Titan puppy
Our adventures with Haley and Heidi are beginning.
On May 1st the Eagle River Nature Center was our first stop.
Eden loves her new puppies Athena and Titan.
Dinner around a campfire.
The next day we went to the Matanuska Glacier. We had a very adventurous drive. We forgot to give Connor anti nausea medicine and he got car sick. While we were pulled over we noticed a few random dead carcasses. Gross, but adventurous before a glacier.
Matanuska Glacier
Our plants continue to grow.
The next day was Eklutna Lake and Thunderbird Falls. Lots of hiking.
Connor's boots sunk into the mud and so we pulled him out and we somehow found a single sock and a walmart bag that could double as a sock and the journey continued.
Juvenile bald eagle.
After Eklutna Lake we went to Thunderbird Falls.
We were SO grateful Haley and Heidi came to visit and to bring sweet Athena all the way from Texas for us. We absolutely love these Pinkston girls and can't wait to see them again.
A family in the ward had sick dogs with parvo. It was quite the experience. Derek and I went to help get the poor puppies some nutrition and Derek started IV's on all of the dogs. It was such a sad state. So many sick puppies.
Eden and Elara made potted plants for Mother's Day for primary activities.
These puppies grow way way too fast. Every day they grow bigger.
Puppy play time.
Eden used her hair dye on Connor's hair and made it blue. The kids also went to a garage sale and found many new little treasures.
Snuggle puppies
Fishing at a lake. For Mother's Day I really really wanted to figure out how to go fishing somehow anyway we could. So I got some rods out of the storage from my Dad's old stuff and the old hand me down left overs in the garage. We had no idea what we were doing, but we got bobbers and hooks and some old power bait and went out.
Eden got a job taking care of a dog for a couple of days.
Throughout all of our adventures we still managed to keep homeschool going strong. The kids tried out the skittle experiment to have the colors change.
Homeschool mornings at the Arner house.
Puppies still snuggling, playing and growing every day.
The kids new favorite past time is dressing up the puppies.
Derek and I wanted to try and catch a king salmon. We had very little idea how to do this properly and having to time when the salmon actually arrive. We were a little too early, and the run of kings had not fully come in yet, and we have a lot to learn still. However, the area is completely beautiful and being in nature is so amazing here!
Some sort of weird salamander creature in the water.
After the long winter our deck took quite the beating being snow shoveled. The old green paint was seeping through. So, I went to the hardware store and went to work.
Before photos
After photos
After accomplishing the front deck I decided to work on the back deck. It looks so good, however that is not the half way photo. This was my after photo. I decided to use the left over stain in our garage and didn't realize it was two completely different stains until well into the project. I decided it was too much work to sand it down, buy more stain and start over, so it would have to last until after the next winter, and then I would do a proper good job on the deck.
For the next year the deck would just have to look a little wonky.
I found an old rug to help hide some of the discoloration, and it really seemed to help.
With the sun out almost all the time we just seem to work non stop, which is very exhausting.
Sometimes you just have to snag a sleeping person photo.
Our Ukrainian neighbor Oksana has two boy pugs. We had a pug play date and had all 6 in our front yard one afternoon.
Kael had another swim meet.
A mama moose gave birth in our backyard one Sunday afternoon. Derek and the kids were home and were able to watch the moose calf take it's first steps.
Within just a few short hours they were up and on their way.
It is must amazing seeing the leaves grow back after winter. Our first May in Alaska and seeing the growth and life is amazing. It is hard to believe it has almost been a full year since moving to Alaska. The leaf photo was taken on May 23rd. The snow had only been gone for about a month.
Eden got inventive and created an orange chocolate cake.
Joseph Arner drew the life cycle of salmon for homeschool.
Fishing at Mirror Lake
Some of our first actual lake fishing where we caught fish. It was very exciting.
We decided we needed to go camping, and without much knowledge we set up right in our own backyard. It was bright all night, but so much fun.
Our next adventure was Clunie Lake on the military base. On the drive we had a black bear running next to us.
