Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The one that got away...

The one that gets away is always bigger than we remember and gets bigger with each telling of the story.  But this one REALLY was big.  We promise!

Skyla's first king salmon!

David and Skyla tried to pull it in for 25 minutes.  They got it close to the shore and somehow the fish was able to get the hook out of it's mouth.   Which maybe was a good thing since Skyla was so excited to catch a fish but was thinking of it more as a pet than dinner...

Weed Shmeed

More Flat Top

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Helping Hope

My next race is going to be tough.  Sixteen miles of trail in back country Alaska.  But it's going to be my best race ever.  I'm not doing it for me.  I'm doing it for my Dad.   I'm raising money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation for cancer research.  Check out this link and donate!  All the money goes right into cancer research.  I'm so grateful and touched by those that have already donated.   Thank you!
Let's all fight cancer together!!!

http://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org/netcommunity/forjack

Fish on!

The first catch of the season. David and a couple of other (insane) friends went after work, drove 2 hours to the Kenai River, fished 'til dark (around midnight), then got home around 2am. David is living the dream!!
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

How do YOU eat your watermelon?

Summer Solstice

Even with bad attitudes, a few tantrums, my sore muscles, and dragging feet, I persisted in getting my family to climb Flat Top - this beautiful peak viewable from our deck.  As you can see by these pictures, it was worth it!  Hence, our newly annual tradition for summer solstice has begun... 

Never say never

This is me doing a marathon I swore I would never do again!  What has this Alaskan air done to me?  
I could not have done it without these amazing women.  Hour upon hour of running and sweating together and we now know lots of deep dark secrets.  :)
Happy Moment!!  




And the best part was seeing my girls cheering me on.  David had to be out-of-town and my girls opted at getting up super early and hanging out all day with one of the dads just to be there at certain points along the way to give me 5.  Those 5's carried me to the finish!

I think my friend Cari summed it up best, "It's a beautiful pain!"  

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Love this guy!

 
Happy Father's Day to one terrific dad!!!  You are loved!!!

Monday, June 14, 2010

View from a tent


Our first camping trip of the season...  and it wasn't in our backyard!  This is the picture I took from the tent.  Could it be any more beautiful?!?  This was a new kind of camping.  My friend Marianna and I had pretty much mastered the art of "car camping" but David had a whole new idea - "raft camping."  Everything we needed was packed up on our raft, we floated down the river for a few hours, found a beach, and camped.  No fees, no neighbors, and unfortunately no blow up air mattresses either.  But it was amazing.

Camping Part II

This is clamming.  Low tides created this mud haven and my kids thought they had died and gone to heaven.  David actually caught a few of those suckers (apparently it was harder than it looks as those veterans around us were catching more than a few...) and had a delicious dinner of fried clams tonight. 

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Buddy

Everybody should have a buddy like this...

Color

While dandelions may be noxious weeds to some, we are thrilled to see color!  Our world has changed from white to green.  Skyla has been making necklaces, collars, rings, crowns, and bouquets out of these gems of color.  Good thing we have no short supply of them!

Pet Shop

I LOVE that my girls still play together like this.  It's becoming more rare with Sierra becoming a pre-teen, which made this even more special.  They worked so hard and made the cutest pet store ever!  Karsten was their best customer and when he ran out of money, they had him working for them.  Even Aspen got to play.  (She's in the "nursery" nursing her many "pups".)