Alaska Grown

...and now back to Fall!

Playing with pictures from the Fall...

Trouble.
A boy and his stick.

What do you see down there?

 

Winter!

 

Neighborhood Walk

Some pictures from a recent walk through the neighborhood.  These were taken mid September.

Now, the first week in October, we've had a lot of rain and falling leaves.

I wish our Falls weren't so short.

Indie's pucker.

L is for Love

A Vacation Back East

The cover for our latest CD :)

Summer Wrap-up

August is over, another summer gone to fast.  Indie turned 2 years old on July 26.

He talks, and talks, and talks.  We can't understand the most of it, but we'll figure it out eventually.   He started going to daycare with Casey this summer too.  It's a great little place right next to Justin's work.  He's doing great there and really seems to love it.

He loves this little scooter.  This is one of the first times he rode it.  Check out that serious, careful face.  And here's Karin with her Barbara Lavallee coffee mug.

He wouldn't really smile and definitely no laughing.  This was very serious business.

Here's Granite, he also had a birthday this summer... he's 1!  And he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday cake.

This was taken the night before Casey's big adventure into the Wood Tikchik State Park with his Dad & Grandpa.  He loved his new fishing waders. 

...and yes, that is quite an outfit he's wearing...I  must have been low on laundry.

... and some more boots.

Deshka at the helm.

Justin's cousin Ben stayed a night while passing through Alaska.  He flys F16 fighter jets for the US Air Force, so00 you know, that's just like way cool!  And he's just a way cool guy anyway :)  Casey would agree as he's asked for him a number of times since his visit here.

Casey the Trooper

Eventually Justin will post his pics and stories from the 11 day float trip he took with Casey and Chip in the remote area of southwestern Alaska.  But for now I'm stealing one of his pictures (and maybe more if he doesn't hurry up).

They had a lot of rain.  According to Justin, Casey never complained, but rather loved every bit of the adverse weather conditions.

Indie Misses Daddy... Mom Misses Casey

Justin called from Dillingham last night, they will be on the first plane they can get back to Anchorage.  Hopefully today.

Indie has been asking for "Da-da" and "A-say" (casey) all week.  He's talking all the time now... well trying to.

My most recent picture of me with Casey.  I see you :)

Wood Tikchik Float

After months of planning, and a week of intense preparing, Justin, Chip & Casey are finally in the Wood Tikchik State Park.

Chip flew his plane to Dillingham on Sunday with most of their gear.  Justin & Casey flew out on Alaska Airlines on Monday morning to meet him.  A float plane service then flew the 3 of them, their deflated raft, and all their stuff, to their start point on Lake Kulik.

They'll start at the arrow and float down through the different lakes and rivers, finally ending up in the area of Aleknagik.  Should take about 10 days. 

Dipnetting 2009

This summer's dipnetting trip was tons of fun and very successful.  This years total was 81 fish.  Not bad.  (The campsite next to us had 123 fish after 2 days, and they still had 2 days of dipnetting left.)

Maggie was a true champion this year pulling in almost 1/2 of the total fish caught.

Here she is pulling her dipnet to shore with yet another Sockeye!

In the background commercial fishing boats chomp at the bit to drop their nets in the water and scoop up thousands of fish.  At this particular time Fish & Game hasn't given them the ok to do so.  As they wait Alaskan residents have a better chance of filling their coolers.

Maggie wasn't the only one hard at work.  Everyone had a job.  Justin waited on shore for Maggie to pull up her fish, then he would untangle, club (yes club, I know it sounds cruel but it's better than suffering, right?), and store in cooler.  Maggie had her net back in the water as soon as Justin had untangled the fish from the net.

Next in the assembly line; Jade & Justin gutting, beheading, and rinsing.  Imagine a weekend day, when the beach is standing room only, and the fish have a run so everyone is pulling them in at the same time.  Every family has their own system and they're all hard at work to keep up with the madness.  Neither words, nor pictures, can describe the craziness... it's a sight to see.

Back at camp, Maggie and Jade load up the 4-wheeler with coolers to carry the fish.  Casey loved riding on the 4-wheeler... next time buddy.

Picture of our camp before the crowds arrived.  This was taken on Thursday, by Friday night every square inch of sand was someone's camp site, or the make shift road system.

Our nephew Granite - the kids were filthy instantly and remained so for the entire 3 days.  

The camp Grandmama... taking care of grandkids and everything else.  She's awesome, we couldn't do it without her.

Little sweetheart... he's 2 now!!

Vistit Justin's Blog and read his post on our dipnetting trip:  CLICK HERE,  he did a much better job of describing it than I did :)