My friend Dan who I originally came to Alaska with over 14 years ago, took us flying last night all the way around "The Mountain".   He flies twin engine Navajo's with the best air tour company in the area.  Reid looking out at Denali and the surrounding glaciers.  These kids have no idea how lucky they are to have such amazing experiences that people never get in their whole life time. 

 All those dots are tents and people at one of the camps on the mountain.  It takes people an average of 3 weeks to climb Denali.  Right now there is a 100th year expedition going on.  The descendents of the original climbers of Denali are trying to summit the mountain using the route that the original climbers used.  We actually got to see those climbers last night! 

This is Dan being goofy with the kids! 

 We have participated in the local "Trahin' Fashion" show the past few years.  The idea is to make an outfit out of recycled trash.  This year I made Amelia's dress out of recycled topo maps of the local area.  Someone had given us LOTS of maps when they moved and this proved to be something good to do with them.  Reid's outfit (he is a hunter by the way! ) is made from recycled calendar pages with wildlife photos.  His hunting rifle is made from papertowel and toilet paper rolls.  They both won a trophe and a $25 gift certificate to local businesses. 

Amelia and Ayla adore their teacher, Mrs. Martin.  We had her and her husband over for dinner after school was out. 

 I had to throw in at least one photo of us working...I like to try to block those times out of my memory.  Lance always says I don't like to work...all I want to do is play...  OK...I"ll admit to that!  This is us washing the cement floor of the shop the night before we moved in....our new home.

This is our friend Quentin.  He was basing his helicopter out of our hangar for a while back in the Spring doing some research work here locally.  He did us a huge favor by swinging a big fuel tank up a stand and into place for us.  (I only got video of that...no photo but it was impressive)  He let the kids sit in the helo while it was running and they were excited about that. 

I took the kids skiing a few times this winter.  They are able to go so much further on our adventures without complaining too much!  This is a truck parked in a friend's yard....glad all that snow finally melted!!! 

I took the kids on their first backpacking adventure.  It was windy and cold the first night but cleared off to be a great time!!  Reid carried his sleeping bag and water purifier.  amelia carrried all of our food!  I carried the rest and that was just about right....I was actually having to catch up to them. 

 Amelia taking a break from hiking and reading a book.  Reid looking at Caribou
 Amelia posing with Denali in the background and with her shed antler finds!!!

 The kids really enjoy purifying water for us to drink.  There was alot of little streams from all the melting snow.

 It is so cool to see how high the kids hiked!  Look at Piper's ear blowing in the wind...it was really windy and cold up there. 

Cantwell is in the background.  What a great place to live!  It can be difficult but the rewards are great. 

I love cooking with the camp stove...things seem to taste better in the mountains when you're camping!!  pasta and hotdogs....yum!!!

 The cabin we went to is right off the Denali Highway which is well travelled this time of year by snowmachines and dog mushers.  This was our water hole in the creek.... 

The cabin the kids and I stayed in was tiny but cozy....you could see daylight through the logs and the wood stove was tiny so I was up every couple hours adding wood to the fire but we were very thankful to have a cabin and wood.  It dipped to -25 the second night we were there!!!  That is a caribou skin on the wall....the old timers used to sleep on them to stay warm but this one was too stiff so we hung it on the wall. 

Loading up for a great adventure!  Dogs...snowmachines....kids....bikes....skiis....sleds and snowboards.  It takes a lot of stuff for a winter trip.  Cynthia and I pulled sled loads of stuff out to the camp.