Monday, August 16, 2010

My crazy kids

I just found these two videos on my computer. Sammie loves to play on photo booth and she's getting ready to start reading. So this is her version of reading you a story, with a lot of personality on the side. The weird color is Sammie's doing.


This one is Josh. Apparently he's in a boxing match with himself.



I love seeing what my kids do to entertain themselves when I'm not looking.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

G-ma and G-pa Hughes visit Alaska

Grandma and Grandpa Hughes came and spent a couple weeks with us. We had a very good time. We walked out to the totem's. I made the kids stop running wild long enough for me to get this picture in front of one of the totems.

Then on the way back to the house, we stopped to show Grandpa this giant log. The kids love it!!
Stewart took his dad and Caleb fishing almost every day. On one trip out in the boat Grandpa caught both these great fish. One is a silver salmon and the other is a yellow eye (red snapper).
On one great day of fishing, Stewart, Caleb, Grandpa, and me walked down to the beach at 7am to catch some pink salmon at low tide. Our goal was to limit out - 6 each. We could have caught that many very quickly if they were all keepers, but some were past their peak of freshness (they are getting ready to breed and then die). So, we were picky and only kept the good ones. I only fished for about an hour and then enjoyed beach combing and being the group photographer. The starfish were piled up everywhere.Caleb's reel gave out on him, so he would just hold on and haul the fish in over his shoulder.
Grandpa was freezing but couldn't resist the urge to keep fishing!
As the tide was coming in, Stewart had to keep finding new boulders to stand on to keep him close to the fish.
Everyone was a little wet and chilly but having a ball. Caleb and Grandpa were enjoying their perch on this boulder, but they didn't want to give up when the tide came in. Pretty soon Caleb was up to his knees and when he caught a fish he had no where to land it. So Grandpa bent down to pull the fish out of the water and lost his balance. He fell in and lost his glasses. So Stewart handed me his glasses and jumped in to help his dad find his glasses. I managed to drop Stewart's glasses too. Before long we decided to give up and come back at low tide to look for both sets of glasses. But I couldn't resist a good picture of Stewart and his dad swimming in the rain in the ocean.


We took home ALOT of fish. Before long we had all the fish neatly packed away. And we all felt better after hot showers and putting on dry cloths. This is our display of fish from that 3 or 4 hour fishing trip.



Later we went back and found both sets of glasses without even having to get wet. Here's a view of the beach from where we found the glasses.

On the way home we stopped and made Grandma reel in a salmon, just so she wouldn't miss the experience.
And just because I like to share the scenery, this last pick is a stream right in front of our house. This is actually the stream that all those salmon are waiting to run up, but there hasn't been enough rain, so they're stuck down at the beach. I like it because it shows what the area looks like.

Utah trip 2010!

We made our annual summer trip to Utah last month. Normally this is a 2+ month trip with plenty of time to visit all our family and friends. This year we cut it down to three weeks - three very very busy weeks! I managed to leave my camera in it's case the whole trip, so I have no pictures, but here's a bullet list of highlights.

  • Hughes family reunion - another great one! Thanks Phill and Melissa!
  • 4th of July - Could only get better if we weren't torn between our two families who were almost all in town for the party!
  • Double date to Durango with Becky and James. I loved having time to just hang out.
  • Trip to Salt Lake - school shopping was good, but temple square was great!!
  • Stayed with Regan and Mori, there home has become our favorite bed and breakfast.
  • Richmond family reunion - good camping trip; hot, lots of bugs, but good company!
  • Pool party at Robby and Laurel's in Phoenix. 114 degrees!! Loved the pool, food, and hosts!
We met two new nieces and a brand new nephew, went swimming a few times, and never had a chance to get bored. And the good news is, we are extremely close to having enough miles to fly the whole family for free next year :)