A visit to a fish hatchery!

Yesterday our summer literacy story hour ended off the program with a field trip to a fish hatchery in Aura. It was very interesting, they raise them from eggs and then stock them back into the lakes. Just one of these troughs held 30 thousand trout! Of course the kids favorite part was when they took a couple of the trout out and let the them touch the fish (then they released them into a creek). Walter's description was that they felt "soapy" I think he was trying to think of a way to say slimy. You can see his cousin Cale in the pictures too. Oh and another interesting tid bit was that they sedate the fish and clip a part of their fins so that they later can record information on them when they recatch them in the lakes. So if you are ever fishing and catch a fish with a clipped fin or metal piece in its nose you know it came from a hatchery.
Then tonight we went to the story hour in our library. Walter is so fascinated with the huge chimney at the school and it made me laugh last week because he said "mama that smokestack is attached to the school so does the school move?" We hit the jack pot tonight at the library because he found a book about a coal miner and it was about a mine and trains, his two favorite topics lately!
Rose E is just talking away and understanding everything! I had to laugh a few days ago because after lunch Jeff ate a cookie (she has been saying "please" lately asking for food and even said "thank you" the other day too" ) anyway she wanted one, so I said you have to eat your food first, so she then scarfed down her food! She is also making me chuckle too as for when she doesn't want to do something such as have her diaper changed she will scold us with gibberish and it is the funniest thing to hear. As many of you know Jeff and his Dad work together a lot, anyway Jeff had a school board meeting yesterday and Walter was asking where he was going and when I said "to a meeting" she replied "Papa?" (with Papa)? On Sunday too we all went out to the camp which was fun and it took me by surprise because when she saw her baby cousin Brady she said "hi Brady." Little smarty!