8/4/2009

The weather is starting to change a little.  We had three months of beautiful weather, but now it looks like we are starting to get at least normal amounts of rain.

Only two weeks until school starts for the kids.  It has been a quick summer!

The kids are really starting to make some good friends in the neighborhood.  Last year they spent a lot of time playing with each other (which is not horrible), but this year they are outside for hours playing with kids from a couple of different families.

Still a little nervous about bears.  One of the neighbor's dogs will chase the bears away without even hesitating.  It is amazing to watch her.  She is a 10 year old lab who is starting to show her age.  She likes to hang out down at our house and after I give her a doggy treat or two (yes I have learned to keep them in stock) she will find a comfortable spot to lay down and rest.  All of a sudden she will jump to her feet and stick her nose in the air.  Once she determines that it is not a false alarm, she charges in the direction of the bear.  She will go right up to the edge of the ravine where the bears usually hang out and bark like crazy until she has scared the bear away.  Then she will patrol the edge of the ravine barking occasionally until she is satisfied that the bear is gone.  This happens probably 2 or 3 times a day.

So, yes I still get nervous leaving the kids outside to play without supervision.  Most of the time I am out there with them with my 44 mag strapped to my side.  I do feel a little more comfortable knowing that Jo-Jo (the bear chaser) is out there with them at all times.

8/7/2009

Karen and Brian and Nikki arrived on Thursday.  We all went to flattop and attempted to hike to the top.  We all decided to turn around after we made it to the second peak.  The sign pointing us to the direction of the third and final peak said that the trail was "Difficult".  The sign pointing to the second peak was labeled as "Moderate" which seemed pretty difficult to all of us.  So, when we saw the sign that said that it was going to get harder made everyone want to turn around.  The other factor in our decision was that a thick fog rolled in and surrounded us on the mountain.  So, we all thought that what is the point in going up to the top when we could only see a couple hundred feet in front of us.

We came home and had lunch after the hike and then took the quad out to the motocross park.  The kids all had a great time riding the quad.  Looking forward to the other activities that we have planned with them over the coming week.

8/24/2009

We had a great time with Karen and the kids earlier in the month.  They got to see several glaciers (two of them were up close and personal); beautiful views of Cook Inlet; incredibly clear sunsets from the back deck; a couple of moose in the wild; spawning salmon; Mitch Seavey's Inditarod dog rodeo; a bald eagle's nest; an abandoned gold mine; an active gold mine; and a grizzly walking along the Kenai river looking for fish.  We all had a great time during their visit.

The kids started school last week on the 18th.  It is amazing to see how much older the kids look when they put on their new school clothes.  This was a big day for us, because at the end of the school year .... we are heading back to PA!

We have had some significant rain over the past few weeks, but there have been some incredibly beautiful days mixed in there too.  We have had those kind of days that you experience in late September in PA where there is very low humidity; bright sun, and temperatures in the mid to high sixties.  When we get those days, it is easy to see why people love the Alaskan summers.

I was commenting to someone who has lived here their whole life that I was surprised at how clear the skies have been on these sunny days.  She said that the summer days are always like this. I was a little confused because we have not experienced that in our two summers here.  The only clear days that we have seen have been in the winter.  Then it occurred to both of us that last summer (our first summer here) there was rain or cloudy skies just about every day.  It was the coldest winter on record.  So there were no clear skies last year.  And, this year has been one of the hottest on record and we have had huge wildfires all over the state which caused the skies to be hazy.  So, we have never experienced clear days in the summer until now.  It IS beautiful here in the summer when the skies are clear!

Rhonda had an ultrasound today and the baby is growing fast!  The baby is already over 6 pounds and Rhonda is only 32 weeks into the pregnancy.  She has been battling gestational diabetes throughout her pregnancy, but she has been able to manage it with her diet.  Today the doctor said that since the baby is so large already that she is going to have to go on insulin.  We have an appointment at the diabetes clinic tomorrow to learn how to administer the shots.  The bright spot of the day was when we saw the baby sticking his tongue out on the ultrasound.  The technician even got a picture of the baby sticking his tongue out.