Aug. 18, 2008 - The Fair

 ~NINILCHIK, ALASKA~

 

 

Last Friday the children and I went to the fair in Ninilchik.   If you're reading this blog and you're not from our area, then you have no idea what I mean by "we went to the fair."  You're picturing a grand venue with rides, giant fruits and vegetables, champion blood-line horses and long lines at the food stands. 

 

Nope.

 

 

Try picturing a very SMALL fair, with more mud puddles than people, no rides except a mechanical bull, and food stands with no-one at ALL in line.  A fair that it takes longer to drive to than it does to see the entire event.   That's what we visited on Friday. 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE going to the Ninilchik Fair- it's just a very laid-back, small fair.  Still, it's a tradition to go and see the 4-H projects, the pregnant animals, the creative photo entries (you had some great ones, Ger!) and the familiar faces.  (it just wouldn't be the fair without Nancy Veal!)

 

 

Oliver was pretty impressed with these huge turkeys.  They're much bigger than the three turkeys we have at home.  Different breed, though.

Evelyn liked getting a good look at the baby bunnies, because the baby bunnies in OUR yard are very shy!

Thankfully, Evy Jane wore puddle boots, because there were plenty of them to be found!! 

Oliver wasn't real sure about turning his back to these cows, but I assured him they were TIED UP.

Sully got to see his friend Madison's horse, but Madison was nowhere to be found. 

This was my favorite animal at the fair.  A VERY pregnant pygmy goat.  I think I liked her best because she made me feel a little "less-pregnant".   All I can say is WOW.  There MUST be more than one baby in that belly!!

Evelyn enjoyed the day, too, and delighted in everything we saw.  All of the children were great and the day was a complete success in my book.   But next time, I'm wearing my mudboots, too.

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Aug. 9, 2008 - RANDOM PHOTOS

I've been neglecting blogging lately to enjoy our short (VERY short!) summer.  We've been accomplishing a lot, so I thought I'd just throw up some pictures and simple explanations of them for the few, the faithful, my blog readers.  :)

Here goes!!

Tony and the children have been building a new barn.  I won't even attempt to take any credit for it, I'm just a spectator.   It's coming along nicely and I'm just sure my hens can hardly wait for their new coop. :)

We've butchered chickens (48 of them, to be exact).

 

We've spent a lot of time with cousins at the lake.  Parasailing behind our boat.  (everyone's favorite activity!!)

Swimming.

Catching minnows.

 

And waterskiing.   (Sully and Daddy)

Our rabbits that we let loose in the yard have multiplied.  This is the Mama and two of her many young.  See the grass in her mouth?  That's because she was lining her den for yet another birth, which took place the day after this photo was taken.  I now believe she is pregnant with the THIRD litter.   Can you blame me for catching the Daddy rabbit and removing him from the property?? 

 

We've visited some of the local fishing communities, like Homer and Seward.

The children played jumprope with sea kelp and practiced their rock skipping.

 

Plus, we've had 3 weeks of TOTALLY enjoying our visitor from MN, cousin K.  She's an absolute delight and we hate to send her back home!!  The children think she hung the moon and stars, but here we see she actually holds the SUN!  :)

 

We also took a dinner cruise out of Seward one evening and enjoyed baked salmon on Fox Island.

On the way back to Seward we got to see these sea lions.

 

We've stayed plenty busy on top of all of these things, with paintball in the woods, swimming at the pool, baking on rainy days, visiting family and friends, and a few evening board games.  All-in-all, it's been a wonderful few weeks and we've really enjoyed ourselves.    Soon and very soon, it's back to school!

 

God bless you and yours,

~Leah~

 

 

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Jul. 26, 2008 - ~MUD, MUD, and some more MUD~

We've been having tons of rain lately, but on Friday we finally saw one day of sunshine.  Yeah!  So, the children and I took advantage of the nice day and headed to the beach to partake in the local tradition of "muddin'"!

 

 

 

We live near the Inlet, where the mud is a very unique mix of glacier silt, and super fine sand.  When the tide goes out and the mud flats show up, it's time to go play in the mud!

 

So, I took the children (plus one out-of-state cousin who we're privileged to have visiting us) and let them have at it.  They assured me, they only wanted to get muddy "UP TO THEIR KNEES".  HA HA!!

Well, it didn't take long before I looked out across the flats and saw this scene.

Evelyn was up to her waste in mud, Sullivan was ON HIS HEAD, Celina and Cousin K were lying DOWN, and Oliver was already covered up to his armpits in the gooey, impossible to wash off, sticky stuff. 

After about an hour of giggling, squealing, mud-throwing, tummy-sliding, laughing, and rolling in mud, they came in to attempt to warm up.  I was super glad I'd remembered to bring my camera along!

 

Here is Celina and Cousin K.

 

 

Sullivan "Head Stand" Jackson- age 11.  What a goof!!

Oliver "Mom, I'm cold" Jackson- age 7

 

Evelyn "Goosebumps" Jackson- age 4

Statue entitled "My Two Sons".  Heh heh.

 

Then came the worst part of the day... attempting to rinse off in a FREEZING cold creek!  It was SO horribly cold that the girls instantly got headaches when they tried to rinse the mud out of their hair!  Here they are trying to rinse without actually getting IN the creek. 

 Eventually, they got enough of the mud off to be allowed back in my VW van to ride home.   But first, we warmed up by a fire and ate s'mores.  It was a really fun day of memory making. 

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Jul. 15, 2008 - Our Alaskan Vacation (yes, we live here)

 

As some of you may know by now, our family LOVES taking road trips.  Big ones!  We've had the pleasure of visiting nearly 30 states now, but seldom do we venture out and about within our great state of Alaska.  This past week, we finally did some sight-seeing here within our own state.  We had such a great time and drove over 1,000 miles in our big station wagon.  We tent camped and ate mostly from our coolers, and most importantly we made some great memories as a family.  Tony's Dad and his friend Colleen were also along and everything went great (in spite of the rain).  :)

 

The trip started last Monday by driving from our home town to a small fishing community called Whittier.  To get to Whittier you either have to take a train, plane or boat, or be willing to drive your car UNDER a mountain.  That's right.  It's a 2.5 mile tunnel under a mountain and we drove our car through it.  I was not happy, but I survived and tried not to let the children see my fear.   Safely on the other side of the tunnel, we had a couple hours to goof off in Whittier before boarding the ferry Chenega to take the Alaska Marine Highway to Valdez.  Here we are loading (following Tony's Dad's rent-a-car onto the ferry).

 

 

 

Once on board the Chenega, we had a wonderful 2 and a half hour ferry ride through the Prince William Sound.  It was a fishing day and we had the pleasure of seeing the Valdez fleet out catching salmon.   We also saw a whale, but I couldn't get any good pictures of it because it was quite a distance away.

 

Valdez is a neat place to visit.  I've heard it's even prettier when the weather cooperates, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  We got a little wet in our tent that night, but bought two huge tarps for the next 3 nights and managed to stay dry the rest of the trip.

Here we all are at a beach in Valdez.  I promise, I don't really have a cone head, but no-one informed me that my hat wasn't all the way on my head and apparently I was too hungry and busy eating pizza to care.  :)  Hey, I'm just keepin' it real here.

Valdez is a fishing community (and also the location of the end of the Alaskan Pipeline).  We spent a couple hours just walking around in the harbor enjoying the sights and sounds of a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains, marine life, and interesting boats.

 

We were actually this close to this sea otter.  I could have easily touched him (no, I wouldn't do that!).  He was crunching away on mussels.  Later in the trip, Evelyn was eating corn nuts and she exclaimed, "Hey, I sound like an otter!!"

After leaving Valdez, we drove north through Glennallen, then Paxson, and finally onto the Denali Highway.  Well, it's called a highway.  I'd call it the "130 mile long dirt road famous for flat tires".

We were fortunate enough not to have any flats, and found a decent place to set up camp for the night.  Tangle Lake Campground.     We put up the tent (it's a nifty Cabela's tent that hooks to the car) and settled in for a chilly night of sleep.

 

These are the boys.  They are lucky because they sleep through the entire night, unlike their mother who woke up SEVEN (yep, 7!) times that night to use the outhouse.  Camping at 6 months pregnant isn't all it's cracked up to be, folks.  :)   Plus, I think it was about 40* outside.  I'm not complaining, I had a great time.  But next time I'm bringing a bucket, that's all I'm gonna say.

Oliver showing Evy what I mean by "cheese".

Here we are in the morning.   This is what I found when I returned from my 8th trip to the outhouse.  Two children had taken my warm spot under the blankets!  Notice the hat on Sully's head?  Yes, we slept with hats on.  It was that cold.

Celina doesn't care that it's cold, she just likes that it's light enough in the tent to read her book.

We packed up and headed farther down the Denali (dirt road) Highway.  Saw this guy and his friend, both bull moose.  Mmmm.  Wish it was hunting season!   (hey, that's real life in Alaska, people!)

That night we camped close to Denali National Park, and the next day we spent the entire day being tourists and enjoying the gorgeous park and God's amazing creation.

Tony and his Dad.  I love this picture!!

We saw this brown bear twice that day.  Unfortunately, it's the only bear we saw all day!  Usually people see more than that, but I wasn't bothered.  Too bad for the other tourists, though.  :)

See the tour bus making it's way up the mountain side?  Some places had quite a drop off.

We were among the lucky 10% who actually get to see Mt. McKinley while visiting the park.  Sure is a big mountain! 

This was called Cathedral Canyon.  I loved the colors.

After a long day in the buses, Evelyn had plenty of energy back at camp.  We popped popcorn over the fire and drank hot chocolate before heading to bed. 

The next day we drove all the way back home (about 500 miles).  We saw this beautiful fella along the highway and I couldn't help but snap his picture.  We sure are blessed to live in this beauitul state!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our Alaskan Vacation.  We had a great time and didn't let all the rain spoil our fun.  It sure was nice to get home and take a hot bath, though!

God bless,
~Leah~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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