The Croteau Clan.....so far: Meeting new friends, visiting old friends and the Kootenay Trout Hatchery

Recently Carlee, Meigan, P and myself made our way over to Cranbrook. We met and visited with a fellow adoptive family Corrie, Bruce and company. They have a beautiful family including 3 children from Ethiopia. It was wonderful to meet them and talk about things that only families in this process of adopting from Ethiopia can understand and appreciate. They are also a homeschooling family so I got to ask many questions about homeschooling which will prove helpful as we start this journey in the fall. Corrie's children also have horses which delighted Meigan who got to have a ride (without a saddle) which she thought was cool. We enjoyed a nice dinner and dessert. We hope to be able to spend time with them in the future. Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the van.

Then we spent the night at an old friends place, Shirley. She is also on this rollercoaster and is adopting from Ethiopia and China. I will be great to see her finally able to start her family (look out kids, she is more than ready for you) It will also be wonderful to have a friend with children from both China and Ethiopia like us. Finding families similiar to ours can be difficult. We managed to sqeeze ourselves into Shirley's very small basement suite and then she let Meigan make breakfast for all of us.

The next day it was off to the Kootenay Trout Hatchery which was awesome for Meigan and P
but a little slow for a 15 year old girl (hi Carlee :). She tried her best to enjoy it and was rewarded with some shopping on the way back through Cranbrook.

First we saw very large trout in the moat just outside the front of the Hatchery. How exciting for little kids to see so many big fish at once. The kids were able to feed the fish who are very enthusiastic when it come sto those little fish pellets. P even tried to feed them his shoe which needed to be scooped out of the moat.

We then came upon a tour guide at the turtle pond who let us hold a small turtle. There were 3 larger ones in the pond that were difficult to find.

Inside we saw aquariums of various trout of different sizes and some of the floor models. All very interesting to a 7 year old. We saw sturgeon in one aquarium. The Kootenay Fish Hatchery is involved in a conservation project with these sturgeon. This was particularily meaningful to Meigan as we recently participated in the sturgeon release program into the Columbia river.

Lastly, we visited the fishing pond where kids are allowed to catch and release trout back into the pond. As this pond is pretty well stocked the kids are almost guaranteed to catch a fish. But if you are visiting bring your own fishing rods and supplies as these are not supplied. Families can stay for as long as they want and there is a small picnic area there as well. We did not bring rods and Meigan was quite set on catchinga fish so being the "non-shy" person I am we were able to borrow one from a kind man. As it turns out this man was also a foster parent and the group with him was a foster family outing. As you know we also foster children. What a small world.
Meigan caught 3 good sized trout and with help of a certain kind man was able to release them back into the pond. It was a good day for all. I am looking for more of these kinds of things that are basically in our back yard.