So I have heard and even out of his own mouth... Hans' belated party was a success. I am glad since I had a bit of pressure since he hasn't had a cake for years now. I guess that is what happens when you are never home around family for your birthday. Anyway we had a house full with lots of little ones playing around and fun appetizers to eat. We actually still had leftovers that I took to
Yolaunda's and we had with dinner--it really takes forever to eat food sometimes.
So I think we were only able to get a couple pictures and I will post them soon but not this month. I got a notice that our transfer amount is over the limit (oops, I posted too many photos already this month) for those of you that have no concept as I didn't before I moved here... our
DSL comes with a certain speed and an
alloted amount of transfer for the month. Each time you download, open files, pictures,
IM, tons of things take transfer. We have had it for I don't know how long and never gone over before this month though so I guess it's not that big of a deal. I must say that I have been spoiled with "down south"
internet. :) By the way, did you know that where you live anywhere below us here in Alaska is down south? Interesting right?
I really want to post the pictures I took on my evening on the
Bostwick 2 Saturdays ago when Hans first got back to town. I went to work with him again and actually had a working camera this time. Funny side note, this new camera I got in UT has been dropped pretty hard now at least 8 times and it is still going strong... the front looks like it has been through a bit but the screen and everything else seems fine. Tough little cookie.
The other success is for Cub Scout day camp. Yes. I did make it through the three days although at times I didn't know if I would make it until 3pm. I was assigned to be the leader of a different crew of boys (other than my own pack boys) which was odd and a bit challenging since I did not know any of them but we made it through. I have tons o' pictures of that too but it too will have to wait until the transfer starts over. I think we are finally getting enough photos together to work on our pack scrapbook which should be a lot of fun to see what we have been up to. I got a lot of good pointers and ideas at camp from more experienced leaders. I found out about brag vests that they can put their extra patches and "stuff" on to show off and I want to totally have those available for those who want one. I also just really saw how simple things can be and what others do to create excitement and get the boys learning and growing. I am working on getting us some more help for our unit so we can run a better program. I am looking forward to implementing some new ideas and excited to see a full school year coming on when we have a better handle on what we are doing!
Let's see what else... Sophie's first birthday is coming up on Monday which will be fun and I will try to get some photos of her unwrapping the little gifts we got her (it's clothes so she won't be too excited but they will be cute on her) I figured she deserved to have some clothes of her own that weren't passed down from big sister. Hans and I are going to watch them overnight tomorrow since Sarah and Jessie have a birthday party at Cape Fox to go to. I haven't ever had them overnight so it will be a little odd but isn't much different than the same old right? We have a fun time playing with them and being part of their lives and seeing how the grow and change. Since we don't have our own yet we get to have fun with them.
Hans and I both have time off in the day tomorrow so that will be fun. He is going to work on repairing our roof here which is once again leaking in multiple spots. It is a crazy roof and really needs to be redone. We are looking for another place to rent that is a better set up for us and possibly cheaper and in town. I will keep you posted on where we end up.
We are actively working on getting our 72 hr kits and year supply taken care of. We had some of it done but had been slacking for awhile. We are back on track and knocked out all the year supply for health, beauty, cleansing, sanitation needs. So it feels good to have that part done and we are going to make a list and plan how we will accomplish the rest. We have made a goal to spend money each month on food storage and preparedness items. I guess since we won't be getting a house right now it allows us extra money to get this taken care of. You never know what is going to happen so I know that I will feel better knowing we have followed the council on this.
There is only a month and a half left of the tourist season up here... HOORAY! That will mean that Hans should be less busy and I will be too. I guess we have yet to see how the schedules will pan out but I am really hoping to see each other more than we have been. We still have the 2 weeks in
Kake coming up the last part of September but I guess it isn't a month so look on the bright side right?
I could write more but I guess that is enough for now. It seems like I am forgetting something important but it just isn't coming to me...
This is our last long line that we set back in the summer when cousin Sarah was here...she is above working on holding the halibut up.
This is the ship that Hans took the pilot off of (which you saw in an earlier post) I wanted to post some of the Ketchikan pics that I took that day so now you get it in pieces : )
Here I am on Hans' boat for the last trip I took of the season. It has taken me forever to get these other pictures in here... 
Finally! I was able to load up the pictures from the pilot job... So here is Captain Hjort in action. After we made it out to the pilot station (part in the channel that is specified for pick up and drop offs) we waited until they came into sight. Hans decided which side to use and how fast to go and then we started towards the ship as they were passing us. We went over their wake and around the side...
They had this opened when we came alongside and this is the spot he is aiming for and keep in mind we are still moving and so are they.. as you can see from the waving passenger many people come out to see the show. Who knows how many vacationers have Hans and his boat in their Alaska cruise album?
So now we came up and got sucked into the ship and we hold steady so the pilot can climb down the ladder and onto the pilot boat.
This is a shot of us pulling away after we had the pilot on board the cruise ship went on its merry way to Seattle.
This is a shot of his boat tied up before the trip that day.
Hans doing his thing.. being captain and kicking back.
So above is the cruise ship at the dock tied up which is shown later in the pictures of us pulling up to take the pilot off....only it won't let me post any more pictures it just comes up with an error so that is it for now I guess.
This is Maya with our oldest nieces Paige and Brooke at Refuge Cove beach. We had a Pioneer Day celebration on the Saturday after the 24th. It was not very warm, I spent a fair amount of time next to the huge bon fire but at least it didn't rain. Paige went swimming I heard with some of the other youth. I think Maya waded in when her Mom came later on because I was too cold to go to close to the water. Maya rode with me and the Keiths on the short bus to the picnic. She thought it was great fun.
Maya wanted her picture to be taken since I was trying to get shots of Soph. So here it is folks--Maya's favorite breakfast right now cereal, raisins and she does like orange juice too. She is learning so much everyday. As anyone knows who has been around her much--she loves to talk and ask lots and lots of questions which is cool. She repeats back whatever I tell her though so conversations take a long time. We went through the whole alphabet and last week we worked on 'Z' So we are going to start again since she still gets confused on some letters and it will be good when she can recognize them all no problem. Then we can start working on the sounds for them. Thanks to my Mom we have lots of material that we can use to learn. She is also learning the days of the week with a song my Mom also taught me. That would be a cute video to get on here... let me see if I can get it. We do math everyday--on again different wipe off sheets that Mom donated to me. She loves to count and it is really great to see her eyes sparkle when she looks up at me once she finished it all by herself. She can almost dress herself totally--shirt gets a bit tricky sometimes and buttons and zippers stump her but so close! She can't wait to be "bigger" so she can do other things... I always tell her soon enough. I got a toe ring in Jackson Hole--as my parents can attest to, it was a high and low search. I finally had to settle on a small regular ring that sort of fits my toe but still a little big. I do love the flower on it though--in any case, Maya loves it. She plays with it everyday I wear flip flops saying, "I wish I had one of these... I can't wait until I am bigger and they have one in my size" She is so funny. Today we came over to our house to work on the cake for Hans' belated belated birthday get together on Sunday. I promised she could help without thinking that I had Cub Scout camp the rest of the week. So she helped me make the cake--always wanting to be a big helper. We all have a good time figuring everything out. If nothing else she keeps me on my toes because she will tell me when she doesn't think I am doing what I should. Thanks for all the laughs Maya!
Soph is really climbing...She is turning into spider girl. It is really hard to capture how funny she is pulling herself up on everything but she does it all day long. She is pretty brave since their isn't any carpet to cushion her falls. We have a lot of bumps along the way but she is getting better balance and more confident everyday. It is fun to watch. Hans gave me the idea to use the sports setting on my camera next time to try and catch her before she moves away. I may try a video next time too...
The crowning victory of the trip... going to the dump. Yes Hans enjoys visiting the dump regularly here in Ketchikan and as you can see in the picture--he did make it to the Kake one too. He cracks me up.
So other than some fishing this is what Hans was able to get up there... porcupine. Funny huh? He did eat it and I am glad I wasn't there because I don't think I could have done it with all the quills and all. He said it was just OK. I guess they can climb trees pretty good and it stands to reason with paws like theirs.
This is capturing the sea otters that are all over up there apparently. They look pretty cute and I guess this one turned out to be pretty brave to let the boat get so close to it. It is kinda hard to tell but it is floating on its back with the fin curled up and showing at the bottom.
This is the tide flats and if you look really closely (it's super tiny on this size of picture) you can see some black spots and those are the bears.
This is the Navy ship that they had two jobs for--one going to Juneau for some big celebration and on the way back. It's a totally different kind of boat but I guess anything can look pretty nice on a clear blue day like that.
This is my horse Cooper followed by our guide and his favorite horse (which wasn't the one that he rode that day) plus the biggest horse they have there named Zeke--who they told us was like 24 palms which I guess is pretty big... he didn't want to play my game to see his face and I didn't want to get kicked so we got his back end. We rode through some pretty country along the trail. Due to the California fires there wasn't that good of visibility and the bugs were pretty bad but I had fun. My horse did a pretty good job. I took extra horse pictures to show our neice Madeline--she loves them! They gave me some of Mutton's mane hair (Dad Rubens ride) and I gave that to her for a souvenir.
More pictures from our trip including Mom and me under the antlers, more pictures of the mountains. It was quite a sight because they were so jagged and it was ocean and sage brush type wildlife and then almost immediately up came the mountains. We rented a skiff and buzzed around Jackson Lake. There was suprisingly quite a bit of current there... none of us being pros with the boat made for a sore behind... it was pretty scenery though and a nice day out.
My first good look at the Tetons and of course a little tourist trap with the tee pee and all. --I should know I guess living in a tourist town myself. The food that we had in this place was very good. In fact, surprise! we had good food everywhere we went which doesn't usually happen especially on vacation. The visitor center near here was where I got my famous bird book...just like my Mom had gotten. It has hundreds of birds' info and has each bird call to go along with it. I love my new noisy toy although I can't say everyone shares my sentiment.
So this is the plane that we went to Jackson Hole with... pretty teeny I know but I had to start out flying the small ones. It was pretty interesting flying so close to everything and landing. It felt like I could almost jump out if I needed to... almost. We did have to spend an extra night in Jackson due to weather issues but as you can see we made it on the ground safely once again. I had a good time and it was nice to be back on solid ground again.
