Courageous Joy

Friday, July 21, 2023

Day 2 - Fish Camp 2023

I just posted the BIGGEST catch of the day - Carrie and Liv arrived in Kenai and got the most awaited picture of the year taken! LOL What fun to think of all that has happened since the first time Carrie and Liv joined us at Fish Camp - when CyRi had just begun dating.

MORNING TIDE

OK...We left for the beach at 0630. Our household fished for four hours, four nets and got 11 salmon (total group). Stacia caught five of those! She caught some chunky ones too! Our household count for the first tide was 8...yeah...Stacia got 5, Michael got 3.

New to us this year - parking permits at a local business to which Josiah has connections. This insures us a place to park, even if the city parking is full - which has happened to us numerous times. Its next to what used to be the campgrounds we stayed at our first dipnetting year. We collected our gear and headed DOWN the long hill to the main road to the beach.

Cory - leading the charge

Stacia, Me andAllie

Fairly soon after arriving Nicole and her kids came down to the beach. Nicole is the eldest daughter of our friends Ed and Jennifer. The rest of their family didn't come out this year, but we got to spend the day visiting with Nicole and Ben and their kids.

Their little boys were troopers. Josiah (right) caught THREE salmon with his little net! He's 8 years old.

I wouldn't say Arielle had a more leisurely morning back at camp. However, she did not attempt to get the boys on the beach at 6:30 a.m. They drove down with our 2nd permit a bit later. This Charles' first dip netting year. Having two two year olds on the beach adds a new level of intense activity and FUN.

Danny, Charles and Benny heading to the beach
📷by Arielle

Danny & Charles - cookies on the beach
📷by Arielle

Bachan's crew - and Allie
📷by Arielle

Reporting for action

Fishing Hair

Occupying Charles

Running up and down the beach - the new workout

Snack time @ the coolers

Charle's first dip netting

An Alaskan mom

Untangling and bonking Stacia's Fish - Allie
on shore crew

Coming back UP the incline with full coolers after a long shift of fishing is MUCH harder than going down.

Stacia is amazing

AFTERNOON/ EARLY EVENING

We got back to our sites about 1:00 p.m. We SHOWERED. We had lunch. We relaxed in various ways.

Fun @ home or while camping

Luke, Krista and Reno arrived. Carrie and Livie arrived. We went for walks, and visited them at their campsites in the field.

Krista and Luke are sharing a spot in the pasture with Josiah and Carrie.

Aunt Coco and Livie and Benny - and RENO.

I LOVE this. The little grey tent is Carrie's personal outhouse. The only way to camp if pregnant.

Getting ready for dinner

Carrie made us a yummy spaghetti dinner tonight!

While we were getting ready to eat Bryce and Ketziah drove up. HOw fun to all be here at the same time. We need to find them.

Danny and Krista

Friends from the beach found Benny

EVENING TIDE

Heading down again...hoping for a better tide...it was not to be. We got a total of 6 fish on this tide. But we had fun. We got CyRi's announcement picture - the night was a success.

📷by Carrie

Such flattering fashions. 📷by Carrie

📷by Carrie

We were tired. Carrie was tired. We headed home. KrUke had opted not to come out this evening. We left the guys on the beach. Carrie dropped us off around 9:30 p.m. and the RV was locked. We drove back to the beach. Allie and Livie ran down to get the keys. Michael had left them with ARIELLE. Arielle was asleep in the tent with the boys. She'd had a horrible night the night before and there was NO WAY I was waking her (and the boys) up for a key. I suspected when they all came home around midnight, they would wake the boys up and she needed a few hours of sleep. The van was unlocked so we climbed in and visited and fell asleep....At 11:21 p.m. Arielle woke up and went in to use the RV bathroom...we came inside, and the girls got ready for bed.

The guys got home after midnight - got into bed around 1 a.m. They were tired. Michael was in quite a bit of pain. Everyone decided to skip tomorrow morning's tide. The rumor is the fisherman will have restricted hours and the fish count will be up tomorrow.

I hope so. We've fished 2 tides and our household has caught 14 fish...with 3 nets in the water. That's way less than we usually get...but slow and steady. That's why we schedule 5 days...if we need the days, we'll use them...if not, we'll explore Kenai.

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

Thursday, July 20, 2023

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::

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

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

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.