Silver or Red?

The boys got up early this morning and headed back down to the creek. They came back just before church with a string of three fish that we thought were silvers...but now we think they might be reds. It's kind of hard to tell; if anyone has advice we'd love to hear it. Landon is pointing to the big fish that he caught! Layne says he loves it here! Landon has to take pictures of everything. I have no idea where he gets that from?!
Oh by the way, it's actually NOT raining (at this moment)!

My how they grow!

It looks like our twins from the May 31st post are still alive and well. We watched them way out in the hayflats for a while and then they surprised us by coming up the bluff. They are very active and were fun to watch..but hard to photograph through the window.
..oh look it's still raining.....

Salmon Anyone?

Layne's first salmon! He left the house early this morning and hiked in the rain to the creek near our home and came back with dinner! We are looking forward to dining on a yummy silver salmon. Landon wouldn't stand close to it.
...and yes, as you can see from the photos..it's raining again. Did we accidently move to Seattle?

After the Rain....

The rains came back with a fury after my last blog and this evening was the first evening that I could sneak outside and take some pictures. This morning there was fresh snow on some of the mountains. Did we blink and miss summer? The sun is beginning to set again, and I had forgotten how beautiful the light play on the mountains and flats could be (probably because I haven't seen them in two weeks). As I look out the window now we are approaching "golden hour" on the hayflats where the light illuminates the flats.
It's a good time to sit back and reflect on the lessons learned from the rain:
1.) The ruts on the Glenn Highway caused by studded snow tires fill with water during a down pour.
2) It's not a good idea to drive in the ruts during a down pour unless you like to experience hydroplaning.
3) Grass grows really fast when there is lots of rain and 20 hours of sunlight (even if it is dim, dreary, overcast sunlight)
4) Even though yard is covered by grass and sloped, it is still muddy when saturated by rainfall.
5) When moose walk on ground that is saturated by two weeks of rain, they create holes.
6) Even though the grass and yard look smooth there may be hidden holes
7) Stepping in said holes does no favor to the ankles
8)The prettiest light and most scenic views come 30min to 1 hour after you think they do!
9) Don't buy your son a "Mommy's Little Monkey" t-shirt, unless you really want him to become one.
10) Children get cabin fever after two weeks of rain, your sanity goes with them.

I am not sure how much blogging will occur from this point on. Our schedule goes from the nice Alaska (slower than slow) pace to full throttle this next month. Layne is on leave next week and my folks will be coming for a visit for two weeks. We will try to tour Denali, Fairbanks, and Seward. After that, it is back to work and school for everyone. Please pray that our childcare and schooling situation works out for the boys. I have found great childcare for the boys however, it requires Landon to go to school out of district. I have not had any response from the school system reguarding a possible transfer. Landon is a little disappointed that cousin Kate has lost another tooth while his remain in his mouth. Grayson is cutting teeth 7 and 8 and is extremely tired. I think he is exhausting himself trying to climb stairs and pushing his birthday toys around. He is definitely the little monkey and can even climb the ladder on Landon's bunk bed (under strict supervision, of course)!

Trifecta of Rainbows...

Ok...I just always wanted to use GWs word "trifecta." I'll come up with a reason to use strateegery next. While our weather was clearing last night we got to watch it rain over in Eagle River and Chugiak. We caught rainbows at three different times during the evening. It is still very light in the evenings as the last of these pictures was taken around 10:30pm. Our days are getting shorter but are still plenty long when the sun is shining!

Hiking from Home

We took advantage of the sunshine yesterday evening and hiked down to the flats from the house. We got to see some Coho (Silver) salmon starting their run up the local creek. We learned the hardway that mosquito spray is probably a requirement on this hike...poor little Grayson got the brunt of the attack. The boys are out fishing for the evening so I thought I would share a few photos. Most of my photos were extremely blurry as Grayson was in the front pack and not happy about it!

A few minutes of sun...

The saying regarding the weather in Alaska goes, "If you don't like the weather, drive five miles or wait five minutes." It turned out to hold true today. After battling the rain and the gravel parking lot we returned home to beautiful skies and the sun! Something we have seen very little of for the past two weeks. Note we actually have grass in our backyard, look back and compare to a month ago when we had none. Off to enjoy some sun time and warmer weather (61F)
!

Alaska Transportation and Industry Museum

After a visit to the steamers we headed over to the Alaska Transportation Expo. It was a really cool yard field with old trains, tractors, snowmobiles, cars, ambulances, etc. There was even an old manure spreader that reminded me of Pappy's! We could have wandered around and took pictures for hours but the rains came back with a vengance. I think we had about an inch dumped on us in an hour. We will definitely head back there again and spend more time!

Alaska Live Steamers

Today we headed over to the Alaska Live Steamers and the Alaska Transportation and Industry to enjoy a few minutes of sunshine. The scale-model railroad goes over about 1.5 miles of track and has bridges and a small tunnel. Landon's favorite part was the toy dinosaurs along the track. They also had scale villages and a roundhouse.
The ride lasted 20 minutes or so and was worth the money....Landon wanted to ride it again!

Let him eat cake!

Grayson's birthday cake was a vivid reminder that we are blessed with two boys with completely opposite personalities. Landon at age one did not want to get his hands dirty...Grayson had his hands in the cake before we even got the candle on it. Now, he has only been feeding himself for about three weeks. He had no problem with cake! As soon as we put a piece in front of him, he picked it up and put as much as he could get in his mouth. The first picture, is his reaction to the sweet flavor of the icing. He proceeded to devour the first piece of cake and then fussed for more! After two kids size piece of cake it was off to the tub, luckily, the icing must have been water soluble because it came right off. I think he would have devoured the whole cake if we had let him.

Birthday Boy

Grayson openned his gifts tonight, and like any one year old he was just as excited about the boxes as what was in them. He seemed very tickled to have some new things to play with...maybe he will stay out of the plasticware tomorrow. Brother was happy to lead Grayson through the birthday process....and more excited about the cake and ice cream.