The Clayton Clan: July 2013

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Trip to Utah... meeting our newest grand baby Samuel Nathan Clayton...

Checking out new little Samuel Nathan Clayton

our 18th grand baby!

bringing the kids to the hospital to visit mom and baby Sam

Matt had time with the girls

and time with the boys

I love this picture of Matt surrounded by his children

1 day old Samuel

Emily came over with Cory so I got to hold both Cory and Sam

All of our grandchildren at the park

except Sam who is still in the hospital

grandma in the middle :)

braiding the girls hair one evening

how cute is this...

Jack's T ball game

baby Sam

visit with my brother David's son Camden Hastings

before he entered the MTC

Monday, July 08, 2013

June 29 was the Sailboat Regatta in Homer Alaska. Bob entered the race using our sailboat named "First Attempt" he built three years ago. His was the smallest boat and was the only boat build by hand. He asked a friend from work, Don Tybus to accompany him and be his crew. Here they are docked waiting for the starting instructions.

As you can see above... the day started out fairly clear and gentle breezes.... but shown below as they got out there... the fog rolled in and the winds became contrary. They sailed around the starting buoy with the rest of the competitors... getting a feel for the air and water but as the fog socked in they lost sight of the starting point and went far beyond where they needed to be. Needless to say, they were late getting back to the starting point, but decided to stay in the race anyway and enjoyed the water and being out among the other sailboats

there were 12 boats racing and this is about 30 minutes before the start

As the fog lifted a bit they found the start line and cruised past it for their official start in the race about 40 minutes late however,

Just a shot of the big boys around them, they were the smallest minnow in the pond for sure

Bob said the boat handled super well peaking 7 knots at times (that is fast for a monohull sailboat) especially with the new Foresail he made this spring.

Finally with the sails down they took a "victory" lap (meaning that they stayed in the race :) and went past the finish line waving to all of us in the judging deck and other spectators. It was blast.

Sunday, July 07, 2013

Our cabin site at Ninilchik

This past March we celebrated 9 years living in Alaska. Next June Bob will officially have 30 years of federal service; and although Bob will be eligible to retire next June 2014 we plan to continue working until June 2016. We have been thinking about and planning for our retirement for quite some time now.

We bought a piece of property in our beloved Ninilchik. After many years of looking we finally found just the right lot for us which is located next to so many of our dear friends who also have cabins there. We are excited to post a few pictures of the land we have decided to purchase. It is 3 1/2 acres of some of the prettiest land on this earth in Ninilchik, Alaska.

Our property and cabin in Ninilchik will then become our permanent Alaska address. We plan to spend a couple of months each year here during the summer, and the rest of the year we will live somewhere centrally located to our children.

Our little cabin and lot-- sits on the top of a wooded bluff overlooking Bear Creek which feeds into the Ninilchik River--the official address is Lot 41 located on Steelhead Ridge in Ninilchik River Estates. It is covered with pine, birch and even cottonwood trees and the best part is that Bear Creek runs through the property and we even have fish in it. We are located just 1 mile as the bird flies from the ocean and have a spectacular view of Readoubt Volcano on the other side of the Bay. There is a very small cabin already on the property and a very cute (that is right "cute" ) and ready to use outhouse complete with the moonshape view hole on the door and there is also great fire pit overlooking the bluff and little creek.

Here are some pictures we took several weeks ago. It actually has greened up quite a bit since we have been there. Our lot is covered with beautiful purple lupin flowers scattered here and there.

We will continue to take pictures and keep you posted on our plans. Here are just a few first photos.

I will also post Bob's design of our cabin...which is still a work in progress :)

This is a picture from the road looking onto our lot with the little cabin already there in the distance.

This is the tiny cabin already on the lot

side view from the drive way looking towards the hill

that will go down to the stream

other side from the fire pit

from the fire pit looking back at the cabin and the drive up

check out our little out house with the cabin in the background. The fire pit is to the left and the hill is also to the left of that going down to the little stream

side view of the out house

from the fire pit looking to the other side lot

you can see the cabin one lot over

(there is a lot between us and another cabin)

on the side of the property

see the pretty purple lupin flowers

standing from the cabin looking out over the hill with the stream below

our fire pit

Bronson down by the little creek at the bottom of the hill

with Matt in the distance

our little waterfall :)

Here are some pictures of dad's design for our cabin

This is dad's rendering

2 of dad's computer designs of the cabin

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Halibut Fishing

We had such a fun day halibut fishing with our great pals
Mike and Bonnie Herbert...

Bonnie and I are set to head out

The weather that morning was calling for 15 knot winds and a 2 foot sea,

but in reality... as we got going...things got tumultuous very quickly...

turning into a 20 knot wind and a 5 foot sea...

I'm not going to lie...it was pretty rowdy out there :/

It was actually the roughest waters I've ever been in... but we did just fine...

Mike is a great boatsman and we reached our GPS coordinates perfectly

and began fishing... and we did very well, catching our limits.

the guys getting right to it

Here is Bob casting out... I'm sorry we didn't get any shots of Bonnie or I actually fishing
so.... you'll just have to take my word on it that we all caught fish...
well..... Mike did help me bring mine in :)
It was great fun and a great memory with our good friends.