The firmament showeth His handiwork

This was our view of McKinley almost the whole way to Wasilla Thursday afternoon. It was so beautiful. I wanted to stop and just soak it in, but I didn't have enough time.

Here are the high school kids playing soccer. What a view from the soccer fields!!! Friday was cold and windy and miserable, but Saturday was beautiful and the sun was warm!! The kids didn't win anything but they got awards for having the best sportsmanship. They always get complimented on their attitudes, it really makes me proud to go down and "help out".

They have their eyes open

Two weeks old today, the puppies finally have their eyes open. We did lose one puppy over the weekend while we were away at the soccer tournament with the kids. It was one of the females. I don't really know what happened to it but probably it got squished by Aurora. We have been surprised that it didn't happen earlier. It looks as if another one might die. It is small and lethargic and it doesn't really want to eat. Heidi is trying to feed it now but I'm telling her that we don't even want it to live if it is going to be sickly. Anyway, they sure are cute.

Hunt 2007

Well, Andrew, Drew, Max and Tom went hunting. Tom and Max left Saturday morning from Ft. Yukon, in the boat. Andrew and Drew flew in the Cub on Monday, found Max and Tom and flew them further into the hunting territory. I don't know what day Tom got a moose, but he and Andrew packed out meat until it was too late to do any more and then went in the next day about 8:30 in the morning. As they were approaching the site where the moose was they heard a rustling. Andrew told Tom to get his rifle ready and they kept looking to see what was coming at them. Then they saw it, a grizzly that had claimed Tom's moose for his own. He was coming to get whatever was getting too close to his meat. Andrew had left his rifle with Drew, it was then that he became aware that his .454 Casull had better do the trick. He fired three times. Immediately after the first shot the bear started turning around and around. The first two shots probably got him, Andrew thinks the third shot was a little high.


This is the monster. It squared 7'6" or 7'8", which is really big for an interior grizzly. We took it by Fish and Game this morning and had the head measured - it was 24 5/16" which would put it in the Boone and Crockett record book if Andrew wanted to go to the trouble to do it. He doesn't think he will but it is nice to know that it would get in.

Drew got a picture taken by it, although he wasn't there when it was shot. He thought it was pretty neat that his dad got such a big bear.

Here is the paw/claws of the bear. The .454 shell is about 2 inches long. Fish and Game said it was about a 15 yr old bear.

Here is a picture of Andrew and Drew in the plane. Andrew got in about 18 hours of flying while on this hunt. I'm really glad he's getting in time.... the more experience he gets, the less nervous I'll be when he takes me up. :)

I am planning to post new pictures down at the bottom of the page. If they aren't there when you check it, keep checking back because I have every intention of trying to get it all updated soon.

The puppies are a week old!!

Here are the puppies a week old. I only count ten but I think I can tell in the lower right corner that there are actually 3 puppies there, not just two. This one is the biggest... its a female and already has a home. She is just a little piggy, pushing a shoving all the others out of the way so she can get some milk. And she just panics when she loses suction. It is the cutest thing to see her trying to get back what she lost. :)

Here is the dear mommy, Aurora, with Katie. She is much better about letting us get to her puppies and she'll go outside for a break whenever we encourage her to. She is a good mom, and obviously has plenty of milk for these puppies. They all seem to be thriving!!!

Been tagged... now it's your turn

OK, I've been tagged so I'm going to write 7 things about myself:
1) I love Jesus
2) I love being married to Andrew Bryan, for almost 20 yrs. now
3) I have lived in Alaska for 12 1/2 years
4) I have 6 children including a surprise set of twin boys
5) The northern lights were beautiful last night - oops that wasn't about me.
6) I have recently lost 58 pounds and hope to lose more
7) I am soon to be volunteering at our Fairbanks Crisis Pregnancy Center, doing ultrasounds
8) (since #5 isn't about me) hmmmmm, I can't think of anything very interesting about myself.:)

Our very first ice maker!!! :)

We have a little joke at our house that our appliances have to be used for three years before they actually work the way they are supposed to work. Well, about 5 years ago we finally bought a refridgerator with an ice machine in it. I teased the girls that the ice maker wouldn't get hooked up for three years. Meanwhile, we moved and got a new refridgerator with an ice maker. All of these 5 years the ice maker has not been hooked up, either on the older new refridgerator or the newer one. But a couple of days ago the refridgerator repairman came and hooked our ice maker up. So now - ta da da da - we have a fully functional appliance!! Yeehaw!! And just so you know I'm not being too hard on my dear husband, he laughs about it too and I fully understand how busy he is and things like ice makers are way down the list of priorities!!!

Pile of Puppies

OK, so last night Katie and Heidi and I got Aurora to go outside for a little bit and we picked up the puppies to pet them and give them a little love, and surprise... there were 11 puppies. WOW!! There are 8 males and 3 females. Today we did the same thing and I had Heidi get a picture of me with the pile of puppies. I think Aurora is doing pretty good with them. She was very, very protective at first, even to the point of snapping at me and nipping Heidi but she is getting much better now and only growling every once in a while. But, if she doesn't know you she barks and gets up to come after you. Kinda scary!!

Update on puppies

I went down about an hour after my last post and Aurora had had two more puppies. So that is a total of 10. Now this morning, it still looks as if she has 10. She is very grumpy and growls at anyone who comes near so I am not going to disturb her to find out for sure. They all look pretty healthy but I don't know how she will feed them all. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Puppies

Well, we got home at about 4:30 this afternoon and found that our dog, Aurora, was having her puppies. She had had two at that point and they were just whining and squealing. They were so cute. Over the next four hours she had 6 more for a total of eight. We think she is done now, we hope so. I think we will try to sleep and hope that Aurora can sleep too. Here is a little picture of the eight of them. I don't think you can see them all in this picture. Aren't they darling? Anyone want one? Heehee. They are mutts so they will be given away free!!!

Katie, the seamstress

Well, most of you have seen the sewing expertise of my sister in law Heather and her girls on the mission field in Colombia, South America. So I thought you might enjoy seeing my girl's sewing ability. I must say, first of all, that I did not know she was fixing her PE skirt, she didn't ask for my opinion, she just got the needle and thread out herself and started sewing. I'm so proud, and both of her grandmothers are going to hope that no one knows she is related to them. They are both excellent seamstresses. Yes, the skirt is grey and the thread is pink. Her stitches are "X's", on the outside of the skirt. And again, I say, I'm so proud. :)

Andrew's Uncle Dan and Aunt Carole came to visit and bring one of our school teachers' belongings up here. They were with us for about a week. We had such a nice visit, but they never stay long enough. They left this past Wednesday and should be getting close to home by now.... well, maybe not really close but a WHOLE lot closer. :)

Trampoline Fun

I thought this was such a cute video clip that I should post it. These little twins are such fun, we don't know what we would do without them. I'm so glad God surprised us with these two.

Flying home

The twins were playing at the side of the runway last Friday, waiting for Daddy to fly in. Drew and Grant were there as well. We have a piece of property right there on the runway that we are building a hangar and apartment on.

There he is... our first glimpse of him coming in, checking out the runway to make sure there wasn't any moose in the way. :)

Wow... you can hardly see the plane. It looks like a little mosquito at the far end of the runway, over the trees.

OK... this one is a little better. He just getting ready to touch down.

On the ground... I love to watch planes land and take off. When one is bringing my "babe" home it just adds a little icing.

Beautiful Sky

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. This is the sky that greeted us one morning last week. It was so beautiful we had to take a picture. (or two)

Pictures of the twin's B-day party

Yes, these are a little late in coming. Tyler and Taylor's birthday was just a little under a month ago. But at the time, my camera was giving me problems and I couldn't upload any pictures off of it on to the computer. But now, for some unknown reason, they have uploaded and I decided, late or not, I will post them.

We had the party in Andrew's shop. We moved all the equipment and materials over to the sides of the shop and set up tables and chairs in the middle of the floor. Katie decorated, we got some Ratatouille decorations to use.

Here are some of the kids that were there with their chef's party hats on. They looked so cute but the hats were kind of big for them. This is the cutest little thing... her name is Riley, she is Max and Sherry's granddaughter. They are living in the other apartment this summer while her dad, Tom, is working for Andrew. Anyway, she is adorable.
We played musical chairs, limbo and water balloons. Drew's friends showed up earlier that day and then stayed. We had to ban them from playing after a while because they kept on winning. Poor little kids!! :(
The twin's wanted cupcakes so we just put 5 candles on one side of the plate and 5 candles on the other side of the plate. Then Tyler and Taylor sat opposite each other at the table so they could blow their candles out at the same time.

Here are a couple of pictures of them opening their gifts. They had so much fun!!

The most special thing was that Daddy got to be here.