Fair Days with the Fam

Every year when the fair comes we get excited to go.

This year we met Dallin at the fair and hung out with him.

Jessie had to go do somethings in Anchorage but it was fun to hang with Dal. 

We ate yummy food, hung out with Garic and his family a little, saw Ruby's craft entries and just had a good time together. 

It's amazing how much money you can drop in such a little amount of time, but it was good to be together. 

Also Brittan worked the fair this year so that was fun to have a carnie kid! 

Just horsing around

Last night Mae and Garic invited everyone over to their house to ride the horses.

It was so fun! 

Mae actually talked me into getting on one of the horses myself.

If I remember correctly I haven't been on a horse since I was a teen and even then I think I only rode once.

The horse I rode was HUGE!

But it was fun.

Also the kids had a ton of fun! 

Corban decided that he wants to take riding lessons.

Afton was not scared at all.

He just jumped on and then didn't want to get off.

It was a great way to spend the evening together. 

 

Ice

Well, I did it!

I kayaked around glaciers and it was AMAZING!

Esther and I headed out to Valdez on Monday morning and by the afternoon we were in kayaks on Glacier Lake, which by the way will kill you within a minute if you fall it, taking in the wonders.

It was beautiful and sunny.

It was so cool to hear the ice crackling as we kayaked around the lake.

At one point we had a contest to see how long we could keep our finger in the water.

After about 40 seconds I could not longer feel my finger.

Talk about COLD water!

It was spectacular.

And autumn was in full glory on the drive.

I have always wanted to drive to Valdez in the autumn and it did not disappoint- or as Esther says, "it is not ugly!"

We saw a baby black bear run across the road, thousands of salmon at the hatchery and ate yummy shrimp in town.

Then we camped at the KOA and drove home this morning.

It was glorious and I am so glad to have had the chance to do it.

Hope

Tonight the girls and I attended a fireside on Hope.

It was so fun to have Jessie join our group of faith seeking Hale women!

I love her and am so glad she is part of our family. 

It's a pretty great thing to part of. 

Full Saturday

First order of business was to run a whole bunch of errands so we made it more fun and went and picked up Afton.

We went to Walmart, Home Depot, Petco and Fred Meyer.

I seriously love that boy! 

After that Corban and I cleaned out the pantry.

It was awful and I started working on cleaning the floors.

Then Matt took me on a date to the fair.

I got my annual cream puff and spinach bread.

 Autumn has already come to the farm.

The trees are turning all sorts of yellow and the air is cooler now.

The air is also filled with smoke from the fires and today we fasted for rain.

I think we are going to see a miracle in the next few days since the forecast says no chance of rain and there were a lot of people fasting and praying for rain today all over the state.

 

Messy

Last night I went to bed angry.
Maybe it was mostly tired, but it felt angry.
Then I woke up angry too.
I was frustrated about many things.
I guess it could be summed up in one word: Life.
We have a lot of things going on lately and it feels like we have made a little bit of a mess of our lives.
By "we" and "our" I am referring to Matt and I.
We've been praying a lot for direction.
We've gotten some answers and feel like moving forward with some ideas.
But I was upset about how messy my house was and needing to get farm stuff done and doing some other cleaning and, and, and...
I walked out to the packaging house and noticed a beautiful sunflower growing out of the rubbish of the compost pile. 
It felt like Heaven was saying, "I can make beautiful things come from big messes."
I am counting on that!
I need a beautiful thing to come out of what feels like a messy life. 

Alaska Adventure part 3

By day three, I had decided that I couldn't do another 10 hours of driving to and from the arctic circle and then another 6 hours home.

So we hung out in Fairbanks until after lunch and then headed home.

We went and saw the Antler Arch, watched the birds at Creamery Field Waterfowl Refuge and then relaxed at Chena Hot springs.

It was a long drive home, since we had to wait again at the fire, but it was totally worth the entire trip.

I loved spending time with the kids.

However, if I ever do get to mark Arctic Circle off my bucket list it will be because I flew in to Fairbanks and then drove to the circle and then flew home.

Otherwise, it is just too much driving!

We also stopped at the Igloo hotel on our way back home.

That thing is sketchy!

Alaska Adventure part 2

The kids weren't ready for the adventure to be over so attempted the road again and made it through.

It was crazy how much smoke there was and there was tons of fires just burning all along the sides of the road.

We also saw so many homes and cars and burned.

Sad. 

We made it to Fairbanks by the afternoon but stopped along the way and viewed Denali and then got a sandwich.

Once in Fairbanks we played at Pioneer Park and then went to the local pool and swam the night away.

We slept in the Walmart parking lot.

It really was tons of fun.