Hidden Lake Camping

Next we went camping at Hidden Lake....don't worry, we found it. It's a great place for the kids to climb the mountains right at our campsite, ride their bikes, take the pontoon boats in the lake, or swim in the lake if it's warm enough...which it wasn't. We are also close enough for the boys to go fishing on the Kenai or Russian for part of the day...the real reason we camp here.

Making smores

I'm not sure what is going on in this picture my dad took, but the expressions on their faces are hilarious.

The ever glowing campfire with some guitar & singing.There were some older boys riding their bikes down the boat launch into the water. Asher was nearby watching them ever so closely when I looked at my dad and said, 'do you think Asher is thinking what I think he's thinking?' So my dad says, 'hey Asher, where is your bike?' And that is all it took. Next thing you know Asher is at the top of the launch about to ride straight into the water. We stopped him just in time and got David to be the lifeguard/supervisor. Asher had a blast being like the big boys.

My dad wanted to float down the Kenai while he was here, so David took him on the pontoon boats while we were camping. They had a great relaxing time and my dad caught a nice picture of an eagle on the river.

Aunt Lucy Calls!

One Sunday morning I got a call from my Aunt Lucy! She is a flight attendant and was in town for the afternoon. She is my dad's youngest sister and I hadn't seen her since before I got married and had kids, so I was super excited to hook up with her and have her meet the fam. We were able to have some lunch and eat some fresh halibut we had caught down in Homer. Here are a few shots from her visit. Thanks for calling Aunt Lucy! We really enjoyed your visit.

Jumping with the kids!

4th of July in Kenai

On the third of July we got together with a big group to drive down to a friend's cabin to camp on their property for a fun fourth of July weekend. Well, about an hour into the trip we hit a stand still. We all just parked our cars and waited it out. It wasn't so bad since we were right next to a beautiful lake...and we were safe and alive, which is more than I can say for the people who were in the car accident up ahead. It was a three car accident with one fatality. So sad. After about 3 hours we got on our way and made it safely to the cabin in Kenai. We had since forgotten about fireworks and had missed them anyway since we rolled into the property at 3am-ish. We set up camp and were fast a sleep before 5am. Gotta love camping.

The next day the boys went halibut fishing, thanks to Bob and his boat. Aunt Georgia and Uncle Rick were visiting and we had a great time with them...hopefully we haven't scared them too bad with all the fun we had camping. :-)

My dad had flown into town a few days before and met up with us over the weekend. Always fun to hang out with the old man, or Geezer, as his sweatshirt below says. My dad is so great with the kids and always willing to help out. He even babysat a few times, Bohdan too!, so David and I could go out on a date. I love him! I'll have you know dad, that more than one person has commented in the last few days how much Bohdan looks like you!!! I'm not sure if it's the lack of hair, or the constant drooling! ;-)

Here is Asher holding one of the things he's allergic too. He cracks me up. He'll go right up to the dog owner, announce that he is allergic to dogs, and then continue to pet and play with them. It's as if he's telling the adult that he can't hold back his urge to pet the dog, so you better make him not touch the dog or the dog is free game.
Geezer
(formerly known as "Stud Muffin")

My dad making Bohdan laugh...so cute.

Lying around in the dirt....kid haven. There were a couple of dirt piles the kids seemed to gravitate towards. Hours of unsupervised fun....and hours of clean up.

Grandpa and Asher above and the gang around the fire below.

On the way back from camping in Kenai we stopped by Clam Gulch for dinner. It was so beautiful! We drove down on the beach and the sun was setting as we cooked up some dinner. The kids enjoyed the beach and found some sand cliffs to climb up and then slide down. It as a great way to end the weekend. Next time we will do some clamming, but this time the tide wasn't right.

Climbing up....

and sliding down...

David and Asher strolling down the beach. Life is good.

Fishing with Bears

The day before Shira's party David went fishing with his cousin and a few guys from work. They hiked up the Russian river and while fishing had a grizzly and her cub come join them, this is apparently not that uncommon. It caused most of the guys who were fishing to take their fish and leave, but not our guys. Oh no, they hadn't caught their fish yet, so they figured they were not in any danger. Plus, they were loving the fact that they now had the place to themselves since the other anglers had moved out. So they hung out and fished with the bears, who were luckily on the other side of the river, which I might add, is not that wide. Below is David fishing with Josh and Travis. Da Bears

Shira's Butterfly Party

I'm a little late on this post, but whatever. We had Shira's party a week after her birthday, since it fell on Father's Day this year, and it was her first 'friend' party. Let's just say that we have decided to have these types of parties only on milestone birthdays...meaning at 8, 12, and 16. It was a lot of fun, but too much work and money, and I was even being frugal! She loved it, so it was all worth it. She chose to have a butterfly party this year, so we made butterfly wands, butterfly white chocolate suckers, decorated cookies since it was raining and we couldn't jump on the new trampoline, and had a butterfly pinata, cake, balloons, and so on. She had eight little friends show up (10 in all including Shira and Asher!) and they laughed, played games, and danced for several hours. Happy 6th Birthday Shira!

I forgot to take a picture of the cute pinata, so I cropped this one out of the background of another picture. :-)
Here is the butterfly cake.
Here they are playing duck, duck, goose. Asher is loving being the only boy.
About to cut the cake!

Cousins

Bohdan with his cute cousin, Brenna Sophia Rose. She is just three weeks older than Bohdan. Bohdan is a week shy of being four months old in this picture. It was taken on Father's Day. Can you see the drool all down his shirt!? He's as that stage. Aren't they cute?!