Joachim's First Day of Preschool!

On Thursday Joachim had his first day of preschool. He is attending St John's. He was so excited to be going to school. For weeks he has told of that only big boys go to school and what they will do etc. Since we have been watching a lot of Star Wars in our house lately he think everyone will also get a light saber, he wants a green one. Anyway, on his first day he got to play with playdough, do puzzles and play with his 'new friends.' Below are some pictures.

Macrina got to play a little before school started.

On his first day of school Joachim wanted to wear his 'Texas running shirt'. To him any thing that is short-sleave and has letters is a 'running shirt'. He want to wear one everyday. It is only an issue on Sunday's when we go to church. Then we compromise. We put a running shirt under his church appropriate shirt. But right after church, at coffee hour, that church appropriate shirt has to come off.

Oh yeah, today is our 5 year anniversary.

Trees

Home Depot is having a 50% off all remaining trees and shrubs now, so I got these five Alberta Dwarf Spruce trees for less than $20.00! I hope they 'take' and survive the winter.

Mom's House

Above are some pictures of my Mom's newly remodeled house. Some of the major changes are the new flooring and paint. Also new bathroom counters, sinks and tub enclosers, a new French Door with blinds between the glass and all the books have been moved downstaris.

Another Before and After

This post really should just be titled 'After' - I cannot find the before pictures I do have. Anyway, last weekend we had some people come over and help clean up some of our back yard. This is right behind our bedroom, looking out to where an old chicken coop used to be. About two years ago I tore down and burned the coop. But I never got around to actually cleaning the garbage and junk - and believe me there was a ton. We got it all cleaned up in about 2 1/2 hours and had pizza/soda afterwards.

Before and After

Above is a picture of the wood pile Kari and I had gathered over two weekends in March with they help of Dn Pat and Peter Lamb. I am pleased to say it is finally all cut, split and stacked in my woodshed. I big thank you goes out to Tim, my father in law, who when he was up here visiting for our hunting trip, bought me a new chainsaw and maul, and helped everyday tackle the pile. While he was here the pile got noticably smaller everyday. I could not have finished so soon had it not been for him. Anyway, below you will find what is left of the wood pile. And pictures inside the woodshed. I estimate I have about 3 1/2 to 4 cords of wood. I think I'm ready for winter!

Hunting

On Sunday the 12th at 6am I went caribou hunting with my brother in law, Peter, and my father in law Tim. We drove north just past the Brooks Range - it only took us about 14 hours total. We saw no caribou, some wildlife we did see were some ptarmigan, sheep, moose, porcupine, and about a trillion mosquitoes! It was about 80 degrees where we camped, Galbraith Lake, north of the Arctic Circle. After searching for caribou a couple of days we gave up and headed to Chena Hot Springs - on our way there we heard there were tons of caribou near Phrudoe Bay. We were only about 100 miles from there. It was a fun trip, the Dalton was not too bad and it was really cool to go that far north. Next year I think we will go later in the season when more animals are legal. Enjoy the pictures.

A stop light on the Dalton!?

Some fireweed and a cool rock formation.

Supposedly the farthest north spruce tree on the road/Pipeline. Somebody started to chop it down for some reason, also about 50 feet north of this tree is a living spruce.

Looking down on the road and Pipeline from one of the passes in the Brooks.

Some mountains in the Brooks Range.

Some mountains in the Brooks Range.

The Arctic Circle.

A view from the road. You can see the pipeline and the fireweed. Fireweed is the first plant that grows after a wildfire. In some places it looked like the fireweed went on for miles.

Under the Pipeline, just north of the Yukon.

Crossing the Yukon River. The floor of the bridge is wood!

Baby Labrecque 3!

I forgot to mention that Kari is pregnant. The cat is out of the bag.

Back from MN!

Kari and the kids just got back from MN. They went down to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday. While there they went north to Uncle Steve's Cabin (where every year the males in the family do their deer hunting) and Duluth. Here are some pics:

Joachim and Grandpa mowing the lawn at the Cabin.

Macrina, somewhere.

Macrina at Canal Park in Duluth.

On the shore of Lake Superior.

1, 2, 3 ....

Jump! I believe this is Canal Park still.

Duluth.

Getting ready for a race sponsered by TCF Bank - where Aunt Bonnie works.

In Grandma's and Granpa's yard.

Bonfire!

Aunt Bonnie pulling Joachim and Macrina in a sleeping bag. This is inside Uncle Steve's Cabin.

John Butler Trio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ps9ENtfoHI&feature=related

I'm pretty sure the John Butler Trio is my new favorite band. Check out this video of one of their songs "Losing You". John Butler is an amazing guitarist, singer and songwriter. Totally wish they could come to Alaska and play at the Bear's Tooth or something.

Big Update

Ok, so since the last time we have posted much has happened. Pascha - the best Holy Day of all time. With that comes decorating eggs etc. Also this year our dog Katie gave birth to eight puppies on Holy Saturday. Very exciting. On Holy Friday I also put new flooring in the laundry room. It looks great, still needs new paint and trim, but just the new floor looks great. We went camping/clamming in Clam Gulch. It was our first time clamming. It was very sucsessful. I probably got about 100 clams and about 6 and 1/2 cups of clam meat. Kari can make a great clam chowder! The weather has been great, already this year we have had more sunny days than last year. For Memorial weekend we went to Seward again. We camp off Exit Glacier Road, in the 'special use area' i.e. free camping. Anyway, this year it was us the Johnson, Phelps,

Finklers, Rays and Peter Lamb who camped. The Curry's and Curry sisters also hung out. While in Seward we went to Exit Glacier, the Sealife Center, Lowell Point and just generally had late nights and even later mornings. The pictures below are not in order so you will just have to read the captions.

The family at Lowell Point, Emma Phelps is with us. This was Memorial Day - it was beautiful!

Macrina at Lowell Point.

Seward from Nash Road (near the Maximum Security Prison).

Joachim and I at the Sealife Center.

Joachim in the Sealife Center, listening about the latest research.

Macrina at the Sealife Center, I had to put her on the display table so she would not run off. She is a handful!

That's my girl - excersising her 2nd Amendment Rights!

One of the Puppies.

Joachim learning how to clean clams.

Clams waiting to be cleaned. Basically you bring them home in a bucket of saltwater. You feed them some cornmeal - that helps to clean the sand out of them, then you can clean them.

Me cleaning the clams.

You can barley see Mt Readoubt from our camp in Clam Gultch. There is steam rising from it, there continues to be seismic activity.

Sunset at Clam Gultch.

Macrina loves her Nutella!

Another puppy - the eyes are still closed on this one.

Joachim decorating eggs at the Lambs.

This is my bedroom. I painted and did the floor and trim the week before Holy Week.