Teeland Titan Trail Run 2012

Teeland Titan Trail Run is what we do in mid~September!  Our kids look forward to it every year!  This was Savannah and Owen's first year to compete in the mile run!  Owen had a classic line before the race... he assured his mom "if Savannah gets too tired, I will carry her!"  Isn't that just the sweetest!?!  Well, it turns out she didn't need to be carried... she ran the whole way! 

Yay Noah~ smiling all the way to the finish line!  Great Job buddy!

Smith and Kroon mile runners~ they all medaled!!! ;o)

Now, here's the older group of runners... the 2.4 milers!  Parker ran it with Claire, Dallon and Layne!

Way 2 go Parker!  I couldn't believe he ran all 2.4 miles of the race!

Anchorage to Seward as couples

Anchorage to Seward (over 100 miles) has become an annual tradition for Kep to complete with a couple of his buddies each Labor Day weekend.  Well, this year Kep came up with the idea of including the wives and we rode it together as boy and girl teams!  The poor guys started off the race in crazy winds, I seriously don't know how they managed to bike down the Turnagain Arm with the constant headwinds???  But, they did it with smiles as they were on their BIKES!

Kep!!!  Doesn't he look dashing after his wet hill climb!?!

The girl team... you can tell we are not as serious as the boys... we chose to wear plenty of rain gear and stay warm!

Uphill, downhill, chatting the whole way, drizzle, uphill, down some more, narrow shoulders, road grime in the teeth, laughter, gravel road construction, surprise 3 mile hill climb at the end, legs are burning, oh~ now it's pouring, long downhill= 44 miles of "fun" with 2 of my favorite girlfriends.  I can't believe we did it but I'm so glad we did!

The best part of this whole experience was watching our hubbies be so proud of us!  We were slow but they didn't care because we were out there doing what they LOVE!

Road grime buddies!

After we were all cleaned up, we enjoyed a yummy meal in Seward.  yum~ food always tastes so much better after you've worked hard for it!  Then, we ended our night by sleeping as teams in our camper!  The boy team had the bunks and the girls shared the queen bed!  Too funny!  What a memorable weekend in so many ways!

fair 2012

Alaska State Fair was a blast, as usual!  The kids had fun picking out their 2 favorite rides and the boys surprised us this year by loving the Apple ride!  Love that these 2 have such a great time together!

Savannah, remains the same, all she ever needs is a ride on the pink elephant.  I thought it was so cute that Parker rode along with her!

Haha~ Savannah couldn't be happier and Parker is acting all cool and distracted!

Parker turns 8!

Parker turned 8, I know... crazy!  We love our 8 year old boy and all the silliness he adds to our days!  Our birthday tradition is to let the kids choose their birthday cake.  Well, this year Parker came up with a totally random idea... SpIeS!  And then, he continued to plan his birthday party!  He made signs for the front door and treehouse, he asked for a magnifying glass cake, invited 2 of his favorite buddies and then he picked out these silly old man masks and magnifying glasses!  Parker also asked to have a spy sleepover in the treehouse.  Finally, he came up with a creative idea of having a scavenger hunt with marshmallows at every clue!  Ha~ I love this boy and his unique ideas!  

The 4 crazy spies filled with marshmallows, cake, ice cream and plenty of silly stories!  Kep was the all~star dad who braved the cold and these 4 looney tunes!

gardening= FUN times!

Gardening... it's just what I love to do while the kids are playing outside.  I don't mind getting all dirty when mowing, weeding or planting because the end result is so satisfying!  

This happened to be a rainy summer which meant my dahlias bloomed super late and I only got to enjoy 3 flowers before the early freeze wilted the other 20 some blooms that were getting ready to open.  Bummer!  But as with anything in life... it is what it is!  I am so thankful for this amazing dahlia that did open before the freeze.  It was about 10 inches in diameter and it took about 10 days to fully open!  It was crazy~ only one layer of petals would open each day.  Seeing this flower is one of the reasons I love gardening... to be amazed by the beauty and uniqueness of God's creation.

Vegetable gardening was a first for our family and it was such a family hobby.  All 3 kids loved helping me plant, tend and harvest!  We were all hoping we were gonna have a bumper crop of potatoes as we had 5 tires stacked... but when the day came to (Ninja) kick those tires over, there were only 3 tiny potatoes down in the very bottom tire!  Ha!  All of us were in shock!  We'll definitely be trying something different next year!

Here's our garden towards the end of summer with a fresh batch of leaf lettuce and the snap peas toppled over~ they got too tall and I didn't have a fence high enough for them to climb!

Our potato garden was not successful but the summer squash and snap peas were our bumper crops!  The kids would graze on the peas all day~ yummy!  Next year, I will plant zucchini, instead of summer squash!

All summer Parker kept asking if we could pull the carrots!  My answer was always... on your birthday!  Another gardening mistake I made was I planted the carrots in only 4 inches of soil so I was a little scared about how tiny our carrots would be BUT we were surprised that we actually had a few 4 inch carrots and there were more than I imagined!  Next year, we will add more soil to the carrot area and plant a ton more!  There is nothing like home~grown carrots!

Gardening~ love everything about it and I especially loved having my children's help with the vegetable garden!

family bike rides

 Thanks to our friends, the DuHads, who loaned us this awesome trailer bike... we LOVE our family bike rides.  I don't know if Savannah will ever want to ride a 2~wheeler as she gets such a thrill out of coasting behind her dad, who wouldn't!?!  On this gorgeous afternoon, we rode around the Butte with Momo and Popeye.  Noah amazed us all, as his little legs biked hard for 15 miles!

 2012 summer bike rides have taken us into the mountains!  All 3 kids are loving the thrill of... biking over roots, splashing through the streams and bumping over rocks!

blueberries galore!

Blueberries~ another thing we love about Hatcher's!  As the kids get older, we get more blueberries!  And, having a puppy along keeps them more entertained so Kep and I can keep picking~ bonus!  This year was our best harvest yet... 2 trips to Hatchers= 4 gallons of blueberries!

 2nd trip to Hatchers, the boys found it fun to jump and roll down the slippery hillside!  We were fine with this as long as they didn't trample any blueberry bushes!