Anna turns 8

Anna turned 8 this year and invited her friends over for a birthday party.  The girls crafted, ate cake and ice cream, and opened up presents.

Anna had a wonderful time with her friends.  A few days later she and another little girl were baptized.

 Kevin and Anna

 Our family

 Paige Nelson and Anna (Wearing the dress Grandma California made for Tiffany's baptism)

Bishop Blackley, Grandpa Alaska, Grandpa California, Dad, Uncle Keith, Uncle Ralph, and Anna.

It was a great day.  Anna said the water was cold, but after her confirmation she felt warm all over. 

Alaska State Fair

We took the kids to the Alaska State Fair this year and had a lot of fun. We went to the Lumberjack show (a family favorite), saw the Alaska grown veggies, petting zoo, rode horses, ate cotton candy, and played games.  Can't wait for the fair to come back next year. 

 3rd place pumpkin

 lumberjack show

 yummy cotton candy!

 Anna riding Pocahontas 

Audrey riding Bruno

School

The kids walk to Alpenglow Elementary School every morning. They love there teachers and are making friends.  Audrey misses them during the day, but has fun walking with them.  

She started a little preschool co-op two days a week and she feels just like the big kids.

Blueberries

A couple of weeks ago we ventured about 45 min up the road to Hatchers Pass to pick some wild blueberries.  It was a beautiful day and we found enough berries to make a few muffin batches.

 A view from the pass down over Wasilla and Palmer. Eagle River is way across the valley to the right around those mountains. The peak in the middle is Pioneer Peak.

 Great idea to go picking Dad!

 Queen of the mountain!

 finding the berries.

  These hills behind us are covered with berries.  

Our first time blueberry picking was a success! 

Salmon Fishing

The Reds are coming the Reds are coming!

We went down the the Parks' cabin to go fishing and had a great time.  Jared caught a few fish and Anna caught her first fish and Audrey helped real one in.  Jared likes fishing, but doesn't have the patience to fish for more than a half hour at a time.

Anna, on the other hand, loves to fish.  She is just like her dad! She will stand for hours down at the river fishing and also loves to tie her own flies.

Here is the fish Anna caught all by herself.

Getting outside

The other week we went on a family bike ride along the coastal trail in Anchorage.  Tiffany found a toddler bike seat on craigslist for CHEAP! (just a little proud of that purchase) and we borrowed a bike from Kevin's parents.  It was nice and cool; just perfect for a bike ride.

 Anna did a great job biking four miles on a one gear bike.  We think it is time for an upgrade for her.

 Audrey loves riding in her seat.  She usually grabs onto whoever is driving and clicks her tongue and says, "Giddy-up" 

 This is us with the other side of the inlet in the background.  If you look real close you can see Russia. (HeHeHe) Actually Wasilla is on the other side of the inlet and on a clear day Mt. McKinley.

 That would be Anchorage in the background.

This week we ventured out around our new hometown, Eagle River.  We drove 10 miles up the road the the Eagle River Nature Center where there are hiking trails.  We went with an old friend of Kevin's. 

This is basically what the views are like from just about anywhere in Eagle River. 

 It was a bit cold and windy, but breathtakingly beautiful.

 Anna, of coarse, found a tree to climb.

 This is the Eagle River or as Audrey pronounces it "Evil River"

 Jared, Anna, and Audrey played with the other kids and entertained themselves with throwing rocks, logs, and anything else they could grab into the river and then racing it down stream.  

  We are enjoying the free time we have to explore a little of Alaska.  Next weekend: Fishing!

Cousins and the Cabin

This summer Uncle Josh is building a bunk house at the Parks cabin on the Kenai River and Kevin went down with him to help. 

Kevin, Josh, and Jared went down early in the week to start building while the girls stayed in Anchorage.  The girls planned on going down on Friday and thought it would be a good idea to invite Austin and Lydia to come with us.  The kids had fun playing by the river, shooting arrows, riding in the truck and just playing around.

Grandma and Grandpa Alaska came down as well to check on the progress of the bunk house and to get away from the city.

The trip wouldn't have been complete without jumping in the 50 degree Kenai River.

It was a fun weekend in a beautiful place.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!

Well, not the lions but there were tigers and bears at the Alaska Zoo.

We met up with Allison, Ethan, Logan, Keith, Lincoln and Grandma for a nice sunny day at the Alaska Zoo. Our first stop was to see the seals and otters. Most of the animals were out.  The Alaska wolves impressed us the most because of their size.

Audrey and her cousin, Ethan, that is two days older than her riding in the stroller.
Anna's impression of a squirel

Jared and a Musk Ox

Jared, Lincoln, Anna, Audrey, and Ethan.

The weather has been so nice over the past week. We are loving being outside and soaking up the sun.

OBX

Our Dental School graduation present to ourselves was a week long vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It is one of our favorite places. This time we brought along Grandma and Grandpa California. We stayed at a friends beach house in Kill Devil Hills.
 
We spent everyday at the beach. The kids enjoyed learning to boogie board and digging for little crabs. Even Grandma and Grandpa got in on the action.

Audrey was afraid of the water, but dragged her boogie board around anyway.
 
Grandma and Grandpa
 
Kevin helping Audrey get over her fear.
 
Grandma and the kids braving the current and waves
 
Finding crabs.



Beach Dudes

Beach Babes

Grandpa in the ocean!? What!?
When we weren't at the beach we were exploring the island.




Walking the boardwalk in Duck
 
Eating Duck Doughnuts
 
Umm..not really sure
We also went to the Wright Brother's Monument.  Where the first flight took place.
 

One of our favorite places to go is Jockey Ridge Parks where there are enormous sand dunes. 
flying kites:
 
 
 
 
 
Wither you are flying kites or jumping off sand dunes Jockey Ridge Parks is tons of fun.


We are so grateful we got to share one of our favorite spots on the East Coast with Grandma and Grandpa California.  We had so much fun swimming, sunbathing, kite flying, exploring, and playing together.  All good things must come to an end so after a week of playing we said goodbye and headed back to Maryland to prepare for our next big adventure.  Moving to Alaska!