King Salmon and Iowa visit

While I was visiting family and friends in Iowa, Adam was working and King Salmon fishing!  He will add his story at the end of this post.

Here are some things we did while I was in Iowa.  I flew in on June 9th and was suppose to fly out on the 19th, but a storm pushed my flight to the next night. I was in Des Moines/Ankeny, Traer, visitation/funeral in Hudson,  a campground in Vinton, shopping with Sydney for a couple hours in Cedar Rapids, eating pizza with Syd and her boyfriend in Preston, taking Syd home to Miles, hanging out with Maddie, Jenny, and Nathan on M's 2nd birthday in Davenport, eating at my favorite restaurant in Iowa City, Los Portales, with Katie and her boyfriend Adam, then back to Des Moines.  Wheewwwww! I slept in Iowa 11 nights and 5 of them were complete with a snugglebug-- Kane in my sleeping bag with me or Emma and her stuffed animals/blankets in bed with me!  It was a wonderful visit and it was really hard to leave!

A HUGE shout out to my in-laws for letting me take a vehicle for my trip!  We are very lucky that they have the third car so we can shuttle ourselves around each time we go home.  THANK YOU!

My flight started off with an upgrade arranged by my hubby!  1st class is a whole different world!

In Traer we did our traditional creek walk to the Y and walked the field back.

Hung out with horses (didn't have time :( to ride though). This is Nat, Brandon and Deanna's new philly!  She is such a sweetie and loves scratches!

The whole crew went camping at Roger's Park ?!?!I think?!? near Vinton.  We had delicious food over the fire, went swimming, fishing, celebrated Father's Day, and had sparklers.  We also had some excitement with a racoon!

Delicious food.... including homemade funnel cakes over the fire for by birthday!!!  YUM!

 Kane was such a patient fisherman!  He outlasted all of the girls and was the only one to catch fish, a bass and a bull head! 

We also had an "Alaskan dinner" at mom/dad's house with the whole crew, Danae, and Tyler.  This was our menu.  I took Shanin, Breanna, Brooklyn, and Heidi with me to Cedar Falls to shop for the dinner-- we had a blast!  The girls were hovered over the smoked salmon belly and fried hooligan until we shooed them away so their dads could try it! 

I got to attend Danae's baby shower, which I was ecstatic about!  She is such a beauty!  I also had dinner at her and Tyler's house one night-- we had an amazing meal of WALLEYE (cooked 2 ways), grilled BBQ chicken, green beans, potatoes/onions, and salad!  LOVE THEM!

I had dinner at Los Portales in Iowa City with Katie and her boyfriend Adam.  Their queso is THE BEST in the world!  I got to see Katie's apartment- it is reallllly nice and Otis was excited to see me! (her dog)

 Some other things that happened were.....
-My Great Aunt Barb unexpectedly passed away just before I went home, so I was able to attend the visitation and funeral.  I was glad I was able to see family and support the family and uncle Dick.  Although not the ideal situation, I saw a lot of relatives that I haven't seen since childhood and my aunt from San Diego.
-I spent the day with my college roomie, Jenny, her husband, Nathan, and their daughter, Madison, on Maddie's 2nd Birthday.  We went to the Quad City Botanical Garden that has a new splash/wading garden for kids, went out to lunch, and got Maddie her first pet-- a beta fish!
-I saw my highschool friend, Sam, and her two kiddos, Brooks and Ivy!  They are just too cute and ALWAYS happy!  I even got to participate in some potty training per Brook's request!
****Side note-- I am very proud of my friends and the wonderful parents they are!****
 -I was scheduled to leave Des Moines just a few hours before Jessi and Grant were going to be showing up for the weekend.  I WAS SOOOOOO BUMMED!  But then, dun du du duuuuuu, there was a storm and my flight was cancelled.  After three different Delta representatives and three hours- thanks to Jeanette's help, I was put on a plane the next night so that Adam and I could do our King fishing trip as planned.
-I had some one on one time with my oldest niece, Sydney!  I took her shopping in Cedar Rapids for her birthday....she shops just like me!  "Why get one thing when you could get 5 for the same price!?!?"  Then I took her and her boyfriend out for pizza in Preston, aaawww young love........well not love, cuz they ARE NOT in "love", they are too young!  :)  Anywayz-- then I took her home because she had DRIVERS ED the next morning.  Crazy how fast this little girl has grown up to be such a pretty and amazing young lady!
-I took Emma to the Cascade Aquatic Center in Ankeny one afternoon.  She is quite the swimmer!  I also got to go to her swimming lessons, which Grandma Ruth joined us for!  Emma was so speedy, she beat all of the other kiddos to the other end and back!  So.... I took her to the waterpark because she is my niece and I love her, pluuuuuuusss, her parents were pretttty busy..................  ... .... ...

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-----And I left this part for last......  Kati and Scott's surrogate gave birth to their TWINS while I was in Iowa!!!!!  WOOOOOOOOOOOW!  I got to spend some time with them all in the hospital and even got to hold Delainey!  They were very healthy twins, especially since they weren't due until the end of July.  Owen was 5lb9oz and Delainey was 5lb5oz!  They are so adorable and so content! What an amazing thing to have such a great friend who would "bake" the babies and give birth to the twins for them.  Delainey gets to go home this week and Owen next week! What a blessing!
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 So like I said, I had to get back to Alaska ASAP so Adam and I could head out to the Deshka for my King Salmon since he already got his when I was in Iowa and the run was slowing waaaaaaay down.  After a little more than 12 hours of being back in Alaska, we had camp set up on the island and were ready to fish!

This is a 6am photo of the Deshka

 My first fish

 I wasn't expecting to catch a king since only 200 were passing through the weir when the top day this year had 2,200!  I even told God that I understood and was okay with not catching one since I was so blessed with my hunts this year and Adam already had two in the freezer.  It was a "well you definitely won't catch one if your pole isn't in the water" and family time kinda trip!  Then... WABAM, I had this monster on my line!

 I could tell it was big, but didn't think it was this big!  Tundra thought I was taking too long to get him in and was soooo excited that he leaned forward off the boat and fell in!  He of course swam right to where my line was and the fish went ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing back down the river!  Adam plucked Tundra outta the water by his life jacket handle and we landed the fish a couple minutes later!  The boat next to us sure had a show! :) They were 3 older men and they were just laughing and laughing!

 Adam's salmon bite!  Youch!

 Tundra just can't get enough of salmon! 

 Adam's catch of mosquitoes!  Kind of a long story-- but he has been catching wasps for a 90-some year old gentleman from Washington, whose career is studying wasp species and deterrents. Well Alaska has a rare wasp, whose nest has never been seen- or recorded.  Adam has caught and sent him some of them along with other species. This man just happens to be up here this week with his son, on his last "hoorah" trip for wasps as his health his quickly deteriorating and Adam caught one of the rare wasps and took it to him!  He caught it with a net.  So when we were out wasp hunting, in between fishing, he was swinging the net around his body while walking because the mosquitoes were HORRIBLE!  Then he goes, check this out.... the entire bottom of the net was black and covered with mosquitoes that had been swarming him.  Here are just a few of his catch!

 And the meat from that 1 salmon= 17 steaks and 2 fillets!  yuuuuuuuuuuuuum

 Oh--- and our campsite on the island!  Tired pup!

 So I was in Iowa over our 5 year Anniversary-- yes FIVE YEARS! As well as my birthday.  Adam had planned a surprise for me while in Iowa that included his mom giving me a birthday gift from her that I was only to open when on the phone with her. So I thought-- well I'll just open it with her, I will be back in Ankeny on my birthday.... leaving the gift at their house.  So Adam had sent an anniversary card and birthday card with me to Iowa-- strict instructions to not open them until I was on the phone with him.  When I was in Traer on the 13th, on the phone with him, and reading the anniv card- it said, "now open the gift my mom gave you".... I was like uh-oh... it was in Des Moines!  So that didn't work out as planned for him, but it was still a huge surprise!  I have been battling with my wedding ring-- don't get me wrong, I love it! But I keep knocking it into things, getting it clogged with whatever meat we are harvesting, and this year-- scratched one of my students with it. So he got me this band to wear as needed! (diamonds, not moisannite like my wedding ring because diamonds are the strongest) :)  The gun is my bday present, it's a 45 Glock, for trail running!  We just had a horrible situation on the JBER base, a husband and wife were running together and the husband ran ahead.  She was attacked by a brown bear sow who had twin cubs.  It was a pretty vicious attack and a miracle that she was able to "play dead" while being chewed on and carried across the road.  She managed to walk back to the road after the bear left and was rescued.  We already have a bear gun, but it is pretty heavy to run with.  **PLEASE keep in mind we have NO intention of shooting a bear outside of bear hunting for the meat.  We are respectful of the bears, their habitat, their babies, and prevent spooking them by making noise on the trail.  We would use all strategies we've been told about/read about/researched and make sure the bear isn't bluff charging before using the gun.    

 Okay, so Adam just told me to go ahead and post his photos too.!  He caught the 2 fish a year (1 per day) King Salmon limit on the Deshka.  This is one of 'em.  He had our trusty fishing partner, Tundy, with him.  It was just Adam and Tundra on the boat, although two other buddies were out there with their boats.  Nevertheless, it isn't easy to control the boat, catch a fish, and land it with a nosey and excited golden retriever in your face!

 Tundra alarmed Adam to the mother and twin moose in our greenbelt.  They then moved to our neighbor's fence-free yard for a photo! :)

 When I am gone, Tundy and Adam's tradition is to share a steak dinner.  Caribou steak was on the menu--- spoiled rotten dog!  He is even sitting on the ottoman! ...... Don't you think this should mean he can sleep in bed with me when Adam is gone!?!?

Well, that's all folks.  We are headed out Sunday for another adventure and have a halibut charter coming up.  We will be scouting for Adam's August sheep hunt with our wheelers and Tundra of course.