African Savanna

We have been learning about the African Savanna in school for the past month or so and soon will be shifting gears to the Rainforest. So Gunner had a great idea of making our school room look like the African Savanna. I think he was envisioning importing plants, sod, trees, maybe a few creepy crawlies, but he settled with inviting the Coke's over to paint a backdrop, and make some animal crafts. You guys did awesome!

pig races

The kids look forward to the fair every year. This year we tried out the scarecrow contest and the boys teamed up with the Coke boys. Being pretty competitive by nature I have to admit that it was sooooo hard not to jump in there and completely take over their project. But they did a great job. They were the proud creators of "Big head scarecrow".


The kids also went to watch their first pig race. They each took a moment to check out the quality of the racers before choosing the one they would root for.


It is quite obvious who Tucker chose to root for. Gunner and Calvin's choice was behind the front runner #2.


Tucker: "Come on #2!, oh man, is he faltering?"
Gunner: "Oh, here is your chance little pig...#2 is stumbling..."


Tucker: "Oh Man!!! He fell! Shoot!"
Gunner: "Oh yeah, #2 is out of the game, go fast little one!"


Tucker: (maybe my bro's didn't see that I was rooting for #2)
Gunner: "Oh! so close! My little pig got second. That darn #5 pig won"



Tucker: "I really was rooting for #5 you know...I was just saying #2 because...I felt sorry for #2 you know..#5 was my first pick for real"
Gunner: "Tucker's pig won..."



Tucker: "Yea, see I had this connection with #5 from the first...."
Gunner: "wait, huh?.."



Gunner: (Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense, I heard him voting for #2...right?)
Tucker: (Cause a diversion before questioning) "Hey, what's over this way?"

Good times!

Perfect Picture

Wow! This one is going on the wall.

Fox Island

Chris and I recently got to go to Fox Island with Kenai Fjord Tours for the weekend. This is such a cool place! You catch a boat from Seward which takes you to the island for a salmon bake lunch, we splurged and paid an extra $15 for a pound of fresh King Crab. Yum! After the lunch was over the rest of the tour group gets back on the boat for a glacier cruise. We stayed on the island with 3 other couples as overnight guests. We all had our own private cabins and shared a common "meal" cabin. Chef Chris was amazing. He prepared all kinds of goodies for us.

There was no cell phone service (except for near a cave on the far side of the island), no computers, no kids, just mind settling silence. Aaaaaaah! Everyone needs to do something like this now and then. It is good for the soul to be out in God's beautiful creation and without any interuptions.

It was raining while we were there but we still enjoyed our strolls along the beach, skipping rocks, and our deep conversations with the Coke's. Yes, our good friends Sarah and Jeremy Coke came with us. They tried their best to skip out but we made them come. :)Here is Chris and Jeremy discussing the big sheep he shot this weekend.And here is Chris losing to Sarah in Poker....again.

Here is Chris skipping rocks..

Oops! I think he accidentally skipped Sarah...Sorry Jeremy!

No worries! She washed back up again. (we had a lot of free time on the island) :)

Lake Pics

Few pics from recent lake visit. Last pic is of Gunner's leg after Tucker removed the leech.

Dipnetting in Kenai

We went dipnetting on the Kenai a couple of weekends ago and were very lucky to have our wonderful friends, the Coke's, join us for the weekend! The kids had so much fun getting up close and personal with the fish guts on the beach.

Chris and Jeremy got 34 fish in one day! Here they are all cleaned, filleted, and vacuum packed. Salmon tonight!

Clear

Over 4th of July weekend we got to camping in Clear, AK. Mom and Dad have some property out there and we all camped on it. It was sooooooo hot! In the upper 80's which is hot for us. We had so much fun 4-wheeling all over the place. Trails everywhere! It was so nice for our family to get away from the moving, packing, unpacking, work, etc. and spend some quality time together. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come with you!