Old MacDonald

Post-bath selfie

Outdoor birthday party

cake on face

Covering Daddy with lots and lots of blankets

They're watching a youtube video of a hippopotamus pooping

whipped cream on crepes for breakfast

She likes this perch

mouse ears, milk mustache

Dogsitting for a dog that also lives with a toddler and knows where to sit during mealtimes

ski boots (also using the potty now)

Thanksgiving

sparkling apple juice

 
She didn't want the face paints for Halloween, but she wanted them after Thanksgiving

Turnagain Pass, which has snow, unlike Anchorage

Busy morning

Sledding at her school before the first snow melted away (leaving behind ice)

Pumpkin carving party

Play date with Owen and Silas

Two Tasmanian devils for Halloween embarking on trick-or-treating

Halloween play-doh

Playing in the yard, good-bye snow

It's been a long time since I've posted! We had a few late summer/early fall trips, mostly centered around hunting (no caribou or moose).

Getting ready

Becca joined us for our first big hunting trip. We started by visiting her great aunt and uncle ("Grammy" and "Grumpy") in Homer for a few days, then heading up to a lake off the Glenn Highway. Grammy and Grumpy have an amazing chicken coop and garden.

Homer

Heading up the Glenn Highway

Break at the Matanuska Glacier

Becca called this rig ahead of us the "Turducken of trucks," shortened thereafter to "Truckducken" (It's a truck pulling a trailer with some sort of roving vehicle on it with an ATV inside it). Lots of folks on the highway heading up for caribou and moose hunting.

The lake trip (photos not really in order)

Ava turned 5 on the last day of our trip, so we had chocolate cupcakes

We picked a lot of blueberries and lingonberries on the trip, so Ava got a birthday blueberry cobbler when we got back home from the trip.

We car-camped overnight on a whirlwind weekend Denali Highway trip the following weekend

The following weekend we celebrated Ava's birthday with her friends

Rosey made the most amazing cake

Daddy's home-smoked red salmon, beautiful salmon platter from Ima and GrandTod

Getting back to normal: zoo trips, school, birthday parties

Beginning of fall

End of the garden. This doesn't look particularly appetizing in this picture, but the green tomato chutney I made with our crop of 99% green tomatoes tasted good:

Volunteer sunflowers:

Moose discovering the end of the unfenced greens, under their frost protection blanket

Fires in the fireplace. Ava made a multi-storied, princess-in-the-pea-style cozy augmentation to Sprig's dog bed, of which he approved

Ava helped Daddy make a new planter box

Mommy and Daddy went on a hunting trip by themselves, while Grandma and Grandpa watched Ava and Rosemary at home. We didn't get anything, but it was fun and educational.

Daddy and Sprig successfully hunted ducks and snipe. The girls helped pluck and clean them.

Walk with some of Ava's classmates and their families

First snow, and horseback riding lesson in the snow.

Mittens, of course, come off