Sunny Transportation Museum

Another sunny day, another day outside to play. This time we went to the Alaska Steamers and then to the transportation museum. It is sad that the steamers are having to relocate some place else, because the experience of riding the scale train and then viewing all the old trains is definitely something the boys enjoy. The train rides take 20-30 minutes and are worth the $5 to little boys that are fascinated with trains. Grayson was enamored with Thomas but Landon was disappointed that the "Jurassic Park" addition was not to scale. I guess you can't please everyone. Pappy had the opportunity to reminisce about farming while looking at the old equipment while Grayson enjoyed his favorite form of transportation (Pappy's shoulders). Grayson's day was perfect when it was followed by his favorite food...pizza. Landon even consumed an unusual amount of pasta. Playing outside must increase the appetite!

Sunny Wonderland Park

We have had a lot of sun this summer, and since visible light is nearing the 24 hour mark, we do mean a lot of sun. It has made it extremely difficult to be inside taking care of those mangerial tasks and to get caught up on all those photography projects. In Alaska warm sunny days are precious so we try to take advantage of every one. Todays goal was to aquire ice cream at Miller's Express. Beware of the double cone...it's huge! On the way back we let the boys play at Wonderland park. This is a great park, and I think the boys wear themselves out quickly running from slide to slide.

Hatcher's Pass

The boys, Grammie, and I headed up to Hatcher's for awhile this afternoon. We have had incredibly good weather. It is very dry and in the 60s almost everyday. I knew if I stayed home, I'd do all those inside chores that I have been procrastinating on and so we decided to head to the pass. FYI: The road to the mine is still closed. It is due to open in two weeks and Archangel and the road over the pass will open sometime prior to July 4th. There was still snow on the ground and water was running everywhere. The boys had fun looking for ground squirrels, throwing rocks, stomping in puddles, and watching the bikes go by. That would be one incredible workout to bike to the mine and one scarry coast back down! I'll pass on that one. Warning, one of my favorite places to hang out so there are lots of pics!

..and we're off!

The boys and I are off for the summer and keeping busy. We started out easy with a little geocaching yesterday (last five pictures) and then followed church with a Bodenburg butte climb today. When we returned from geocaching, Grayson kept telling Pappy that he found a McDonald's car in the woods. Landon whizzed up the butte with our favorite hiking buddies - the Finley family, but the mammas with the babies on their back had to take a little longer. It has been extremely dry this year so the top of the butte was like a dust bowl. The boys had a blast jumping off the raised areas and over the trenches. Grayson reminded me of a chicken dusting himself. The normally hungry guy didn't like watermellon...but we thank Autumn and Shapen for bringing it along and all of their help today, as well as Staci the child wrangler. I guess Grayson had a good time, because he repeatedly told me "I not go home." on our return hike. I must remember next time that shorts are appropriate for this hike! This warm weather is awesome, we intend to take full advantage of the sunshine , but we could definitely use some rain.

New Construction on Base

There's been alot of new construction on base here in Lemoore since we last lived here. It was too hard to explain all the new buildings to Jolene on the phone/skype, so here's some pictures of the changes. They finished a new section of base housing called Freedom Park. It looks a little different from the housing we lived in last time, but still very, very nice compared to normal Navy standards. Most are two story single family types, with the same size yard and garage as we had last time. The first and second picture above show the new community center, with a nice pool off to the right. I think there are two of those buildings that have been built, but there might be three. They've done a good job of keeping the housing and amenities as nice as possible to help the families stationed here - especially since Lemoore isn't exactly considered a "garden spot" of places to be stationed. Unfortunately the air quality here is still abysmal, with smog from LA and plenty of chemicals from local farming in the air. Unlike in West Texas where the wind seems to keep the air moving and much cleaner, the Valley here gets bogged down with low quality air due to the two mountain ranges on each side which tend to trap plenty of smog/chemicals/dust. The area surrounding Lemoore is considered to have the worst air quality in the US, and not a good place for anyone with asthma/allergies. The smell from the surrounding dairy farms only add to the unique Lemoore experience. I guess it's been too long since I lived on a farm, but I could use some Alaska fresh air! The next few pictures are some examples of the new housing in Freedom Park. The last pic is of one of the trees by the chapel that fell down last week during the wind storms we had. I decided to park the truck away from the trees around our parking lot which ended up being a good move since one of trees was blown over and nearly took out a couple of cars. It's been alot more windy here than I remember it being before, but not too hot. Most days have been in the low 70's, and in the high 50's at night. Jolene and the boys climbed the Butte today in Alaska, so hopefully she'll be able to get some pictures up of the climb in the next few days. Landon finished school this past week and I'm sure he and Grayson are keeping everyone busy around the house.