Pages

Monday, July 23, 2012

Fish Hatchery

My husband's brother and sister-in-law came to visit for a week their two children, who just HAPPEN to be almost exactly Mimi and Cocoa's ages.  What a blast!

We spent one afternoon in our own tiny "downtown" visiting the library and the local fish hatchery.  Every year, our hatchery releases thousands of (marked) salmon into the local creek- those salmon swim out to the Puget Sound and then out to open ocean.  When it's time to spawn, they come on home.  They're caught and harvested (eggs and sperm) and the process begins again.  It's actually illegal for a fisherman to catch and keep an unmarked (wild) salmon, because the populations are getting so low and they are such a tremendously important part of the food chain up here.  Bears and eagles glut on them up in Alaska during the salmon run.  This way, there are still salmon populations for fishermen to go after, the food chain is bolstered, and everyone wins!

We're feeling lucky that summer has started up here- the joke is that we don't get any sun until after the 4th of July, and this year...no joke!  We did not have a single "sunny" day in June (sunny= more than 30% of the day is sunny.)  But, we're having sunshine now, we're up into the 70's, and we're ready for summer!

IMG_5997

Remember this dress?  The princess dress she got for her birthday last year?  She has worn it every.single.day it has been in her drawer.  Without exception.

IMG_6012

Ernie has been enjoying having company, but deep down we all know she is an introvert.  And now, she's an introvert with a new pile of books, and we're all stopped at a park staring at the trees.  No thanks.  Not even her cousin can distract her!

IMG_6017

Sure looks swell in her hat, though.
IMG_6019

(Unfortunately, right after this he biffed it HARD in the bark and got a nasty set of scrapes on his leg.  Poor fellow.)


No comments: