We Survived!

OK, I was excited about going on this camping trip. We all love to camp and had been looking forward to going to Quartz Creek since before we left the last camping trip. However, Just a few days before we were to leave a woman was mauled by a bear at Cooper's Landing. That is just a small hike from where we were going to camp. And as I mentioned before we DON'T have a camper. (YET) So I was a little nervous about taking my babies to the scene of the crime, LOL.

We had an awful start to the trip. Jerome did not get home till late, and after loading the 4 wheelers onto the trailer he had to go back to work. He loaded the trailer because I failed miserably at it earlier in the day! I thought since I can drive them and can evenly distribute stuff on a trailer, that I could have it ready for him when he did get here. I was so wrong. For those of you ladies that do not know, let me just tell you that it much easier to load a trailer when it is ATTACHED to the vehicle, LOL. I almost went rolling down the driveway! So I found the sweet spot in the middle of the trailer so the seesaw motion would stop and just got off. Needless to say Jerome was not happy when he came home.

He did finally get back and we left around 9:30pm to go to the camp site. When we got there it was raining and everyone else was asleep. Luckily for us Taya and Brian had plenty of room in their pop up camper. So me and the kids slept in there, and Jerome slept in the suburban. We didn't have to pitch our tent at all. Which was great since we did get more rain on Saturday.

Jerome, Brian, and Mike went to Kissiloft to dipnet on Saturday. After Brian and Mike finally got the right nets they were all able to catch a total of 16 salmon. (Future note for any want to be dipnetters: Black nets do not work, Fish can see it and swim around. Mike and Brian learned this the hard way on Friday. They didn't catch a thing.) The ladies kept all the kiddos at camp since it was raining. We had a great time just hanging out together. Sunday the weather was nice and we had fun just being together.

God has blessed us so much. It is such a privilege to live in this awesome place. The beauty of God's creation is all around us. It is true that even the rocks will call out his name. How can one live in this place and not see that there is a God who loves us. After all he made this place for us to enjoy.

I did take lots of pictures, but they are not developed yet. Hopefully I will have them tomorrow and will post as soon as I can. Love you all.

I did it!

Yea! I figured out how to make the slide show work! For those of you wondering, you have to make your show (I used slide.com) then add the code as a html/java script in "add an element". I will leave it up top for everyone to see, then Ill move it out of the way.

On another note, we just got finished with VBS at church and will be leaving to go camping/fishing/clamming... this afternoon! Pray we don't meet bears! My digital camera just stopped working the other day. It is still under warranty, but of course I don't have the receipt anymore. So I am using the trusty 35mm for the trip. When I get a CD made and get pictures back I will post from VBS and our trip. Hope everyone is having a great summer. At least its not raining here today. Love ya

Moose Droppings Festival

The weekend of July 12th we went Camping with our friends the Brown's and the Peterson's. We went to Montana Creek, and then on Saturday we went over to Talkeetna to the Moose Droppings Festival. It is a festival that the very small remote town has every year. The paint real moose poop and put numbers on them. Then they drop them from a helicopter over the gigantic bulls eye. The poop that is the closest wins and you win cash if you have that number. Of course, we didn't win. The kids had a great time anyway at the craft festival.

But the best part was camping and "The Fire". We did learn that Reese Cups make AWESOME smores! But you might want to have a nurse on hand for the sugar rush that you get afterwards, LOL! The creek was filled with KING SALMON. By filled I mean they were in schools of at least 40! But of course you can not fish in this creek anymore this year. They were fun to watch swim upstream though. Still would have been nice to catch one and grill it over the fire. We probably could have got it with our hands there were so many of them!

Russian River Salmon Fishing

In July, Justin went to Solid Rock Bible Camp in Soldotna, AK. It's about three hours away, so when we went to pick him up we made a mini vacation out of it. We rented a cabin on the Kenai River and then went fishing on the Russian River. For those of you who don't know this is right smack in the middle of BEAR COUNTRY! You have to take a ferry across the river to the other side to fish, and that is the only way back of course. Needless to say we made sure the kiddos were right beside us the whole time! Fortunately, we did not see any bear that day, but some of daddy's friends did walk up on one later that evening!

Jared is our kid that ... well let's just say that if anything is gonna happen it will happen to him, LOL. We were only there for about two minutes when he fell in! You have to pay like $6.00 each to cross over so there was no way he could go to the car to get a change of clothes. Thankfully it was a beautiful Alaskan day and the sun was out to dry his clothes. He spent the rest of the day in his brothers sweatshirt with nothing else on!

And of course, we didnt catch any fish (only rocks). But, it was a great day!

Fun with Family

We spent most of the time at the beach while we were in Alabama, but we also went to visit grandparents. These are some pictures of the kids hanging out at Mawmaw's House in Greensboro and with Gramps in Parrish.

Pictures of Beach Trip

I tried to make a slide show, but it is not coming up. Hope you enjoy the pictures from Orange Beach. Maybe I will figure out how to add the rest tomorrow.

Broken Leg and Beach Vacation

Back in May my Airborne husband jumped out of an airplane and broke his leg. He was actually in Jump Master school at the time and was probably more concerned about whether he passed the course than how his leg was. Me and the kids had already planned to go to the Beach and to visit family in Alabama. Since the trip was already paid for and tickets from this place are EXPENSIVE he told us to go ahead. Of course, he has not let us forget that we left him by himself for two weeks with a cast. He was also not suppose to put any pressure on his foot at all.

We had a great time at the beach, but it was difficult to leave him no matter what he tries to convince his friends, LOL. He did have a few mishaps by himself including having to untangle a dog from under the back porch and nearly breaking one of his toes on his good foot!

This pictire was taken a few days after his surgery. Jadyn was a Little Nurse! She could not stop asking, "Are you ok Daddy?" It was so cute but after an hour it became pretty anoying.