Paddlefish in the Yellowstone River

People fishing for Paddlefish
History of paddlefishing

The big bill (nose) on these fish are long and fairly flat. It has electrodes on its nose to sense where the plankton are. Plankton give off an electronic current and the fish senses that and goes to feed.

This paddle fish is a mid-sized one at about 40 to 50 pounds. They say the biggest one caught this year was 110 pounds.

This is the Fish and Game cop that had to stay out there all day today and tag and measure each Paddlefish and he was still nice enough to pose for our picture.

Paddlefish are a new thing to us. They look like some pre-historic animal kind of like a Duck billed Platypus we think. The nose on these fish are long and hard. They only eat plankton from the bottom of the river. They can only be caught in the Yellowstone River near Glendive and in China. They spawn like Salmon do and only at this time of year. They will only let about 800 fish be caught before they close the season. The season could last only two or three days or over a week depending on how fast they are caught. They harvest the eggs for caviar as they are pulled out of the river and then the fish is yours to take. After the season they have 10 days of catch and release. When they have catch and release a Fish and Game officer will tag each one and measure it before it is released. The fish do not have bones they have an exo-skeleton so all the meat can be made into steaks. Some say it is a poor mans lobster, some really like it and others say it is too oily. We just want to catch one and have it taxidermy hopefully next year.

Our new home On the Prairie

My pride and joy is my scrapbooking room. I love to be able to leave the mess if I don't get a page finished.

Ryans room still messy but I haven't givin him a lot of time to put it together yet.

Bob and my bedroom

Our living room with fire place and all. We are so excited for the fireplace.

Another part of our livingroom and of course our mascot DUKE

I love this kitchen, I have not been able to fill all of the cupboards yet.

Bob has always wanted a house with an office for him and finally he gets to have his own office.

Our family room in the basement and where Ryan likes to live.

Seattle Day 5--Kids Quest--Snoqualmie Falls, Seattle Temple

What a great way to end a very fun week. Fun at Kids Quest, a beautiful view, and a walk around the Seattle Temple. All were a lot of fun.

Peyton playing with is his favorite toy, a train.
Ethan being very entertained with the barn set.

How much more fun can two little boys have but pounding on a pots and pans drum set.

And then there is the big kid playing the guitar for more musical entertainment.

A ride in the jet boat for Ethan.

Then on to Snoqualmie Falls for a beautiful view.

On the path down to the Falls, even Grandma made the trek to the bottom.

Grandma Logan, Grandma Hess and Peyton at the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls.

As a grand finale to our stay a trip to the Seattle Temple and another picture of 4 generations how often do we get to do that????

The Seattle Temple in the back ground. To me there is nothing more important than FAMILY.

Seattle Day 4 - A Day in Bainbridge & Poulsbo

On Seattle Day 4 we drove to Bainbridge Island for a day of shopping and seeing knew sights. We also spent some time in Poulsbo WA.

Julie took us to this ice cream shop called Mora where they make homemade ice cream everyday and it was about the best ice cream I think I have ever eaten.
This picture just shows you how good the ice cream was, we all shared a pint, but from the picture I think that Peyton and Ethan liked it the best.

While in Poulsbo we ran across this Aquatic Museum for kids the kid was teaching Peyton about the different sea animals such as star fish, crabs, anomalies etc that were in the peninsula just outside the museum.

Peyton and Ethan having a great time.

We think the sign in the back ground says Welcome to Poulsbo in Scandinavian.

Julie and Grandma in Poulsbo this is a picture that show how cute this town really is.

Me on the Ferry with the Seattle skyline in the background.

Seattle Day 3 -Peyton Turns 3

May 21st: Peyton's 3rd birthday was spent first at Little Athletes and then at Chuck E. Cheese and in the evening home for a nice dinner, birthday cake, and of course the most important - presents.

Even Ethan want to get in on the fun playing football at Little Athletes
Ready set kick Peyton

Peyton is pretty sure he can make this one.

Then on to Chuck E Cheese for a horsey ride for Ethan

Air hockey with Grandma for Peyton.

Now Grandma and Ethan's turn on the air hockey

Even Granny Logan want to get in on the action with the roller ball.

It's okay if Ethan walks up and puts the ball in right?????

and Peyton right????? after all it is his birthday

Seattle Day 2 - A Day at the Supermall

On Tuesday we went to Auburn to a Supermall. The kids were really patient while we were shopping but every kid needs to have some fun and not just shopping. So here we are letting the boys enjoy themselves.

Peyton and Ethan were taking turns going down this little tree slide. How much fun they had.

This slide came right through the middle of the tree.

Seattle Day 1 - A Day at the Beach

On May 18th 2008 I flew to Seattle to visit with our Daughter Julie and her family.

Grandma Logan also flew in so that we could all be together for a week of fun with the

Grandchildren . On May 19th, my full day here, Julie took Grandma and I to Dash Pointe Beach so that we could watch the Grandkids play in the water and look for sea shells. We found

lots of different kinds of shells and a few sand dollars. (which are black when they are alive so they are hard to find). The weather was perfect and we all had a fun day.

Three generations how much fun could two boys have when they have two grandmas there to work on spoiling them.

A lady at the beach offered to take our picture, but Grandma Logan was not to happy about halving to wade out in the water. Here we are standing on a sand bar so wading out got a little deep but she made without incident (Thank Heavens). Just look though a 4 generation picture, those are hard to come by these days.
Grandma and Grandpa Hess bought Peyton a sand shovel for the beach (among other things that he will open tomorrow for his b-day). He had a lot of fun filling his bucket with water and sand, and an occasional flip of water at his brother when he thought we weren't watching.

Ethan seems to be our water baby, he doesn't like to get out of the water when it is time to go home.

Peyton has found that on a hot day at the beach Grandma's diet coke tastes pretty good and it was the last time that Grandma got any of that coke.

How much more fun could you have than a day with your grandchildren.

Granny Logan following the boys into the water and she did actually get her feet wet. (Amazing)

Ethan getting in a little deep.

Sand dollars that we found and brought home. When we got them home we soaked them in Clorox water and they turned white. It was really fun to look for them.