Our New Toy

We were fortunate enough to find a really good deal on a four wheeler from a fellow Coastie who will be transferring out of Cordova this coming summer.  Mike, Whitney, and I took it out for a spin today at the gravel pit which is about 14 miles out the Copper River Highway.  The gravel pit is a popular spot for four wheeling year round.  I must say, I had a blast!  Whitney had fun, too, and handled the four wheeler very well all on her own.  Unfortunately, Austin had a friend over and didn't care to join us.  He was missed and he missed out!  Oh well.  There will be many more opportunities in the future.

This is Mike, doing donuts.

Super Swim

Tonight was Whitney's swim team's annual Super Swim fundraiser.  The swimmers had two hours to swim up to 200 lengths (100 laps) of the pool.  Whitney swam 178 lengths!  She really impressed me!  Lots of the kids used kick boards and fins, but Whitney did not.  She did use a kick board to give her arms a break or a pull buoy (a floatation device used between the legs to keep them afloat) to give her legs a break.  She never used fins to propel her.  I'm so proud of her!

The Cordova Iceworms

Pink goggles

Basketball

Austin has proven to be a pretty darn good basketball player.  He has really impressed me with his skills!  Take a look at #13:

Crossover to beat the defender. (See below)

 

A couple more.

The clouds lifted to really give us a look at the new snow!

Update

Well, I don't have a whole lot to share since it's been raining for the better part of the last month.  The kids have been going to school and I have been hanging out, doing housework.  On the weekends, we've been pretty social, hanging out with different people and celebrating birthdays and weddings.

Austin went on his first away trip for Cross Country to Anchorage.  Since he runs for Junior High, he only ran two miles but finished first with a time of 10:00.  Whitney has joined the swim team and will be going on her first trip to Anchorage next weekend.  She'll be swimming the 100m and 200m freestyle and the 50m backstroke.  Since Cross Country finished, Austin joined the basketball team and will be playing in a tournament in Glenallen and Valdez the same weekend Whitney will be gone.  Mike and I will be childless for about four days!  I wish we could go, but it's so expensive to take the ferry.  Speaking of that, the school pays for Austin's travel and they sleep in the gyms of the schools they visit.  Whitney's travel and room are paid for with the dues we pay to the swim club and she'll be staying with a chaperone.  All we have to pay for is their food.

Mike is still home.  He was supposed to leave a week ago for two weeks, but the boat's propeller is broken, so they're waiting for a part.  He may be leaving in two weeks.  It's been really nice to have him home!!

So, since there aren't any pictures of us to share, I thought I would share a weather picture.  The rain that we got today was snow in the mountains surrounding town.  As a basis of comparison, I'm including an earlier picture.  Enjoy!

July

Today

First Dinner Guests and Whitney's Artistry

We had our first dinner guests last night.  Mike grilled fajitas, which were yummy, and had a really nice time.  Paul Ledbetter, the ships operations boss and Mike's roommate and Josh Boyle, the ships XO joined us for the yumminess.  Both have girlfriends who are on the east coast. 

Paul is checking out our salmon eggs from our fishing trip earlier that day.  

While we were talking, Whitney had a little fun with the camera.  She took some good pictures!

I like this one, but it would have been better without the other stuff on the counter behind it.

Mmmmm!

Today's Catch

Austin and I went fishing with Mike for the first time today.  It was cold and rainy, but if we let that stop us, we'd rarely leave the house. Mike and I caught our first salmon!  It was so much fun!  We each caught one, but there are four because the little one looks like a female and the guy who caught it only wanted males.  I knew we weren't going to catch our limit, so I took it so we could harvest the eggs and he could keep fishing.  It turned out that it was a runt male.  Oh well.  Mike caught a good sized female, so we did get some eggs. 

Stay tuned!  Mike has a TON of pictures from his trip to the Arctic.  He has to sift through them to pick the ones he wants to post.

Homecoming

Mike is home!  The boat pulled in early yesterday morning and the kids and I went to greet her.  It was a beautiful morning!  The kids and I are so happy to have him home!

The tradition is that the families meet at "Wives' Point" so that the crew can see that we're there.  They say that it's the first part of Cordova that can be seen when the boat turns into the inlet.  After they passed us, we drove to the Coast Guard pier to hug our men.  It was really neat to be out there with the girls.

There he is, in the white hard hat!

Mike still has his hard hat on.  He and Whitney are hugging.

My Arctic Summer

Here are a few pictures from above the Arctic Circle.  I have seen so many things I never thought that I would see.  Some days I can't believe I get paid to do this!  There will be more.  Oh yes, there will be more.  Stay tuned.

More Fishing

Austin and I went fishing again this weekend.  This time, I got my fishing license so I could join in the fun.  I got skunked yesterday, but Austin was successful. This was not Austin's first salmon, but it was his first keeper.  It was a female so we kept the eggs to use as bait for today.  Today was fun even though we got skunked.  We would have caught our limit in about an hour, but every fish we had on the line either found its way off or snapped the line. 

Silver salmon

The egg sacs are on the top right.

There is a membrane that goes about 3/4 of the way around the sac to hold them all together.

This has been quite a learning experience for me and it's been fun!  We're living the Alaskan dream!

Fishing

Orca Inlet on Prince William Sound.  Cordova is to the left. 

To our back is a road.  On the other side of that road is Hippie Cove, where Austin caught two Silver Salmon.  I didn't have my phone with me :/

This is Ibeck Creek in the Copper River Delta.  Lots of silvers being caught here.  Several people were catching their limit within two hours.  Austin wasn't using the right bait/lure so the silvers skunked him.

This is a Dolly Varden.

That's a glacier.  I can't remember the name.

This is a male Silver Salmon.  I am casting a shadow, but its beak is how we know it's male.

Yep.  That's a bear track.  I'm glad we didn't run into this guy!

Beautiful area!