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
