And More Fish Processing...

With all the salmon we caught, we froze about 60 fillets. We smoked and canned the rest of the fish, around 95 pints of smoked salmon! The first time I saw a jar of canned salmon, I thought... can that really taste good?? It does not look all that appetizing, but let me tell you... it is!

All the woman that went dip netting got together the following week (after the salmon had brined) and we canned salmon. In all we canned around 340 pints of smoked salmon. That is a big job!!

The fish in the brine.

Loads and loads of pint jars. These jars were in high demand. We went to about 6 different places that were all sold out. Called probably 10 more places... all sold out. Finally we came upon a store that still had wide mouth pint jars!

We had 6 pressure cookers...

and 5 smokers.

After the fish has been smoked and skinned we shred it and put it into the jars.

Brittani and her cute little lady!

Brittani and I were on pressure cooker duty. We had to keep the salmon at 12 pounds of pressure for 100 minutes. You can't let it drop below or let it go above. If it goes above for too long, your pressure cooker will blow up. This is serious stuff here folks!!

I opened the smoker to check on the salmon and got totally smoked out. I could not remember to keep my head to the side when I would open that dang thing.

Miki switching out fish.

Karen switching out fish.

This was a huge job... I can certainly wait a year to do it again! I am so happy I had a hard working crew of great chickas to show me the ropes and teach me how to can salmon. Plus... it's way more fun to do a huge job like this in good company!

It's a dirty job, but someones gotta do it.

Well after catching 350 fish... we had to clean, gut, skin, fillet and vacuum pack 350 fish! Whew... that was an all day job! But wow the fruits of our labour are amazing. Fresh Alaskan Salmon!

Ray and Kotah flew in to visit us while we were dip netting. We could not leave the last day of dip netting to pick them up at the airport because the fish had finally hit hard. We had a friend (thanks Chablis, and Gentri) pick them up from the airport and drop them off at our apartment so they could drive our car and meet us in Kenai. Well there were 2 huge wrecks the day they drove to see us and the road was closed until 6 the next morning. They were stuck between the two wrecks so they could not do anything but sleep in the car that night! Such a sad welcome!

We finally met up with them the next day in Seward. They came right in time to help us with all the cleaning and gutting. Once again such a sad welcome... but they were awesome for helping us!!

The men, discussing important matters...

Lance and Miki

Kotah and Ray

We had MANY coolers chuck full of fish.

Dip Netting

We had the opportunity to go dip netting in Kenai this year with about 5 families in our ward. It was an amazing experience I will never forget! To dip net you have to be a resident of Alaska. You are allotted 25 fish per head of household and 10 fish per dependent so as a household we were allotted 55 salmon!

As a whole group we caught around 350 salmon!!! Crazy!!

This was such a fun experience. It was so thrilling holding the huge net in the water and getting a fish in your net. I wasn't too great at getting the net back in the boat, or getting the fish out of the net. They are huge, slippery little suckers! Jathan on the other hand was a pro! I am just glad I was able to go and did not get nauseous being on the boat with the smell of fish and the sight of blood.

Jathan on the boat, getting his dip on!

Lance, James and Brittani.

Zanna on the boat making a funny face! She was pretty excited to go out with her daddy and catch some fish.

Our boat was having some technical difficulties, as we floated to the shore we saw these huge bear tracks in the mud. Creepy!

Brittani sitting on the boat next to all the fish guts and blood. Such a glamorous job.

We got the kids camping chairs and cute little fuzzy sleeping bags for the camp out. They were pretty excited about their new toys. They played in the chairs at home all day the day before and slept in their sleeping bags in their room that night.

Playing in the mud by our camp site.

Troop loves to wear Zanna's helmet. We need to find him one that is a little more suited for a boy!

Oh boy.... how can he be crying when he is surrounded by mud. Every little boys dream!

We took a trip into Kenai to get a bite to eat and see some of the dip netters from the shore. The kids (and Jathan) loved these huge carvings of Salmon.

Jathan's award winning catch!

You can see all the people lining the shore with their dip nets in the water.

Zanna and Jathan just got off the boat

Making funny faces, and yes those are fish guts on Jathans cheek!

Dip netting was super fun! My favorite Alaska experiences thus far. I am excited to go again next year!

Baby # 3... Ready or not... here we go!

Well as it turns out we were not suppose to wait long at all to get pregnant again.... because I surely am pregnant! We were even preventing for the first time ever... and the very next month... botta-boom botta-bing. I guess that is when you know you are really suppose to be pregnant.

The funny thing is the very day I found out (before I found out) I was watching two kiddos so there were four kids here. I was ornery, and snappy and everything was just driving me crazy.

I decided right then I was definitely going to wait a year to try to get pregnant. Clearly I could not handle having more than two children right now.

Then as I am cleaning my kitchen I get more ornery because the cleaner I had bought smelled so sick and so strong. I was getting really ticked off.

I was so tired and had been taking naps for the past few days.

I went to the computer to check some things and as I sat there, reflecting on my morning, I wondered to myself... why on earth was everything making me so mad?

Then it hit me. When was I suppose to have my period? I had no clue but knew it had been at least a month. Since we were not trying I was not keeping track of such things.

I took a test and sure enough, Positive. No wonder I was acting like a crazy person!!

Well this pregnancy has been a rough one. Rough on me and my whole family. I have felt pretty crappy. Sick, tired and feel as though an alien has taken over my body.

Oh my poor kids. I am kind of a cranky mommy. I feel so bad!

Oh my poor husband. Clean house? What? What does the word clean even mean? I am just not sure. All I know is I have ZERO motivation for anything!

Blah, Blah, Blah. I know I am a whiney pants.

By the way I am excited to have a baby!! And I will act much more excited at about twenty weeks. By that point you look pregnant and not just chubby. You feel pregnant (and not in a vomit sort of way) because you can feel your sweet little baby in your belly. Twenty weeks is also when I stop feeling yucky.

So here is a funny story. Today we went outside to play. I started feeling real nasty, grabbed Troop and told Zanna we had to go inside right now. The saliva was welling up in my mouth and I could feel my body getting ready to ralph.

I ran into the bathroom as fast as I could and knelt before the porcelain throne.

I could hear Zanna outside the bathroom door doing the potty dance. Then she said "Mom, can you hurry and throwd up? I need to go tinkle".

Ha ha ha! Oh it gave me some comic relief. When she came into the bathroom she said. "Mom, i'm sorry your throwd up. How you are always sick?"

Feels like summer!

Ah, the weather here has been absolutely beautiful! It was a long LONG winter and we are so thankful for this beautiful sunshine and warm weather. We have been in the 60's the past week. YAY!

(some of my photos are kinda blurry... I took a beginner photography class and am trying to shoot in manual mode... I have not quite got it down. One day, hopefully I will!)

Oh to be young! Zanna has been having the time of her life running and dancing.

We are going to go shoe shopping this week. The only shoes that fit Zanna are her warm winter boots!

This little lady is our neighbor, Echo. Zanna is not too sure how she feels about giving her a hug. Not too sure why!

Zanna was upset she didn't get her way and sat down on the pavement striking a perfect, pouty pose.

This photo is totally over exposed. But the girls were playing with little ropes, calling them their snakes. Always a reptile involved with Zanna's imagination.

Troop getting a ride in the hot pink, hot wheels Jeep!

Mmmm, Capri Suns. Poor Troop got attacked by mosquito's over a week ago and those bites refuse to leave his cute little face.

Zanna thinks she has died and gone to heaven every time she rides in this Jeep.

She is so funny. Can you just see the total and utter joy in her face? Do you remember just dying to have one of these when you were little? I sure do.

These girls were a crack up to watch. They were just giggling and having the best time! I don't have a picture of this, but the next day they were out sitting in the Jeep with otter pops and listening to the radio (yes the cute little Jeep has a radio. Zanna thinks it is the coolest thing ever.) They weren't even driving. Just sitting and listening to the music with their otter pops. Pretty cute.

I love Troop's expression in this photo. He just wants to get in with them.

Watching Zanna drive, I felt like I was fast forwarding to when she will be 16. Kind of freaked me out. She was good at turning but she was not good at stopping, didn't pay very close attention to where she was going and ran over all sorts of things. Oh boy!

Eating Corn on the Cob on Echos big wheel. Echo has some pretty fun toys!

Troop and Zanna have both loved this little car. It has all sorts of buttons that make fun noises. I am not super fond of it though and have had it in my Salvation Army pile a few different times but every time Jathan reminds me of how much they love it. One day I will be rid of it. Until then my children will continue to love it. You know if it was always out side I really wouldn't mind it. But it drives me crazy in my apartment.

Anyway... Welcome summer! We will live it up and be outside as much as we can, for soon the rain will come!