Goodbye to June...already?

I can't believe how fast this month has flown by, in a few more hours it will by July! We've been busy having a lot of fun this month. Last week we drove up to Fairbanks to spend the week with Lee. We stayed in his hotel room with him, which is really more the size of an apartment. We played during the days while he worked, and then played some more in the evenings when he was done. It was like a little vacation for the boys and I, no cooking, no cleaning, just relaxing and finding fun things to do. Lee took us to a pump track he rides in Fairbanks and Dane just loved it. He's such a dare devil on his bike, he was riding it way faster and better than I could. Ty gave up after a minute and hopped off his bike and just started pushing it up and down the little hills. We found a little trail by the hotel that leads back to a lake and had fun exploring and throwing lots of rocks in the lake. We found some other fun attractions in Fairbanks, but we'll definitely have to go back because we didn't have enough time or sunshine to do all we wanted to do.
This is a picture of our family at the Mayor's Midnight Sun Half Marathon. Rita, Lori, Marci (my aunt), and Amy Abbott, my friend all ran the race two weeks ago. It was lots of fun, I can say that now that it's over. I didn't remember how many hills are on that course, it was more challenging than I remember, or maybe I am just getting old. It was Rita's first long race, a year ago she would have sworn never to do anything like that, in fact Lori and I have been bugging her for 9 years to run with us, finally she cracked and started running and is really really good at it. It was really fun to all run the race together!
On our way up to Fairbanks Ty decided to color all over himself, I have no idea why. Speaking of Ty, today the boys and I were making bread and I wanted to make a Jalepeno cheese braid. The boys helped me and we got it all together after some squishing and shaping I looked at it and said, "well that looks pretty good". Ty looked at it with a "not so sure" look and said "I think it looks like frap." I had to ask him to repeat because I wasn't completely sure he said that, but sure enough, he thought it looked like crap!

Last weekend we built on a new level to Dane & Ty's tree house. They spend hours in it playing house, dog, spaceship, etc.

Ty watering the flowers.
Today we spend the afternoon at my aunt Kay's house. She had a hot tub that she keeps warm for an Alaskan version of an outdoor swimming pool. The kids all love it and never want to leave her house!
Daisy really did love it, this picture wouldn't lead anyone to believe that though.

Fishing Trip: Prince William Sound

Last weekend we were able to go on a fishing trip with my dad, Rachel, Calvin, and our family. We headed out of Whittier to the Prince William Sound. That's the place that you always see on commercials of cruise ships next to glaciers. We went in my Dad's new boat and had an amazing time. We launched the boat friday night and found a place to lower our shrimp pots. After baiting them up and setting them down we went back to the harbor to pick up Lee who flew in from Fairbanks that evening. After picking Lee up we decided to check the pots. It hadn't been very long, but we decided to check them anyway just in case. We were so surprised to pull up pots that were full! We collected 90 monster size shrimp and then lowered the pots to sit overnight. As we started pulling away, Dad looked back and saw the bouey (however you spell it), dragging behind us. We had run over the rope and twisted it around in the motor. We ended up having to cut the rope and we thought for sure we had ruined the pots, or lost them by dragging them in the mud. That night we drove for an hour or so and found a nice little cove to spend the night in. We slept in the boat under the bow, the boys loved that! I didn't wake up all night, slept like a baby.
On Saturday we got up and started fishing for halibut. We ended up catching 3 small ones, a red snapper, and few other assorted rock fish. Dad also caught a ling cod by the tail, but we couldn't keep it yet. We spent the day fishing and sight seeing. We lucked out and saw a whale, dolphins, and otters, but I couldn't get any good pictures of those with my little camera.
On our way back to the shrimp pots we saw a boat with some guys waving for help. Turns out it was our good friends and neighbors from Palmer, the Hillis'. They had run out of gas and somehow we were the first boat in the whole ocean to come across them. We shared some gas with them and were on our way.
When we checked the shrimp pots again we had another 85 shrimp for a total of 175! That's the most we've ever caught and we hadn't lost any pots! On the way back to the dock we were hit high seas. We were bouncing up and down for over an hour. Overall it was an amazing trip. Dane and Ty loved it!
We enjoyed fresh shrimp and halibut on Sunday and Monday night, it was delicious!