Merry
Christmas
from our house to yours!
updated: December 2007
I think ours resembles a toothless smile!
This year we took up camping!
Sometimes we chased salmon, other times we simply went sight seeing.
Right: Nate climbing to the bunks above the driver's seat.
While on this boat we spotted lots of sea life including killer whales.
Left to right: Ben, Trent, Stephen, Jonathan and Nate in the stroller
Ben hooked a King Salmon here. Despite not landing it, he and the rest of us (including the men on the other bank) had a very exciting time watching him try to reel it in. I became so excited (just imagine a lunatic mom jumping up and down) during the event that I forgot to take a picture.
Ben, Jonathan, and Stephen next to some Halibut
By the way, all those bumps in the river are salmon! Literally, you could walk across the river on salmon backs and never get your feet wet! (well, almost)
This is one of those things you simply cannot appreciate until you have seen it! For at least a week Trent and every other Alaskan I knew was watching the numbers to determine when the Salmon would enter the river. On a Friday morning in July Trent called and said, we must leave tonight. Get the camper ready! We drove 5 hours, arriving at fairly empty parking lot around 11pm. Literally, a parking lot.... By the time I transformed the camper from a vehicle to a bedroom, the parking lot was filled with campers! The next morning we drove our four wheelers to the mouth of the river...I can't even begin to tell you how many people - vehicles - tents - were there. It had to be as busy as Disney Land, just without order (or traffic lights!). We found a place to park, I set up a play pen for Nate, and then drew a circle in the sand and told the boys to stay in the circle! Trent took his net, joined the line of individuals in the water...and started netting the salmon. The older three boys took turns beating the salmon on the head, and then adding it to our pile of fish.
When we first moved to Alaska, I had heard of "Salmon Fever." I thought it was just an expression. However, while dip netting, Trent caught it, and the boys and I discovered "salmon fever" was indeed a very real disease. Trent went, well, goofy, for lack of a better term. He couldn't get in the water fast enough...he had not time for people who were too short or went too deep...and he didn't have time for activities like posing for pictures! For the 2 hours or so the salmon were present, all Trent had on his mind was catching the next one! He would drop a fish on shore, order a boy to club it, and off he was to get in line. If one of us tried to talk to him he would say, "I got to get back in line!" as if his life depended on it. But, he wasn't the only one like this...all 1789 people (or how many ever there were) surrounding us acted just like him. It was unreal...or perhaps surreal.
All those white dots on the far bank are people, cars, campers, tents, and nets!
Trent is the guy on the right.
On the left is our pile of salmon. On the right is Nate in the playpen.
My parents visited 2 weeks this summer. The 8 of us piled in the camper and drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks on the Parks Highway and then back to Anchorage on the Richardson Highway.
Our home is located on a once acre lot, filled with 150 or more Birch trees. At the back of our lot are railroad tracks for the Alaska Railway. This year, for combination birthday and Mother's day I requested a fence. just to deter the children from playing too close to the railroad tracks. Before Trent could put up the fence posts, he felt he needed to flatten the land and drop a few trees. What began for Trent as a simple clearing for a fence line turned into dropping over 80 Birch trees, Rota tilling the land, moving a HUGE rock, putting in a fence, and (come this spring) planting grass seed. Thanks to all Trent's work, what used to appear to be a small lot has turned into a beautiful backyard! This took numerous hours and back breaking work (not to mention damage to a friends Rota tiller, requiring us to special order parts from Italy...thanks Dad!) Through it all, I now know without a doubt why God in His sovereignty did not have me live during pioneer days! I wouldn't have made it.
My Dad and the boys with a BIG rock found in the backyard.
Not only has Trent become a fisherman...but also a hunter.
A little bit of trivia for you. Chicken, AK is so named because of the large Ptarmigan (p is silent) population present there. Apparently the people wanted to call the town Ptramigan, but since they couldn't spell the word, they just wrote "chicken."
pics taken Winter 2007
On the right: A sleigh ride with our friends the Bufords, this was a safer way to ride through the snow.
Click here to see pictures of Benjamin with his bear.
Click here to see pictures of Stephen with his lion.
Click here to see pictures of Jonathan with his rabbit.
Click here to see pictures of Nathan with his moose.
Click here to see pictures of all our sons as they grow.
E-mail us at thomas95@mtaonline.net
