Random fall pics

Some pics from this week.

Yesterday I saw these two caribou on my way home from work.  It was rainy.

On Saturday afternoon, the Ciara, Eliana and I took Heather and Hannah geocaching.  For some reason this is the only pic I got!

Fireweed has finished blooming - fall is officially here

There are three kinds of berries in this picture - on top the dark red berries are the cranberries, the dark blue ones on the left side are moss berries, and I'm not sure the name of the pretty ones in the center, but they aren't edible.

In the past week, the fireweed has finished its blooming.  There has been a lot of wind for the past couple days, even to the point of closing down some businesses and knocking down a lot of trees in Anchorage.  We didn't get the 130 mph winds they did up north, but we have a tree in our front yard that is partially fallen, being held up by a neighboring tree on the other side of our driveway.

Doesn't this egg dish look yummy?  Tim saw one of our friends hinting on facebook to her husband that she would like him to make her some, and decided to treat me with some too!  It is sliced tomato with a fried egg, chopped red peppers and melted cheese - and it was delicious - especially served in bed!

I have been fighting my second cold in the past month.  So much for the wonderful immune enhancement of vitamin C and vitamin D :(.

We had a short week due the the holiday on Monday.  I enjoyed having an extra day to play.  We went geocaching and picked some low bush cranberries.  On Tuesday or Wednesday evening we found a large patch of wild strawberries about a block from our house and picked a small basketful.  It was nice to eat them with ice cream.

Elly displaying our harvest of wild strawberries.  (She didn't get new glasses, she's wearing some safety glasses she found in a geocache).

Modest swimwear

I just ordered one of these swimsuits for my dear daughter Ciara from www.simply-modest.com.  We've had a time lately trying to find a swimsuit that will cover her appropriately.  She has become a woman in body and her old swimsuit just won't do any longer.  We've been disappointed with what was still on the rack at Fred Meyer and Walmart (our only options for new suits in this area), and didn't have much luck used either.  We got online today and found this lovely suit (top picture below) that we both really liked right away.  It is more modest than we'd hoped for, but we are more than pleased with it.  I also bought a pattern so I can make more for me and my other daughters too if we like it.

 

This is the material hers will be made from

Deuteronomy 22:1

Deuteronomy 22:1  "You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them.  You shall take them back to your brother."

This verse came alive to us today in an interesting way.  I read it in my Bible reading this morning, then  I read an interesting story about some others who tried to live this out concerning a goat they saw out of its pen on a roadside.  Then this evening after I got home from work, my 5 year old son was coming from the neighbor's house where he had been playing, and forgot to shut their gate properly.  Their dog got out and the neighbor had to go after it.  When I heard this, I didn't immediately get up and go help look for the dog to make sure they got it back in the yard.  Honestly, I didn't even think about it until supper time.  I remembered the story about the goat and was telling it to my children when it hit me like a brick in the head:  the dog!  My son and I went to the neighbor's right after supper and he apologized for leaving the gate open (he was very brave and did a good job).  I made sure the dog had been found, which it had, and apologized for not coming to help find it sooner.  I am hoping that this experience helps me to be quicker to do what is right in the future, and I know that our visit helped heal relations that were strained by this with our neighbor.

Here is another fun puppet show regarding this passage:  http://www.chabad.org/kids/article_cdo/aid/1060624/jewish/Miracles-Tales-of-Rabbi-Chanina-ben-Dosa.htm
It is taken from a Jewish story about Rabbi Chanina who took literally Deuteronomy 22:1-2.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Sea Kayaking

Mt Iliamna was out on our way to Homer the morning of our trip.  I also took the picture of Mt Redoubt from my last post at this same time and place.

I am so proud of myself for being able to post this.  I used to be afraid of kayaks, but was very interested in hearing about other people's experiences sea kayaking.  This year for a belated anniversary celebration, Tim and went down out of Homer and experienced a day of sea kayaking with a man and his wife and a group of 5 others on the other side of Kachemak Bay.  I hope this won't be our only experience... I'd love to get some of our own kayaks and do this more, and even get the kids into it!

That is me at the back of our sea taxi ready to go over the Kachemak Bay to our island kayaking adventure.

Tim on the back of the sea taxi

That is the only pic of us together that came out :(.  We were exploring a little grotto and also got to see some cool little red birds on the cliffs.

My faithful partner and kayaking buddy.

Our guides behind a natural arch of rock near the grotto

Here our guides are displaying what will be part of our lunch - bull kelp

They also showed us some other edible plants on a little island which they chopped up and added to a salmon chowder that was quite tasty.  They served it with homemade bread a butter.  It was delicious!

 

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

Early in July 2012

It must be time for an update.  I ate my first salad out of the hoop tents I posted about last time.  Guess it has been too long. 

We've been pretty busy this summer.  Two weeks ago my sister Linda and her family came up from Nebraska.  They had a rough time making it after missing a plane and selling their house instead, but we had a grand time while they were here.  We ran around seeing tide pools and wildlife in Homer, watched the dipnetters and went to a salmon weir in Kasilof, viewed the visitor's center and my workplace in Kenai, went to the Exit Glacier near Seward then ate seafood at a place in Seward.  They stayed and went on a whale viewing trip.  On the fourth we didn't see any fireworks, or hear any for that matter.  It's hard to see them anyway when it doesn't really get dark at night.  On Sunday we were going to go with them to Anchorage to see the Alaska Native Heritage Center, but they were tuckered out and decided to stay here longer to rest before their red-eye flight out that night.

Over the past 3 weeks illness has hit our family one at a time, starting with Josiah.  It is a bad viral infection that gives sore throat, fever and congestion with a little cough.  Ciara had it while Linda's family was here.  Elly had it, now I've got it.  I went home early twice this week due to symptoms and I still in not completely over it.

Elly turned 8 while Linda was here on July 7.  Her birthday present still hasn't arrived.

On July 9, Tim and I celebrated our 18th anniversary.  We went out for dinner that night, but we will go sea kayaking across Kachemak Bay tomorrow.  Before Elly was conceived we had planned to spend our 10th anniversary going to Alaska for a visit.  She was born 2 days before that date and the trip didn't happen.  I think this is much better anyway.  Now we can spend all of our anniversaries in Alaska if we want...!  No place I'd rather be.

This week we've had a couple visits by moose cows with babies.  One that we've seen a few times has twins and they gave us a nice show in our back yard.