Winter 2020-2021

 Enjoy photos from our Alaskan winter!  We had an amazing, snowy winter, but it was very very long!  Very long!  

Our neighbor girl, Katelyn (13 yrs old) took these photos when we went on a river adventure

We found several new sledding areas, sought out since we got new air tubes.  More sledding photos to come but the kids had just as much fun jumping and crawling in the deep snow at the bottom of one of the hills.

Daddy ordered snow cone cups and flavoring!  Grape, Blue Raspberry, and Tiger Blood were the flavors this winter. We noted that the tiger blood flavor actually looks like blood when the left over snowcone is thrown out in the front yard.  A raven swooped in after it! Ha!

Santa Claus, COVID style.  I thought Bass Pro shops did a very good job managing this feat.

Tundra got in there too!

We went to a drive-through Christmas light display.  We took popcorn and hot chocolate.  Unfortunately we were disappointed by the size of the display, considering how much it cost and how long we had to wait in line.  So we went through a second time towards the end of our time slot when the line was shorter.

The dinos were the favorite of course!  There was also a part of the display in which the lights were timed with Christmas music.

Icefishing of course!  On Mirror Lake, fishing for rainbow trout.

Somebody put a lot of hard work into the snow tunnels at the edge of the lake.  Our kids quite literally had hours of fun in these tunnels!

Handsome boy- 4 years old

Beautiful girl- 2 years old

We decided Santa needed some salty treats at our house!

Our first ever Christmas morning at our house!

These two adore each other and their relationship is the most amazing thing to watch develop

Ashton's skiing interest and skills really took off this winter. He would spend all day on the slopes if he could!

He took off up the tow rope without me on only his second day ever skiing here.  Didn't even wait for me at the top either, started down all by himself.

We had a fun little weekend away at Otter Lake on JBER base.  Fishing, skiing, relaxing

Our cute little cabin.  

ski buddies

Josie kissin fishies

Her first time using her very own fishing pole!

Ashton baited his own hook and took the fish off the hook for the first time on this trip!  

Our new favorite sledding run, on our new air tubes, at Hatcher's Pass. Ride or get pulled behind the snowmachine up, sled down, repeat

Gorgeous day for playing outside.  Around 10 degrees I think! 

Our best pup

Safety first, helmet and goggles

I took a girls' day trip to Alyeska with Brittany and Erin for day on the mountain. Skiis, snowboards, parking lot fire pit, and yummy drinks==perfect!

Love these ladies and all the memories we have made!

Ashton turned FIVE!! We celebrated with a dinosaur crown and popsicles with his daycare/preschool friends.

We celebrated with yummy special treats from our lovely neighbors Jim and Deb.

We celebrated with a dinosaur egg cake (with a dino inside.....I guess I didn't get a picture of it though) and dino egg cupcakes.  We went to an open parking lot and let Ashton tear around on his 4-wheeler.  He also got spoiled rotten by family, friends, and neighbors mailing and dropping off presents.

This is too cute not to share.  Josephine and Brady, 2 years old and already busted being sweet on each other in the horse barn! These two are quite the pair!

I have more "wintery" photos but am sharing them in the next Spring time blog.  That's because they were taken in April when it was suppose to be Spring but our snow and winter lasted forrrrrevvvvvver. We never have much of a fall or spring anyway, but this one drug on and on and ridiculously on!

Christmas Caribou 2020 (thanks to COVID)

Unfortunately, this was the first winter in 11 years we weren't able to go back to the Midwest for Christmas.  That was hard, but we were hopeful to be able to go back for Spring Break instead.  This meant we would be back for spoonbill season for the first time in several years!

Fortunately, this gave us the time and opportunity to take the kids on a winter caribou hunt.  We were grateful for our cabover camper, snowmachine, and fishing hut to keep us comfortable in the cold temperatures.  This also supported our success in both hunting and fishing on this trip to Lake Louise.  

"Let's gooooooooooo!" Kiddos are ready to check out the lake!

First we drilled some holes and set up our fishing spot for the trip. 

Next we went for a ride to try and find the herd of caribou on the lake.  We were given intel from other hunters and social media posts about which coves they had been hanging out in.  We found lots of signs; tracks, poop, beddings galore!  We were getting towards the end of daylight hours and making our last check before heading back to the camper for the night when I spotted a couple walking through the spruce trees.  We had just enough time set up and shoot IF one made for a good shot SOON before dark.  Typical of caribou, the rest of the herd didn't go far and presented a shot on a second caribou after Adam took the first.  **We had a proxy tag for our neigbhors, which means we were able to harvest one for them too!**

Not very smart, came right out in the open and turned broadside 

After two caribou down with two shots, we went to check them out and get to work on gutting.  Silly caribou made a circle and came completely out into the open.  Good thing for them, we were out of tags.

This was the first time they've seen the process of hunting a large animal from start to finish.

The hunter and his helpers!

This kind of shows how big the lake is, from one view.  Ash and Jos were checking tip-ups for fish.

Tundra was supervising Ashton as he cleared the ice from the hole. 

These large shard of ice were seen in groups in a couple areas of the lake.  Shifting ice make for some gnarly surprises for a snowmachiner if they aren't being observant.

It's hard to tell, but this is a group or "field" of shards sticking up out of the snow.  It was pretty, but I was glad we saw them before riding through them. 

A small group of caribou in the distance.  This was taken from our ice hut!  We could've hunted and fished from one spot! Ha!

A small island on the lake had a nice mound for sledding down.

Our favorite, moose or caribou sausage warmed on the buddy heater.  The flavor is one-of-a-kind!

Also our favorite, pulling massive burbot outta the ice hole!  Mama was back on the board with big fish!  This would be part of our springtime culdesac fish fry. yum yum

Breathtaking views, always, in this place we call home. 

Naptime on the snowmachine!  We both had a sleeping child on our lap.  Good thing daddy bought us a second machine for next season, the family barely fit.  Plus, Tundra was bummed he couldn't ride.

Between fishing and hunting, I made time for a quick ski on the lake with Josie (the napping princess in her chariot) and Tundra.  Saw some moose tracks but didn't run into any more caribou. 

 

Success!  Big smiles for leaving Lake Louise with our limits of caribou and burbot (5). 

This was an incredible trip and I hope we get the opportunity to do it again.  We will definitely be back to the lake for ice fishing.  Hopefully the caribou will decide to hang out at the lake late into the season again. 

Big thanks to Adam/daddy for doing his research and getting us all geared up for this amazing adventure.  Lots of memories and meat in our bellies from this trip. 

Fall 2020

Fall 2020---> Danielle continued to provide in-home childcare amongst the craziness of COVID.  Adam continued to work from home with occasional days at the hospital.  Ashton and Josie continued to enjoy outside time and were getting excited for snow!  Fall 2020 included one of the most exciting and unique hunts we have ever been on, see Adam's post about the bison hunt.  

Some views just never get old

This bull moose was on a mission, we had to wait for him to continue on across our path because he certainly wasn't stopping or turning around.  Further up the trail we realized  there must have been a cow in the area as we also saw another bull on a mission.  Rutting season!

Swans doing what they do best, majestically floating around this pond with fall colors in the background.

Barbara Falls from above, so powerful

Barbara Falls from below

Eagle River Valley from our hike up Mile Hi

GG came to visit and to take care of Josie and Tundra while Adam, Ashton and I went on the bison hunt!  This would be my first time away from Josie but we knew GG would take good care of her and keep her entertained!

In fact, Josie was so spoiled and had so much fun that she barely missed us!  An example of the fun was getting her nails painted for the first time, bright pink! <3 

GG and her first Alaskan grandbaby!

All her Alaskan grandbabies, always competing for her attention!

Dino play and dino videos on Ashton's loft bed, a tradition with GG

We took GG to see, hear, and feel Barbara Falls!  Starting to freeze up

Snowy hike!

Lots of discoveries and fun, Magna tiles are a favorite "tool" for this at our house

Halloween COVID style 

Josie saw a photo of a lit up jack-o-lantern with various sized circular holes and decided that was the plan.  FYI-using a drill is not as easy or smooth as you would think.  Ashton helped plan, draw, and carve his! 

Ashton wanted to be the spiderman crew again this year, easy enough!  Just got our costumes out from last year although that didn't work for Josie so we just made use of her bday unicorn headband!  

Halloween night was -2 degrees at our house but we were able to layer up, use fire pits and a heat lamp, plus sip on warm drinks to keep warm.  We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and chatted with our culdesac family.  My idea was to sling-shot candy at the trick-or-treaters for them to catch in their bags.  It sorta worked, needs some adjustments, but it was fun.  Adam's idea is below.......

A Halloween movie (Hocus Pocus of course) projected on the side of our camper.  

  

Tundra turned TEN YEARS OLD!  We love this sweet boy and just can't believe he is already 10! We celebrated with our daycare friends by singing to him and enjoying popsicles, he loves popsicles!

There happens to be a neighborhood path with a hill perfect for sledding.  Headlamps and light-up harness for a quick sledding adventure before dinner. This became a family favorite and one of Adam's first outtings after his foot surgery.

Adam had his second surgery on a neuroma in his foot in November.  It unfortunately isn't feeling much better.  Giving it some more time before deciding what to do next, if there is a next step.