Onions

Sis and I went and picked some onions from the garden the other day.

"Onions mom? This one? No? This one? "

You can imagine her going from a potato plant to the lettuce to the carrots... until she finally got the right one. Then she yanked it up as fast as she could.The bulb onions we planted this year are far bigger than any onion we have ever gotten in the past. We are pretty excited to actually have some onions growing!

We have been harvesting quite the Alaska "cold weather" crop in the last few weeks. We've been harvesting broccoli, made some salad with our home grown lettuce and even dug up some potatoes for a moose stew tonight. Yum! This is why we garden. We reap what we sow.

GB's Visit

Jon's mom, aka "GB" (short for GrandBonnie) came for a visit August 1st and was supposed to leave August 20th.... but we talked her into staying another week. August seems to be one of the busiest months for us. We both head back to work and have a very busy two weeks of inservice and all the "extra" duties that inservice entails. Lots of looonnnggg days and weekend work. Having GB here helping us with the two kiddos and all the ins and outs of managing our household has been nothing short of marvelous.

Having Bonnie here has been absolutely wonderful, and very, very helpful for us during this busy month.

Everyone knows that GB loves a good project, multiple projects. She told Jon she would come to Alaska only if he promised that he would have enough logs cut for her to split wood for an hour a day. She wasn't kidding.
So far she has split about 6 chords of wood. She has filled our wood shed to its maximum capacity, and its never been to maximum capacity.
On top of spllitting wood every night GB cooks, cleans and also does laundry. No you can not have her come to your house. Yes Ben she has made us potato burritos and tortilla soup, ha ha! Both were amazingly delicious and we ate every morsel/drop.

Sorry Papa Paul, we are keeping her indefinitely. Our visit can not have gone better....

Blast to the past....

I came across this video I took a while back of Kiley and Kalin playing "Puma." Basically a game Kiley started in which she pretended to be a Puma and scared Kalin into Daddy's arms. Just look how small they look- Kalin has no hair! Kiley still has all her teeth! They grow so fast....

Happy Anniversary

How is it 9 years already? We make it look easy baby!

I love you, and look forward to many more years together!

Self Portrait

She gets a hold of the camera and this is what she does.

Pure cuteness.

Kiley in Action!

Sockeye Slugger, 2010

Kiley decided she would like to play baseball this year. She played her first game without a second of practice, and did alright. Since we have been home she has been going to practice and has played a game or two. She is the youngest one on her team and one of two girls. Her last game she hit the ball twice, got on base twice, and actually fielded a few balls.
Go Kiley!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Broccoli

Radish Bunch- picked and given to Uncle Joe

Bulb Onions

Despite the colder weather this summer our garden seems to be thriving! We got home from vacation and immediately checked on the garden, I was pretty stoked with the results. Just about everything we planted is growing in some capacity- potatoes, radishes, carrots, onions, lettuce and broccoli. I think our strawberries are done for the season, but at least we got a few berries out of them before we left.

The onions from seed look a little bleh, and the carrots don't look like they are going to really grow to any edible size. But we have 63 potato plants (red and Yukon gold) growing and with potatoes selling here in Dillingham for $9 for a 5 lb bag that is a lot of potatoes!

These beds that have carrots, potatoes and radishes in them. I can't tell much of a difference in growth yet compared to these plants and those in the garden, except in the carrot size. The carrots in our main garden didn't even grow! We'll compare the amount of potatoes when it is time to dig them up.

One of our biggest potato plants

With all of this green stuff growing in our garden, we sure do feel like farmers, or I do anyway. I feel pretty productive.... Jon finished our greenhouse the other day, and it is a little late in the season to really put a lot in there now, but watch out for next year!

Alamosa

Bella and Kalin, holding hands to shop!

We were in Cheraw for just a few short days and then drove to Alamosa to see the Alamosa Clouses for a weekend. What fun we had! We were surprised that Bella was a few inches taller than Kalin this summer, plus she has at least four or five more inches of hair! Maybe by next summer she will have caught up a little. Kiley was happy to note she is still the tallest Clouse girl.... for this summer at least.

Ben and Jenny have been extremely busy with the latest Sierra Contractors project- a humongous solar farm for the Valley. Talk about stress! They were up to their eyeballs in it, but we kind of took them away from it all while we were there.

We got to go to the Alligator Farm, the Sand Dunes and spend a lot of time just catching up. What fun the Clouse girls got to have with one another, sun up until sun down. The consensus when we were leaving was that we definitely should live closer so we can see eachother more often.

That's me holding an alligator at the farm, yup I'm a badass!

Posing at the Alligator Farm

Sand Dunes

Swimming Clip Summer 2010

A clip of Kiley doing the breast stroke. I see the Olympics in her future....

Swimming in 2010

We tried swimming lessons for both girls this summer. Kalin ended up getting three and Kiley got nine. Kalin wasn't quite ready, she was more interested in just splashing around; definitely not blowing bubbles or getting dunked in the water.

Kiley on the other hand was a pro this summer! She learned free style and the breast stroke, and a little back stroke (much to her swim teachers chagrin she reverted to the doggie paddle quite a bit). She also practiced her diving, in Arika's pool and in the public pool.

I have some great short clips of her swimming skillz, but for some reason I can't get them to post. I'll have to work on sharing them later.

Ahhh the long road to Colorado

We're home now, and I didn't get a chance to blog much from Colorado, so I will do it now that we are home.Forty five minutes to Anchorage and five hours to Denver.... it was a wonderful trip down south this year.
As always it wasn't enough time to do all we needed to do or to see all the people we needed to see, but we packed in as much as we could!

Here's a run down of our trip:

1. 9 Swimming Lessons for Kiley
2. 3 Swimming Lessons for Kalin (she wasn't quite ready, we'll try again next year)
3. Breakfast with Erin and family (the Lohmier crew) in Colorado Springs
   
4. Haircuts and Pedicures in La Junta
   
5. A visit to Alamosa to see the Alamosa Clouses
6. A visit to the Alligator Farm to, of course, see the Alligators
7. A visit to the Sand Dunes
8. Trip to Colorado Springs, a visit with old friends
9. Trip to Denver to pick up Matthew from Seattle
   
10. Trip to Bents Old Fort (in 95 degree heat)
11. BBQ with the Lewis's, Lambs and Clouses (4th of July celebration)
12. Lots and lots of visiting with nephews, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, parents, cousins......
    
13. Airsoft Game(s)- Jon, Ben, Lance, Soren, Matthew, Damon, Devin, Dillon
    
14. Launching water balloons (all of the above including Garry, Travis, Kiley)
    
15. About 12 trips to the public pool
16. Gathering toads, which believe it or not Kalin was scared of this summer!
    
17. Off to the movie theater to watch "Toy Story 3", we all loved it. I got a little teary eyed at the end.
18. A shopping trip to Pueblo with Aunt Jenny
    
19. Trip back to Denver to drop Matthew off
20. Many, many, many trips to Sonic
21. A visit to the Zoo in Colorado Springs with the Lohmier crew
22. A visit with Nancy in Denver

Just writing it made me tired! Phew! That's why we do it every year. The traveling is exhausting but the kids did so well this year, they are turning into little expert travelers. So a little at a time I will add pictures from our travels this summer.

Colorado

I haven't figured out how to download our pictures on Papa Paul and GB's computer yet so this is going to be a no-picture post. Just some highlights of our trip so far.

Kiley Highlights

Swim Lessons: so far she has been learning the breast stroke and swimming like a frog. She is officially half fish.

Water Park: The hotel we stayed at in Alamosa had an indoor water park that her Dad took her to every day we were there. There is also a water park in La Junta that she has gone to multiple times.

Toads: The toads have been spreading the word that Kiley is baaack! She has caught up to 12 at one time. We thought Kalin would be into the toads but she screams whenever she is near them, Jon had to bribe her with candy to even touch one this year.

Kalin Highlights

Chickens- She's like her mom and loves them. When we got back from Alamosa she ran to say hello and got attacked by one, actually the rooster attacked her (so that isn't really a highlight, but when you see her you'll have to ask her about it, it is quite comical!). The blood curdling scream got my blood rushing....

Mooses aka Horses- GB and Papa Paul have horses grazing in their pasture. Kalin still refers to them as "those mooses" but sometimes she will call them horses.

Wading Pool- Loves swimming in the yard, naked! We tried a few swimming lessons but she just wasn't going for it.

We are having a blast! We went to Alamosa and got to go to the Alligator Farm and the Sand Dunes, plus spend some quality time with the Alamosa Clouses.

It hits 60 degrees and look what happens....

Pool party! Kiley, Kalin and the neighborhood kids had a blast with the pool in our yard yesterday. I think the highest the temperature got was 65, but you would have thought it was 95 with the way the kids were acting! I guess the Alaskan sun is just hotter at 65 here then in other places (hah).
I had to pull Kiley kicking and screaming out of the pool to take a little break. The neighborhood kids left, came back, left, came back..... you get the picture. Let's just say our house was a popular spot. Sis was the only one who was smart and said, "Water too cold! Brrr!"

We breaked until Jake and Alethia came over and then the party was on again until 6:00.... mom said BRRR too! Man we missed our BFF's!

Gardening in Action 2010....

Jon put together a little movie of our garden transforming.... into an actual garden.

Radishes!

I've never been more excited to see plants growing! Our radishes popped up about three days ago and they look gorgeous. Jon noticed them first when he was checking the carrots in our raised beds. I planted a few radishes about a third down every row of carrot to "mark" the rows, plus a long row in the main garden.

Kiley asked me, "Mom what's a radish?" I told her they were delicious and she was going to love them.... we'll see how much she likes them about the time we come home from Colorado.

Yummy Strawberries

I noted yesterday that Kiley ate the first fresh strawberry from our garden.

Today Kalin ate number 2 and 3..... and kept asking for more!

Shhhh, don't tell Kiley!

You Reap What You Sow.....

Some serious lettuce growing in our garden

Jon tilled the garden a good six times, if not more

It has been a labor of love on our garden this year. Tilling and fertilizing and spreading lime and tilling some more. Pulling sticks and rocks and weeds..... building three raised garden beds and planting a strawberry garden. A week of love dedicated to the dirt in our yard.

This is the second year we have attempted a garden, last year we planted one but it was later in the summer. We got a pretty good harvest of broccoli, lettuce and potatoes. Not a single strawberry plant grew so I got some real starters out of Anchorage. Kiley just ate a fresh strawberry out of our garden today. We are trying some new things with covering our raised beds with plastic with hopes that it will trap the ficklel Alaska heat and speed up the growing process.

This year it was a lot easier to put the garden in with the help of the beautiful red rototiller (aka Betty) from GB and Papa Paul for Jon's birthday. Thank you! Kiley was a great digger and helped me plant potatoes and lettuce, Kalin decided that sowing onions and carrots were more her style. Overall we planted lettuce, broccoli, radishes, carrots, onions and potatoes.


We're crossing our fingers that all this love will produce some serious vegetables. We will reap what we sow!

Carrots, radishes, potatoes and onions are planted in the raised beds.

Kalin likes to run between the rows in bare feet!

Looking Forward to Colorado

2009 (just missing Bella)

This was almost 5 years ago, Kiley was 10 months old (2005)

We leave to for our Colorado vacation in about 12 days... and all of us (except Miss Kalin) have been reminiscing about past visits and talking about what we are looking forward to this summer. It goes without saying that we look forward to seeing GB and Papa Paul the most, but there are other fringe benefits to Colorado!

Kiley - the tree house, swimming!, toads, baby chickens (just like her mother) and cousins

Jon- hanging out on the back porch, potato burritos, family visiting (the whole entire family!), seeing college friends

Shannon- Sonic (I know, pathetic but I just love that place and there isn't a single one in Alaska!), Colorado sunshine, SHOPPING, GB cooking, chickens, um did I mention shoppigng?

Today we watched a few videos of our '09 visit with my Aunt Bossy- the toad video a few times. Kalin was a little freaked out about the toads! It was kind of funny to see her say, "Nooo" to herself when she was picking them up in the pool.

So here are a few pictures of our past visits. We are getting excited to see everyone- the Lewis Clan, the Lamb Clan and the Alamosa Clouse Clan! Matthew is going to be flying down from Seattle to spend a few days with us and the girls are so excited.

She only held the chick once, after it pooped in my hand she wanted nothing to do with it!

Kiley becomes a fish when we are in Colorado

We surprised GB Summer 2005
Not sure when, but aren't we cute?
and the toads! (2009)