First Day of First Grade.....

Boy was she ready! Just look at that smile...
Kiley said the first day of first grade was awesome, the whole day was "the best day." She found out today that her teacher was taught by her Papa, not once but three times! Her teacher was also her Uncle Max's teacher, and her Uncle Max was her sons' teacher too! She thought all of that was combined was pretty stinkin' cool (so did her Mom).

Sis was ready too, not for school but for Auntie Babe's!

Alaska State Fair

We only made it for one full day this year, and to tell you the truth one day is enough! We picked the best day to go- plenty of sunshine and during the week so there weren't a ton of people. It was also Kid's Day so the kids got in free, gotta love that.

We met up with the Johnson's and got to spend the day with them. The kids were in heaven hanging out with their cousins. We showed up a little early- only two hours! Hahaha, we thought, or I thought the fair opened at 10 but alas, it opened at 12. We ended up finding a Fred Meyer and finishing up Kiley's school shopping.

Sis got her face painted like a puppy and also got to ride her favorite ride- the Merry Go Around. She kept telling her Dad she wanted to ride the "horses", so he hiked across the fairgrounds to take her to the pony's. "DAD! NOT THOSE HORSES!" haha, she wanted to go on the Carousel.

Pretty design- she surprises me every year.

Sis ran in the Toddler Trot this year, and got third place!

What a great day, I wish we could go to the fair every year! So many memories, such good times!

The more the ride spins, the more Kiley liked it!

Pregnancy

I sure am happy every time.

Kiley...3 months

Kalin....3 months (I look huge, but she was 9 lbs 3 oz!!)

and, drum roll please!

Clouse Baby #3..... I look huge again. Jon says this one is a 10 pounder for sure!

How does your garden grow?

Our garden is doing fabulous this year!! Despite the cold temperatures and tons of rain, we have a great production of produce right in our back yard. We are so impressed with how well everything is doing, we actually feel like we are doing things right this year. Finally our chickweed isn't out-performing everything else in our garden (although it is remarkably healthy)!

We started eating spinach salads in mid-July and have been eating our mixed green salads for about a month now. Check out our romaine, gorgeous! The salads we have been eating are just delicious.... too bad we didn't have a longer growing season. I need to figure out how to get some of these greens into the freezer so we can eat them during the winter months, hmmmm.

Here are a few other veggies that we are proud of:

Monster cabbage! What we think are the largest carrots we have grown thus far..... the last picture is of our broccoli, which we have just started to eat.

We have our own Farmer's Market right in our back yard, amazing! Wait until I show you what we grew in our green house.....

Snake Lake Climbing Expedition 2011

We made it to the top of Snake Lake Mountain again this summer, its become a family ritual. Everyone goes. We try to go on a sunny day, or on a day when it just isn't raining. There weren't many of those this summer.
Some of us hiked.....
and some of us rode the whole way (it wasn't me).


There were a few casualties.....

But we made it to the top!!

All in one piece and pretty happy to be at the top. Can't wait to do it again next summer. Maybe we'll have enough energy to go back, maybe next time to pick berries!

Sockeye Slugger!

You can already tell just by looking at her face that she had another successful year playing Little League baseball. Despite a summer filled with rain, wind and more rain she went to practice every week and played in every game while she was in town.


The Sockeye Sluggers have placed #1 for two years running.... and they were pretty psyched about it. I think about half the team is moving into sixth grade next year so we'll see how they do in the future. I'm optimistic!

If you can't tell by the pictures it was a pretty gorgeous day to have a baseball tournament- mid 70's with barely a cloud in the sky. A little slice of summer heaven. On another note Kiley's mother's team ALSO won first place this weekend- in the softball league. We had to play three games in a row to win, and it was so much fun. I swear the field hit 80 degrees, I bet the first time all summer!

Yeah, the Clouse women had a pretty good weekend!

Something is a little fishy.....

It has been a crazy, very busy two weeks, as it always is in August for the Clouses. Long hours at work and just life leave no time for blogging. But I am back!

GB is back in Alaska, and has been here for ten days already! I thought I had better sit down at the computer and do a little catching up before she has come and gone.

We went and did some fishing up at Lake Aleknagik in July on a gorgeous day (rare for this summer!). Auntie Jen, Missy, JC, KJ, KD and ME...... it was awesome.

We ended up at the Agulawok fishing for Dollies, and all came home with sunburned faces.

Kiley caught her first fish! On her Barbie pole even....

Auntie Jen caught the first fish and had the best pose of the day!

Sis could care less for fishing- she wanted to sun bathe!
I even caught a fish!

Missy was proud of her fish too- I think it was the biggest one of the day!