Thankful in February

*I tried to post this last week Monday but it didn't go through. :)

Yesterday was a day that I was able to reflect on how thankful I am to have these people in my life. A day that made me thankful for the time I have with them.  It was a good day. On Friday I hit up a thrift store and had found a brand new Farming Game for $3.95! Score! It sells for like $40 on amazon.  Reese and Lane started playing yesterday afternoon and didn't stop until Lane needed to head to his basketball game at 12:30.  

Speaking of the game... Lane had an awesome game! It was their first playoff game and they won 26-25. All the parents were pretty on edge toward the end.  We are really proud of the player Lane is. He always tries hard and he is a gracious teammate and opponent. It was really fun to watch.

After the awesome b-ball game Reese and I made a thanksgiving dinner! I had planned on making a turkey before the weather got warm again since we weren't home for Thanksgiving. It was really yummy and we had all of our family faves.

 

It was interesting how the timing played out. I had planned to make our Thanksgiving meal for the past week.  But it could not have happened at a more meaningful time. We found out on Friday night that my uncle Will had died in a motorcycle accident that day. He was a funny, kind man who was a great example to his family and always such a welcoming face at all of our family get togethers.  He and Reese spent many get togethers over the years laughing together. He will be greatly missed.  

I spent the day feeling so thankful for the present. For the time I have with the ones I love so dearly.  We prayed for my aunt and her kids before our meal (in our family's funny way of just naming people off at the end of our prayer).  And I looked at that hubby of mine that I've loved through happiness and many trials and my kids who make me crazy and make me laugh my head off a moment later, and I was thankful. 

Ayakulik River Days 3 & 4

Ayakulik River Lodge...continued!

Vic watching Tom and Dennis fillet our fish.

 

My first sockeye!

The kids made a little fishing pole and hooked salmon eggs to it and little tiny fish would swarm the hook.  The girls really had fun with this.

Vance's monster Silver!  It took him awhile to reel that one in!

Here they come again.  This time we sat back and just watched them pass by us.  They really cared less that we were there.

If you click this picture bigger you can see the bear on the right peaking his head around the side of Lane.  This is hilarious to me for whatever reason.

The kids just sitting on the bank of the river watching the bears.

The bears came back over by the lodge that same evening.

These sweet girls were not afraid of the bears at all!

Michele and I looking au natural.

The beach, we didn't get to spend much time on it because it required crossing a river to get to it.  But this is where the plane landed and took off.  There was pumice stone laying all over the beach.  I put a bunch in my pockets and gave it out at my MOPs group spa day to be used as a foot scrubber!

Goodbye Ayakulik River Lodge!!  This was a once in a lifetime experience!  I couldn't really put the experience into words.  It was a beautiful place with so much wild life, deer, eagles, bear, seals, etc.  The company was great, Vic, Vance and Michele and family and the staff, Tom, Amy, Wes and Dennis were all great fun to hang out with!  The day we took off to come home it was really, really windy.  The plane had to land in a little village called Ahkiok so we could switch planes and he could go back for the rest of our group.  It was so windy that it took three tries to land.  Every time we would almost land, a gust of wind would pick the plane up and we'd have to go back up and approach again.  Lane and I were throwing up in the back of the plane, it was crazy!  That was quite an Alaskan experience!

Ayakulik River Day 1 & 2

In August our family had the incredible opportunity to go to the Ayakulik River Lodge which is on the other side of Kodiak Island.  My sister Michele's father in law Vic, had some connections to the people who run the lodge and really want to take us and Michele's family there before we move back to the CA.  He said it was probably the most beautiful place he'd ever been and I think he might be right :)  The only way to get there is by helicopter or by a small plane with tundra tires on them, which we took.  The little fixed winged plane landed on the beach next to our little piece of paradise for the next few days.  The picture above shows the back side of one lodge, in the distance to the right is a fish and game cabin, and to the left is another lodge.  The Ayakulik River runs right into the ocean just to the right of the picture.

The fishing was amazing.  I was fly fishing and flossing red salmon... and I don't fish well.

Michele and Vance took their three oldest kids and we took Lane and Estelle.  The little ones stayed back which I was very thankful for!  Estelle and Hazel did lots of creative things.  Picking wildflowers and arranging them in a Miller High Life can was one of those things!  The staff at the lodge was so great!  One of the guys Dennis, made the beer can vase for them, as well as helped them pick the flowers. :)

There was a family of bears that came around atleast once or twice a day.  A mama and her two (2nd year) cubs.  Right after we flew in they came down the river right in front of the lodge.  We were so excited!  They are not real aggressive bears and they are used to the people there and mostly that those people do not try to hurt them.  One day Michele and I were walking down the trail to the other lodge and we spotted them walking toward us on the same trail.  We slowly turned around and walked back up the way we came, just to give them their space.  And then we quickly got our cameras to snap some pictures!

The 2nd day they started fishing by the wier (the wooden structure in the background, used to count fish).  It is amazing to watch them fish and run and play with each other!

Lane caught a nice red!  We have salmon coming out our ears!

I think Reese liked that I was fishing with him and actually having fun!

These girls... they had a lot of fun together, and Hazel was quite patient with Estelle's shall we say "moments..."

Where the river runs into the ocean, just as the sun went down.  Pictures do not do this place justice!

One of the cubs playing with a buoy.  It was so cute, reminded me of a puppy playing with a chew toy.  Only much bigger...

Got some good, up close shots.  They are amazing and full of personality!

Mama got a fish.

Our haul one of the days and our fun group!  Vic was such a great sport to hang out with all those crazy kids!

Willem got to be a pro at netting those fish!

Lane loved hanging out with his cousins and doing lots of fishing!

This place was amazing! All the food was provided and prepared for us.  3 meals a day and yummy snacks.  The food was so incredibly good too, and best of all, Michele and I were pretty happy that we didn't have to prepare it!

Bear Viewing Trip

We had an amazing opportunity to go bear viewing in August.  We have lived here for almost 3 years and I had only seen one bear and the kids hadn't seen any.  We left Ingrid with a babysitter and we headed out to the Katmai Peninsula on a float plane.  The flight was beautiful.  We were flying over a beach and I looked down and there were two bears running along the beach.   I was a little nervous that when Estelle saw bears that she would get scared, but she really didn't seem to care.

 The first bears we saw were the two behind us in the picture below.  The one bear next to the seagull was the laziest little fisher.  He just hung out on the shore and watched the fish swim, his head moving back and forth, back and forth.  Every once in a while he'd take a swipe at one.  The other bear was running all over the river catching fish.

 They were so close at times.  These bears are quite used to human just standing there taking pictures of them so they could care less that we were there.  Of course we respected their space, but if they came nearer to us we just kind of hung back and let them do their thing.

 This mom and her first year cub were my favorite!!  Look at that little one standing!! It was the cutest thing.

 This guy was quite the fisherman!

 We saw a total of like 12 or 13 bears the 2 hours we were out there.  It was amazing, I really don't have the words to describe it.

 It started raining quite hard toward the end.  Estelle doesn't really like to be wet or cold.  But we all had a great time.  It is certainly something I will remember for the rest of my life and hope the kids will too!

Our Annual Summer Trip to WA: 2015 Edition

I took the kids by myself to Washington this summer.  The flying was tiring, but it went smoothly.  Ingrid for the most part was good, busy, but atleast she didn't scream.  Our time there was packed full of events.  One of Reese's cousins got married in Seattle, my Grandma's 80th birthday party, and we headed over to Moses Lake for 3 nights too.

Girls picking blackberries at Grandpa Jim's

Before we went to the wedding we met Kelly and family at Chuck E. Cheese.  Good times!  Those two boys have been friends since preschool and I'm so thankful that I got a great friend in his mama out of that deal!  Kelly loves my girls and my girls love her too!

 Ingrid is the selfie queen, we totally practice at home.

 Later on that day we headed to the wedding.  I am so happy that my kids have so many cousins on both sides!  Grandma and Grandma (aka Mop and Poopa, aka Papa and Mimi) loved having those kid there I'm sure!

 Abby, Estelle, and Raylan

 My Grandma's 80th birthday!  She is amazing!  What a wonderful example she has been to us all.  So thankful for her!

 Those boys... 12, 11 and 10 what in the world?  And where did that 9 year old Will run off to?  They have so much fun together!

 I got a good one of these two!

 Daniel, Lane, Merit and Will (there he is)!  Kelly's family also met us in Moses Lake!  Hanging out at the arcade and in Vance and Michele's yard was a fun time!

 The water park the next day!

 The cousins!!  Kinda hard to get all 10 of them to cooperate.  But a great picture none the less!

 My three munchkins!

 During our down time, which wasn't much, we enjoyed hanging out in Grandpa's yard.  After Ingrid would go to bed we would sometimes take an evening golf cart ride around the 40 acres I grew up on.  Good times.

One of the last days we met Mop and Amanda and kids out at Beachwood to swim.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of Ingrid in the water.  She loves it!  I also wish I would've taken more picture of my girlfriends and their kids!!!  Anya, Lindsey, Kyrsten and Joelle.... we didn't take any "usies"!!!!  What in the world were we thinking!  I think every year this trip gets a little harder to accomplish, especially when Reese doesn't come.  But the memories we make are worth it!  Someday we will look back and think we were crazy for taking a million kids to an arcade or waterpark, etc.  But it was some good times anyway!