Step one: put the bird in the box.

Step two: Open the box!

Alright, I'll start from the beginning. Today, Lisa and a few of our friends went down to Eagle River Nature Center to watch an eagle be released. AWESOME! Apparently they do this every year but just haven't seen it advertised until this year. I was unfortunately working but Lisa called around and was able to interest the next door neighbors and our friend Kendra and her baby Malena to join her out there.

Too bad it was cloudy but ... sorry I know I keep mentioning this ... but our camera is awesome! Lisa took some phenomenal pictures today!! So happy with my wife's efforts today. Well done, Lisa!




The box.

Here comes the eagle!


Ladies posing in front of the eagle that was not being released. It was there for support I guess.



Kendra and Malena in front of the eagle. Lisa says Kendra was a real trooper. She's still getting over a cold but came out and roughed it. Way to go Kendra! Hope you feel better soon.

Love this!




The scene right after the release.






When we were looking at the pictures together after they got home, I made the comment "Wow! That is a big bird!". Alyssa laughs and says..."No Daddy. That isn't Big Bird." Classic.









Piling back into the Durango to head home. You know, it's not a mini-van but it sure is roomy!

Another First!

Today, I decided to not go fishing (2nd Wednesday in a row) but instead stay home with the family. We made the most of it. We had a slow morning because we knew we'd have to stay up through the nap to go see TOY STORY 3!! We've known for months that this was going to be there first movie theater experience. They completely ate up the first two movies when we got them on blu ray a couple months ago so we thought we might be at the perfect age to give it a go.

We were of course a little nervous that they wouldn't want to sit still or talk really loud...but all those fears were gone as soon as they saw the theater. Their eyes were WIDE open! They LOVED IT! Just sitting in the back row taking in the preview stuff, they were overwhelmed and it was great. As soon as the movie started, they were instantly drawn in and loved every second of it.



Quick video to show how excited Alyssa was. She was flat out giddy!

Alyssa ended up sitting in my lap for the last half and snuggling so much that I thought she was sleeping but evidently she was awake the whole time. Katy couldn't get comfortable between the seat that folded up on her or standing or sitting in Lisa's lap. But she was always quiet and always paying attention to what was going on on the big screen.

Scary parts weren't too scary. They told us all about it later tonight and weren't scared...they were concerned but not scared. And by the way...GREAT movie! I don't know where it ranks in the Pixar movies (I need to soak it in and maybe see it again) but it deserves a trip...especially if you have children. AMAZING!

Happy Solstice!

Not sure what the exact time of the solstice is but I think we're close. Here's the view out the front door at 12:10am. Nothing but downhill from here.

Fun with Friends

We are so blessed to have such great friends. I'm sad that so many of our closest friends have moved but so greatful that we have stayed as close as possible. Thank you Gmail, Skype, Facebook, and Call of Duty!

First funny story is called "fun with Ambien". Sam and I enjoy taking ambien after a night shift to help us get to sleep fast and stay asleep for as long as possible. Both of us have a tendancy to ignore the warnings and stay up and watch tv or surf the puter under the influence. This can lead to some entertaining series of events. The other day, Sam was chatting with me and it became very obvious he might be under the influence of ambien. I realized this early on and decided to mess with him and get him to talk as much as possible. Here are a few excerpts (and translation) from our conversation...

Sam: tomorrow dousnf be fun shtootn each to ehr
translation: tomorrow should be fun shooting each other (we were planning on playing Call of Duty the next night)
Andy: yes it dousnf
Sam: k...im i gh stage og non rememmering. I didnt write that befoer
translation: I'm at the stage of not remembering. I didn't write that before. ????
Andy: rememmering!! my new favorite word!!!

There was some more stuff but the language got kind of colorful, even with all the typos. The kicker is that of course he didn't "rememmer" any of the conversation the next day. Glad gmail saves this kind of stuff. That was excellent entertainment late the other night.

Next story: Lisa Kriederman (of Ben and Lisa who are now in Boulder) came back to Alaska the last couple of weeks to work a fire up north of here. She is an IMET (incident meteorologist) so she provides weather support for big fires. Because of her Alaska experience, she was a top pick to make the trip all the way back up here to work this fire. Currently, she is on a 2 day mandatory break after working 14 straight 16 hour days! So she's visiting us and enjoying some down time on a real bed after camping out for 14 days, catching up on some laundry, and enjoying some Moose's Tooth!! Great for us, because we get to see her and she gets to see the girls for the first time in over 2 years!

To further set up these pictures, we have 2 more great friends in Sacramento (my kids according to facebook!). Brooke and Tom put together a care package for Lisa K (with a few extras for the Browns) while she was resting in Anchorage. It was very creative and lots of fun. Here are a few pictures of Lisa and the girls and some of the "pirate booty".



Even pirates have to take a break and "make yellows on the big potty"

Thanks Brooke and Tom for the care package for Lisa. VERY creative and lots of fun!

Lisa K takes off this evening and then I'm heading south to do some fishing tomorrow on the Kenai. Not expecting much but should be fun anyway.

Long break over!

Ok, I took another long break after 6 weeks of posting straight. I think I did something similar last year. But we're back.

To catch you up, Lisa has been recovering slowly. Lisa's mom was here for a couple weeks but left a while ago. It was VERY fortunate that Eileen had planned her trip when she did. She was extremely helpful helping us get our house back in shape while Lisa put her feet up as much as possible. It was sad to see her go.

Lisa is getting more and more mobile every day. She started physical therapy this week and is making lots of progress. She is down to one crutch most of the time and can take a few ginger steps in the boot. We'll be back to normal summertime fun soon enough.

I have been doing a little fishing for king salmon downtown. The last 2 mornings, I tried my luck but no success like last year. I'm planning on going down to the Kenai early next week to catch some reds...we'll see how that goes.

Other big news is I took the plunge and got contacts. With fishing around the corner, I can't wear sunglasses like I want to. I NEED sunglasses! Also biking and working out...not fun to do while wearing glasses. So I'm currently wearing them for only the second time and not adjusting fast enough. I'm sure my eyes will adjust...but I'm not enjoying it so far.

I've been meaning to share the pictures from the rest of our trip down to Seward. I'm about to head to work so no time for that now, but I do have a video of the girls antics this evening. They were taking turns dancing/singing on "the big stage."