Alaska--July 10th, 11th and 12th

July 10th

Today, Garrett, Alex and Jim woke up around 5:30 to go fishing for halibut.  

 They saw these deer out during low tide.  I thought that was pretty cool. 

 They caught about 10 halibut!

 They said it was pretty foggy till about 11, and then it started burning off.  They got home around 3.

 Back at home, we had the older girls babysit so that Savann, Georgia and I could go down to Savann's shop to quilt.  She has an extra room behind her store that they use for people to come and work on projects, so we went down to sew.  She let me pick out fabric to start working on a table runner.  Georgia doesn't really sew, so Savann was making one for her.  It was so much fun!  We went and got lunch and a coke and then came back and worked until we saw the guys drive by the shop.  They stopped and showed us their fish.  

 They started cleaning the fish and getting them ready to freeze.  We were able bring about 50 lbs. of fresh halibut back home with us!  

 I love how the girls stood and watched Garrett clean and fillet the halibut.  

 a view of their catch and the bloody mess in the boat.  

 Georgia and Alex cleaned and cut them into chunks and I got to put them into packages and vacuum seal them.  

When we were finished, we went down to play walleyball as a family.  Noah and Bella did not like it at all, so they played out in the hall.  Lydia didn't like it either, so she eventually went out with them.  

Later that night, Garrett, Jim, and Savann went back to play walleyball with Doc and Bev who are really serious about the game and didn't want any kids to come and play.  I think they played for an hour and a half--everyone was beat!

 The girls played Just Dance.  It was a pretty uneventful evening.  

July 11th

The guys must not have gotten enough fishing in the day before because they were up at 6 and out for more fish.  We had the girls babysit again so that the women could go and finish sewing.  I got the top finished, but still need to quilt and bind it.  The kids went to the park to play, Maggie cleaned the whole kitchen by herself,  and then we all came back around 2 and ate lunch, cleaned the fish again and then got ready to go out to a BBQ at Blind Slough.  

 It was a beautiful, warm evening.  So we played games and hung out. 

 Then the 3 oldest girls went to jump off the bridge.  I'm pretty sure that Sydney and Alyssa had done it before, but Maggie had not.  

 It took them a little while to gather their courage, but they finally did it.  I think Maggie went 4 or 5 times in all.  I was really proud of her.  

 There she goes...

 The other kids took awhile to get into the water...

 Noah was pretty much done after he got his feet wet.  At least he tried.  

 Everyone watching the girls jump

 playing in the water

 Alex and Noah playing horseshoes with someone

 Maggie photo bombing our picture

 Lydia and Savann

 cooking hot dogs

 they had bought those giant marshmallows for the s'mores--Noah was pretty excited about his 'Giant S'more'

He wanted Garrett to feed it to him.  

July 12

Garrett had really wanted to go to Anan Wildlife Observatory out by Wrangell, I think.  I went there with Jim, Georgia, Savann and Alex during one of our first summers that we lived in Alaska after we were married.  Garrett wasn't able to go because he was fishing.  There are a ton of bears there because of all the salmon.  Anyways, Garrett and Savann were trying all week to find another boat to rent so that we could all get there.  Alex's boat can only hold 8 or 9 and we all wanted to go.  But, unfortunetly, we never could find another boat to rent, so we couldn't go.  So instead, Alex let us borrow his boat and we went out to see ice burgs and to look for whales.  

 We went to try to get close to LeConte Glacier, but weren't able to get super close.  We saw a lot of ice burgs though!  

 Garrett scooped us out a small piece of ice that we passed by and the kids had fun playing with that.  

 This one kinda looks like a bird

 They are really beautiful!

 About halfway into our trip, Maggie started getting a migraine, so we had to turn back and didn't really see a lot of whales.  I think we saw the tail of one right before it dove, but that was it.  Garrett was pretty sad that we couldn't stay out longer. He really enjoys being out on the water.  

 Our captain

 Poor Maggie.  When we got her home, I put her down in the basement where Garrett and I were sleeping because I thought it would be quieter.  She slept for 5 hours down there.  

Garrett and I went to get Mexican food for lunch while the kids played in the back yard.  Alex and Savann set up a slip n' slide for the kids.  

 They had yellow watermelon--I have never before seen yellow watermelon.  It tasted just like regular, though. 

 Noah catching some air.  After that, I don't think he went again.  He said it hurt his bum.  

It was another low-key evening.  Georgia and Savann weren't feeling well.  The older kids watched "Hotel Transylvania" and some of us adults played Take 5.