Look Mom, No Wheels!

Training wheels, that is! Kimberly finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. It all started when our neighbors gave us a BUNCH of bikes that their kids had outgrown. We got all sizes and kinds! In the bunch was a pink bike with flowers on it. Kimberly loved that bike and REALLY wanted to ride it. Unfortunately, there were no training wheels. She was told that if she learned to ride without training wheels, the bike was hers, but we weren't going to move the training wheels from her other bike. Needless to say, this was sufficient motivation for learning. She just decided she could do it and took off! How exhilarating! We are so proud of her!




Hopefully he'll be next:

Two Feet, Two Hands,Two Ears, Two Eyes, One Big Smile, Two Years!

Our Sweet Little Liberty turned two at the beginning of August.

Blowing out her candles.


Enjoying her cake and ice cream.




She enjoyed her day so much, she didn't make it to bed before conking out.


Some snuggle time with Dad before going to bed.

We were lucky enough to have our friend Jesse in Fairbanks for most of the summer. We really enjoyed seeing him on a regular basis and were happy to have him for our celebration of Liberty.



Liberty sent some time riding bikes on her birthday. Love the tongue!

Looking deep into the bag. What did she find? A puppy pillow-pet!


Grammy and Grandad sent this Woody. She loves it. We found her like this the day we received the package in the mail.


We sure feel lucky to have Liberty in our home. She is such a cute little thing. She definitely has a mind of her own and doesn't hesitate to let us know what she wants. It has been fun to be able to communicate with her more and more as she learns new words.

Mt. Prindle Revisited

The weekend we got home, Ryan decided to go back to Mt. Prindle, in Alaska's White Mountains, and summit. Luckily, our friend Gene was willing and able to accompany him. They seemed to have a good hike, although a malfunctioning backpacking stove and some blisters threatened to slow them down.

Enjoy a few of the pictures Ryan brought back:


Fireweed


Summit


They saw lots of wildlife, including quite a few Dall sheep. Neat landscape too.


Here's a video that he took with some dall sheep in it.

Lots of Lovely Lunts

On our drive from Utah to Arizona, we drove by the Grand Canyon and crossed the Navajo Bridge. We HAD to get out and walk across the mighty Colorado River. Amazing how far down it is.



A little preview of what the Grand Canyon is like. If you've never been there, this is definitely the small part. You should go!


It was good to get to Duncan and see everyone. Uncle Scott and Aunt Mindy are always fun. They are the game King and Queen. They are always so good to play games with the kids.


In the evenings it was good to get outside. During the day it was too darn HOT.


The lawn is doing great and everyone loved playing out there.


Riding Grandpa's ATV is always a bonus! Glade especially loves it!


We spent a few days at the Old Virden Church with huge trees, a great big room for playing in, and lots of other fun things. The kids loved being boosted up into the trees. Kimberly especially enjoyed staying up there.


We did lots of fun things. This was building towers with spaghetti and marshmallows.


Mason, Lauren, Karleigh, and Uncle JT with their marshmallow towers.


We had a treasure hunt and all the kids got punch balls at the end. Unfortunately, Liberty and Glade also ended up getting sick for a day or two.


Sack Races were fun. Kimberly and Ryan especially enjoyed this activity. This was followed by a 3-legged race, which Ryan and I did really well at, until the handkerchief connecting our legs tore.


We always had a pinata at my Grandpa and Grandma Lunt's house at Christmastime. Jessie found this monster in Mexico and the kids really enjoyed hitting it and loved the prize bags she put together.



We stayed so busy that any down time was gratefully received. Glade sat down to watch the ice cream freezer and unwillingly fell asleep.


Our family took a little side trip up to Catwalk in New Mexico. The drive was great and we were happy to have Emilee go with us. I have great memories of going to the Catwalk when I was younger. They have improved the trail since then.


Liberty and Mom on the last bridge. Bouncy!


We made it to the end!!! Everyone was happy!


We were especially happy to get in the water. It was COLD, but fun. We went back by a waterfall, but couldn't take the camera, since Ryan and I were chest deep to get back there and we had to carry most of the kids.


Emilee was a real trooper and good help. Love you Em!


Almost out! This is where they've added a handicapped trail. It goes 1/2 mile into the canyon.


We had a great time seeing family, playing, meeting JT, and just having a party! Thanks to Calvin and Terra for letting us use one of their vehicles so we wouldn't have to rent one for a whole week! Thanks for everything! We loved seeing all of you!

Awesomely Amazing Adventure with ALL Abbotts

On July 1st we left for our big adventure of the summer. We flew first to Bozeman where we spent a night before heading to the cabin in Island Park, ID. The cabin was built by Ryan Grandad. Grandad spent every summer there for a long time. Needless to say, it is a special place that is full of wonderful memories for Ryan and his family. We love it too. (We actually spent our honeymoon there in late December, can you say, SNOW!) Although short on sleeping quarters and space, we managed to all enjoy ourselves. We thought a lot of Grandad and Boppa while there and we loved spending the time with family.

We went to Yellowstone one day. We did a pretty good hike down a LOT of stairs to see a waterfall. Kim enjoyed climbing up by the path.

Glade enjoyed it too.

Unfortunately, we lost a car in our group and had to wait a bit. They never did find us though. At least we enjoyed being together! It was fun to see Reed and Katie's new little one, Grace.


Glade really enjoyed Addie. They played together a LOT on this trip.


We took family pictures at the cabin.


And pictures of everyone. Always tricky, but Katie did a great job! It was so fun to see everyone. All of the kids were so much bigger than the last time we got to spend time with them.


On the 4th of July, Aunt Natalie organized a parade that the kids really got into.

It rained in the evening and we were afraid the fireworks would get rained out. We haven't seen fireworks in a few years since it's not dark enough in the summer in Alaska. We didn't want to miss this chance! Ryan thought ahead enough to bring along a tarp, which came in handy as we hid from a little rainstorm using a tree to help support the tarp. It was an adventure!

The beautiful lake right before fireworks. They shot the fireworks off from the outcropping between the flag and the tall pole.


The fireworks were great! We were so close and the kids really enjoyed the experience. It was a little loud, but totally worth it!


Another fun thing we did is take out the boat, again Grandad's. I've been wanting to do this for a few years. The kids LOVED it!


When others were taking their turn, we swam in the lake. Uncle Rob even swam to the other side and back.
Ryan enjoying the water.


We went to Yellowstone a second time and Ryan and his brother Rob rode bicycles through the park.


We met them at spots and saw the geysers with them. We even saw a small grizzly bear running through the area. After a fun day at the park, we attended a play in West Yellowstone.


Ryan managed to go out fishing one day with his Dad. He was successful and ate this poor fish for lunch. Yum!


We did lots of ATV riding during the week. Everyone enjoyed it except for Liberty.


The girls picked lots of flower. Some even thought there would be none left by the end of the week. Smell it!


We had such a great time with the Abbott family, but it was time to travel down to see the Lunts for a week. Wish we could have stayed longer!

Burning Love

You may or may not know that we use a lot of wood to keep our house warm in the sub-zero temperatures of winter. We recently stockpiled a LOT of wood--5 cords to be precise. We borrowed a splitter and got all of it split. Then came the stacking. We had a lot of help from the kids. All went well until a wildly swinging shovel hit an unnamed girl on the hand. Don't worry though, the offense was paid back later when she inadvertently gave the guilty party a bloody nose when trying to get his foot, which was wedged tightly between two boards, out. All in all, a successful evening.

Kimberly was our photographer for the evening. I did, however, get the camera away long enough to snap one of her.



Have you ever wondered what 5 cords of split wood looks like? Now's your chance to find out.


Glade peeking up from behind a pile of unstacked wood.


Ryan raking up lots of birch bark that fell off when we were splitting. Birch bark is really good at burning. It makes great kindling.


It's already quite a bit drier than when we stacked it in late June. We're looking forward to being able to enjoy fires from this wood and some older cords that we had all winter long. Yeah for fires!