Parker turns 11!

AK State Fair 2015

Another FUN State Fair with the Smiths. The boys got adventurous this year and tried out the "big kid" rides. They can't wait to drive the bumper cars and ride the "Rave" again next summer. Sis stuck to the "Spinning Apple".

"new" snow machines= ready for SNOW!

Our FREE hand-me-down "JAG" bit the dust last winter so Kep did some Craigslisting this summer and found a 2-for-1 snow machine deal. Who knew!?! The kids were pumped and surprised when he came rolling home with 2 instead of 1. We are hoping for TONZ of snow so the kids can tear up our back "swamp" on these!

1st Day of school 2015

All 3 are at Shaw Elementary this year. CRAZY! As you can see, all 3 are excited and ready for their first day. Parker is the BIG boy on campus… a 5th grader. Noah is a 3rd grader. Savannah is a 2nd grader. And, I am home alone. WEIRD! I am pumped that each one of them is excited for their school year but it is difficult to send them away each day.

cousin fun with Allison and little Miss Heidi

front yard campout

I love our kids! I love that for the most part they LOVE being adventurous together. One afternoon, they randomly decided it would be fun to sleep in our tree fort. Kep and I tried to convince them to sleep in the zipline tree fort because it wouldn't be covered with spiders but they all wanted to sleep on the ground! At the last minute, Noah decided to sleep in his hammock next to the tree fort. The surprising part was they all slept out their til 5:20am!

Early Bird fishing at Willow Creek

Fishing became quite the fav hobby amongst our kiddos, especially with Noah. He seems to have the "fisherman luck". Kep took the kids to Willow Creek one evening and they all had a blast catching and releasing Pink Salmon. So a days later, he woke us all up at 3am and we drove back up to the same creek in hopes of catching (and keeping) some Silvers. Unfortunately, the bait was forgotten in our fridge so we didn't catch any Silvers. :/ But, we did have a blast reeling in more Pinks and Dogs. Once, we were all thoroughly soaked and chilled we headed home for naps!

more lake fun

My goodness. This summer's weather was AMAZING! I don't think we have ever visited the lakes so often.

Noah's Raz Jam

Noah LOVES eating freezer Raspberry Jam at Momo's so I figured it was about time I had some homemade jam at our place. Noah was excited to learn how to make it and even more excited to try it on our homemade bread!