Alaskan Summer - Our Second Summer!

Now that our second summer is over (yes summer defnitely is over here!), we will finally get around to posting some highlights. Thanks to everyone who made the trek up to the land of the great north!

To kick-off a most wonderful summer, the Salt Lake City Burians came to visit. We had a great time with Carson, Cindy and Steve. The weather was record-breaking warm and we went to Denali National Park. North America's highest peak, Mt. McKinley (aka Denali at 20,000 feet) was in full glory (it's only visible about 30% of the time!). It would be a lie to say that "oh, it's always this nice in late April." The Burians must be living right! On that trip, we saw ptarmigan, caribou, Dall sheep and even a wolf.




Then, we completed a 26-mile bike ride around Eklutna Lake on Mother's Day. Hope, though pulled by Nic on her trail-a-bike (kiss the person who invented that if you see him - it's awesome!!), managed to ride 26 miles and pedal her third of the bike for 5 hours. By mile 20 Nic and I were exhausted and we weren't talking much. We had seen a bear on the ride up near a loud, running stream and the best way to avoid bear encounters is to make noise. Hope pulled her weight and sang the Great States song about 50 times, in honor of each of the 50 states. We rewarded ourselves with malts and ice cream cones when we got back to the trailhead!

For Memorial Day, the Brandes bunch from Colorado came over! It was so much fun to see our nephew Sawyer! Nic and Hope were able to spend some fun times hiking with Will and Becky and little soy sauce as Hope has nicknamed him (Hope LOVES soy sauce, so it's really a loving term of endearment).
Will and Hope at Flat Top:Can you spot little Saywer in the backpack with Becky and Will?

A few weeks after Will, Becky and Sawyer left, we tried our hand at digging razor clams. We loaded up Dora and went to the Kenai peninsula. Below is Jolie and Hope with the clam gun. Again, such amazing weather and scenery!

We did have some rainy days, and one of those was Father's Day. We hiked up near Arctic Valley ski area. It snowed at the top! We had fun bouncing on the tundra (it's really bouncy - who knew??).

To start off Hope at Camp Grandparents, Jolie flew with her to Vermont for 4th of July. We saw fireworks over Lake Champlain from Cedar Cove's large windows. It was our third July 4th in Vermont. I only stayed a few days, then I was back to Alaska to help with some of the wildfires in Fairbanks. Nic was already working on some of the fires there. Hope went to the North Hero summer camp and made some new friends. After about 10 days in VT, Pam flew with Hope to New Orleans to start session 2 of Camp Grandparents with my parents. This is Hope's third summer at Camp Grandparents - and she loves it. As long as the Grandparents are offering sessions, we'll sign her up!

Above, GramPam is rescuing Hope's tube.

Then, the Troxclair Clan arrived in tow with Hope from the deep south. Jolie's mom, Judy, Aunts Rose, Maureen, Suzanne, and Bernice and Uncle Ken descended upon Alaska! We had a great time visiting and cooking and exploring Homer and Seldovia. Nic and Ken did a halibut charter and we are enjoying their catch still. Judy and Rose

Ken and Bernice

Everyone took lots and lots of photos.

Beach in Homer



And finally, here's a picture of the other days in our summer. Poor, deprived Hope having to make toys with cardboard boxes.

When Hope was visiting the Lower 48 Jolie and Nic took advantage of our Alaska residency and went dipnetting. Our family was allowed up to 75 fish. We did not quite get that many, but we do have a couple nice size ones in the freezer for this winter. It is not a quiet, solo, wilderness experience. Think county fair/carnival crowd. Quite the mix of Alaskans.
Continuing our subsitence gathering we went blueberry picking again this fall. We are getting better at finding the right spots. The tundra changes colors and the ocean and sky make for some great scenery in the fall.

Volcanos, Lynx and Moose Oh My

What a crazy weekend. Saturday afternoon we went for a walk in the neighborhood and a dark cloud began to move across the ocean towards our house and the winds began to pick up. After getting home, I stayed outside to shovel snow and soon I could smell sulpher and had grit in my mouth. Mt. Redoubt ash fall had started. Meanwhile Jolie and Hope were inside and saw four Canadian Lynx, a medium size wild cat with tufts of hair on their ears and feet as big as saucers. They are an endangered species. I missed seeing them, but.....the next morning we saw them agan and got some pictures and video. Here is a picture of Mt. Redoubt from our front deck before the eruption.

Below is Mt. Redoubt with steam starting to come out. This is on March 22, Jolie's birthday.

There were four lynx. For such an elusive animal, it is amazing to see even just one. I can't believe we watched four of them, from our kitchen windows. They were hanging out under Hope's play set and it looked like they were not happy about the ash on the snow getting in their paws. They kept shaking and licking their feet. Enjoy the pictures and the video.

In the picture above, you can see three of them.

The snow looks like a bright white from their paw prints. This is because the top of the snow is covered with ash from Mt. Redoubt. The ash is not like an ash from a wood fire, but is very gritty from the molten rock. Not good to breathe, or drive in and very abrasive. Saturday night we had 80 mph winds and it drifted the ash around the snow.

The picture below shows how big their paws are, this helps keep them up on the snow.

We called our neighbors and told them about the lynx. Then we saw a cow moose in the driveway and another moose, a bull moose, off the back deck. What a morning.

Video of the Lynx in our back yard.

2009....still winter

Before Christmas, our great neighbors, Tricia, Jamin and Laney left for Scotland. We will miss them. Here is Hope and Laney, with Hope giving Laney one of her most prize possessions, a purple tu tu.

We went to Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Film Festival. Visited friends there and then drove to Colorado. Here is Grampam with the kids and grandkids.

Hope turned six January 13. Her best buddy, Tasso the cat is helping her blow out the candles.

Anchorage hosted an outdoor art festival called the Freeze Project. Here is Jolie and Hope going through a maze at 10 below zero. They don't call it the Freeze Project for nothing. This is on the Park Strip. A park down town that was an airstrip for Anchorage back in the day.

No Alaska adventure is complete without a sled dog ride. We went up to Girdwood, and although the skies were clear, it was cold, even by Alaska standards. Jolie and I took turns holding Hope on our lap in front of us, that helped break the wind for Jolie and I and kept us warm. Hope (who rarely complains about the cold) on the other hand, was so cold she had tears coming down her cheeks and her toes were numb. This ain't no Colorado ride with blankets and hot cocoa. We left the ride with a perfect imprint of our butts on a wooden seat of ice. It smelled like you were behind 16 wet dogs, with a 15 knot head wind.

Here is Jolie holding Hope in front of her.






Here is Nic holding Hope in front.

There is a new speed skating oval in town. We checked it out. It is a good work out to get in shape for the ski season. What a way to kill some time at ten below zero. The picture of Jolie with frost on her eyes was before she lost feeling in her toes. The picture of Hope and Jolie on the bench is after she lost feeling in her toes.



Jolie and I took a trip on the "ski train". The Anchorage Nordic Ski Association chartered the train and took us off the road system towards Talkeetna. It stopped at a spot called Curry and dropped us all off. It was a blue sky day; we saw bald eagles and Mt. McKinley (Denali) on the way up. Here we all are sorting out the skis.

Below is the polka band. They went through and woke everyone up at about 7:30. Then on the way back from skiing they played in the Polka Car. Jolie and Nic danced the chicken dance. Not easy on a moving train, after wine and cheese, but we met the challenge.

Above is Nic and Jolie out skiing.

Here is Jolie on the train.

Below is Nic and Hope at a cross country ski race. It was Nic's first race ever and Hope's first race ever. It is called the Sven Johansson. There are more than a couple of Scandanavians skiing in Alaska. Nic did a 30K and Hope did a 2.5K

Hope did her race at the same time Nic did his. Jolie asked Hope if she wanted her mom to go with her. Hope was adamant about doing it all by herself. After the flag went down and all of the 12 year old boys raced off into the woods, Hope was in the back of the pack, sans poles, skiing off into the woods. Jolie wasn't sure if it would be a good idea for a kindergartner to be all by her self in a maze of trails in the woods. Jolie evenually caught up with her and joined her to the finish line. Here are a few shots of Hope going out on her adventure all by herself. The last picture of the three melts my heart. Nic.

Below is Hope on the first day of spring. She was so excited about the equinox she put on her flip flops and exchanged her winter coat for a light wind breaker. It was pretty nice, finally, above 30.