Family Moments

Best friends! :)
No words are needed... :)
This little dude loves studying things! :)
Mommy and the Little Mr. (Oh how he makes my heart melt!)
Our super duper blessed little family in the back yard.
He LOVES running on the beach! (How is this going to work in AZ? ... hmm.)

Awesome Auntie Adventures

We had an incredible visit with the Aunties! (Also known as Bryana & Britny) lol. It was an awesome Alaskan adventure and our month together went by quite quickly! We had many occasions to celebrate including: my 24th birthday, the Coast Guards birthday, Brandon's 24th birthday, new Pastors arriving at our church, Britny starting the 8th grade, Zion turned 14 months old (!), I started my college courses for the semester, my swim lesson business becoming HUGE, I started selling NORWEX cleaning and personal products, and many other things I am sure I am forgetting! :) Overall, it was an action packed month!!! We saw 2 bears, lots of jellyfish, sea anemones, sea urchins, an octopus (that was in the local touch tank aquarium) :), buffalo, bald eagles, puffins, halibut, lots of salmon, and many other wild things... including Zion's hair in the morning. :) Zion happily awoke every day to get bounced on Auntie Brit's air mattress and just spoiled with attention. He loves being the apple of everyone's eye and will actually put on an adorable little show and dance to keep the focus on him. lol. He is just as sweet as sweet can be though and I love to just sit back and watch him sitting in a pile of books happily flipping through the pages. Anyways... we also painted seashells, baked lots of yummy treats, found lots of sea-glass on Jewel Beach, played lots of racquetball, AND made salmonberry jelly! (Which turned out FANTASTIC!) Yup yup. We had an awesome time and utilized every moment! They left Kodiak with many wonderful memories, some sore muscles, a few new skills, and suitcase full of fish!!! Thanks for making the trek up here girls! We love and miss you! xoxo

SalmonBerries

We went Salmonberry picking on my birthday and had a wonderful time picking these beautiful berries. (These pictures were actually taken the day after my b-day when we went again because it was raining and cold and yucky when we went on my b-day!) :) I thought I'd take to the time to show you some salmonberries as they ripen and maybe you can tell why they're called salmon berries. :) They have a kindof mild sweetness, but are quite tasty! The girls and I will be making jelly soon! :) Yum yum yum!!

The Aunties Have Arrived!

Britny and Bryana are now on Kodiak Island for almost a month! Woohoo! We are having a fantastic time showing them around the island and just spending some quality time with each other. What a blessing their trip has already been and it hasn't even been a week! Brandon took them out on a boat to go halibut fishing today... so I'm praying they catch "the big one". :) I've also heard there are whales out in the bay today, so maybe they'll get to see some of those while they're out! How awesome is that? :) I am really enjoying being up here this summer... (maybe because I know it's our last summer!) lol. What awesome adventures the Lord has given us through the Coast Guard. Tomorrow we will all be going out salmon fishing. For my birthday we went out Salmonberry picking. I will be posting more about them. Stay tuned. :) Okie dokie. Off to get more done during nap time! :)

One of Our Favorite Walks

A boy in love with his Grampa! (and a Grampa in love with his boy!)
I thought these were just the perfect flowers. They were down by the float plane dock just waiting for me to snap their pictures!


Enjoying our walk
So beautiful!
A concerned Grammy and Grampa walking Zion down the plank. :)

Some of ZiZi's 1st B-Day Party

Zion had a great 1st Birthday party! And I loved his cake! Isn't it cool??? An Alaskan fishing cake for our little Alaskan born Moose! :) He loved his cake. Can you tell? :) At first he kept looking at me and his Grammy asking "are you SURE i'm allowed to have this???" It was great! :)

Our Bear Sighting and a Shy Fox

We saw our first Kodiak bear of the year! :) He was out enjoying the scenery in Bells Flatts... like 5 minutes down the road from our house. It was exciting. This big guy (It was a small one for a Kodiak) was quite handsome just roaming around. The pink salmon are starting to run, so we will probably start to get more bear action! Also, a shy fox let me get one quick shot of him on the road. He looks like a wise old fox. :) These were taken at almost 9:30 pm. :) We've been loosing lots of daylight lately, but are still getting quite a bit of sunshine. Neat huh? :) We love the summer! It makes up for all of the darkness in the winter.