Deep Creek Fun with Family

Last weekend, Aaron's grandparents, Grandma Mary and Pop Pop, came for their every other year summer trip to Alaska. It has become somewhat of a tradition for everyone to head 45 minutes down the road from our house to Deep Creek campground, mostly because Pop Pop loves to fish for halibut and Deep Creek is a beautiful place to hang out at the beach. The kids had lots to do with their cousins like playing in the sand, searching for shells and other beach treasures, chasing bubbles, and packaging up the freshly caught halibut. One of my favorite things to do at Deep Creek is to sit by the fire late at night and watch the eagle families soar through the sky. We had a great time with everyone and can't wait for the next time. 

 

 

Jolee and Bruno loved chillin' by the fire.

Sydney is always up to some adventure, that's when she wasn't holding my mom's dog, Beau.

The fish packaging crew hard at work. Uncle Brian was so patient with Jaron and Addie running the vacuum sealer.

 Lynnie getting some snuggle time with Mac by the fire, and yes, this was at night. Gotta love the Alaskan midnight sun.

 Being 5 1/2 months pregnant, there wasn't a lot for me to do, so I entertained the kids with bubbles while the men put the fish up. Good times had by all!

Al-O-ha!

We're back! Sadly, our Hawaiian vacation is over and it's back to reality, but we had a lot of great adventures we wanted to share. We went to the big island this time around, and took Papa, Grandma, Uncle Matt, and Auntie, Uncle Rizz, Abbi, and baby Kenny with us. We stayed in a beautiful, big house with it's own pool and scenic ocean bluff view. Kona is a beautiful island with a huge variety of things to do. This post will be our snorkel post, one of Aaron's favorite things to do. He was able to take Haylee, Brady, and Jaron on a kayak/snorkel adventure to one of the island's best snorkel spots and got some great underwater shots. Enjoy.

 

Like father, like son.

  

Aaron was able to get some great shots of the huge variety of fish and coral life.

  These turtles were literally this close to Aaron. It would have freaked me out, but he loved it. We went to the Hilton's pools one day to swim and they have a man made cove where about half a dozen turtles were hanging out. Aaron said swimming with these guys was the highlight of his trip. I'll settle for looking at the pics. I know, I am a wimp.

Back-logged blogger

Yes, it has been a while since the last post, but I have been really busy entertaining visiting relatives, stocking my food storage with the bounties of Alaskan waters, all while trying to maintain some semblance of a clean house, weed free yard, and somewhat cared for children. This post is going to consist of shortly narrated pictures from our latest adventures. So here is an update on our new home construction:

These two pics are of the beginnings of part of the foundation and the foundation blocks waiting to be installed. That's me standing in what will eventually be our front entry.

These pics are about a week later with some of the wall blocks installed. The boys are standing in what is going to be the basement of the house. The other pic shows how the basement will open up to the backyard and down to the lake.

This was taken today and it is of our well being drilled. Yeah, we will have water to drink! Still don't know how far this guy has to dig for water, but it shouldn't be too far. Most of the neighbors hit water around 50 feet or so.

Next, we move on to cousin Kimmie and Uncle Matt visiting from Utah. We had so much fun with them, eventhough Kim is a true Utah girl. We had a hard time keeping Kim warm and dry, but she was a trooper and even went out fishing in the rain and caught not only the biggest halibut on the boat, but the most! Way to go Kim.

We took the kids (4 hikers and 2 stroller riders) up to the Russian River Falls to watch all the spawning salmon try and jump the falls. It was a great bear-free hike and the kids made the 41/2 mile round trip like pros.

Then it was off to Homer for the day. We actually got some sunshine which made the trip a great one. We went to the Oceans and Islands visitors center where we tide-pooled and found lots of cool stuff. The best was a dead jellyfish and a eel fish that Haylee found for us. We walked down by all the boats in the harbor and saw lots of halibut being hauled in. Bobbi and I had to laugh at our city slicker cousin when she thought the smell of fish was going to make her throwup. We actually like the smell of freshly caught fish. Little did Kim know that the next day she would go out halibut fishing with Aaron and catch a few halibut of her own.

Once my Uncle Matt arrived, it was off on a hike (one of his favorite things to do in Utah). We started out on the Fuller Lakes trail. I have never done this hike before, but have always wanted to try it. Sidenote: this hike is located in prime bear country of Cooper Landing and the previous day a woman was mauled by a brown bear at the Princess Lodge which is also in Cooper Landing. We got about a 1/4 mile up the trail when we stumbled on some very fresh bear scat right in the middle of the trail. Needless to say we turned around and decided to go on a more heavily traveled trail up to the Russian River Falls. Matt had never done this trail before so we decided to take this safer route. It's just as well because the Fuller Lakes trail is listed as "strenuous" and I was with 2 almost 60 year old men. I know you would have made it just fine guys!

After a few days recovering around my house, we said goodbye to Kimmie, and then headed off to Valdez. We love Valdez because it is so beautiful, has great fishing when the silvers are in, and we can walk to just about everything the town has to offer. Aaron couldn't take 2 more days off work so the plan was for me to drive the motorhome with the kids on the 9 hours (from our house) where he would meet me after making the trip by plane. We made the trip relatively unscathed. Heck, after driving to Utah last year, the kids are champs when it comes to making long hauls in the motorhome. It turns out that Aaron had to make the trip by car too when his flight was cancelled due to zero visiblilty in Valdez. Thanks Lynn for letting him use the Caddy! He loved the "Beaches" soundtrack, especially after the 34th time through!

Here are some pics from our Valdez adventure:

We stopped at a glacier at the hightest point of the trip, just before the downhill run into Valdez. The baby girls loved looking at the glacier through the guardrail. Mostly they just liked being big girls, standing on thier own.

Mom, me and the kids at Bridal Veil Falls. It is gorgeous!

Now on to the most important part of the trip...Fishing!! The first trip out on the boat consisted of Uncle Matt, Papa, Auntie Bobbi, me, and my boys. We knew the silver fishing would be slow as it is still a little early for them. But, after about an hour, Brady hooked into a monster!! We were so proud as we watched him fight that fish. He did a great job, and Aaron netted it after it wore Brady's arm right out.

We got three bags of fillets out of that one big silver. Way to go Brady!! All our poor Jaron got was a baby ling cod, and he didn't think that counted as a "good fish" so we took the kids to a perfect pink salmon hole to get Jaron a "real fish".

Here he is with his first one. He was thrilled. The water is teaming with pinks at this point, so we just let the kids fish to thier heart's content.

Even Grandma got in on the action.

Chloee even got one "all by herself". She then went on to doing what she does best; finding lots of shells.

I had to get one of my own too. Thanks to Aaron for getting all those fish off our lines. He was running ragged up and down that beach. Here is a pic of Jolee being Abbi's pillow in the stroller. Doesn't she look thrilled? Eventually, we let her out where she played in the wet rocks. She had a ball throwing sand in her hair. She even got some in her diaper. How does that happen?

Last, but not least...here is a pic of Jolee pushing Chloee on the Ferry ride home. We decided to take the state "fast" ferry to Whitter to shave off about 3 hours driving time. What a great way to travel! The water was beautiful, and the best part was I wasn't driving!! Congrats, we made it home and you made it through this post!!

4th of July Fun

So for the last two Fourth of July weekends, the kids and I have been in Utah (without Aaron). Because Jaron's birthday is on the sixth, Aaron has missed his last two birthdays, so this year we decided to stay home and enjoy as much of our short Alaskan summer as we can. We have been wanting to take the four wheelers up north to the Palmer area to do some trail riding, so we made a long weekend out of it and had a blast. We were lucky enough to have Dave and his family, my sister and her family, and the Hansens come along.

We had so much fun four wheeling both in and out of the mud. I just need to say that my Haylee is quite the daredevil on the four wheeler. She didn't hesitate to dive in the first mud pit she saw. Brady on the other hand is more like his mother and tends to play things safe. And we all know what a wild man Jaron is. A few more years when he and his machine are bigger, I know he will be getting the muddiest of us all.

Speaking of Jaron, we celebrated his 7th birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's annual Fourth of July block party. It is always nice to see old friends and enjoy the yummy food everyone brings to share. Jaron wanted a Cold Stone cake, so I turned into a Sponge Bob cake which everyone enjoyed. He got a lot of great gifts, the best of which are some Incredible Hulk giant hands that make Hulk sounds when you box with them...so JJ.

We all made it back Sunday night relatively unscathed, except for a hornet sting that poor Jaron and Taegan got in Eagle River. (That's a story in itself).  We are so grateful to have the opportunity to make such fun memories with our kids. I grew up with wonderful memories of playing in the Alaskan midnight sun, and how awesome is it that I get to do the same with my own kids.  Take a look at my boys blazing through the water. Way to go guys.