Rain, rain, go away!

In between rain showers on Saturday, we went over to Lake Lucille park to let the boys play. There was a big birthday party going on, so we decided to try out one of the hiking trails. Turns out that the "trail" that we chose wasn't actually one of the hiking paths there, just an old four-wheeler trail that didn't look like it had been used in a while. The boys didn't really care. They had fun looking into the woods for moose, and Noah asks "What's this, Mom?" about almost everything!

He had ventured a little ahead of us...


...and then started yelling, "Mom, Mom, come here! Come here!!!"


He was so excited about finding that mushroom!

The trail ended a little further down at the lake, but there was a big dip in the trail that was full of water. I got them to stand together for about a second for a picture:



Yesterday at church we received some sad news; our pastor has decided to accept the call he held from St. Croix Lutheran High School in St. Paul, MN, where he'll be teaching world religion and a language. He said that they'll be here through the end of August, but we'll certainly miss having them here. Their daughter Meredith and Noah play together, and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to explain to Noah that she's not going to be here.


Anyway...to end on a happier note: Happy Rainy Monday!

Carnival Fun

Last weekend, we ventured over to Eagle River to the Bear Paw Festival. We didn't really stay for long - it was threatening rain again, and we did manage to find a few rides that the boys could go on before it started to rain.

Riding in Dumbo.




On the Animal Train.


Christopher hanging out in the stroller with Daddy while Mommy and Noah went on the Spinning Apple.


Thankfully rides are new to the boys...I couldn't really get our apple to spin, though to be honest, I didn't really try after a while - I was getting dizzy just sitting there!

Mountain Climbing 2

A few more pictures of our adventures in mountain climbing...

On the drive up, we saw these three guys having fun circling around each other:


When we got to the top and took a break, the boys started playing with the slate rocks:


People passing by had to laugh at them, especially when they would hear Christopher say "Oh, tank tu, Owa!" every time that Noah would hand him another rock! By the time we left, they had quite an impressive cairn built!

When we got back to the car, we decided to take the loop out to Willow. Every pullout along the road was packed, so we wound up eating our picnic lunch in the car. Not long after we were done eating (well, Noah was still eating!), I turned to check on Christopher:

He slept for most of the ride home!

Mountain Climbing

Today, we went up to Hatcher's Pass- to go mountain climbing... the first picture doesn't do it justice...it's really high up there!

Above is the view about half way up!

Noah and Alexander made it to the top first!

Here is a view from the mountain top...overlooking Summit Lake!


Look how small the cars are...Christopher wanted to be carried on the way down...and I don't blame him.

Here is a view of the other side.

We found a snow drift at the top...it was kinda like a glacier the boys had fun as it was about 70 degrees and sunny today... and the snow was cold.

More pictures and stuff to come...

Parade and a BBQ

Our 4th started perfectly; the boys slept in until 8:30am! That hasn't happened in months! While it was really nice to sleep in, it left us kind of rushed to get ready for church. The service was moved up to 9:30 so that those who were walking in the parade with the church float would be there at 11.

Alexander had to meet the station crew at 9:45; he was in charge of driving the station van and making sure the parade music all worked, so it was just me and the boys - they did pretty well, though I can't say that I took in a whole lot of the sermon!

After church, we all met at the float. We were about half-way in the lineup, so we had to wait for a while. Just as the boys had finally had it with waiting (they were strapped into a side by side stroller), it was our turn to go.

The theme of the float was "American Pride", so the boys had little flags that they waved almost the whole time! It was so cute!

It was 1pm by the time we finished and met up with Alexander at the park. We had planned on staying for the Mayor's picnic, but a co-worker needed a ride back to the station, and by that time we just decided to go home to eat and all take a nap.
Well...all the boys took a nap! I quickly made up some deviled eggs for the BBQ we were going to at 4.

We were invited to Sutton's house for a BBQ. There we met the church's summer vicar and his family. There were also a couple of kids from MLC in New Ulm who are here helping with VBS and Camp Luther (One of the guys now goes to UND in Grand Forks! Small world.). A few members from the church also came.
It was a pot luck - and boy, did we feast! Alexander volunteered to man the grill - 30 hamburgers, 16 chicken breasts, 16 hotdogs and 2 steaks! The other college guy went to culinary school, so he made bbq sauce from scratch for the chicken.
We didn't get home until about 10:30pm - we had a great time! Noah didn't even want to go home!

Monday Alexander technically had off, but he's so busy that he went in for most of the day to do catch up. After he came home, we went out to Lake Lucille park. We were the only ones there, and the boys had fun playing. We chased them around the soccer field until it got too cold out for Mommy!

The only downside is that we didn't see any fireworks this year. The city fired them off at midnight on Saturday, and since we knew we had such a big day on Sun - we didn't keep the boys up.

MIA

So not a whole lot has been happening lately. The summer here has turned into a rainy one, which we've heard happens every couple of years. Lots of overcast skies and rain for part or sometimes most of the day. Even so, the temps have been in the mid-60's and it still feels warm.

On June 11th, Alexander and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We kept it pretty low key, dinner and a movie - but it was nice to spend some one on one time together!

For Father's Day, Alexander got to go on a Salmon fishing charter on the Deshka River for most of that Saturday. While he didn't catch anything, he had a lot of fun. We do have some pictures - but he took them on a disposable camera that we haven't developed yet, but will put them up at a later time.

Other than that, we've been trying to take advantage when the weather is nice, if only to get the boys to a park. Last week, Alexander came across this one right on Lake Lucille:



Christopher looking off towards the lake...


...to watch the ducks with their babies!




Last weekend, it wasn't raining so we decided to head down Knick Goose Bay Road (pronounced Kha-nik). KGB sort of parallels Cook Inlet and you end up across the water from Anchorage:


On the drive back, I spied this guy:


There were two of them, but I thought it was funny how the one in the picture moved behind the tree to "hide" from us!

So that's about it. Hope everyone has a good 4th of July weekend!