Camping for a Fish

For Father's Day all the kids got a 12 hour tuna charter for Travis' dad and, of course, all the guys wanted to go too. They scheduled the trip for Sat. Aug. 22nd and since they had to be in Newport by 5:30 am I had the brilliant idea that we should all go camping so they would already be in the area that morning and could just relax (and cook fish for dinner!) when they were done.

The day before we left we found out the tuna charter boat broke. Bummer. All tuna charters were booked, but they were able to get on a 5 hour bottom fishing charter. When they arrived they found out the water temperatures had dropped 10 degrees (from 58 to 48) in the last day or so and the tuna were gone. In fact, the day before some charters weren't even heading out it was so bad, so in the end everything turned out for the best!

Travis caught the first fish on the boat, they all maxed out their take home of fish and the crab pots they dropped more than maxed out! It was a good trip for them. While they fished, the girls drug the kids to the outlet mall in Lincoln City and we all had a good trip there too! :)

I was happy with the switch to a 5 hour fishing trip because that meant the guys could go play in the afternoon with the rest of us. We headed to South Beach at the jetty.

On the way Kevin and Avery crashed.

Sad/Ew


Emmett loves walking down the beach with Daddy since
he spends most of his time in the pack-n-play at the beach


Travis' parents take a walk


There's a sandbar that cuts from the jetty and when the tide is out a pool
is created. When we got there the sand bar was just beginning to uncover.


There was no way I was wading through the 48 degree pool, I went around. I think Ben and
Travis found it deeper than they expected and had to flash some blindingly white thighs!


When the sandbar is so saturated with water
the sand is really mushy and fun to walk in.

I love this shot!


This is only 20 minutes after that first picture of the sandbar; the tide really moves out fast!


This dungeness crab was in the pool and Travis pulled him out for the
kids to see. When they're on the sand they dig in and hide for protection.
This one just covered its legs. Maybe he was going for the rock look?


After a while Travis took him over to the moving water by the rocks.
This is slightly funny to me because "animal conservationist" is not
exactly a phrase that comes to mind when thinking of Travis...


I love seeing all the life around the jetty rocks. If you look closely, there's
a lot more than barnacles on them. I almost got Avery to touch one of the
anemones, and he scared away the red rock crab right after I got that shot.


Don't these clouds look painted?


Before we left on our last day, we took the kids to the campground dock on the Siletz
river where we were staying for a little dockside fishing. It was my boys' first time!


Kevin caught the first monster.


Avery caught the second one, some sort of ugly bull head
apparently. He was very excited about his first fish!


Up close with Avery's fish. Feeling threatened, it stuck up
those things on the side of his head and they're pokey!


Everyone caught a fish, and Travis even showed Carson how to hold his to throw it back in.
I can't believe Carson was willing to shove his thumb down that fish's mouth like that!


There are lots of these old pylons sticking out of the river.


What a fun trip! It was also a good chance to test the boys' camping tolerance
since we have the Reno Air Races coming up mid September and the distance
from home won't exactly allow us to abandon camp with miserable kids there!