Kolbi Dance Moves

Here are some dance moves from Kolbi - circa 2013

Ballet in Dillingham

We were very excited to watch Kalin in her first ballet recital (practice). She is having a great time!

More Basketball

Here are some highlights of offense and defense from Kiley's weekend of basketball.

A Million Words!

Someone in our family reached her goal of reading a million words this month!!  Kiley has been a reading machine, as usual this year.  She was the third student at our elementary school to reach this goal.  She was rewarded for her hard work with this very cool t-shirt and some awesome recognition at the schools Friday assembly.

You can also listen to her telling all about the books she reads at:

http://kdlg.org/post/two-more-read-million

4th & 5th Grade Basketball Tournament

A busy weekend for us! Kiley and Laci have both been practicing their basketball skills this month.  Today was the culmination of their effort- the big tournament.  Both girls had a lot of fun running up and down the court and shooting the ball.

Hoopers in our house!

Happy Halloween

We all decided to be the those little green army men that were so fun to play with back in the day.  It was a lot of fun figuring out the costumes.

Spirit Week At School

This week is spirit week at school...it started with Mustache Monday

 

Then it was Twin Tuesday. 

Costume day on Friday.

                                           Kalin is a Cowgirl and the Student of the Week!!

    

        Laci - Scarecrow  

Kiley - Ketchup

                                          

                                   Camilla Cream from the book "A Bad Case of the Stripes

Happenings at the Clouse House

Deep fried a chicken and cooked green beans.  Kolbi ate a whole drumstick and Kalin stuffed in the green beans.

 Jack O Lantern Time

                                          Laci's                                                                         Kolbi's

                                      Kiley's                                                                      Kalin's

Dress Up

Halloween is right around the corner and the girls always have fun trying on old costumes.  Kolbi especially had a great time.  She spent several hours trying on costumes.

She had this cat tail that had to go with every costume.  She called it her "butt tail".

Below are the costumes that were chosen for the Zombie Walk.  An event promoting healthy snacks as treats.  The funny thing it that Kiley said, "String cheese and apple sauce are treats.  Those are too healthy to be treats."

Weekend Fun

We had a great weekend at the House of Clouse.  We did a little garden harvesting, went to a harvest party with friends, and did a little spruce grouse hunting.

This is the fixings for the salad we brought to the harvest party...all from our garden.

 Kolbi and her buddy Everett singing "Rock n' Roll" at the harvest party.  Below is short video of them singing their hearts out.

Kiley went out on Sunday morning Spruce Grouse hunting.

She came back with six grouse.

She helped pluck them then make spruce grouse soup for everyone at lunch.  The rest we deep fried for dinner (these are the deep fried version).  Pretty tasty!

I'm Back....

It has been quite the summer and start of fall at the House of Clouse. We had such amazing travels to see friends and family; graduations, weddings, reunions....!! Wow!  I have some great pictures to share, but iPhoto is not cooperating.  I'll have to share what I have right now. 

Our summer took us to Texas and California, and Hawaii!  We managed to play and make memories in all those places, we are so lucky.  I don't know if I can get  caught up, I'll try.  Here's to hoping you have a great week!

Present Day Fun

I'm still trying to catch up on posts, but in the meantime we are enjoying every day in our neck of the woods. I was worried with such a beautiful spring that our summer would be, for a better word, blah. Luckily that hasn't been the case, and the sun has been shining.

Our little town has been hopping with people, think double our population, people.  Workers from our cannery, Sport Fisherman, Commercial Fisherman, family visiting from far away.... you name it, they are here. This town has been busy, crowded and slightly over populated.  Thank goodness for our first Red Salmon opener, people were finally able to do what they were brought here to do- process salmon!

The 70 degree day, gorgeous sunshine and slight breeze was calling us to Aleknagik Lake, and away from all the people.  We couldn't resist, so off we went, our first trip of the summer!  

Cheetos, boats, water, sunshine, friends.... made for a perfect day at the Lake!

Snake Lake Hike

We went on a fun hike to Snake Lake Mountain with the girls and one of Kiley's friends.  Usually, at this time of year, we don't have access, there is too much snow.  But we were able to drive most of the way and then hike the last mile or so.

We hit a little road block with a fallen tree, but that didn't stop us.  Kolbi was a little reluctant to walk so we all chipped in to carry her.  She even got a shoulder ride from Kiley.

Jon took the brunt of our two year old on his back, pretty much the whole way up Snake Lake Mountain. She had to rest at the top from so much carrying.  It's quite trying for her.

We'd hike a little, and then take a break.  Have a snack, some water and then hike some more. Or maybe that was just me.

Jon and I even enjoyed some alone time, meaning we were able to take two minutes to take a selfie. We're still so cute....

Another fantastic day, man we are lucky to live here.

Spring in Dillingham, 2014

It was an amazing spring this year in Dillingham.  When I say "amazing" I am not exaggerating-  our high temperature for the YEAR was May 16, a whopping 76.1 degrees! 

That is  unheard of!  No snow, no bugs.... a ton of sunshine and hot weather.  A little slice of heaven.  We did not mind the touch of Global Warming we got in these parts, it was actually a little refreshing.

These crazy kids of ours, and their crazy neighbor friends got "hot."  They wanted to go "swimming"- we don't have a pool people.  Not a lake, not a pond, no actual body of water unless you consider the creek behind our house.  What we do have (or had) was a massive puddle from the snow that had melted in our yard.

The kids floated that dinghy all over, playing "Titanic" and jumping off it.

This one got a little carried away, and was actually swimming.  I thought she had asked her parents to get this wet, I was wrong.

Lucky for them we have this rockin' fire pit and they got dried off and warm again.  It was about 8:00 at night and still in the 70's. Heaven I tell you!

A Spring Walk on the Beach

This spring we went to the beach for a walk.  As you can tell, this isn't your typical day at the beach. Nothing like our beautiful day to the beach this summer with my Uncle Craig, Aunt Monica and Chris... but I will write about that later.

  Kanakanak Beach was still covered with snow and ice, and the Nushagak River hadn't "gone out" yet. Meaning the river was still frozen, but about to break up.

Kolbi enjoyed walking in the water, Kiley and Kalin loved the mud!

They loved climbing up onto these massive icebergs, which scared me just a little.  The older girls are fearless.

We even found a waterfall. By then the youngest member of our tribe had fallen into the water and needed a warmer jacket.  Wet is easier to deal with then Kanakanakak beach mud!

 

We ended the day with another sister picture, which they complain about incessantly.  I'm not sure why, because they do love to see their pictures together.  Well, they will, someday.  Anyway. This was a very fun day at the beach, even if there was little sun, icebergs and mud.  These Alaskan chicks loved it, and so did their parents.