Our summer so far...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on here. We have had a very eventful summer so far. We spent some time with the Gerber-Meyers up in Tok. We spent our time fossil hunting (thanks Vince), viewing Carrie's elaborate garden and just hanging out. We had a great time visiting with them, but I have to say nothing beats out our experience in Muklukland, the main attraction in Tok. I have never seen anything more creepy in my entire life. I only wish I had pictures to show, but I forgot my camera and nobody wanted to venture back for a second day. Let's put it this way, any place that has a small cabin filled with 5000 creepy old broken dolls, rabbits feet littering the ground (with the leg bones still attached) and broken down vehicles as main attractions is not a place where fun is to be had. We adults spent the majority of the time staring at each other stunned. Needless to say, we will not be going back, no matter how old and delapidated the put-put is!

The kids got their new 4-wheeler, so they have had fun with that.

We treked up to Fairbanks to visit with family. We enjoyed drives on the mini-bikes, badminton games and time spent with the family.

We had a month full of birthdays, starting with Gabes (he just turned 5), Your truly (I just turned 28...or as Cory likes to call it "almost 30") and Laurens 10th birthday, complete with a spa party.

Since we have been back we started a garden at the community garden. It is the ghetto garden since mom has a black thumb, but so far so good. It won't be anything like Carrie's, but hopefully it will produce something!

Our hike to the beach

Well, now that summer is finally here, we can go out and enjoy the weather. What better way to do that than a trip to the beach. Cory found out about a great spot on a very unpopulated part of the beach. We invited the knott family for what would be a "quick 15 minute walk" to meet another "quick 15 minute trail". Well, we parked at the entrance and after an hour we discovered that there was, in fact, a small parking lot right next to the trailhead :( Oh well, we definitely got our exercise. The knotts met us at the trailhead and we continued our jaunt down the trail. It was not 15 minutes, more like a 30 minute hike down. Nontheless, it was beautiful. We got the Homer version of the grand canyon and the kids had fun. Once we got to the beach, the socks came off and the hot dog roasting began. Fun was had by all on the perfect "summer" day.

Where the heck is spring!?

Okay, so all of you Alaskans viewing this blog will know what I'm talking about when I say "where the heck is spring?! Call me crazy, but I assumed that once April hit (and I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone that this is actually mid-April) that spring would come, complete with grass, birds and the whole nine yards. I guess we all know what they say about assuming... but I won't get into that.
It is incredibly obnxious to go outside in our 12 degree weather and look over into our yard that still houses Frosty the Snowman buried in 4 1/2 feet of snow! I think the only thing that actually tops that, is the recurring blizzards that have plagued our lovely state over the past week.
All I can say, is that we better have one heck of a summer to make up for all of this nonsense!
Until then, enjoy the "spring" on this page, because who knows how long it will be before it actually makes it's appearance in Alaska!

Easter!

I'm missing a few pictures...

We had a very nice Easter complete with a visit from the Easter bunny, dinner at the Knott's and 2 egg hunts (indoor and outdoor). It was a very nice day with the family and mostly for reflection on the truest sacrifice ever made. I hope it was great for all of you!

Spring break with Lorctopus!

Guess who came to visit!? Of course it was way too short of a visit, but we were sure to fill it full of fun things to do...mainly battles at clue, scattegories and guitar hero. We're definitely a competitive family. :) Everyone is looking forward to summer with little "L".

The Tokians are back!

Imagine my surprise when I went for coffee and found my best friend and her kiddos were there! We had a nice, very quick visit (they were only here for the day) The kids were happy to see their friends again, and Cory was thrilled to put all of those guitar hero hours he's logged to good use...he finally beat Carrie! ...but I'm thinking it might be the guys that had the best time :)

Good Bye Garland

As many of you already now, Cory and I just came back from California where we were blessed with the privelge of spending the final days of Garlands life with him and the family. For those of you who don't know, Garland is Cory's grandfather and one of his most favorite people in the world. He was an amazing man with a highly decorated life, and a romance that could match "the Notebook". He will be dearly missed by all, as he succomed to brain Cancer January 23, 2008.

Everyone else is doing it, so I can too!

Welcome to the new blog! I thought it might be a good way to keep everyone up to date with the all exciting happenings in the rupe world :) As soon as I can figure out how (or once I've contacted Carrie to tell me how) I will put up some pictures. Check back periodically, since our life is too good to miss!