Seward with the Tews

We went to Seward with the Tews right after the fourth of July and had a fun time visiting with them before we had to go out of town. We went to the Sealife Center and had a great time looking at all the sealife. They had salmon at every stage, seals, all sorts of birds, sea lions, and all types of creatures for the kids to see and touch. Then we had a yummy dinner, finally after waiting for what seemed like forever with four children, and then just hung out playing guitar and eating icecream in the Tews 8x10 cabin they stayed in. :-)

David & Asher taking a stroll while waiting to eat.Shira and the fish.
Asher touching sea creatures.
David & Brady playing guitar...a favorite of thiers. Aunt Georgia & Uncle Rick with our family.

Fourth of July

For the fourth of July we took cousin Brady and fam along with his parents, Uncle Rick and Aunt Georgia who came up to visit Brady and his family while in Alaska, to Byron Glacier. It's always fun to hang out with Aunt Georgia and Uncle Rick!

Byron Glacier

David, Brady, Becky & Uncle Rick hiked up to the glacier ice while Aunt Georgia and I watched the munchkins.
After that we went back to Angela's for a wonderful fourth of July barbeque. And what fourth of July isn't complete without a little watermelon? So, here are some of the kiddos chowing down on the scrumtious stuff.
Weston, Shira and Lilli.....totally not posing.
And who could go a fourth of July without fireworks!? Aunt Georgia and Uncle Rick, that's who. :-) So we took the kids to see the midnight fireworks, and yes, it really is still that light out. But that doesn't stop us. I don't know what that crazy guy is doing in the background.

Good ole Alaskan outhouse

On the way back from Kennicott we stopped many a times to use the 'bathroom'. This was one of my favorites.

Kennicot Copper Mines Camping

One of David and his dad's favorite places in the world is the Kenniccot Copper Mines. So, the first week of July we ventured off into the great Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the US at over 13 million acres, in search of Kennicott. This was my first time to Kennicott and it was an adventure.....or at least getting there was. It took us 8-10 hours to get there, I really can't remember. And the last two hours of that was on a dirt road going 20 mph, that I remember. All together we had the Brady & Becky Tew family, David's parents and brother Jaben, and Leah & Troy's family. We found a nice tundra/rock filled campground and paid way too much to stay there for two nights. It was near the beautiful Kennicott glacier and raging Copper River. We crossed the Copper River on a foot bridge and then took a shuttle through McCarthy to get to Kennicott. It was amazing to see the history and all the old buildings. Now for some history; between 1908 & 1938 $200 million in ore was extracted from Kennicott, making it the richest concentration of copper ore known in the world. It was fascinating! But not the best place to hike around with toddlers. Difinately worth doing, and possibly returning when the kids are much older.

Here is Becky & Katelyn hiking around Kennicott.

Uncle Troy, known as the pied piper. The kids love him!
Porter family in front of some of the buildings,

known to be as high as 14 stories.
David with the kids at Kennicott.
The cousins riding a rock. Giddyup!

Camping at Hidden Lake

The end of June we went camping at Hidden Lake. Auntie Leah and her kids came with us and we had tons of fun just hanging out. David even got to go fishing on the Russian with a work buddy who came up the next day. They caught us some nice red salmon that we cooked up fresh for dinner that night. Yummy!

Here are some shots of the kids playing at the lake before the cousins showed up.

Father's Day Fishermen

One of David's good buddies from college came up from Oregon for Father's Day and their main mission was to fish.....and fish they did. They went fishing on the Russian River a bunch of times, then went combat fishing on the Kenai River, then went north to fish on the Deshka River, and finally went on a Halibut charter out of Whittier. On that charter they saw seals, whales, and luckily a few halibut. David had a great time seeing Jake and visiting with his awesome in-laws that came with him.

A seal on a bouy in the ocean.

A whale....look close, they're hard to catch on camera.
Men and their halibut.
Three studs and their salmon....with fly rods.

Shira Turns FIVE!!!

On June 15th Shira Hope turned five years old. We had a fun birthday for her at Grandma & Grandpa Porter's house. I didn't make the lame princess cake, I got it from Costco, but I'm sure mine would have been even worse. We had tons of fun playing 'pin the wings on Tinkerbell', hitting the princess pinata, which Shira did so gracefully, and attempting to play musical chairs. The kids even got a hold of the hose in the front yard and all got wet. It was a fun day. Happy Birthday Shira!

Shira & her cake.

Shira hitting the pinata all girly like.
Cousin Weston & Shira all wet.

Asher all wet after hose fight.

Shira & her new princess bike!

Put on your Underwear

One day I asked Asher to put on his underwear, and this is what I got. I just do it myself now. :-)

Annual Mikunda Cottrell Campout

Thanks to Joy, David's c0-worker, we had our third annual Mikunda Cottrell campout at Quartz Creek the first week in June. I know what you're thinking, how fun could a weekend be with a bunch of accountants, but they are actually really cool...and fun to hang out with :-). It was a beautiful and chilly weekend. We even woke up the first night to fresh snow on the mountains! But that didn't scare off David's cousins, Brady and Becky Tew who came up from Utah for the summer to work at KPMG. We had tons of fun eating great food, thanks again to Joy, playing horse shoes, pinochle, seeing moose & mountain sheep, and just hanging out by the campfire and beautiful lake.

Resting from our walk.

The whole gang at our beautiful campsite.

(Merriners minus sleeping Colt, Tews, Porters, & Verleys)

A gorgeous rest stop on the way home.

The family. Daddy & Asher by the lake.

Shira & Asher lounging in the camp chairs. A walk around the lake. Here is the fresh snow on the mountian! It was a cold night!

Hiking with Friends!

We've had a busy summer and I have been terrible about blogging.....if you haven't noticed. But we are back!
Our first fun adventure came the end of May when our good friends Julia and Brad came up to Alaska for a visit. We went hiking together somewhere up in the hills of Palmer. It was beautiful and fun to see our good friends.

Hiking in Palmer.

Brad & Julia doing what they do best.

Our kids with Julia's cute son Sterling.