Meet Stout

Andy finally showed me (Hillary) how to do this, so here it goes...

After many, many weeks of anticipation, we finally picked up our new puppy on Tuesday evening. When we got there all but three males were left to choose from. Those three pups had a big few days, so by the time it came for us to choose they were all asleep and it was all we could do to dig them out of their hiding spots to look them over. We decided on one of the smaller of the three remaining and just had our fingers crossed that he wouldn't be TOO crazy once he actually woke up. After many weeks of throwing around many names, we finally settled on Stout, and so far he's a great little pup. He is very playful and loves to chase us all around. So far puppy owner ship is going well (minus the not sleeping much).

Our first family photo

We let Stout have a few days at home getting to know us before we took him on an epic (for a puppy) adventure. Friday night we figured we'd see what kind of hiker he is. We've been hearing that the hatchery king salmon are coming in, so we packed up the fishing poles, net, and Stout and his toys and headed out to the creek to try and end our king salmon drought. We didn't have any luck catching any kings, and we nearly were carried away by all the bugs, but we did have quite the photo shoot with Stout. Below is just one of the MANY photos taken.

Striking a pose.

Today, Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the sun and take Stout out on the boat and, again, try and end our king salmon drought. We had better luck today! We got out to the cove where all the hatchery kings pool up just before low tide today. We saw quite a few people dragging kings behind them, so we had our hopes up pretty high that today was going to be the day. After a few hours we finally, FINALLY had some excitement and Hillary got to reel in her first king. As she predicted would be the case, her first king was the BIG one (29 lbs to be exact). It gave quite the fight before Andy finally netted it. What a great way to end the drought! Stout didn't really seem to care about the commotion. He retreated to the back of his crate once the fish was actually in the boat and only later did he wander out to see what it was all about. With fish fever back, Andy's headed out again tomorrow with his new fishing buddy, Stout, while Hillary heads to work. Stay tuned for more pictures of our new little friend!

Stout drives the boat. Or he's thinking about it at least.

He decided this seemed like a good place to curl up and take a nap.

But really this is his favorite spot. He was soaking up the sun and warming his belly.

After reeling in this fish, Hillary decided she needs to work on her muscles a little.

Good thing Andy's a little stronger so we have a better picture to show.

Stout is not so sure about this thing that joined our boat.

A 29 lb king gives you a lot of salmon meat!