Sharp Shooter

Boys will be boys.....Some of the best memories I have growing up were from living in the country and heading out into the woods with bb/pellet guns, bows and arrows and even .22 caiber rifles and pistols. Those were the days......My friend Pat and I would spend countless hours out in the woods on his parent's property and other nearby woods seeing how much fun we could have with our guns and bows. You can imagine my delight when Matthew came home from cub scout day camp just over a year ago and couldn't stop talking about his chance to shoot the BB guns and the bows. His face just lit up when he would tell Karen and I about shooting. Memories from my childhood flooded back as he shared his passion for shooting. I knew then that it wouldn't be long before I would have the opportunity to spend time with Matthew shooting guns and bows. We spent some time going to a local archery shop to try out some bows and seeing if the time was right to get into archery. In the end, we decided it was a better time to get a couple of bb/pellet guns. On Christmas day 2007, Matthew and I both unwrapped new rifles. It wasn't long before we were out in the backyard taking our first shots. We both used Matthew's gun and video taped our first shots. You might be surprised at the results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3FFUM-yJH4
It was no fluke, Matthew spent many bb's that day and since then, and he is an excellent shot. As you can see, our backyard is no endless acres of woods, but it will do for now.

Fishy, fishy.....

For the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to go out on the Washington coast and do some salmon fishing and a bit a crabbing. We always go during the second week of August. We head out to the coast the evening before we are going fishing and the next morning at O'Dark thirty, we are on the boat, heading out to sea. There are generally about 8-10 of us and the charter boat can handle 16. It's nice not having a full boat!

First, we catch the fish.....

Then the deckhand cleans the fish...(Don't worry, we tipped him well!)

On the way in, we pull up the crab pots and see what crawled in.....

Generally, we were pretty lucky and the crab were plentiful. Very tasty too!

This crab insisted on having his picture taken with me..... :)

Time to get started

I've wanted to start a blog for quite a while now, but just haven't pulled the trigger. Well, now that fall is here and the weather is colder and wetter, I guess it's time to get started. The title of my blog---Pacific Northwet is not a typo. It just seems fitting.

The kids started school just over a month ago. Here are pictures we took on their first day of school.

Amy is now in middle school and in 6th grade.















Matthew is now in 4th grade.