Sunday, August 26, 2012

Summer has come to an end officially


This summer was wonderful and busy with the kids being home, three families coming to visit, and working in between times.  Tim started a raised bed garden with hoop houses that did fairly well for the first year.  Jaedyn and Eliana played soccer.  Josiah and Ciara took swimming lessons.  All the girls went to camp.

Abby and Elly at the bow getting the full experience

Laurie, Josh, Jaedyn, Abby and Elly

Josiah, Ben, Bob, Jaedyn and Jessa

I am posing before Alialak Glacier

Now school has begun and the kids have finished their first week.  Josiah is in kindergarten.  Eliana is in 3rd grade.  Jaedyn is starting junior high, and Ciara is starting high school.  It was not a hard transition to put my youngest into school this year, as he has been chomping at the bit to do it for over a year now.  Even now he is asking me to go talk to his kindergarten teacher to "give him more challenging work".

I started a new job at the end of May, and that has been a good transition.  I work with great staff and we keep very busy.

In July my sister's family came at the beginning of the month.  You may have read about that in my last blog.  At the end of the month Tim's sister's family came out.  (Pictures above on a Fiord Glacier Cruise with them).  We did some of the same activities, but with a bigger group of kids, but also went on a wildlife cruise out of Seward and went to see the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage.  Our time with them went wonderfully and we hated to see them go.

At ANHC Ciara, Josiah, Jaedyn and I

Three of the kids got to ride on a cart pulled by the Iditarod champion dogs






Last weekend Tim's brother, Andy, and his wife Monica stopped in for a couple days at the end of their tour of Alaska.  It was great to connect with them again, although I had no time off to take.  We did get to hike to Russian Falls and see the salmon there with them, which I never have been able to do before.

Russian River Falls...and salmon trying to climb these things!
Monica and Andy at Russian River Falls
Josiah and Ciara on the way
A cool, albeit poisonous, red mushroom

4 comments:

Cathy said...

Wow. Look how old your oldest is. It's amazing how quickly they change at that age. My oldest, Natalie, is 11, and small for her age I guess (according to the growth charts), but really becoming steady. I'm glad your kids are all doing well in their school. The program there seems like it must be really neat.

JoAnn said...

Sounds and looks like a great summer. So glad the job is still going well. And it's great to hear the start of school has been good.

Canadagirl said...

You all seem to be having a lot of fun up north! I loved seeing all the pics and you for sure are fitting in so nicely. I remember the trip I had when I was a kid up there and your pics bring back such good memories. I pray you all continue to settle in up there and make tons of good memories.

Blessings and ((HUGS))
-Mary

Bushrat John said...

Nice photos, Hope to see more