October 18, 2014
Today is the day of the Return of the Salmon Festival at the Coleman fish hatchery. I have not been to the festival yet, because last year, it was canceled from the government shut down and the year before it was 5 days before I was born. I was excited to be able to ride on the bus to get out there!
Riding on the bus to and from the hatchery is one of the best parts. You can park at the fish hatchery, but I think it is a treat to ride a bus, so, that is what we do!
When we got there, I went straight to check out the fish in the really big aquarium. It was fun to watch the fish!
They had a salmon mascot greeting people. I wasn't too sure about getting close to it. This is as close as I would get. That is closer than Makayla!
We went to plaint some fish! They weren't real fish just a mold that you put paint on.
I stayed busy trying to figure out what colors I wanted on my fish. I wanted it to be colorful!
I had a lot of fun painting!
I got to make a fish painting too! I am not sure what I am supposed to do yet!
Still waiting, but this fish is sure fun to play with! Mom can you stop taking pictures and help me paint please?
I got my fish all painted and am just waiting for the white paper to smash down on it! I am a little tired, since, we had McKenzie's soccer game and then headed here and it is my nap time.
Look at my pretty rainbow fish!
We smashed it down on the white paper and it made a pretty rainbow fish on the paper!
I got really into pushing the paper down. As soon as the lady put the paper down, I started pushing down and smacking it. Mine turned out pretty too!
One of the booths had a duck catching pond. You would net a duck and get a prize that was on the bottom. I just had fun catching the ducks.
Look at all I caught. After I caught them, I wanted to release them back into the water one by one!
The next thing we did was my quail calls with clothes pins. Daddy helped me make mine and mommy and Makaylay made one.
Here's Makayls seeing how well she can call quail!
I am trying my best at a quail call too! If we get good, maybe, Daddy will take us out to help him hunt for quail or maybe not!
We stopped to get temporary salmon tattoos on our arms.
Makayla wasn't so sure about the temporary tattoo. As soon as it was put on her, she tried to grab it off. When it didn't come off she was really confused, so, mom told her we would take it off in the bath that night. First thing in the bath, she was trying to remove that tattoo. Don't worry we got it off. 
We then found the spot where you make salmon egg bracelets. I had fun stringing my on.
Do you think this is long enough?
The finished product!
I made one too! I did a good job of getting the bed on the string that mom held and actually put most of the beds on myself!
On the way to see the salmon, we walked by a fire truck you could climb in. Of course we wanted to check it out.
I thought the fire truck was great! I sat right down turned the stirring wheel from right to left and did a little dance. It was pretty cute!
After driving the fire truck, every big truck we went by I thought I should be able to sit in it and drive it. I would say, "Me, sit, more, drive!"
It was quite the adventurous walk to the salmon! One booth, that had to do with back country pack animals, had 2 mules and a horse in a pin. We went over to see the "horsies" and I even got to pet them. Mom handed me over to my brave dad and he showed me how to pet the mule while she took pictures!
Then it was McKenzie's turn for Daddy to help her! It was fun to pet the mule!
We finally made it to the salmon! To see the fish jumping around in the tank I asked Dad if he would lift me up and he put me on his shoulders!
I of course wanted my turn on Daddy's shoulders! It is so high up here! I can see everything!
Some people moved away and we were able to get up closer and see the fish better!
They had an overlook that you can walk to that gives you a good view of the fish climbing up the later. We had a lot of fun watching them get up to the next rung.
Go fish go!
Here we are with some fish jumping behind us!
No fish jumping, but two cute girls were caught!
Back onto Daddy's shoulders to rest and see better!
The last thing we had to visit was the helicopter before we headed back to the bus to go home! I headed straight for the cockpit to be the pilot.
That was a fun flight!
Makayla headed straight for the back where she gave this little boy a pep talk!
And then sat down beside him to help him not be scared of the flight!
The helicopter sure is fun to play in!
I wanted a turn at piloting this helicopter. I sat in the seat looked at the stirring wheel and said "broke, broke". I thought it had broke and didn't realize that is how a helicopter is supposed to work. We sure had a fun time out at the fish hatchery this year and can't wait to go back next year!
