trampoline

watching the kids playing outside. he was whinning a great deal...



So andy is obsessed with the outdoors. if he spots a door cracked he RUNS to get there before the door gets closed. he just loves being outside, which is unfortunate for him right now because alaska has had a cold summer. however yesterday was beautiful. probably in the 70s, and sunny, it felt HOT. so we played outside. and then as we were cooking dinner he really wanted out again, (hes NEVER turned outside down). and so audrey was kind enough to go play with him on the trampoline for a little bit. he was having such a good time i wanted some pics.

Kenai River Rafting

a black bear! we saw a total of like 3 or 4 bears. i think 2 brown and 2 black. one black and one brown were sort of close together, but they were too far off to get pictures of.


see the bald eagles in the trees? one is in the tree in the pic below too.

more pretty scenery...
we saw this brown bear just down from the russian/kenai river confluence! he was sort of small. and seemed very content, there were people much closer than i would have gone to him, and he was really not bothered. just kind of mosied around the bank.
poor little guy, picking up trash in his home.
here duckys...
imagine all the people....
audrey as we started off...
Nick and his boys, sam and alex, who were both quite small. they seemed to have fun.
Me. it felt so wierd not have andy on my lap the whole time.
fish anyone?
just a pretty river....

So yesterday i went rafting from kenai lake up in cooper landing to some point down river. it was about a 3 hr ride or so, and they stopped at the russian river confluence because the guy (nick) who took us wanted to fish, (even though i dont think he really knew how to fish, fish were jumping all around him and he didnt catch any! and i just didnt want to fish. and i thought he being a native alaskan (hes not native native, but grew up here), i thought he would have known how to fish, so i didnt give him any advice, but maybe i should have...), anyways, it was fun. i think it definitely would have been much more fun with dan and andy, but still alright. i was freezing though. it was drizzling when we started, and then the rain let up, but i just didnt warm up, even though i had a rain poncho and i wasnt wet, i was just chilly. very glad to get home and take a nice hot shower. i dont think i completely warmed up though until this morning... well, andy has started a new thing, he loves to wear his shoes (because it means someone MIGHT take him outside). its so funny, he grabs both his shoes and walks over to the door and tries to get someone to take him out. today it was actually nice weather outside, which has been rare up here, so i took him outside on the grass and played with him, he LOVES that. dan watched andrew yesterday when i went to the rafting thing, and they had fun on the lawn, dan said hes quite the little soccer player. oh by the way, me , aud, dave , emma , nick and his 2 small boys were who went rafting. we didnt have andys car seat so we couldnt get him up to the river. so dan and him stayed home. wasnt the warmest day for rafting anyways.

Progress Days Parade

a hot dog!


So we went to Progress Days Parade on Saturday. I went to that the first year we moved up here. that would have been right before my freshman year of high school. We've gone a couple times. This guy giving out candy gave andy a TY beanie baby bear i think because he was just the cutest :). i thought that was pretty cool though! and then i had to capture a couple of the "alaska" floats. one was "hats off to homesteaders", and one with Sled Dogs. anyways, i gotta go! just a quick update!

Andrew

audrey and the king.
andy looks way wierd in this pic, but its the only one i got, of him and a king they got dip netting!
what a cutie.
reaching for mommy. yesterday he was kind of clingy, he sat on my lap a lot while i was helping my mom seal fish, he would sit and watch and say "this" and point at the dials.
he was pushing the toy this way last night.
this pic is a little blurry, but its the fish dan and my dad caught the other night. red salmon.
brooklyn and andy like the ride this chair, it spins in circles, and they think its SOO fun.

they also love to climb up on this coffee table by the window, sometimes one of them falls off, so we try to keep it turned on its side of upside down, and then there is a bar that goes thru the middle, i call Andrews Cauzeway (sp?). he likes to motor cars along it.
a big king salmon they caught.
So i thought i ought to update on our little andrew boy. he has a molar on his right bottom side now, and one (i think its an incisor) on the top right side. at last check- you never know, sometimes teeth come in fast! but so far thats what i've noticed thats new. he likes to say "uh-oh!" so he makes sure to drop things often, so he can say Uh oh. he blew my mom kisses this morning, i have never seen him do that before. he loves to jabber, and he sticks his tongue out a lot when hes talking so it sounds really funny. i love that. he loves to motor cars around, and he loves to point at things and say "this". he is understanding a lot of what we say now, but he doesnt like to follow directions yet, in fact the opposite. i think he likes to test his limits. he loves to tease (wonder where that came from?!). he will offer you food, and as you go to eat it he slowly pulls it farther and farther away so you cant get it, and he laughs. its pretty cute. he LOVES outside. if he sees a door cracked open or someone leave, he BOLTS to the door, and he is crushed when he cant go. Also, for prayers we say "fold your arms, be a good boy!" and he folds his arms. its so cute! sometimes when i tell him to just be a good boy, he folds his arms. So cute! but thats a little bit of what our little guy has been up to.

some things we've been doing

look like fun to you? not to me either!
the steep bank we hike down to fish
the kenai river

we were fishing (rather we tried, but it was so crowded there was no way we could fit), and my mom got andy to sleep.

brooklyn, david, emma, andrew and kenzie




audrey , my mom and emma
andy didnt care for the bonnet
riding in the hand cart
andy really liked it!

So its been a little while since i posted, here are some pictures of what we've been up to. On saturday they had a pioneer day up here so that explains the handcarts and the bonnets. They had a bbq and there was a park that andy really enjoyed! the fam is out fishing right now , my mom, tom, michelle, aud, and toms friend mike and his wife melissa are up visiting now , they all went to chinapoot, and my dad , dan and a neighbor named deray went dip netting on a boat. so they should be home before long. brooklyn fell asleep eating today at like 5, and andy and kenzie are still awake just winding down (hopefully!). but i've kind of enjoyed just staying home. its pretty tiring going fishing!