Activity Day Girls Activity

I thought I would post the cute cute girls in

our Activity Day group

I am one of the AD leaders

Tonight we made prayer rocks

They painted their prayer rocks and decorated them

and then blew them dry... see my blow dryer... they 

finagled a way to have it balance under the chair

to dry all of their rocks 

Goofy, adorable girls :)

37th anniversary

Bob and I celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary this weekend by heading up to Girdwood.

It has become a tradition for us... we love it up there.

We spend such a lovely day picking blueberries and walking around the walking paths up there

It started out rainy and cloudy, and everything was wet with the freshness of that morning rain...

but it cleared up and the sun came out and it really was such a lovely day.

Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart Bob... I love you.

ok.... what an outfit.... like I said, everything

was wet from the morning rain :)

picking picking picking...

talking talking talking :)

We ended up with 17 1/2 cup bags full of 

Alaska blue berries

ok... I know it's not the greatest picture...

and you don't need to say a thing about my hat :)

I know...

we set the camera on our truck...

what can I say

he is so sweet to me...

my new friend

My friend Bonnie Herbert and I had a meeting this
morning and while I was there, their neighborhood
friendly  Stellar Jay bird  dropped by to say hello.

can you see that he's looking right at me...

I just couldn't believe he was friendly enough to come 

right to me ...I'm holding out almonds and he came right

onto my hand and gobbled up two or three in his mouth

and then he flew off and in a few seconds he came

right back for more

it just tickled me to see him fly right to my hand.  :)

check out our growing raspberry patch :)

Check out our growing raspberry plants.... their coming along huh!

                                well.... we're getting a few of these every few mornings  :)

                       
                                               we are happy campers!

Beautiful day sailing on Big Lake

Bob and I have decided we need to catch a few

more days on the Lake before the summer is over.

Today was a gorgeous sunny day... just perfect.

We packed a picnic and headed out.

We had such a fun day together!

                                                  Here we are just motoring out

                                                              we took turns steering
                                               

we each put a line in and although at one

point we saw several large salmon jumping up out

of the water... no luck for us

ok.. that's a half hearted try... I know  

I was more interested in the sun breaking out

Bob dangling his feet in the water

Can you see our friend in the top of the tree there?

We could hear him churl-tiling 

and watching us :)

we love the loons making quick dashes in 

and out of the water so slyly

we saw several float planes land 

We stopped at the Islander for a lemonade

There she is .. I still have to pinch myself that Bob

actually made this boat from scratch... completely and

totally and it is a beauty!  I am proud of him.

I love sitting up front and watching the peaceful 

evening unfold... it was breathtaking.

Evening sky over the lake

ok this is Fireweed... the true way for Alaskans to tell when 

summer is over. This flower blooms from the bottom up and

when it reaches the top... summer of over and

Fall will begin.

I took a close up... it is a sad thing to see it almost 

reach to top...  Oh we don't want this glorious summer to end!

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

Our awesome kids!

We love our kids!

Sailboat Regatta

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.