Boats that Float

One day, Ida was playing in water puddles near their green house, and Karen being a sweet neighbor got a piece of wood and cut a boat out for Kaden. The two kids had such a great time playing in the puddles with boats that float. How simple life can be with just a piece of wood and string.  And so much fun!

 

Duck Hunting

Spring in Alaska brings ducks to the newly defrosted ponds. This means every man and dog gets the itch to go bird hunting! Well Maybe not every man and dog but at least Keith, Jason and Martin did! Our freezer has a meat and again I need good duck recipes.

 Keith's ducks

 Jason ready to hunt

 Kemper retrieving a bird

 

Martin's duck

 Jason and his ducks

 Puerto Rican Trappers Association

 Martin calling in some ducks

 Jason & Kemper

 Kemper

Pretty Picture

 Love this picture!

 

Crane Hunting

Another fun Alaskan adventure, Keith went crane hunting. Not sure how you cook one of these massive birds, but anyone have any recipes?=)

THOSE ARE HUGE BIRDS!! Hope it can fit in my crock pot=)

Beaver hunting

We just came out of Beaver Hunting season. But Keith and Chris got to go out a few time to get some beaver. There are so many! I am super excited because once Keith gets the skins tanned, I can make us some Beaver mittens for winter. After wearing a beaver hat all last winter and having my ears not freeze off, I am really excited about being able to wear mittens. At -68 most cloth hats and gloves still make your hands cold but with beaver skin, you stay toasty warm. I have my pattern all ready for gloves. Here are some pictures of Keith and Chris' hunt.

That is one big beaver! I could make a Beaver coat out of that one!

Karrie Pavish Anderson!!

I have a list of famous people that I have meet in Galena. Well there is one special lady that I am honored to know. She is a local resident of Galena and a wonderful singer and song writer. Her name is Karrie Pavish Anderson. She just recorded her first album that is FANTASTIC! If you want to hear an amazing lady sing, You can Google her and go to her website. She also has a music video on You tube that is awesome called"Let Love in". She is on her "Once Blind Tour" this Summer of 2012. If you are in California and on the East coast you can check where she is playing and go listen to her. She is very talented! Her first concert of the tour was performed on the banks of the Yukon river. It was a wonderful setting! I can not brag enough about her. You need to listen to her. You can buy her album on I tunes! Check her out! Buy her album,  you will like it!

 

 

 Her niece Kaylin singing with her!

 What a beautiful view

 

 Can't wait till she sings her Karrie's Christmas Album, Coming soon..... right Karrie?? =)=) Love you! Keep singing you are AMAZING! When you are famous I can say " I knew her when..."=)

Solar Glasses

In 2001, there was a AWESOME Total eclipse across Africa. A total Eclipse is where the sun totally disappears behind the moon, and all you see is a ring around the moon. It is AMAZING!! Well during that Eclipse, we got some really cool glasses that allow you to look at the sun and watch eclipses. I have kept this pair since 2001 and they have moved with me in a box every time we move. I have never needed them until last month when we got to use them TWICE!! First we watched an eclipse and then we watch a Plant orbited in front of the sun! It was awesome. I made a mad dash to the box I thought the glasses were in and dashed outside to see. It was awesome! We all gathered in the road to watch the space happenings! Glad I kept the glasses and glad I remembered where they were pack after all these years! 

 

  Ross Checking out the sun

 I forgot how funny these glasses make you look!

 

 Keith pretending to be Superman!

 

"Daddy Can I have a plane?"

I don't know of anywhere else in the U.S.A that a senior in High school can actually ask that question of their dad and actually be allowed to fly one.  Here in Galena, the boarding school has an aviation program. This program allows high school students to graduate with a pilots license! HOW COOL IS THAT??? Not that I would be able to handle flying but THAT IS AWESOME! Keith wishes he could have done that in High school! And I thought taking my drivers test for cars was scary, I could not imagine having to do a SOLO flight across the state and back!!! This year Galena had 3 graduates that received their pilots license. 2 of them are members of our church! We are very proud of these guys and girl! Here is the party we had for them at the end of the school year.

 

 The 3 seniors! SO PROUD OF YOU ALL!!

 The planes that they fly. Not sure what their names ares. When it comes to naming planes, it is kind of like my naming birds I know the ones like a 747, 737, 1900 Beach Craft but all the others I am not to sure about.  So If you want to know write me a note and Keith can tell you!=)

Spring time = Out door play time!

With winter being so harsh and cold, we tend to stay inside unless the weather goes above -10 degrees. But when Spring arrives...... LETS PARTY! The weather is wonderful and most important there are NO BUGS! I thought bugs were bad living in Texas, Florida and Zambia. These places have nothing on Alaskan Mosquitos and bugs! April and May are good months to play outside with no bugs biting. Then in June they attack! But during those few weeks of nice weather, we spend most of it outside, playing with bikes trucks and the rest of the melting snow! Here are my big boys enjoying spring!

 

Breaking FREE!

 I know I have posted picture of the river breaking up but I am hoping that this video uploads OK with our slow internet. Every year this is an exciting time for our village. It means spring has arrived.  There is something about watching a river full of Ice break and crash and rumble down stream with a force that is uncontainable. Every year we eagerly await the break up with a bit of excitement and fear. Excitement because this means we will soon be able to get out on the boat and fear because if the ice jams anywhere on the river we have the possibility of flooding. In a village on the banks of a HUGE river, flooding could be devastating! But this year went smooth. Smooth as a Slushy! With all the snow we had this year we also have to be careful with high water due to snow melting really fast. But again we were safe this year. This video was the shortest one we took and I hope you can see the power of the river. These chunks of Ice are thick and huge! And the force of it moving and hitting the bank makes the ground rumble. And I love the sound of it. It makes me dream of a giant Slushy! Oh what I would do for a slushy right now!=) A fresh fruit slushy from SONIC with an order of Mozzarella Cheese sticks! YUM..... why and I talking about food from Sonic when there is not one anywhere near me? Or in the State of Alaska! =)  Anyways, hope you can watch the video and enjoy it! We got back from Zambia the day before the river broke, Talk about great timing!

Headed home! =(=(=(

Our last morning in Zambia, we were headed to the airport and this is our final sunrise in Zambia.  

HOW BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

 Check out the bus in front of us. "Jesus is coming again!" Love it!

Our trip was Lusaka to London, London to Miami, Miami to Houston, Houston to Denver, where we got to see my Aunt Page and my cousins Matt and Jackie. Thanks for taking the day off to come see us for a few hours.! Thanks for entertaining my kids! We love you!!!  And I didn't get any pictures of you while there either.=( Then we continued on from Denver to Anchorage, Anchorage to Fairbanks, Fairbanks to Galena. IT WAS A LONG TRIP!  

Our plane to London

 Checking out the planes

 My world traveler

 Jumbo Jet

 On the Bus in London to our Hotel

Another layover on the way home!

After 34 hours, 4 days travel, 7 plane changes, 10 time zones crossed, 2 hemispheres, 3 countries, 4 states, 30,000 feet Altitude change and all those security check points, this was our final flight home!

 

Kaden was not to happy to come home to Alaska, He wanted to stay with Oma and Opa. ABout 2 days later after being home he told me " When I grow up I want to be an Opaa, so I can live with Oma and Play with Opa and my friends everyday and NOT get on an airplane again!" I can totally understand his logic. I didn't want to leave Oma's house either! We had such a wonderful trip to Zambia and I am sure there will be more blogging about it later too.