It's Done!!

We can't say how much we appreciate all the work Grampa put in building our addition and now it's done!! It turned out great, we are very pleased!! Thanks Grampa!!!!!

The bar turned out great!

I also just got a bunch of art framed so I am excited to get those up on the walls for some nice finishing touches.

Getting this drawer built in the bathroom was also another major accomplishment, Grampa sure does nice work- even if he says he hates finish work.

The siding all stained and windows trimmed :)

This is wear we made poor Grampa stay while he was slaving away building our house, nice huh? He is probably building us a house just so he doesn't have to slum it when they visit us :)

Thanks again Grampa!!!

The Hunt

In addition to some quick fishing and bird hunting trips near home Grampa did get to go out Caribou hunting. Unfortunately they didn't get one but sounds like they had a good trip and did get a few stalks in. This was a bow hunt along the Hall road (the road up the Prudoe Bay)and they planned on getting out in the raft but all the Caribou they saw were in a different area so they just hunted along the road. It's very flat country which makes getting close enough to get a shot with a bow pretty challenging.
Too bad they couldn't shoot Musk Ox! But still very cool to get some nice looks at hese amazing animals.



The Jeff didn't take too many pics of their hunting adventures :)

Grampa Gary's Visit

Grampa got right to work finishing all the stuff that we didn't seem to find the time to finish over the last year-opps, sorry Grampa! But he did a much better job than we would have plus it was a good excuse to get him to come back up for a month. Wyatt and Grampa had a lot of quality bonding time, Wyatt loved helping Grampa.

Grampa also helped teach Wyatt how cool it is to wear a bib.

Not the the bib really helps that much!

While Grampa was slaving away, Jeff and Dan went off Sheep hunting. Dan had the tag Jeff was the "guide" and sherpa. They got one.


Taking a break from working.

Gramma & Dru Part 2

Our biggest outing of the visit was a trip down to Valdez. Long distance driving is much easier when you have a 7 year old in the backseat to entertain the one year old. We left poor Grandpa at home to work and Papa went to Chitna to catch us some fish for the winter.


Dru wanted to get his feet in the summer snow.

We took a 6 hour cruise out of Valdez. We lucked out and had great weather and got to see lots of whales, sea lions etc.

Hard to get pictures of the whales but here is one way in the distance. We did however get some really nice up close looks.

Back at the hotel playing with Gramma glasses. Again, Gramma took most of the pictures in Valdez.

Gramma relaxing at the end of her grueling vacation.This ain't no vacation for Grandpa, he has got work to do. Good thing he has a helper this year.

Well, you can't work ALL the time.

Gramma Pam & Dru In Alaska

My Mom and my Nephew came up to visit us for a little over two weeks in late July. We ended up spending quite a bit of time just hanging out hoping the rain would stop but it was fun just the same. Wyatt and Dru became great pals, I even got in some extra sleep while Gramma and Dru entertained Wyatt. Any time the rain let up we made a dash for it and got outside while we could.

We took the boat out on Clearwater Lake and made a run up the Tanana river.


Can't see everyone here but we got the whole gang (3 dogs, 2 goats, 1 gramma, 2 boys, mama, papa and 2 friends from Fairbanks) all out for a nice afternoon walk behind the house.


Checking out Rika's roadhouse, climbing on fences is fun for boys.

Wyatt still says, "Dru see peacocks" almost everytime we drive past Rika's.


We also made it to the Delta Fair. This was Wyatt's first ride :)


Delta's favorite pastime...Mud boggin'

Next we headed back into Fairbanks to pick up Grandpa and do some gold panning.
Dru poses with the train conductor at the goldmine. Gramma took all the pictures this day, well most days actually. Someday maybe I will post a few of hers.
Gotta stop at the pipeline.
And on to the next fair in Fairbanks. Wyatt knew just what to do at the petting zoo.More rides for everyone. I didn't think we would get the boys out of there, they couldn't get enough of the rides.
Back to Delta for family day at the farmers market. No rides here but there were food crafts including finger painting with chocolate pudding.

Vermont Part 2

Like I was saying..why can' we all just get along? Just try to get 3 one year olds all to sit together and be happy- good luck!!


Having Mom or dad in the picture helps :)

We also got to help celebrate Grandpa Bob's 80th birthday. Happy Birthday Bob!



Wyatt loves motorcycles and was thrilled to see cousin Kevin arrive on this one. I think Wyatt is ready to ride.

All the babies picked up some bad habits while on vacation.


After leaving the cottage we decided to stop at a national park on the way back to Mike and Liz's house in New Jersey. But when we got there Liz got out of the car and went into labor! Surprise! 3 weeks early and far from home. She ended up giving birth to little baby Claire in Albany, NY. We were headed back for Ak the next day but luckily Jeff got to go up and meet the new baby before we left.

Here are the rest of us enjoying the park while liz was rushing off to the hospital.

Kate Spinning wool
Wyatt feeding cows
Ann and the kids riding off in the wagon. Wyatt talked about this for weeks.