Merry Christmas to all....we sure had a Merry one. This was our first Chrismas home in a while and it was great. The kids definately got spoiled. Reid got a couple remote control trucks and Amelia got a sewing machine, some art stuff and the one item that she has been asking for constantly and I kept telling her no....Santa ended up bringing anyway...which was a baby that pees and poops.....like I needed another one of thos in the house!!!!! We enjoyed a relaxing day with each other and appreciate how truely blessed we are in so many ways!

Myself and a friend Jayne were in charge of getting together the Christmas Carollers this year. Our cutoff was -10 but we have had some lovely wind and cold lately so when the morning came to make the call it was 0 and windy.....we decided to go for it....after all, it only happens once a year! When we were decorating our trailer it was pretty darn cold and windy but by 3:30 when 17 of us met up at the church, it was calm. We had a great time and hopefully spread lots of Christmas cheer.....it was cheery to all of us anyway! By the time we were all done it was about -12 degrees so the chili and hot cocoa was much appreciated!!!!!

We were happy to be home after two weeks in the south. We just really enjoy the slow paced, quiet solitude of Cantwell and Alaska in general. However, our house and life here is seldom quiet..... We harvested this perfect Christmas tree near our house and decorated it with special ornaments from when Lance and I were kids and a few that Amelia and Reid made.........

Uncle Sammy and Aunt Elaine were really excited to see the kids! and it went both ways! They live right across the field from mom and dad so we were able to spend more time with them. We wish we could have seen all the relatives more but two weeks isn't enough time!

WE all enjoyed the Christmas parade on main street in Simpsonville.....My big brother Kevin and his daughter Mallie on the left. Papa George and Amelia on the right....Papa's shoulders still probably don't feel the same!!!

South Carolina was full of adventure. The kids got joint private swimming lessons and came quite a ways in comfort level. They loved their teacher and both were excited about being in the water. They were able to use their new skills at the indoor water park. We also just booked a cabin at Chena Hotsprings in February for their birthdays so we will get more practice then........

A trip to the Greenville Zoo on a "cold" day proved to be well worth it! It was about 38 degrees and people thought the animals wouldn't be out because it was too cold. We were the only customers at the zoo while we were there. IT was the opposite because all the animals came out to see us because they were so lonely........It was great fun!

We visited our friend Molly near Jones Gap that also lives part of the year in our neighborhood here in Cantwell.....she lives the nice part of the year in Alaska.... Her and her partner Jeff have a great house with lots of character that they built in South Carolina. I can't wait to see what they build in Alaska!!!!

Uncle Sammy braved the cold weather and took Lance and Reid fishing. I giant catfish was caught and the size of it grows every time Reid tells the story. I have heard him say it was "the biggest fish in the world!".....and it tasted good too!

My parents took us to The Great Wolf Lodge which is an amazing indoor water park. The kids had a blast! This came after five days of private swim lessons and we could see the difference in confidence in the kids.......fun times.

Santa Claus and arcade and a water park....what could be better. The kids were wide-eyed in the arcade......lots of action!

My Uncle Herschel took us flying around Greenville in his airplane...The kids were happy to have all the leg room...unlike our Supercub!~ we could really use a plane like this!!!!!

Reid has a way of always finding cows to look at wherever we go on vacation.....These belong to my Uncle Sammy's friend. The Brahma bull with the hump on his back (that lance is attempting to feed) is just a pet.

good times spent with family. Amelia's cousins Mallie and Rory James that live in Colorado and my mom and dad in South Carolina.

Thanks "Babe" and "Rosa" you had a good life and you are providing us with lots of great meat for the winter. Brenda and Harold bought "Babe" and came and helped us butcher the pigs. Reid was a little overwhelmed but is okay with it all now. These were great pigs and the kids enjoyed having them around this summer. They managed to escape twice but were so tame we had no trouble getting them back in the pen. Rosa weighed 275 pounds and we were able to get 150 pounds of usable meat off the bone and in the freezer. We thought they were expensive pigs but it came out to be only $2.16/pound. The pork loin is huge and will provide us with 8 large meals alone! A lot of work but really important for us to show the kids about life and death and where their food comes from.

OOps...this copied twice....maybe becuase that's how much of a mess it was! One friday night about a week ago we had a crazy windstorm and because the ground wasn't frozen the trees took a hit. We lost 11 trees that night. the roots were actually lifting up and causing the ground to move. We lost the roof of our outhouse and one tree fell on the snowmachines...we still haven't uncovered them but we think it just crushed the windshield. Some of the trees Lance ended up cutting down during the storm so he could better control where they landed. One had hit the shop but amazingly didn't do any damage. It took a couple days to limb the trees and drag them to the wood pile but thanks to the bobcat it was much easier than it used to be.......now the track on the bobcat is broken and we are waiting for a replacement that will be here in two weeks. Lance just rented a backhoe so he could keep hauling gravel. It is amazing that it is Oct. 6th and the ground isn't frozen and we don't have any snow.

Lance had been wanting to take us to a cabin that Ray has on a lake about 30 mins flight time south of Cantwell to go bear hunting and enjoy the nice fall weather we had been having. Of course the night we finally got a chance to go....the fog rolled in heavy about an hour after we landed. If we had been an hour later we wouldn't have been able to get in there so we spent a lot of the two days in the the thick fog but it did lift and we had a great opportunity to watch Lance through the binoculars stalk a few black bears with no luck! You can see in the photo above how thick the fog got..we couldn't see much! UNO has become one of our favorite camping games! the kids are both very good at playing.....Lance made Jiffy pop for a snack....THanks to papa Ray for sharing his awesome, cozy cabin! It beat having to crawl into a tent in the cold, damp weather!

Reid helping Lance tie down the airplane . The cozy cabin on the lake and the kids and I looking for critters....we saw 10 black bears during our two days there at the cabin....

Our little hunting man. He makes his dad proud! This was a nice fall hike we did south of Cantwell. It's a spot we try to go to every year to hunt grouse but Piper wasn't much of a bird dog this year and the only bird we saw she flushed too far ahead of us. It was a nice hike though! Amelia was climbing a tree.....

I really can't think of another explanation for this beauty than our Heavenly Creator......who else would you give credit to? You can't really tell because of the glare in the photo of Reid and Lance having lunch on the tundra in Denali National Park...but we landed on a bench of tundra and in the background is Denali...the great mountain of Alaska.....Reid has no idea how lucky he is to be here at this spot....

Just a few photos of a recent flight where Lance took Reid and I around Denali on a wonderful flight-see. We have had spectacular Fall weather this year. I still can't believe this is our "back yard"...how lucky we are....The glaciers and mountains are stunning in the high country that we hardly ever get to see...

one of the last things pulled out of the garden this fall was a huge head of cauliflower! despite all the rain the garden did well this summer and I learn something new every year!

Getting these on the computer a little late but this was Amelia's first day of Kindergarten......She was so excited to ride the bus and we were a little late and missed the bus so I had to drive her over to the other side of town and she caught the bus with her friend Lilly......