two in one...

siona and ryker's birthdays are exactly one week apart.  they decided that they wanted to go to dinner together this year, so when we asked them where they wanted to go, (i bet you can't guess!)  they both said 'texas roadhouse'.  so that's where we took them.

 (chet had been coaching ryker to make sure and order the biggest steak they had, so that he could take the leftovers home to dad.) but... he actually ordered ribs and applesauce.

siona ordered steak and fries (kid size) and a lemonade.
she thought it was pretty cool that they could have all the rolls they wanted.  and.... she got cut the roll and spread the butter herself!

here is ryker giving grandpa a taste of his ice cream. (i love the look on both of their faces here.)

grandpa had to have a taste of siona's ice cream, too.

grandpa had to feed ryker most of his dinner.

here is siona when they put her on the saddle to give her a BIG YAHOOO!  for her birthday.  ryker wouldn't sit on it this year.  (he was a little tired).

siona and gramma

siona, gramma, and ryker.

happy birthday to ryker, who just turned 4 and to siona, who just turned 6.

love you and thanks for taking grandpa and gramma take you to dinner.   we had a great time!

happy birthday to you!

24th of july weekend...

friday afternoon, tiff and i set off  to fairview, with the kids.  we stopped at the spanish fork splash pad for a picnic and some afternoon fun.

siona, sitting in the water

briggs, tiff, and ryker

letting briggs feel the water

tiff forgot a hat for briggs, so we had a makeshift hat out of ryker's hat and gramma's visor.

kendyl and siona, showing off their 'orange rind' bracelets.

 

we took the trailer down on the mountain the week after memorial day.  the next time we went down - 2 weekends later, this is what we found.  don thought the kids had been playing in the mud, and had flung (is that even a word?) mud all over the back and sides of the tip out.  (i have no idea where he thought they would have been in the mud).  anyway... when we started investigating, we discovered that we had had a visitor, looking for food (maybe?).  when chet and tiff went down the following weekend, there was a sign posted on the gate of a bear sighting up around our area.  YEP!!! a bear wanted in our trailer.  good thing we didn't have it stocked with any food, yet. 

so any way... back to our weekend... donnie left on the four wheeler to go explore some of our lot.  he decided that he couldn't go forward up the hill any more, and so he backed up... a little too far.  he hit the rocks on the side hill, and the wheeler rolled over on him.   he yelled, but we couldn't hear him.  so he shimmied himself out from under the wheeler and then yelled for me to bring the camera, because he had a 'kodak' moment.  and he also yelled to chet, to bring down his wheeler with the wench.  we thought he was just having a "donnie" moment and didn't react too soon.  he yelled again and when we went down the hill, this is what we found.  YESSIRREEE... a 'kodak' moment.  we were glad to find that he was ok, just a little bruise her and there, but nothing serious.

chet hooked his wench up to don's wheeler and pulled him over. when she seen the wheeler tipped over, kendyl said " this is the worse day of my life!"  chet reminded her that the worse day of her life was probably when SHE got run over.  but for the day... this was the worse day ever!

chet, with his two little buddies.  the spot on ryker's face, is a little blue tear that chet marked on him with permanent marker.  chet told him that every time he whinnied, he was going to get another tear mark.  ryker actually thought it was pretty neat, so it didn't turn out to be a great threat.

ryker, wearing his helmet and trying to fill up the water gun.  notice that the water sprays out vertically and the hole in the gun is no where near the water spray.

kendyl, ryker and siona - sitting by the fire, waiting to make 'smores' after a long day.

this is the back side of the skyline on our way to "potter's pond".  there is still snow on the skyline and it's the end of july!  but everything sure was beautiful!  such a pretty drive!

kendyl

we took the kids over to "potter's pond" to go fishing.  when the poles were all ready, the kids took their places and now to wait.... and wait.....

siona

ryker... the "DUDE"!

briggs

the pond was so pretty and quiet... until WE got there!

tiff was trying to get siona and ryker to do their gymnastic tricks on the log

kendyl caught the "BIGGEST" fish!
they all caught at least one and were totally thrilled!!

briggs... doesn't he look cute!  we were heading over to 'birch creek' on the four wheelers.  he's all ready to go!

this is how he rides.

ryker... misting himself off before the ride.

here we are at 'birch creek'.  the water was freezing!  but that didn't keep us from running through it.

chet told siona and kendly that if they layed in the water and made 'water angels', he would give them each a dollar.  didn't take much talking to get siona to do it!

kendyl decided it was worth a dollar!

ryker, tiff, and briggs.

this is a picture of kendly's leg after the trip to "potter's pond".  tiff counted 77 mosquito bites on her.  the thing is, we actually drowned them with mosquito repellant 2 or 3 times while we were there.

her back.  poor kid!

we always have a wonderful time down at the trailer!  it was so quiet and peaceful.  the weather couldn't have been better.

love that we have a retreat that we can go to and have our family and friends go with us and enjoy the days... and nights sitting around the campfire listening to grandpa tell stories about 'thump drag' and roasting marshmallows for smores.  tiff makes the BEST smores ever! 

another great weekend down on the skyline!

gone fishin'...

it's taken me a while to get this blog done.  but let me tell you a little about it before you see the pictures. don wanted so bad to go to alaska fishing this year, so he planned to go the 2nd week of august, and was trying to get things all arranged, when tiff called and said that her grandma had offered to take them on a cruise and was wondering if we had any plans for the 2nd week of august.  when she found out that was the week we were planning on going to alaska, she said "oh, we don't have to go."  and i told her that if someone was going to pay for something like a cruise, you don't turn it down!  so we decided to push our trip to alaska up a week, then we could be home to tend.  just as we were getting down to make final plans for the 1st week of august,  mel and george tell us that they are expecting that week.  how can i go to alaska while my daughter is home having a baby?  i can't!  so we wished our trip away until another year.  one night gary and sharon rackman called and said that they had won a trip to alaska at a turkey banquet and wanted to know if we were interested in going with them.  can i tell you... don is now in his height of glory!  they were going the first week of july.  everything worked out great, and we set to making plans.  don decided he wanted to do a bucket list fishing trip. so he got to fish till his little heart was content (for this year).   so here we gooooo.............. 

me and donnie at the airport, just waitin'

we got on the plane and then had to wait for over 1/2 hour while they fixed the door at the back of the cabin (good to wait).

our bed for the week. i tried to sleep on the top bunk the 1st night~ forget that!

donnie... move over!

stevie was the designated driver for the week.

first morning, we went down to talon air service, to get on a plane to do a fly out over the cook inlet to fish for salmon and watch some bears. when we got there, it was too foggy to fly out, so we had another hurry up and wait day.

we took lots of pictures, and drank a lot of hot chocolate while we waited

sharon, sally, ralph (owner of the lodge), gary, stevie, and don

dick and ralph

owners of the 'gone fishin' lodge

and also our guides for today.

"mugsy the moose"

getting ready to board the plane

inside the plane 

it was too foggy to land at wolverine creek, so our pilot took us on a deluxe tour

we seen glaciers (look, there is a heart in this glacier) and we seen a few bears.

after about 30 or 40 minutes, the pilot found a pocket in the fog and was finally able to land, and we got to go fishing --- with more bears.

just leave 'em alone...

and this was the black bear that came down to join the party!

EVERYONE wanted in on the fun!!!

just as we finished fishing, it started to rain

we had to wait a while before the plane came back to get us.

we were plenty wet and miserable

it was quite a wait, and with some "older" bodies with us, they didn't have very large bladders.

this is the outhouse that was there (shared by the bears) if you dared to go up to it.

(see the bears claw marks on the side of it?  how would you like to be locked in the outhouse with a bear outside waiting?)  not me!  i chose to wait!

yep... we were cold and wet by the time the plane got back to us.

but we did catch our limits of silvers!

next day, we got up about 3:30 a.m. so we could be down to seward by 6:30 a.m.

the guys all went out fishing and the girls went on a kenai fjords national park tour.

pretty, huh!

this was an island full of sea lions.

sharon, jacki, sally

this is one of the glaciers we seen that day.  as you can see, it was blue and we watched as the ice fell into the water with the sound of thunder.  we saw, hump back whales, sea otters, seals, sea lions, and a whole lot of different kinds of birds.

on our way back into seward, we stopped at 'fox island' and had dinner.

yummy salmon and prime rib.

the guys getting ready to go out fishing for halibut, ling cod, salmon, rock fish and snapper.

this is one of the yellow eye fish they caught and NO! that is not a finger sticking out of it's mouth. 

 it is his stomach.

donnie with a big catch.

more fish waiting to be fillet

proud fishermen!!

we did a lot of this!

and this...

and this...

on the boat going out for halibut.  we were all beat!

we went out halibut fishing on the cook inlet  on tuesday. and these are the halibut the six of us caught.

a shark that donnie caught

don leaning on captain charly's boat

wednesday we went fishing for 'king salmon' on the kenai river.
this is gary our guide... not to be mistaken for our mugsy~ gary.

gary and sharon drew the early trip on wednesday with another couple from the lodge.
this is them coming in to meet us and trade us places.  they got skunked this day.

steve, sally, and donnie, waiting to get out fishin'

gary, helping me with a great catch!  he told me to NOT listen to anyone but him for help and he knew what he was talking about!

hang on tight!

after 45 minutes of reeling and fighting, i finally pulled her in!

me, gary, and donnie
donnies, sallys, mine and stevies

four for four! gary said that doesn't happen very often.

don, jacki, sally and steve
we are da' bomb!

this is the king stevie caught today.  he was the last to pull one in.

donnies catch.  he was the 1st one to pull one in and it was a keeper ~ about 20 lbs.  and everyone that morning got skunked so he decided he'd better keep it!

sally was the 2nd one to hook one.  the girls, once again, out fished the guys.

my fish!  she weighed 50 1/2 lbs.  was 49 1/2 inches long and her girth was 39 inches around.
no wonder it took me so long to reel her in.

from the front.

she was the biggest king caught at the lodge for the time.  if no one catches a bigger one before July 31st, i could win a free trip back to alaska next year.

me and donnie showing off our catch of the day!

the next day, we went back out fishing with captain charly, for halibut.

this is one of the halibut that i caught.

sally reeling one in

coming in after a long day fishing

sharon actually got a little sea sick today.

captain charly filleting our halibut from the 2nd halibut trip, right out on the ocean

mugsy, catching some shut eye!

can you tell, that we really didn't get much sleep?

sally and stevie getting a nap in, before the drive down to homer

after our halibut trip, we headed down to homer to look around.

donnie in the salty dawg saloon
looks like he's had a few, but NOT!

don, jacki, stevie, sally, gary, sharon

all of us on the dock in homer

the next day was back on the kenai, for kings, again.

donnie, daydreaming about his NEXT trip to alaska!
don and i drew the morning trip out with a couple of surgeons (very stiff with little personality!)
we got skunked... not even a bite!

gary and sharon, and steve and sally drew the afternoon trip.  steve and sharon both caught good size fish.

sharon and stevie showing off their catch!

sharon with her catch.  it weighed about 38 lbs.
i don't know who was more excited... sharon or gary... as in mugsy

stevie showing off the eggs from his and sharon's fish

this was our "special" ride for the week!

sharon, gary, jacki, don, steve, and sally
our last night
at louie's steak and seafood
in soldotna, alaska

the fishing board in the lodge.  keeping tabs on how much everyone caught
by the end of the week,
don and jacki had 217 lbs.
steve and sally 198 lbs.
gary and sharon had 176 lbs.

mugsy, weighing his boxes, making sure the boxes weighed no more than 50 lbs for shipping.

sally, steve, sharon, gary, jacki and donnie
we had to leave and drive back up to anchorage to catch our flight home. 
so sad to leave... we all had a GREAT time!!!

together we brought home 13 boxes of fish fillets.
a lot more fish than the luggage we all took...

welcome home to us!

gone fishin' lodge was a great place to spend our time.  the lodge was nice, the owners were great, every thing about this trip was A~O.K.  thanks mugsy and sharon for being so dang lucky and winning your trip and inviting us to tag along!

i'm sure glad that i have a few weeks to recover.  this is not a vacation you go on to get rest and relaxation!  but it was the BESTEST days ever!!