{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

Autumn in the Finger Lakes is a beautiful experience. I just want to capture it and hold onto it forever.

 We went down to the state park last week and it was refreshing. The water was peaceful, and the sky so blue. That special fall sky blue.

{happy}

 A few weekends ago we went to an open house at a model train club. They had model steam and diesel engines that you could ride on. Tony was in heaven, despite the impression the picture gives.

 All of the old men running the trains had on the overalls and hats. It was so fun.

 They also had small model trains. I particularly loved this blue passenger train. It was so pretty.

{funny}

17 pounds, 30 pounds, 18 pounds

That middle one was caught by my husband! The reason this one is {funny} is because of how he caught it. On Sunday, Zach and a friend went up to Lake Ontario to salmon fish. Unfortunately, the salmon weren't running in the stream they were in, so they didn't catch anything all day. As they were going back up the stream, that big one was swimming around, but it wouldn't bit any of their hooks. So Matt's cousin tried grabbing it but it got away. It swam through Zach's legs and he caught it with his thighs, but it managed to swim through. He wasn't about to leave empty handed after that, so he turned around and dove in the water after it, catching it with his bare hands. He always does things with panache - I love it! The other two were given to them by Matt's cousin, which was very kind. We have 18 pounds of chinook salmon in our freezer, which is amazing!

{real}

 Any guesses as to what this is? If you guessed caviar you would be right. Two of the salmon were female and full of eggs. We weren't able to save all of them, but I made probably a half-gallon of caviar (maybe more) with what we were able to get into a bowl. Making caviar is super easy, though certainly not something I thought I would be doing. Ever. The eggs are quite hardy - I was squeezing the membrane to get the eggs out and very few popped during the process. But anyways. I don't really care for it. It isn't bad, just not really my thing. Zach likes it. He gave a jar to one of his professors, so I'm hoping it really was good.

Aren't they beautiful?!