True Alaska Fashion!

You'll notice, as in this picture, that the men in the family are sporting new brown mud boots. They're not just any mud boots... they're XtraTufs! (extra tuoughs) We quickly learned that they are the THING around here. Abe actually really had to get some for work. They so popular here that they're a fashion statement. I opted for some cheap black mud boots a lot like the ones the kids had before. Maybe before we leave I'll splurge and become part of the practical fad. Oh and of course camo...wouldn't want some wild thing to see you.

The KING!

Last night at 7:30 Nathan and Melissa called us and said they went to check out a local camp ground next to a fishing river that opened last weekend for king salmon. We've been fishing for them all week here in Homer so we decided to run up and join them for the night even though we had heard the beach has a reuptation for parties with memorial day weekend. Camping wasn't so great because it was never dark and the kids didn't go to sleep until midnight and I think the parties died down around 5 and I actually went to sleep.

BUT! It was all worth it because Malachi and I got our first king salmon. The way it all works here in Alaska is everyone under 16 gets a catch card but doesn't have to pay the money for a license. Abe and I on the other hand paid an outrageous amount to be able to catch these guys...I suppose if we get our fill of salmon it will be grocery money. Anyway, it's hard for Malachi to pay attention long enough to fish for long so he'll fish for a while then throw rocks and what not on the beach. The cast that caught the fish was a team effort and whoever "sets the hook" gets the catch on their card. Once you catch a fish you have to be done for the day so we wrote it on Mals card and I kept fishing....but we didn't catch any other fish. It was REALLY fun to catch!

Oh, and we ate some for dinner :)

Missing Cousins

We're having lots of fun and this will definatly be a summer we cherish, but we do miss Spokane a lot at times. Malachi really misses the cousins, he says, and yesterday he told me "it's taking a long time to get back to Spokane." We look at your picture often and definatly miss Papa's house. We'll all have to have a big birthday party for Malachi when we get home.

Love you all!

Jessica

Wooden Boat/Kyak Festival

Every year they have a wooden boat/kyak festival here in Homer. We went down there today and the boys got to make their own wooden boat. There were hammers, nails, drills, string... FUN STUFF and of course paint! :)

Malachi made a blue ferry boat, which he has been into ever since we rode the one in British Columbia. Abe tried to get Malachi to name his boat but he didn't want to. Anti-labels kinda kid. Josiah named his Kyak "o'tt" at least thats what we're interpreting.

PS. I made a friend at the Kyak festival. I'm pretty excited. She reminds me of Jean Sporin.

Spring in Homer

So it's spring here officially because the moose are having their babies. We stopped to grab a few pictures of this one Momma that had twins.

Last night Abe was bear hunting across the bay and the boys and I were at home eating dinner with a moose. She was a younger moose and she was eating the strawberries and raspberries that grow along our building. If I would of opened the window I could have touched her. It was pretty cool. The boys LOVE to see the moose.

First Fishes

So far Abe is the only successful fisher in the family. He caught this flounder off the end of the Spit. While Abe and I were fishing Malachi "caught" this purple starfish with some kind of wading method. I'm pretty sure that both of the boys have been in the water up past their boots at some point. Josiah even made it up to his waist at one point. I think they're convinced that they should just walk until they feel water...and then if it's not too cold... What the heck!

Abe did get a king salmon up as far as the beach and then it shook and broke his line. I think he almost jumped in after it. He was pretty bummed!

Cleaning Clams

So once you catch them you have to bring them home and clean them. Abe didn't really know how so we stopped and asked this old guy who was a "clam cleaner" along the road for a lesson. It only cost us $5 but I think I would have paid that just to meet this old timer. No kidding he was a real back woods Alaskan...with a trailer and a grunt to prove it. He had some boards leaned up on some trees with an old counter top and running water so he was definatly "advanced" for his parts.

Malachi actually got really good at picking out the sand. He was a good helper!