New Porch Swing and Cute Afton

Matt got an old bench for free.

It was totally falling apart and he put it back together and then turned it into a new porch swing for us.

We are officially becoming old people that sit on their porch swing in the evenings and chat. 

Seriously!

It's so awesome!

And I just had to share these cute pictures of Afton.

Everyone, but Sam and I, are playing Pokeman and Afton wanted to be part of it.  

Brittan and Makenna painted him Pokeman rocks to go in his little Pokeman ball.

I love this family of mine!

 

 

Adventure Time

The original plan was to hike with Makenna ridge to ridge over 8 miles up at Hatcher Pass, starting at April Bowl and ending at Blueberry Knoll.

Then it changed to maybe just a smaller hike

Then it changed to, "Let's run errands and maybe go stack rocks."

Then Dallin joined us and promised Corban ice cream.

Then Corban joined us. 

My friend, Cheria, thinks there is a competition for stacking rocks. 

She stacked 30 and then I just had to beat her. 

Wait, maybe I think there is a competition....

I stacked 35, with the help of Dallin and a little Kenna and Corb.

It was pretty awesome.

Then we went to ice cream and Corban and Dallin left for his house to play games and Makenna and I went shopping at Target.

It was actually a great way to spend the day!

The ridge to ridge will happen soon though...or next summer. 

 

 

He got his Dippin Dots!

 

With the cancellation of the State Fair, there was a lot of sadness over things that we only enjoy once a hear. 

For me, it was the Denali Cream Puffs.

And still is, by the way.

But Corban mostly missed Dippin' Dots.

Lucky for him, there was a weekend event this weekend where Dippin' Dots was one of the vendors.

He ended up getting three servings!!!

That was one happy boy!

Hiking the Butte

 

When I woke up the sun was shining and I could not let that pass by. 

I've lost my hiking partner, Makenna, because she got a job, so I just called my friend, Heather and her, her kids and I took advantage of the beautiful day!

It's always amazing to me that I get winded on that hike. 

I've done it so many times, but it such a good one.

And on the top we saw a paraglider!

I will so miss this summer. It has been such a beautiful one.

I think I have mostly loved every minute of it.

But fall is knocking at the doors!

 

Boating it

 

Matt got his old boat back in a trade for some cabinet work. 

He was excited to go and try it on the lake before we took it on the river. 

That was a good choice. 

It's not working well. 

He has to change out the fuel pump.

But it was fun to take a little adventure with the boys this morning!

 

 

Love Where you Are

 

 This morning it was early when I got up.

It is taking longer for the sun to rise because it is that time of year now.

But it was getting light and I sat on the porch to say my prayers, but then decided to take my prayers down the driveway and talk and walk.

I was just overwhelmed with the beauty. 

Seriously, it is so beautiful.

I just thought about how much I love my life today.

Today is all we really have so why waste it on not loving all the good around you?

Words will never adequately express my love for this farm and all that we have built here.

I don't know if we are leaving it anytime soon and I am totally good if we don't.

Basically God is in the details and I am so glad that he is.

 

Lake Day

 

Sam came by to do some laundry and it is so hot outside that we could not pass up playing in the lake.

I finally convinced Afton to get in and he and I tried our some new things for him.

He had so much fun learning to float on his back.

There is just something about the pure joy of a little person doing fun things.

And after we came in Emry had some chocolate and I just had to get shots of his cute chocolately face!

 

 

Skyscraper

 

 Today my friend, Heather and I took on Skyscraper.

I was so pleasantly surprised at how well my body did.

It was hot and the trail is straight up for quite some distance.

When you get to the top you just hike along the ridge. 

We stopped for a bit and built Cairns.

I will definitely do this one again!

 

Babies and Temple

 

 After dropping Afton and Emry off with their mom(they had a sleep over) I headed into Anchorage to do some shopping at Costco.

On my way, I had that the thought to go and sit at the temple for a little while.

I miss the temple.

It has been almost 8 months since I have walked through those doors.

They are still closed for us to go and do work for our ancestors and I hope that it will open soon.

However, I had the thought that even though I have not been able to be inside, I have felt the peace that I normally felt there in my life in abundance the last 8 months.

Before this, I would go about 2 weeks and notice my spirit crying out to get back and this time it has been calm and felt peace even though I can not go inside yet. 

I don't know what the future holds but I really hope we never have a situation again where we can't enter. 

After temple and Costco, I went and picked up Andi! 

I got to be her first ever babysitter.

There is a lot of character in that little body. 

Also here are some pictures of the boys from their sleepover-

 

Adventuring

 

 There are two phrases of scripture that keep popping out at me- "it became expedient" and "it mattereth not."

I've been thinking about them a lot and yesterday morning decided that an adventure was expedient.

I convinced Corban and then grabbed Brittan and we flew by the seat of our pants looking for adventure.

We ate fast food, fed ducks french fries, explored a waterfall, enjoyed a beautiful river that had some really cool old cars in the forest, we ate ice cream and stacked rocks. 

And I beat my last rock stacking with 21 rocks!

But you want to know the best part?

Being together.

Talking about how humans are different from rabbits.

It was a great way to spend the afternoon and I am glad we did it!

 

Raspberries Everywhere!

 

Back in 2015 we planted 250 raspberry canes.

Well, those raspberries have not done good over the years.

In fact, there has really only been one year that I harvested much of anything and otherwise, they have just been out there in the field doing nothing.

Well, this year they finally decided to get their act together.

There are so many raspberries that I have made jam, frozen a gallon sized bag of them, and made raspberry cake with fresh raspberries on top.

Sam even came and got some.

I love the abundance!

I have been seeing it all around me lately.

I think harvest time always does that for me.

It is such a beautiful thing to see how something so small can produce amazing things!

 

 

The Fake Alaska State Fair

 

 With COVID this year they decided that it would be best to cancel the Alaska State Fair.

That was somewhat of a blow to me. 

I mean how in the world was I going to get my yearly Denali Cream Puff.

Oh the sorrow!

However, we did get to enjoy some fun things from the fair.

The carnival company that does all the rides set it all up and sold tickets to come and ride.

There were food trucks too.

We got tickets and then I decided to do something incredibly crazy and ride ALL the rides.

It was a one price for all, so why not?

Well, I sometimes forget I am getting older and my body is not what it was when I was a teenager.

Regardless, I was able to ride every single ride except two.

One was shut down for maintenance and the other was missing a carnie who went on break, so it was not running at the time.

Needless to say, by the time I got home I was so sick to my stomach that I showered, rub peppermint oil all over my stomach, took and advil pm and fell asleep at 730.

It was still totally a good time with Matt, Kenna and Corb, as well as Rissa, Dave, Ruby and Ryker!

 

Friday Fun

 

Sam came over today with the boys.

One thing is for sure- I am going to miss summer once it is gone.

It has been an incredible time. 

I have enjoyed so much all that we have been able to do. 

This Life I am Living

I went down to the lake this afternoon because I just wanted to be outside.

It is incredible weather today.

Definitely a perfect day to be in or on the water.

But I just sat on the dock and soaked my feet.

As I walked back up to the house, I paused for a minute to watch the leaves move in the breeze.

That is so soothing to me.

Then I started thinking about this life.

There are hard things for sure, but those hard things pale in comparison to the good.

I think anyone and everyone can have that perspective.

I am surrounded by so much good.

I have a job I LOVE (did I forget to mention I got hired to teach seminary in Anchorage this school year?), I live in the most peaceful spot on the planet I think, I have an abundance of vegetables and berries growing, I have a cute kid who just wanted to make a cake with me today, I drank a watermelon slushie, I connected with my sister, I got to enjoy a freshly mowed lawn, a lazy dog on the porch, and I could go on and on.

I guess my point is that there is good even in the hard.

So much good!

Grandbabies Everywhere!

Today we had all the grandbabies here at the house.

I got to hold Andi for quite a while as she slept.

Perfect time to hold a baby!

Emry was being a bit of a pill so I didn't get pictures with him but Afton graced me with some great stink eye pictures together.

Being a grandma is basically the best thing ever!

Pioneer Falls Again

This evening Makenna and I ran by Matt's shop and picked him up so I could take them to go see Pioneer Falls.

I seriously love that place.

It is so beautiful.

The two times I have been there hasn't been hardly any bugs.

We sat on a big rock and just watched the water flow down the mountain for quite a while.

Then we hiked up as far the trail goes.

There are just so many beautiful places in this area to go and explore.

I'm grateful they exist and that I have cool people in my life that will explore with me.