Wednesday, October 1, 2008

ALASKA!!!

ben just got back from his 7 day trip to alaska! he has been waiting for this trip ALL YEAR..and got SO excited for it as time drew closer! he went with his uncles, cousin, brother, & friend. they had a GREAT time! i love seing how happy ben's alaska trips make him...he's made it a yearly tradition now :). he loves this place...can you blame him? look how gorgeous it is up there!!... they stayed in a really nice lodge in gustavus, & fished for 7 days straight..ben's dream!...stephen trying to reel one in :)...hehe!.. bear!...river fishing for salmon. look what they're standing in..i don't know if i could do that! i'd be too scared that a snake or a fish would get my legs! :)...wow!...
i can't even imagine how it would be to reel in a fish this big!!!...
it looks like stephen got the hang of it :)... l to r..ben, stephen (bro), adam (cuz), & jake (friend)...
hiking back from the river one day...so pretty!...look how big all these fish are!!!..reeling in the big catch...and here it is, what ben has been waiting for his whole life (besides me that is, hehe)...ben caught the all time record for all their trips to alaska........a 287 pound halibut!!!!! good job babe!!! it was so huge he couldnt even lift it off the ground!... crazy big!!!!!!!! look at that smile...this fish made ben's year!!... yup..that's a whale!...
look how pretty this salmon is!...the lodge cut, cleaned, filleted, & packaged all the fish they caught...they split it all up so we now have 3 50 lb boxes of fish..mostly halibut, which is sooooo good!!! so there ya have it...ben obviously LOVED his trip. it's always so good to have him back home though! i'm so glad you had so much fun babe..love you!

10 comments:

Bri or Aaron said...

Wow, that was a big halibut!! Aaron has a chance to go to Alaska to hunt next year but I think he's set on hunting bugs in Costa Rica next year. It looks cold!

Heidi said...

That sounds like such and awesome trip. I would love to go to Alaska on one of those cruises to see the whales....what a great experience!

Amberly said...

I can't believe how HUGE that fish was! I'm sure that was so fun for him!

Laurie said...

OMIGOSH!! You didn't tell me his fish he caught was that big!! Tell hi I said WOW, that is a good catch! It took us two years living there to see a small bear! Awesome that he got to see one! Where were they at? Gorgeous, but I am a big Alaskan fan!! Good for him making it a yearly trip we want to but it's soooo expensive too many other things with the kids! I think we are going back in January! Yuck!

Laurie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laurie said...

Oh and be sooo glad you were not there when they filleted those! DISGUSTING!! I was pregnant with Brayton and could NOT get that smell out of my house! No matter what I used, I tried all sorts of strong smelling cleaners! YUCKY! But way yummy fish, I guess all worth it!

Cori Henderson said...

WOW!!! What a beautiful place. I love all those pictures. I've never even thought about going to Alaska before. I'm still jealous about all those trips you guys always go on!!!

Anonymous said...

So when we comin over for fish!!! What a beautiful place! Glad Ben had so much fun.

brooke said...

HOLY MOLY!! I saw some big fish up there, but I am really impressed! He caught some good sized salmon too. How fun. I would love to go back someday. Oh and not to mention you probably have a stockpile of frozen fish in your freezer. Lucky duck. Good fish is hard to come by so far from the ocean!

Spencer, Emily, Ashlee said...

Amazing. Way to go Ben.