Fishing

As you know, fishing in Alaska is pretty good. Well, last week Chris went on his first halibut fishing trip out in the ocean. He had a BLAST! Him and 5 other guys, all together, caught about 12-15 halibut, and some cod fish. They were out most of the day...and then spent about another 4 hours cleaning all of the fish!

After everyone divided up the fish, Chris came home with 15lbs of halibut and 5 lbs of the cod fish. All the halibut fillets are sitting in our freezer waiting to get eaten. Chris is hoping to go out again really soon and stock up the chest freezer we have sitting in the garage.

(The chest freezer has a bear head in it, but that's another story...)

Here's some pics of the fishing trip.

Happy 4th of July!

This year we celebrated Independence Day amongst a bunch of Rescue Swimmers and their families. We had a nice potluck and BBQ a top a hill at a friend's house.

We bought fireworks for the first time in years (fireworks have been outlawed in California for the past 10 years or so). We had NO IDEA what to buy! We spent $20 and got our fill of explosives. Unfortunately it doesn't get dark in Alaska this time of year until the wee hours of the morning. So, 9pm we shot off our fireworks in broad daylight.

Emily enjoyed playing with the sparklers and a tube-rocket-thing. She wasn't "super interested" in the fireworks...she was more interested in jumping on the trampoline these people had in their yard. She had a BLAST with that!

All-in-all we had a really good time and a wonderful 4th of July!!!

Here are some pics:

New Food

So, once back in Alaska Emily got to explore some new foods.

Fruit By The Foot

Corn on the Cob

Legoland with Grandma & Grandpa

Our final weekend in California was spent with Chris & I at a wedding, and Emily at Legoland. Shaun & Jenna's wedding was beautiful. There was a lot of natural light throughout the ceremony, which means that my pictures didn't turn out so well. I'll try to salvage a few of my pics from the wedding and put them up to share. But, here are some pics of Emily's time spent at Legoland:

Pool Party at Grandma's

Once back in San Dimas, Emily spent some time with Grandma. They had a fun-filled day in the pool...both Emily and her cousin Kylie. Emily loves the water, so a "pool party" was right up her alley!

A River Vacation

So, as you all probably already know...we spent the first few days of our trip out on the Colorado River. It was nice to be able to get a little "vacation" (it will be our only one this year.) It was really relaxing to be able to be out there on the water and in the sun. (We don't get much sun in Kodiak.)

Thanks to the Fam for taking time off work to take us to the River...I'm really glad Chris suggested it. We all had a lot of fun and I know Emily really enjoyed it!

Here's some pics:

Here are some videos:

Friday's Open House

Well, Friday the 19th we arrived in Southern California. This quick visit started off after an 18 hour flight/layover combination. All three of us were exhausted from the LONG night before. Mom, Lisa & David picked us up from the airport - it took Emily a little while before she begun to recognize just who these people were.


We stopped at Michelangelo's for pizza for lunch...it's been a long time since we've had good pizza!!


That evening we were excited to have you'all come out and join us for a little Open House. It was wonderful to see everyone!! It's been about 6 months since we've been home, so it was nice to chat with you and have Emily get to see you again!



Here are some pics from the evening: