Home Alone

So this is the start of a couple of weeks without the hubby around. It's crazy we are in Florida for 3 years and he never leaves for more than a few days. We are in Alaska for 3months and he gets sent to a 2week long school in Oregon. About three weeks after he gets back they have him scheduled for another school in Hawaii. I'm not going to complain about the Hawaii school yet, its still up in the air as to whether or not the girls and I get to go with him. That would be AMAZING!
For the next two weeks however we will sit around missing daddy and trying to carry on. I've decided the best thing to do is make myself so busy that the next 2 weeks fly by and hopefully get half of the stuff I've added to my "to do" list complete. I'm not off to a very good start, so far I have only succeeded in bathing and putting the girls to bed then curling up with a bowl of ice cream and a movie. However, tomorrow is my first day and I have a lot to do so I guess I should actually go to bed. That's probably also not going to happen as I sat down to work on next weeks menu and got side tracked posting this blog. So I must refocus get my menu done then head to bed. It's going to be a very long two weeks!!

Fishing Adventures

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. Every time I sit down my mind seems to go blank except for the million other things that I need to be doing. We have been staying busy and having lots of adventures the last few weeks. The biggest adventures have been experienced by S on his almost nightly fishing trips. Being on nights has given him the opportunity to fish just before work while the girls and I are in bed. Late night fishing however also seems to be the best time for bear viewing. His first encounter was just over a week ago with a young bear that ran him off from his fishing spot. While S though he would try to be cute and inform the bear that "he was fishin there first", the young bear didn't appreciate his tone and began pouncing and clicking his teeth, which are signs that a bear feels threatened and is aggressive. So S politely gave up his fishing spot without any other back talk and a very sincere apology. In general the bears that are the biggest threat are the young males that are high on hormones and wanting to set up their dominance and mothers with cubs. Even so there has only been 1bear attack on the island in the last 20 years.
S next encounter wasn't near as exciting as the first. A few nights after meeting the young buck at the river S ran into a much older and larger bear. He was much more laid back and didn't mind sharing his fishing whole with other people. However, the people seem to have a problem sharing it with him so they gather their things and move down the river to the next spot.
Then just a few nights ago S ran into the BIG DADDY of bears. Kodiak bears are known for their size they are the largest bears in the nation (so I've been told). So you would think S would be surprised to see a bear that appears to be around 11ft step out of the bushes however he was very surprised. I'm not sure if it was the size that caught him off guard or the ease in which these 1000lb+ animals move through thick woods and rivers without making a sound! So you can be fishing in absolute silence get a whiff of some funny odor look up and be 50 feet away from an 11ft 1000lb bear and never even heard it coming!!
Currently we have heard reports of 4 bears and 3 cubs being at the Buskin river. The Big Daddy bear, the big bear, the young bear and a momma with 3 babies. We haven't had the privilege to meet the momma and I don't think I want to.
I even got a chance to see my first bear, which was amazing! Last night after leaving a friend's house we ran to the river to see if we could spot one. Sure enough the young bear was at one of his favorite fishing holes. S and another guy went down first to see if he was down there, and the bear and S both popped out of the bushes about the same time. Scared the mess out of both grown men IT WAS HILARIOUS! The bear crossed to the other side of the river to check us out and the other guys wife and I got a chance to see him. He was so cute but smelled awful. For the most part he ignored us and tried to fish then realizing we weren't leaving he moved down stream some more. So there are some of our wild life adventures.
We have been thoroughly enjoying the fresh caught fish and the wonderful weather here lately hopefully it will stay around and continue to warm up. We've hit the 60's several days now. While it feels great outside it gets a little toasty inside. We even hit 80 in the house the other day, so we opened the doors and cooled it off.

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy late 4th of July everyone. We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, we sure did! We took the opportunity to take our first family camping trip.

Another family that S works with invited us to join them and another family for a weekend of camping and hopefully sun. So we all headed out to a beach about an hour away. We planned to stay Sat. and Sun. however rain and a cold front moved in Sunday evening so we cut the trip a little short. Leaving town we were a little concerned because it was raining in town however we kept getting reports that the weather was great at Pasadshak, where we were heading. So we headed out and sure enough it was! We set up camp overlooking a beautiful beach with sea-lions playing in the water. They playing or feeding in the surf right at the breakers, however they were very bashful. Anytime we walked to the beach to get a better view they swam farther out. Surfers came out at one point and the sea lions completely left. I don't think they cared much for having to share their beach for the 4th.

After setting up camp we spent our first night sitting around the fire getting to know the other families. While the kids enjoyed getting to run free and being outside for a while. While the sun didn't fully set we still set off fire works just after mid-night, when it was about as dark as it was going to get. Sunday morning was just as beautiful as Sat night and came VERY earlier. With the girls not being use to sleeping with S and myself B was very excited when she rolled over at 6am and found mommy and daddy next to her. We couldn't get her back to sleep after that kind of shock so S got up with her, they went for a walk and let me sleep a little longer with A.

After finally waking up we enjoyed hiking some of the cliffs and hills surrounding us. Around lunch time however the rain moved in. The girls had to put on their rain gear which made them look like large walking pink marsh mellows. A enjoyed hers because it was big enough on her that she could carry her puppy on her back, so I didn't make her keep him in the tent.

The also enjoyed getting to play with a para-shoot S found a few years ago. They even invented a new sport, Extreme Wind Climbing. The wind would fill the para-shoot then pull two of them up the side of a hill. They had a blast and were completely exhausted by the time they were done.

A also got a chance to help daddy with the para-shoot and had a blast!! She even took a ride across the beach in it, for a little while I wasn't sure we would be able to convince her to come out of it.

By the time we started getting supper ready the rain had picked up a little so we all decided to head home rather than sleep in the rain and pack up the next morning. So we headed home exhausted but having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The girls and S all fell asleep on the way home and then slept in this morning. We are all looking forward to our next chance to get to go camping again though.

I had some Amazing pictures but I can't get them loaded so check back for an update!!

BIG eaters!

I don't think I will have to worry about the girls going hungry any time soon! I tried a new recipe the other day. It was a citrus baja marinade for the salmon S had caught. It was very good and since we had some left over we finished it up with lunch yesterday. While A didn't really care for, she's never really been a fish girl. B on the other hand licked her plate clean. LITTERALLY!

She still had quite a mess but overall she did quite well feeding herself.

While A decided to skip lunch yesterday she made up with it at breakfast this morning. She was a big help to S, too. We have a crazy fire alarm. Heat from the oven and even microwave will set it off, even with no smoke, so we generally have to stop several time while cooking to go fan at the alarm in order to get it to stop. So this morning anytime S opened the oven after it had heated up the fire alarm would go off. A would then run to it grab a jacket off her hook and attempt to make the alarm stop.

She was a little short so S had to come help her. When she wasn't turning off the fire alarm she was an excellent breakfast taster.

After checking on B, S came back into the kitchen to discover that A was helping herself to breakfast, before it was even ready. Needless to say she enjoyed it much better when it was all ready.