September in AK - Teaming up with Kodiak Wilco

Alaska here we come!

It took us a long time to get to Alaska. Sonja had the great idea to bring a tent for the long lay-overs en route. As usual, I was a little skeptical. However, it worked fantastically! It kept the kids from sleeping on the airport floor. Not that airport floors are not clean or that our kids are not dirty, but it seemed better this way. They got a good rest and we were the envy of many parents. We felt our parental skills were clearly superior as we watched their children mop the floor with sweaty, drooly faces while our little angels slept cozily, wrapped in their cocoon. Safe from the discarded chewing gum and cigarette butts.

They did not sleep the whole time.

I did clean a few seats with my sweaty, drooly face.

Upon arrival we were greeted by a delightful family

and soon began to feast on berries. Lots and lots of berries!

Berries give you energy!

We saw a bunker of some sort.

We found a hole that was just right for looking at.

It also proved to be the perfect size to jump into.

The beach was lovely.

Look more skydivers!

We joined the crowd for some serious fishing.

I did not say catching. I said fishing.

A rainy day was perfect for visiting the touch tank. It has a way cool large aquarium so that we could see all the kinds of fish that we were not catching.

We did end up catching our share of fish.

We even had time to have a few of them mounted before we left.

We had a great time boogie boarding!

Thanks for a wonderful visit Wilco! See you soon!

Did anyone see September?

We are not sure what happened to September. We do know that Sonja started a new job, we sold one house, moved and bought another house, went north to Alaska (go north the rush is on!), bought a car, and apparently may have gone camping based on the pictures I have found.

August, die she must. The autumn winds blow chilly and cold.

August ended with some nice surprises. We were pleased to learn that Sonja's diligent efforts resulted in a new job. We jumped at the opportunity and she accepted an offer to be a math teacher again.

Sonja was happy to move on to new employment.

Our new surroundings offer much of what we enjoy.
Another surprise were new backpacks for the kids. Thanks Brandy!

Lakes + cousins = Lasins or Coukes

We were able to enjoy time with aunts, uncles and cousins from both sides of the family. There were even a couple of grandparents thrown in for good measure. Greg's brother, sister in-law and their son stopped by Dillon for a quick visit before we moved. We hope to give anyone interested a longer window of opportunity for visits in our new locale.

There was swinging... There were bubbles...
There were lots of hats and rocks...

A canoe...

AND LOOK SKYDIVERS!!

I love that joke. I have been doing that one for years. There weren't really any skydivers.

Cliff and Wade Lakes:

We also met Greg's parents and Sonja's sister and her family at Cliff and Wade lakes near West Yellowstone for a lovely weekend of camping. The fun here consisted of :

Blue mountain skies,

Some pretty successful fishing,
A VERY exhilarating rope swing for all ages,
Some waving! .......Hi!

Some swimming,
More swimming?
Sitting around the fire,
Instruction on cold trailing and mop up of the fire... Only you can prevent forest fires!
Thanks for the fun!

Wow! That was hard!

Sonja and I signed up for our annual 1/2 marathon and marathon. It was the Madison Marathon near Ennis, Montana. They promote it like this: "It starts at over 8,000 feet and goes way over 9,000 feet in several locations." Brandy had picked this event and we jumped on board after reading about it. Sonja graciously volunteered to ride the bike with the kids in the trailer and let me run since neither of us were ready to leave Ivan with anyone else as we all figured out his diabetes treatment. We both thought it would be easier riding the bike than running along the race route. It turns out we were wrong. The uphills were waaaay too steep and loose to ride up while pulling 100 pounds worth of kids, trailer, and gear. There were a lot of uphills. Sonja dragged the whole contraption uphill for quite a while. I passed them at mile three and did not see them again until they pulled up in the van behind me at mile 17. Luckily we had filled the gas tank, because they spent what felt like several days and nights following me as I finished the race. It took a while. I finished the race with my best place yet. Overall I finished 6th. There were six finishers total.

Ivan and Liza paced me near mile 20.

They also helped me across the finish.
I was almost as tired as they were.

Fishin' the Fork

While we were in Missoula we spent time with Grandma & Grandpa. This included one particularly nice evening on the river.

Alberton, Montana