Rock Fish.

Kali = Green Thumb.

My Kali loves to plant. We spent all day Memorial Day at my mom's planting flowers and working in the yard. Kali picked a little Forget-Me-Not in a friends yard and decided to bring it home to "plant." She stuck a little hole in the dirt with her finger and put the little flower in and, oh so carefully patted around the stem, and....it grew!

In the car...

Beach Fun Day.

Kali and her bestest Valdez friends. We have a lot of fun playing with these guys!

Camping, Shopping, & Fun w/ Uncle Cody

These are from back in May. We went camping in Eagle River and played in Anchorage for a few days for my birthday. It was fun to visit with Cody, the kids really miss him - he is honestly one of the best uncles I have ever seen!

Corey.

This kid loves to eat! But it has to be with a fork - there was one cut up on a plate for him but when we gave him the fork he jabbed another from the serving plate and went to town. I have a feeling he's going to be like my brothers (BIG). I just went shopping last weekend for his new 3T wardrobe (he's 18 months). Is it normal when they're this young to wonder how you're going to aford to feed them when they're teenagers?

May Day Fly-In

Every year they have what's called the May Day Fly-In in Valdez. Pilots bring their planes and compete in take-off competitions and the like. They also do flight-seeing tours. The VCVB does the marketing for the event - so this was one of the first things Dave had to undertake after taking the job...of course most things were already set in place he just had to see them through. It was VERY windy and cold this year, so the kids and I didn't stay long. We were there long enough for some YUMMY turkey legs (a personal favorite) and cotten candy (another favorite - I love fair-like food!).

Piano

I've decided it's high time I learn to play. My sister took a few lessons several years back and my mom kept her beginner lesson books. I'm half-way through the first one - teaching myself. My mom knows a little and Dave knows about reading music so they're both helping. It's a lot of fun and I get very excited (probably overly so) every time I master a new song. Currently it's 'When the Saints Go Marching On' - both hands even!

The Biltmore Santa Barbara

My hubby is attending the Alaska Media Roadshow in Santa Barbara, California this Fall. This is where he's staying. I soooo want to go! We're trying to work it out with miles and childcare...it's not a for sure thing, but it would be so awesome! I haven't been on a trip for a few years and what a nice way to celebrate our fifth anniversary!

Park dayz are here again!

My kids LOVE the park! As I'm sure most do. Every day Kali asks, "can we go to that one place, you know the one we went to yesterday?" It's become part of our walking routine - we stop by the park on the way home and play. I like it better that way. I've always felt funny strapping them in to the stroller or bike trailer so that I can get exercise and they have to just SIT. This way I can rest from my long walk while they get exercise.

Fishing.

We were fishing for halibut or yellow-eyed rock fish. We had no luck but did have some interesting catches and adventures.

Three different rock fish. In the picture above you can see a bloody spot on David's finger. He was poked by one of the spines of the fish - which are poisenous. His finger was numb for the rest of the night. Nothing serious - but definately can be if you're allergic!

My brother snagged onto someones line that had been snagged in the rocks. This was what was tangled in the old line. Some kind of funky star fish thingy.

Same fish as picture number 2. These fish are bottom fish and when they're caught their stomachs and eyes get all bulging from the pressure change. Usually if you poke their stomachs they'll swim back down. Otherwise they float, as this guy did. Amazingly the Bald Eagles see these fish from their perches in the trees on shore - and all of a sudden they'll just be there. Most of the time you never even see them coming. We knew this guy would be coming because we could see him, so we knew he could definately see the fish! He waited until the fish was about fifty yards from the boat before he picked up dinner. I tried to get a picture of the eagle's decent to pick up the fish - would've been much cooler - but you know how it is with point-and-shoot cameras...

The Eagle is headed back to Middle Rock Light where it had been watching us from.

Shrimping

Gaphing the bouy

Corey helping organizing the rope. The machine does the pulling (back in the day we used to pull them by hand) . It's much more enjoyable now! The pots rest on the ocean floor at about 360 feet in this particular spot.

Emptying all the shrimp into the bucket. Last night there were only about fifty-five total - not a good night. The first trip out this year there were 190, which is better but of course, we prefer the 300-400 nights.

Here my brother is replacing the bait. The shrimp swim in those cone shaped openings and can't find their way out. Sometimes, more often then we'd like, an octopus makes it's way into the opening as well. When that happens we pull a pot with an octopus and a bunch of shells from our shrimp. Sometimes we keep the octopus for halibut bait. Earlier this week my brother found a recipe online and actually cooked one. I refused to try it. I'm pretty sure the leftovers (7/8 of the meal) are still in the fridge.

Throwing the pots back. We check them every other day. Each boat is allowed five pots. We have one string of three and one of two. The pots themselves are very heavy but you also clip weights to the rope.

Corey is still a little unsure.

Trying to give you an idea of the size.

In the bucket.

Either on the way in or while we're fishing after pulling the pots - the heads are removed and the shrimp are rinsed in fresh water and bagged. If we're not going to eat them that day or the day after we freeze them after filling the bag with fresh water.

It's been a year.

A little over a year ago my sweet baby girl was diagnosed with Henoch-Schonlein. It was a scary time with frequent trips to her doctor and the hospital lab - pretty much every day for three weeks. Finally she was admitted to the hospital for iv fluids and only then did she get better. This picture was taken almost two weeks after she was released her legs were still swollen with arthritis but she had gained a little weight back. The recovery was long, she tired very easily, we kept her home from church for eight weeks giving her immune system time to recover and build back up before going back to nursery.

BUT the reason I'm writing this is because we are celebrating now - her doctor told us that if she didn't have any recurrences within a year then she was no more likely to get it again than anyone else. I think she'll always be on the petite side, but just recently she's put on a few pounds and finally looks really healthy to me...I love it. We are incredibly blessed.

From trike to bike...