Heavenly Father are you really there?

This was just about the biggest adventure my Husband, girls and I have ever had. We went crabbing and then we were going to go Salmon Fishing while the traps were getting full. Sounds great right? Well not so much. We were trolling with a NON TROLLING MOTOR. It started to smoke. I told Dan that we should reel in and speed up so the motor could cool off. "No Jenae, we are going to be done in 10 minutes it will be fine." So we didn't. 5 Min. later the motor stops. It doesn't start back up. We let it cool for a couple of minutes. NOPE. So doesn't seem so bad does it. Just go to shore get the truck and head home. Did I forget to mention that the truck is a 30 min boat ride north of us? Yeah. Thats a really long way. So we head to the shore, and of course it is the only part of the puget sound with no houses on it, so we start walking along the shore. The girls get tired of sitting in the boat and want to get out. So now we are all walking on the shore while Dan pulls the boat along. Then Courtney stops walking. Sits down and starts crying. So I pick her up walk about 20 ft in front of everyone put her down and go back to help Dan with the boat. Then when we catch up to where poor Courtney is crying on the beach (she wasn't alone she had her sisters) I pick her up and move another 20-30 feet ahead put her down then go back to help Dan with the boat. The tide was coming in and kept pushing the boat towards us making it even more difficult. Not to mention the trees that went from the bank to the water(sometimes under forcing Dan to go deeper in the water), I had to carry the girls around those. These were rocky beaches too, no soft sand to walk in. After about 45 min of this we reach a house with people in it. Aubrey was saying prayers over and over to have the engine start, but it still didn't. My prayer was that we would get home safely and ASAP. Well it ends up we are 1 hr drive from the truck and van. So my Husband finds a guy nice enough to drive him back to get the van. The girls and I stay on the beach. Luckily we had brought lunches and snacks on the boat, and the girls didn't have to go potty! At one point in time a neighbor of the guy that was helping us came down to kick us off the private beach. Until I told her what happened. It was funny, this was our conversation. Her "Are you part of the party down the way, cause this is private beach and theirs is over there." I said "I wish because then I would have somewhere to go. Our boat died and we are getting help from your neighbor." She looked and saw all of us sitting on the beach and felt bad for us and said "Oh no, do you need help, any thing I can get or do for you?" My reply was "We really don't need anything, but to borrow your beach would be great." She laughed and said we were welcome to it. She ended up being very nice and we chatted for about 10 min. Well Dan returns with the van and the girls and I climb in. It feels so good to sit in a nice clean car! So then, the boat gets put out with this guys boats and is safe from the incoming tide. We say thank you and try to give the guy money, but he refuses and says he has been there before. Then we have to drive all the way back to get the Truck. On the way to get the truck we realize that we still have the crab pots out in the middle of the Sound! Hmmm tricky. How are we going to get them. Time for another prayer. We pray for help to think of a way to get the pots or have some help somehow. When we get to the boat launch Dan runs down to see if any fellow crabbers would be able to help us out. Low and behold, who is there? A family from our Ward at church! They are more than happy to help us out. Now tell me what are the odds of that? I mean really. That is a miracle to me. The Lord really is there and he really does help us. Just when I was not going to be able to handle any more stress, the Lord sends him in at the exact moment Dan went down to see. I am so glad I know that HF is there and when we need him he uses others to help us. I need to remember that and be there for other people too. Anyway the good thing is, we got our pots and even got two keeper crabs from the ordeal. They were at least 1000 times better than any other crab I have ever had! Ok maybe not. But they were really good. Our 3 hr boat excursion lasted 8 hrs. Because after we got the Truck we had to go back to get the boat. Then back home again. Moral of the story is... well there are several.
1. There is a God and he loves and helps us, even if not the way we want. ( He gave us people willing to help all along the way)
2. Listen to others (speeding up to cool the motor off was a good idea although I was very proud of myself for not mentioning that for weeks. No rubbing in on my part. It was hard but I did it. It wouldn't have helped anything, but a lesson was learned.)
3.Crab tastes extra good if you catch it fresh, and have to work really hard to get it! :)


Here are some pics of the prize crab and the now happy children!

Amazing what a bathroom and a nap in the car will do for these girls. They were so happy, that after all that, we had some crabs!

One dungeness and one red rock. Both delicious. Courtney would take some and shove it in and want it faster than I could crack it. Then chew it for a minute and spit it all back out! I didn't give her anymore after that. We had 4 of us sharing 2 crabs. Not enough to go around spitting it out! Silly girl. Look how cute she is though.

Whit was so excited. In case you couldn't tell.

Aubrey was reading the fish and wildlife guide to identify the different crab and to see if we could go again when we got our boat fixed! Silly girl. She also could see Heavenly Fathers hand in our lives and thought it was "Awesome!"

We still don't have the boat fixed, but that is okay. Someday... right? Dan really wants to get it fixed and sell it. Anyone want a boat? It will be in working order when we sell it. He wants one set up more for fishing... Anyone?