fathers and sons

A foot of slushy, melting snow ruined our camping plans - so we crashed in a cabin.

Kid looks just like his mom, doesn't he?

I need a nap.

Planting Time

We still have some snow in the yard, and it freezes hard every night, but we have got to have starts ready to go once it is warm enough. Here is Mason getting some sun with the flats.


Tying flies is another summer preparation. Mason is trying to tie any pattern that will possibly catch a king salmon, using all the flourescent materials we've got.


Tate has been into making faces...


...and walking around the house with swim googles on.

Spring Break! in Fairbanks? hmmm

A couple of weeks late we bring you photos from Mason's spring break and our family trip to Fairbanks, the golden heart city. When we were kids, we usually went somewhere warm for spring break, i.e. St. George or California. Fairbanks is known for being really cold in the winter, and, well, not much else.
We visited Ice Alaska, the world championships of ice sculpting. Enjoy.

An Escape to Paradise

We just got back yesterday (unfortunately) from a nine day family vacation in Hawaii. It was absolute heaven! We escaped from schedules, work, school, church responsibilities, and most importantly, cold weather! We stayed in a condo on the North Shore in a little town called Kahuku. Our condo was a short ten minute walk to a protected bay perfect for hanging out and snorkeling. We relaxed on the beach every single day, swam with sea turtles, fished, ate way too much, stayed up late watching movies, ate the most amazing fresh fruit, went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, got burned, walked through the botanical gardens, went snorkeling, boogie boarded, took lots of naps, and loved every minute of it. It was worth every penny and every extra shift at work to get there. The only problem is coming home to reality...

If you feel like being subjected to some of our vacation photos, you can follow this link for a slideshow: http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv144/christinky/?albumview=slideshow

Why you don't go cut firewood after working all night!

You're apt to fell a stupid tree on yer ding dang ole truck!


At least we got a little more wood out of the fiasco.

before and after #1

So we have finally done enough on the house to have a before and after picture. Here is the slate job we did on the wood stove.
Before:

After:

The Dog Days of Winter

What do you do when you wake up and it's -24 outside?

Hang out in your pajamas, stock the wood burning stove and maybe grout a little slate.

Or maybe just act lazy like a dog.