single track

Kep is an awesome dad and I love how much time he invests in doing cool things for (and with) our children.  He came home from work one day this Fall and started clearing a single track for our kids to ride their mountain bikes through our woods!  

The boys have loved bouncing their bikes through these woods and they look forward to a bigger track come Spring!

Parker also loved taking his bike to a trail nearby when our Valley was experiencing all the flooding!  The boys came back wet from head to toe but with huge smiles!  so fun!

annual Kenai Lake campout

Kenai Lake has become our favorite place to camp in Alaska.  We love the views, the bike trails, the lake and we love how peaceful it is!  This year, the weather was rather windy and drizzly BUT it didn't stop any of us from having a blast!  All 3 kids found 2 new favorite things about camping... paddling a canoe AND binoculars!

It is crazy to think that our kids are old enough to be out in a canoe by themselves but they did awesome! Parker is one coordinated little guy so he was able to steer them around like a PRO and since the other 2 are such great rule followers... they would keep reminding Parker any time they were getting too far out, like more than five feet away from shore!  Perfect combo!  ;o)

Love this girl~ she is so silly!  I love that she laughs when things go wrong, like falling out of her chair!

My family!  I am blessed to have such an amazing family and to go on these adventures with them.  Thank you Lord!
Now, to get back home to surprise our kids with a new puppy...

we need a puppy!

"We need a puppy!!!"  These were Kep's words shortly after he got back from fishing this summer.  Yay~ I was thinking the same thing since our kids had been asking for every sort of pet while we were visiting my sister's "farms" in Montana!  I knew one of my friends had a litter of 11 puppies as the first fundraiser for their adoptions~ how cool would it be to support their adoptions AND get a puppy!?!  So, I got right on calling my friend to see if any of them were left.    

Lucy, the champion momma, and her HUGE litter.

Here's all 11 with the Coke's guinea pig!!!  I'm pretty sure our puppy is the one on the far left.

Yep, 2 puppies were left and one just happened to be a... yellow, MALE, bigger build and mellow LAB!  woohoo!

I thought it was super cute that Kep was so excited about getting this puppy but also that he wanted the puppy to be a surprise for our kids!  So, we dropped the kids off with Mo-mo and headed on over to check out our new puppy!  There's our li'l yellow guy chewing on a bush!  We fell in love instantly and knew our kids would do the same!

Here he is with his sister, Ginger, and all the Coke kids that took awesome care of him until we could bring him home!  Unfortunately, we already had our Kenai Lake campout on the calendar and I really didn't want a brand new puppy along for the adventure!  So, we had to wait for the BIG surprise!

10 years= wet bike ride 2 dinner

10 years already!?!  It's difficult to believe it has already been 10 years.  But, then I think of the fact that our eldest is 8 years old and I guess that would make 10 years of marriage more believable!  I am incredibly blessed to be able to say that my love and respect for Kep is stronger today than it was in 2002!
Two of the MANY things I love about Kep are his love for exercise and the outdoors!  Which means... he was so excited when I mentioned that we should go for a ride on our anniversary!  It was a rainy afternoon and we got soaked BUT it didn't matter because it was warm and we were together.  We biked for 14 miles to a little town of Talkeetna where the fish 'n chips were the best EVER... or we had worked up a serious appetite!?!
Although, I was wet from head to toe... THIS night will always be one of my favorite memories with my man!  And, I look forward to many warmer memories when we celebrate our 10th anniversary in "Rachel style"... 9 days in Kona in January!  woohoo!

LOVE those Lovejoy boys!

What fun it was to reconnect with this awesome family.  We wish they lived closer as all our kids had a blast for the short 4 hours that we got to hang out.  

meet Noah and Noah!  ha~ aren't they adorable!?!  They're both... 5, second borns in a lineup of 3 children, similar in personality and named NOAH!  The only thing different is one lives in Utah and one in Alaska!

6 kids, a slip 'n slide and a frog... poor FROG!  It was (cruelly) entertaining watching these 6 kids give the frog a ride on their slip 'n slide!

Parker and Jack would also be good buddies as they are only a month apart!  We love any time we get to spend with the Lovejoys and we look forward to the next visit!

Noah's soccer team

 Noah had a fabulous summer of soccer, too!  Coach Ted was so awesome with the team and he even had their names printed on their jerseys!

Noah's favorite part about soccer was hanging with his buddy Thomas!  They both improved a lot this year! 

 Hip, hip, hooray for another great summer of soccer!

Parker's soccer team

 Parker had another GREAT summer of soccer because he had Coach Melinda, again!  We love this lady and how much fun soccer is because of her!  Parker improved BIG time and he was so much fun to watch!

Savannah's soccer team

Oh what a treat it was for Savannah to be on this soccer team!  She had such a blast and we got such a kick out of watching her run her little heart out!  She rarely touched the soccer ball because she was intimidated by the 4 year~old pack that surrounded it, but she ran HARD closely behind them!  Savannah is very proud of the 2 goals she scored this summer so when someone mentions soccer, she holds up 2 fingers to make sure THEY know the number of goals she scored! ;o)

Savannah's favorite part about summer soccer was the time she got to spend with Owen, Breeze and Dane (missing from this shot!).  Aren't they just adorable!?!  love it!

getting so independent~ IT'S WiErD!

They are 7, 5 &; 4 and I can't believe how BIG they are getting!  They all think it's so fun that they can now go out on Momo and Popeye's pedal boat... just the 3 of them!  Kep and I can sit and relax while we watch them have great fun!  They all know exactly how far they can be away from the shore or the barge AND

 after I took this pic, they were all re~educated about the importance of staying seated, even when a duck swims by (haha)!

 Another NEW and FUN thing for Noah and Savannah is they can now drive us around on Momo's barge!  Again, Kep and I just get to sit back and relax!  We are enjoying this new phase and so are they!

1st tooth is OUT!

Parker was just one month shy of turning 8 and he lost his FIRST tooth!  I was starting to get a little worried that he didn't have any adult teeth coming so during our "Spring teeth Cleaning" I asked the dentist to take an X-ray to relieve my silly worry!  Sure enough, he had a mouth full of adult teeth and the dentist assured me that any day his bottom tooth was going to pop out behind his baby tooth!  Yup, it did~ boy, did it look crazy!  It took about a month to get it loose enough before Parker wanted help pulling it out!  All it took was serving corn on the cob... he really wanted to eat it BUT it hurt too bad since his tooth was SO loose.  

 Here's Parker with his semi- missing tooth smile!  He was so excited to put it in this little tooth box that was passed down to me from my grandma!

Since I'm behind on blogging, Parker has since lost his second tooth which was also already filled in by the adult tooth!!!  Noah was there to see me pull his tooth out and see Parker get all excited about anticipating his second tooth fairy visit.  So, I told the boys too hurry on down to bed so she could fly the money under Parker's pillow... too which Parker just winked at me since he doesn't "believe" in her anymore!  After about 30 minutes, I tiptoed the $ into the boys' room.  When I got to Noah's bed, his eyes were wide open (with fear) and he exclaimed in his low voice "Oh, I thought you were going to be the tooth fairy".  Too which Parker giggled and I assured Noah that the fairy is nothing to be frightened by!   Then about a half hour later, I tiptoed back into their room and Noah's head was covered with his blanket and pillow.  When, I pulled both of them back and asked him why he was covered... Noah replied, "I just don't want to see the fairy!"  awww~ again, I assured him she was sweet as can be and not one bit scary!  So, when I came down five minutes later for the third visit... both boys were sound asleep and the fairy got to deliver Parker's $!