6*4*K

Something big has happened to Bailey this year. She's going to middle school, and suddenly she began to put outfits together, and fix her hair cute, and voluntarily brush her teeth before school. Whaaaaat?! I don't know where my little girl went, but it's pretty exciting (and frightening) to see her turn into this beautiful young woman, all grown up. And can I just say that I am so saddened about the 80's fashion that's come back in style, with the skinny jeans, bracelets, and punky bling bling. I lived through that unfortunate style, and I'm so sad that Bailey has to go through it too! Although I think she looks pretty darn cute, I will put my foot down if she asks for a perm.

Cade on the other hand, is not affected by trends. When I took him shopping for his first day outfit, all he wanted was Legos. And this shirt. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, really? And his old comfy shorts. That's what he wants to wear. Oh well, what can you do? I love his sense of humor.

And this one, can you tell the look she's going for? It's all about Jeannette, the Chip-ette.

She picked all of this stuff out herself and she loves her look.

This day was hard. I thought I would be celebrating this day that my baby goes to Kindergarten, but I was all choked up! I came home after dropping her off and I felt all weird. I walked past her empty room and started to cry, as if she had died. I guess I'm mourning my old life and I'm not sure what lies ahead.....

Now I'm crying again. Get a grip!

She wants to ride her horse-bike she affectionately calls Pinky. And I am just praying those big 5th graders don't make fun of her, or I will give Cade permission to bop them.

After one week of school, we are ready for a vacation! We just spent Labor Day Weekend with my long time friend, Lisa, at her family's cabin in Island Park, called "Thistle-Dew".

I love this place, I used to go there in high school and it hasn't changed one bit.

Isn't it the best?

We floated the river.

This is my beautiful friend and her husband Brig. She'll kill me for posting this picture, but I think it's great.

And I love her dog. If I ever got a dog, this would be the one. Dave thinks I need to rent her dog, so I can just snuggle him occasionally, but not have the commitment of owning a dog!

Give your kids a tool shed and a pile of firewood, and see what they come up with! They put in a full day of work, building things like this teeter totter, and they built some tables and a firepit. Seriously spent HOURS entertaining themselves with hammers and nails.

Avery made this "picture hanger" for me all by herself!

We drove through Yellowstone and it was snowing. Then we came home and sat by the fire. It was a very, very nice weekend. Hope yours was good too.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Boats

OK, I'm a little behind in my blogging, and scrapbooking, (and everything else!) but I'm finally getting around to blogging about our trip to Alaska that we took in June. We had such an amazing time, I absolutely loved this trip. One of my favorite places on Earth! We first went to Eagle River to visit my brother Brett and his family that we don't get to see often enough. Here's the incredible view from their living room window. Nothing but forest as far as you can see! I had backyard envy, big time! And this picture was taken about 10pm. The sun never went down. (Hence, the sleeping masks for the kids!)



Here's their beautiful new home they just built.....

Our first day there we spent at the Anchorage Zoo

Where you can see animals that they don't have in our zoo back home, like moose.....

And black bears.........

And musk ox?! These things are about the ugliest animals I've ever seen. This one had a brand new baby that was hours old, and even the baby wasn't cute!

Day 2 we went to see a show about the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, and even got to meet some famous dogs. This one is an Alaskan Malamute named Buddy. I don't remember which movie he was in right now, but he did some funny tricks during the dog show.

The kids got to snuggle some adorable malamute puppies

Can we take one home, pu-leeeaase?

Bailey is getting a feel for the sleds they use in the race.

And this one is a Siberian Husky named Hugo, the star of the Disney movie "Snow Buddies".
(But his name is Shasta in the movie).

Day 3 we drove down to Seward, which is a gorgeous ride all the way along the coast. We saw eagles, big horned sheep, glaciers, and icebergs.

We hiked a little to get a view of Exit Glacier.

We even spotted a moose!

Visited the Seward Sea Life Center......

Seward is a quaint little town on the edge of the coast with some good halibut chowder in a sourdough bowl. Which sounds good when it's so chilly all the time! My mom was with us on the trip too.

We saw a lot of these adorable sea otters near shore. They're pretty smart because they are one of the few mammal species to use tools. They dive down to the bottom of the ocean to forage for crustaceans like clams, snails, abalone, and then they return to the surface to eat it. They lie on their back, place a rock on their belly, then pound the shell on the rock to open it. Pretty smart, eh?

Day 4 we travelled to Wasilla, (home of Sarah Palin) to take the kids on this train ride through the forest. Thomas was our engine, and this train was creatively constructed by some grown men with big imaginations. (Avery's seat was a car seat strapped to a block of wood!) They created small villages in the woods out of barbie dolls and action figures. It was more heart pounding than you'd think, going over bridges at high speeds on a home-made train! We derailed a couple of times before we even got started, which added to the excitement. Loved it!

Day 5 we drove to Homer where we would catch a ferry boat to Seldovia.

Homer is a tiny little "drinking town with a fishing problem" is what the bumper stickers say. And lots of men. I was definitely feeling very outnumbered. The reason you go to Homer is to fish. Once we caught the ferry we were headed for Seldovia, which is where my Dad's cabin is, and it's only accessible by boat. We were so excited to see this place my dad has been fixing up! This picture of my dad and Dave on the ferry boat was taken on Father's Day. Is there any greater way to celebrate Father's Day than fishing in Alaska?

This is Seldovia, and the minute we got there, we knew we wanted to stay longer than we had planned. It's so quiant, with charming old cabins built on stilts to accommodate the high and low tides. This is a picture of my favorite spot- a coffee shop/bookstore that I could spend hours in. The owner has lots of interesting stories and sells his pottery, oil paintings, used books and other treasures he's collected over his lifetime. I was in heaven :}

This is my dad's cabin, which really needs a "before" picture so you can appreciate the work he's put into it. It's located on the Seldovia slough, (slew) which is a narrow channel off the ocean that accumulates water at high tide, and then it drains out when it's low tide.

Here is the view of the slough from the deck of the cabin at high tide........

and this is the same spot several hours later at low tide. It was amazing! It filled up and drained twice a day like clockwork, I loved just watching the water rise and fall.

At low tide, we would walk along the bank to see what creatures the ocean would leave behind. Here is a jellyfish that got stranded on the rocks.

Dave really caught the fishing bug and the salmon seemed to be calling to him. Actually they were teasing him, because he could see them jumping all around him but none were biting. The ripple in the water behind Dave is a salmon jumping out of the water. Teasing him! Bailey kept putting on the waders to try and catch the elusive fish too.

We did a little hiking.... this is a beautiful trail created by the high school students in Seldovia. Here's what they named the trail when they were done:

We did like it!!!!

Gorgeous!

Day ??? I'm losing track of the days. We went out on a fishing charter boat to catch halibut. That was so exciting!!! I had no idea fishing would be so much FUN. The very first time I dropped my line to the bottom, I had a fish on it. That was the story all day long, there must have been thousands of them on the bottom of the ocean, because every time you put your line in, there was a fish on it. But it was exhausting because every fish was a battle! Each one felt like it was going to be a record size halibut, and then it ended up being a baby!! Here's our guide, Fritz, throwing back a small one.

Another exciting thing about this fishing trip was being surrounded by a pod of humpback whales! They were all around us, it was impossible to tell how many there were, but they were spouting and rolling, and I was completely in awe of them!

We caught our limit of 2 halibut per person. We cleaned them off and cut them into filets on the dock. (That's a hose my dad is spraying :) In case you were wondering.

Not to brag, but guess who reeled in the biggest fish of the day? Ok, I'm bragging!

Time to leave :(

Since we stayed a couple of extra days, we missed the ferry and had to take a small plane back to Homer.

The kids were all over that idea. The seven minute flight was not long enough!!

This is the view of the Homer "Spit" from above. Not at all what I pictured Homer to be. It's a peninsula that is just lined with fishing charter businesses.

That's the end of our adventure. We had to take planes, trains, automobiles, and boats to get there, and it was worth it! When we got home, I found the kids pretending to be racing in the Iditarod. They used their Webkinz dogs and hooked them up to these make-shift sleds containing my food storage. They make me laugh!! Not sure why Bailey has a fuzzy bag strapped to her mouth.......?