The Fish Patchery Again

While Hannah was in school Rachel, Nana and I went to the fish hatchery because the ladder was scheduled to be open. Here are the workers wading in the holding tanks. They catch a fish with their hands and then club them on the head with a "special tool" (looks like a mini bat to me).

After "milking/harvesting" the fish (collecting their sperm/eggs) they send them through a machine that detects any electronic chips that may have been implanted in their heads. This helps them keep track of numbers and migration. They end up in this large bin and get shipped off to the food bank.

There was a wonderful docent there that day. He was very enthusiastic about teaching all the kids who were there on field trips. It was fun for us, too. If you can't tell, the fish he is holding is bigger than Rachel. It's hard to imagine them being even bigger in the ocean (they lose most of their weight on their journey back to our creek).

Rachel was very interested in the fish. She even touched them.

Here is a video of a male salmon being milked. The school kids had eggs in their hands and wanted to fertilize the eggs.

And here is a video of a live female having her eggs harvested.

OK. I know there has been a lot of fishy posts lately, but I think this will be the last one for awhile. Hooray for salmon days!

Salmon Days 2010

Here we are on our way to Salmon Days!

Uncle Tim pulled the girls in the wagon.
The fish in the river.

Rachel is always so excited to see the fish in the river.

Hannah wanted to get a better look (hehe).

We watched a little bit of the parade.

Rachel got a button from one of the floats.

Hannah really didn't want to watch the parade. She had her mind set on jumping houses and pony rides.

Salmon Days are so great! They have a whole children's area full of free activities for the kids. Here we are riding the train.

Little Rachel is always hungry! She ate these strawberries and got a little messy.

The fish are bigger than Rachel!

Rachel could not get enough of the inflatable slide. She loved it!

Uncle Tim liked it, too.

I didn't get pictures of half of the things that we did, but we had so much fun!

A Visit From Uncle Tim and Nana

Uncle Tim and my Mom came to visit the girls and to see the salmon. It was so fun! We loved having them here.

My mom got to pick Hannah up from preschool and see her classroom.
We went to the Renton library near Josh and Karissa's house. We saw the fish swimming in the river there and got to play at a fun park.

Hannah's 1st Field Trip

A few weeks ago I got to go with Hannah's preschool class on thier first field trip. It was a few days before Salmon Days, so we walked to the Hatchery to learn about the fish.

Rachel got to go, too.

The docent was showing the class the stages of growth from egg to fry.

The class got to feed some rainbow trout in one of the holding tanks.

I learned something new on our little field trip. The salmon statues represent the salmon's actual size hundreds of years ago.

One of the girls in Hannah's class, Carlee, had the same shoes as Rachel. They became fast friends.

Looking at the fish in the river.

The class learning about the migration patterns of the Salmon.

On the walk back to class Hannah got to be Mrs. Miller's walking partner (since I was the only mom there with a sibling).

It was so much fun! Hooray for field trips.

These Boots Were Made for Dancing

Rachel has become quite the dancer lately. She loves to wear her boots. And I guess my children don't like wearing pants.

Puyallup Fair

For my birthday we went to the Puyallup fair. Rachel liked seeing the cows.

They had a petting area that both the girls loved.

They had a giant coloring wall. Rachel was really hesitant to color on a wall with markers. At first she would only color on the paper in her hand.

After seeing Hannah color on the wall (and with some encouraging words from me) she finally gave in and colored on the wall. Maybe that wasn't my smartest Mommy-move, but so far I have no regrets.

The girls go to go on some fun carnival rides.

Rachel was super excited to ride the merry-go-round but, sadly, they measured and she wasn't tall enough. Hannah rode the merry-go-round while Rachel went on a boat ride.

After a fun anfternoon at the fair, we went to dinner.

Thanks for such a fun birthday, Dan!