Kiley's Family Portrait

The ClousesDaddy, Mommy, Kiley and Kalin

Kiley did such a wonderful job creating a family portrait, I had to take a picture of it. She is practicing her drawing and writing more and more every day. I can tell by the details in the pictures she draws that she is getting closer and closer to being ready to learn how to read and write! She will be ready for preschool in September for sure!

Happy Birthday Jon!!

Kiley decorated Daddy's cake all by herself!

Kiley helping her Dad blow out his candles.

Jon turned 33 on July 24th, yes we are the same age again. We celebrated his big day pretty quietly, going out to lunch (the girls, Jon and myself) and then had a quiet dinner at home. Kiley and I were busy at home baking a cake for dad, brownies and one of his favorite meals: beef enchiladas. Kiley was in charge of decorating her Dad's cake and she did such a wonderful job! I think our three year old has a chance at being one heck of a baker when she grows up, my girl can already crack eggs like a pro!

This month 3 is a lucky number for the Clouses: I am 33, Jon is 33, Kiley is 3 and Kalin is 3 months old!

Cousin Heaven!

Shannon and Kiley swinging

Camryn jumping rope

The big kids (Max & Will) like to go on the trampoline too!

Riding the four-wheeler: Rikki, Kiley and Ryn.

Sunshine! Kiley, Rikki, Cam, Kalin, Triston and Dillon eating popsicles.

Kiley, Little Shanon, Dillon, Rikki, Noah, Kalin, Triston, Graelin, and Raini

For about a week now it has been non-stop cousin heaven! Rikki, Shannon, Britni and Noah are visiting from Anchorage, Raini is visiting from Arizona and Camryn just came home from Anchorage too.

The kids have been playing so well together, and they just can't seem to get enough (rain or shine). They have been jumping on the trampoline, swinging, playing with "babies", jumping rope, riding on the four-wheeler, Hide and Go Seek, and also Kick the Can. When it got closer for Rikki and Shannon to leave they even created a lemonade stand to raise money to extend their visit in Dillingham (they made about $20!) !!!

Kiley is loving every minute of it, even though she is one of the youngest ones, and she misses her best friend and partner in crime, the older ones have been pretty good about including her in their games. She has to take a time out every once and a while and just hang out with her buddy Graelin.

Projects!!!!

The first project GB tackled when she got here, splitting all of Jon's logs from this spring.Down time at Aleknagik- Kiley was screaming NONONONONO the entire time, but loving every second!

Painting the outside of our house- smoky gray with antique white trim.

Kiley and GB painting the bedroom a light purple. GB deemed it luscious lavender, but Kiley said, "No it is just purple!".

GB and her newest Granddaughter- Kalin Dawn.

G.B. (the Alaska Clouse grandchildren have shortened GrandBonnie to GB) is in Dillingham visiting from Colorado for about two weeks. I have deemed her the "Energizer Bunny" because she keeps going and going and going.... you get the picture. I told Jon the other day Bonnie would surely have worked herself to death if she had as much light in Colorado as she does in Alaska, every day she has been working from about 10:00 a.m until 10:00 p.m., with little breaks in between!

So far she has stained our deck, painted Kiley's room (purple), wacked some weeds, painted our house (exterior, and we are still working on it), and split all of the logs that Jon went and cut this spring. She also baked some of her famous pies in her "down" time. We also managed to get her away from the projects and up to the Lake to enjoy some of our rare sun one afternoon.

It hasn't been all work though, she has spent some quality time with Kiley and Kalin, and we got some good pictures too! Kalin decided to show off a little for everyone this morning and rolled over for the first time!

More Pictures at the Zoo....

Papa and Kiley looking at the giraffes.

Kiley face to face with an orangutan!

I'm a caterpillar- in the butterfly garden of course.

Going to the Zoo

Papa decided that it would be a good idea to go to the zoo in Seattle before Kalin, Kiley and I left for home. We went the day before we left and stayed the night in Seattle and got up early the next morning to catch our plane. We had a lot of fun at the zoo seeing many different animals. Kiley's favorite was the hippopatamus... and the monkeys too of course. :)