the road. About 30 minutes later we were ready to pull out of the driveway. The RV began to roll when we all heard a loud POP. I could tell the fear was a tire had blown.  I went in for a closer look and let everyone know it was just the old basketball. 

Enjoying the ride

The traffic was crazy today. We had our first accident to wait for before we even made it to Eagle River. Drivers were constantly slamming their breaks on in front of us...it's not nice to do that to a big rig. We arrived safely and dropped the trailer we were pulling off with Scott, our soon to be pastor. Then we headed off to the campground and settled into our spot. We were PLEASANTLY surprised they had moved us from the pitsy spot we expected to a nicer spot and didn't charge us near what we expected to be paying for the tent in our site. LOL 

I wasn't able to find anyone to stay with Dad last year and missed the family trip. I purchased small gifts for the kids for each day. I decided to keep the tradition of Bachan's Treasure Chest...tonight the boys got little bottles of bubbles. 

CoRielle provided our communal dinner tonight. Smoked and then BBQ pork and salad. Good stuff.  Danny and Krista from church arrived and came over for dinner. They went into town to pick up a few things they needed. We got another case of water. It looks like we are going to have GREAT weather this weekend and I can tell we are chugging through water quickly. 

Josiah and Cory couldn't be this close to the river and not fish. They went in to catch the tide....a late tide. We'll all go in for the early tide tomorrow. I suspect we'll be on the beach at 6 a.m. 

While they fished Arielle set up their tent,  we cleaned up dinner, and then we took the boys to feed all the animals around here. 

So happy they ate his offering

We spent about 30 minutes at the playground next. They've added a play area for big kids too....I plan to spend more time there with the girls. 

Isn't this fantastic? 

Back at the campsite Arielle wrestled with the boys...at one point Charles escaped the tent. We were sitting visiting with Danny and Krista when we heard, "Open the door. PLEASE open the door."  We found it pretty cute - Arielle probably didn't find it so cute. 

Sgt. Andrew Winters stopped by our site. He had arrived at our last duty station after we left. He now works with Krista and is up here fishing this weekend. He wanted to meet us and stopped by. He said he feels like he knows Mike already. LOL 

Well, it's 10:20 p.m. and the guys aren't back yet. I'm going to go ahead and post this and head to bed. The morning is going to come fairly early to get us all down to the beach early. 

Note: A text from the beach says, "Cory got 8 little ones and I got 7 hogs." ::snort:: 

Adoption Day - Our Newest Grand Blessing

2 years and 9 months in foster care. Eleven months ago, he moved into CoRielle's home and they began the hard, long journey of becoming a family of 5.   Today, we all met at court and the adoption was approved.  The court made legal that which has happened in this sweet family over the past months. There are many memories to store away from the day....

First, may I introduce you to Charles? Little Buddy IS Charles William! Without a heart or a balloon over his sweet face! He is 2 years old. His birthday is just a month ahead of Danny's.  He has been in CoRielle's home for 11+ months...and in our hearts even longer. 

Charles aka Little Buddy 📷by Arielle

I am THRILLED to post a photo without a heart over his face. Ah, sweet boy. We are so blessed and lucky to have you in our family - forever. 

I feel like I should have lots of profound things to share but my heart is simply too full to express all I am thinking. 

Here are a few memories I will cherish from the day: 

• Courthouse cuddles from Charles.
• The way the cousin crew celebrated Charles' adoption. 
• The way Charles turned into my shoulder when he recognized the social worker - may he always feel safe with us. 
• The ease and trust Charles shows when he's around Cory and Arielle. 
• The family all praying for Charles - and the rest of CoRielle's family.
• And then the BIG party at their house. We had hoped for the park, but this is not a sunny day. 

And here are a zillion photos! 

Charles, Arielle & Danny, Cory, Benny
📷by Arielle

📷by Arielle

📷by Arielle

Earlier in the day I stopped by Carr's for the most awesome adoption balloons they could help me find. Basically, they don't have any...but they DID have trucks and a dinosaur...and flowers and a power drink for Arielle and Cory. 

We were so determined not to be late that our household arrived before CoRielle and the boys. LOL It wasn't long until the tribe began to arrive.  I discovered the vending area was a great holding area for Charles. LOL 

Olivia and Charles

The gang is gathering behind us

Charles wants to get the show on the road! 

Benny & Roosevelt

The whole family in court

Yep, Little Buddy, we're all still here.

And then began all the official business. The kids did great. There is a lot of ground to cover. 

Best selfie ever! 📷by Arielle

We belong to Charles. 

I was going to put names in but it's simply too much!  
Luke & Izaak were at work. Bre & Kids met us later. 

We pretty much filled the courtroom. JaRissa and Noah arrived after this photo was taken. 9 of the 10 kids were there. Bre and her kiddos joined us at CoRielle's to celebrate. 

They had bumped fists but my camera delayed....

Danny and Charles love to help GG 

Shots from the party at CoRielle's

Annie, Gideon, Charles, Benny and Balloons

Noah (6 months) and Larissa 

Cy and Trudy (8 months)

Trudy and Noah

It was a big day for Charles, for CoRielle and for the entire family! 

📷by Carrie 

Our Night with Noah

Stacia and I drove into Eagle River and spent the evening with Master Noah. She was his first sitter. I played a bit, but she did most the work while I worked on other things....

Hello bright eyes!

He did so well. He loves tummy time. He's sitting. He likes mirrors...the only thing he didn't like is when we tried to feed him a bottle. 

He goes places in this thing! 

He even took a quick nap. 

We were honored to be able to stay with Noah. I know it was hard for Larissa to leave him.  He learned a big lesson, Mommy and Daddy may have to leave him, but they come back! 

Larissa, Jared, Noah, Stacia, Me

Tuesday?

I was up at 0500. I read a bit, journaled a bit and thought through the day. We are leaving on Thursday. I shopped yesterday. Tomorrow will be busy....we have a BIG family day and celebration happening.  Today I worked on taxes. We had an extension. I got everything I could ready. Michael spent some time trying to locate more info I couldn't access.  It turns out he couldn't either.  We've been waiting to do the FASA until we had our taxes done. We aren't expecting a grant but need to do it to get VA funding for Stacia. This is the tangled web up on the whiteboard. Pull on one string until it sticks and then pull on another string. ::snort::  Eventually, it will all pop free. 

Michael and I had a zoom visit with our church's new pastor and his wife. We'd visited before but never got around to talk about some specifics for our various ministries. 

Allie ran out for a haircut...she brought tea home and we had the last of the cookies - all of us sitting around the table - connecting. I think GG is wishing he could come fishing this year - but he hasn't said anything. He has refused to go the last two years. 

Stacia began working on her degree application, references, and four essays for Alaska Bible College. 

Allie got word her initial application was accepted and she began working on her degree application as well. She began knocking out the four required essays. Grandpa is pretty happy to have two girls going to Bible College. LOL 

I've done lots of laundry and we are putting it directly into the RV.  I began pulling some things from the cupboards to take with us. We've got meals here for Alex and GG. 

Michael ran to drop off taxes at our CPA's. 

He got home and Stacia and I ran to deliver 6 dz eggs...and then on to Eagle River to play with Noah for the evening. WELL - Stacia is playing with Noah, and I am playing with Noah a bit, but I'm working on the spreadsheet for fish camp, catching the blog up etc.  She wanted me to come along as there are a lot of hills in Eagle River and she wasn't 100% confident driving the manual up and down the hills...and I wasn't quite comfortable with her driving home after 9 p.m.  Don't know why - it won't be dark. It's just a mom thing, I guess. LOL 

I threw another two post it notes away today - such a satisfying feeling!  As I went to blog, I told Stacia this was a long week. She had a funny look on her face. I thought it was Friday; its only Tuesday. LOL 

Monday Adventures

 Michael, Allie and I left the house at 6:30 a.m. to drive to Anchorage. Our mission - be the first person in line at base where a couple of us needed new ID's for base access and be the first at the Social Security office where Michael needed to become Michael rather than the Mike, he's been all these years. LOL 

Pulling this off required Stacia to get up early and stay with GG. We discussed the best way to handle the morning routine, and, in the end, we simply skipped the shower, and she carried on from there. Nolan was on phone recall if there had been an emergency. 

On base we learned the office we were trying to get to at 7:30 didn't open until 8:00.  We arrived at 7:15 a.m. We WERE the first customers of the day... Allie and I decided to go find a coffee stand. Who knew?  We couldn't find a single drive through stand and the shoppette didn't have hot chocolate or chai. We headed back to the People Center and got our work done. 

We had plenty documentation to rush right through Social Security. Michael will not have a problem in a few years when he moves into receiving social security. We need to schedule an appointment with either some benefits officer or social security and figure out how everything changes when he turns 65. We know our insurance will and I think his disability or pension is reduced when he begins getting social security. Or something like that..... 

Krista and Luke had quite an adventure on Sunday, and we checked in to lay our own eyes on them. I've put it on a sticky note to blog their adventure, though Mike is lobbying for Krista to write the post. We met at Olive Garden where I discovered the endless soup. Good stuff. 

While Michael ran into Lowes, Allie and I ran into Crumbl Cookies. Livie, our granddaughter has told us how wonderful these cookies are. This was a good time to try them out. We picked up six cookies to take home as a yummy thank you to Stacia...and yeah, a treat for all of us. We stretched them for two tea times and a family table session. LOL 

Stacia received word her initial application to ABC has been accepted. She got a new list of things to get together to apply to her degree program. We had all those things on our board already as we knew it would be coming at some point. We got IDEA transcripts sent for both her and Allie to ABC. She also got her transcript from Global University sent to them. Allie should hear about her application tomorrow if they stay to schedule. LOL 

Shortly after we got back to our town, Allie went in to work. Stacia and I headed over to Bre's to help her take her van to the repair shop and then on to Three Bears to stock up on snacks and such for our upcoming fish camp. You know it's time for dipnetting when you buy a cartful of stuff you would never buy at any other time of the year. 

Isn't that view wonderful? 

Some may remember I was unable to attend camp last year.  The girls all decided to each take one of the communal dinners as I wasn't attending and couldn't do it. They decided they were each taking a meal again this year, so I only had to shop for ONE big meal rather than FIVE BIG meals. It is much simpler. I don't have to figure out meal costs, shop or collect money. If you cook a communal meal, you can eat all your other communal meals for free.  We are paying Alex to take a week off work and stay with GG. We are NOT attempting to get our limit this year...but we ARE going to enjoy our five nights away...together. 

Michael was at home doing a couple of repairs/upgrades on the trailer. He ended up needing to make another run to Lowes. We loaded groceries into the RV. 

I pulled 5 or 6 post it notes off the whiteboard today!