Merry Christmas!

Its been a long time since our last post.  Between classes and flying lessons and life it just hasn't even crossed our minds. We pray that this year you will experience God's love and in this holiday season share The Hope we have because of the arrival of this wee babe in a manger. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Family

We were so thrilled that my sister Josie and her family came up to Alaska to visit us this summer!  They made the grueling drive up from Wisconsin and arrived safely at the beginning of August.  We enjoyed not enough days of kids playing, coffee drinking, bonfires, hiking and playing Trash Can.  The house is very quiet now without them, especially now that the kiddos have gone back to school.  Here are some pics of our visit :)

Girl time

All of the kids at breakfast

Many dishes were washed!!

Cookout with friends

Mitchell braves the Iceberg!

Hauling poor Bently out of the lake after someone pushed him in to see if he could swim!

Date night...Josh's first time at Red Robin

Impromptu birthday party for Nat.  She's trying to keep daddy from blowing out her candles!

Hiking on the Matauska Glacier.

Dipnetting

As Alaskan residents we are allowed to dipnet during the salmon run.  This entails taking nets and dipping them into whichever river we choose, for us it's usually the Copper River, and netting the allowed amount of salmon.  Some years we have a quick plentiful harvest...not so much this year.  The river was high and fast and the fish were out in the deeper water (that's what the experts say, I really have no clue).  We did end up with a respectable amount of salmon and we look forward to fresh salmon throughout the winter months!!  This year we went with some friends of ours and made it into a fun weekend of camping and fishing.  We may need to do it this way ever year!!  Here are some pictures of our weekend.

Beautiful fireweed near our fishing spot

Bella loved the idea of driving the Ranger.  JJ was more obsessed with the dirt bike haha

Checking out the water before hauling out the fishing nets.  With Gunner the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.  Boy oh boy did that dog love to retrieve anything out of the river!

The kiddos heading out on one of many wet adventures

The beautiful Chitna area!

This girl and her best friend had a lot of fun swimming 

Another one of my beauties

First fish caught and documented!

Naomi and Madison heading out with a net

The stringer and many unfortunate salmon

Cold, windy, rainy afternoon.  One sick kid in the chair and the other two keeping the fire going with beach driftwood.

Dipnetting.  

Independence Day

What a fun day!  Polynesian pig roast, launching vehicles off of the cliffs, bowling ball cannons, singing by locals (including out Bella), a parade, potluck, watermelon, friends, fun, gorgeous warm sunshine, getting burned to a crisp lol and my favorite thing of all this year was the airplane flyover formations done by the KAC pilots. So beautiful. The one I have pictured below is called the Missing Man formation and is a tribute, honoring those who have fallen in combat. Amidst all of the unrest and dissatisfaction all around in regards to our country and government it's good to remember that is if wasn't for all of the blessings we have enjoyed, we wouldn't even recognize the hardships as being hardships. 

Missing Man Formation

The kids playing in a little pool down near the river

Isabella performing "the Olaf song" for the community

A parade float

Ryan driving the fire truck with the Victory kids (plus a few) in the parade

One of the launch vehicles pre flattening

Don't know if you can see it but this is a vehicle in its descent about 1/3rd of the way down the cliff 

Post flattening haha

Mountain buggy and also the haul away vehicle

Unveiling the pig roast with some theatrics 

First River Buggy Trip of the Year

On Wednesday we took the Pella, Iowa workteam down to the Matanuska River on the first Work team River buggy trip of the season!  This time included much laughter, getting the van stuck in the mud, shooting guns, blowing things up, getting the van unstuck with our pick up truck, eating yummy snacks, exploring the river bed and enjoying a campfire together.  We really enjoy this time with the work teams and look forward to each of these outings!

Dairy farming

JWhile we were in Manitoba a family friend allowed us the opportunity to visit a dairy farm during milking time. The kids were fascinated and loved helping get the cows set up to milk. Truthfully I think they enjoyed the barn cats more than anything. Here are some pics of our experience. 

Wildfires

We are shrouded in smoke here at Victory today due to a large wildfire south of Anchorage. 

This fire covers an area of 96,500 square miles and as of this morning is only 5% contained. 

It is in the Funny River region. Please pray for the locals, the fire personnel and the emergency personnel involved!

Awards Ceremony and Last Day of School Picnic

The time has come again as it does every year...Summer Vacation!!  At Glacierview school that time comes with an award ceremony where the kids are recognized for their hard work throughout the year. This year my Naomi was applauded with her class for going into Junior High...wait what???!!!  Junior High!  Crazy!  Jeremiah was promoted from Kindergarten to First Grade and they all were given different awards for creative writing, reading excellence and math excellence.  I'm so proud of all of their smart little brains :)  The picnic was a lot of fun.  During the egg toss, shown in one of the photos below, the kids eached picked an adult to be their partner and then tossed the egg back and forth until someone dropped it or it broke.  One poor little guy (good sport btw) was thrown the egg by one of our staff members and it hit him in the forehead and ran all over his face.  Oh the dangers of throwing eggs!  The food was delicious, the sun warm and sunny, and a fun time was had by all.  Let the summer begin!