More friends and family in MN

Bell with uncle Jonny.

Bell and Aunt Kristin.

Bell with cousins Mikkena and Mikale.

Bell with her new friend Zuri in Afton State Park.

Shannel, Zuri, and I in Afton State Park. My first time seeing Shannel in 13-14 years!

It was an awesome reunion.

More Minnesota shots

Uncle Jeffy giving Bell a little boat time. She had to stay on land to keep grandmas and grandpas from worrying.

May trip to Minnesota

Scott, Isabel, and I decided to fly to MN for spring this year. We were able to take advantage of walleye fishing, Mother's Day, and spring migration! It was a fantastic trip overall.


We spent a lot of time at Jon and Christa's house and Bell got to enjoy playing in the grass and watching birds.

We headed north into Wisconsin to visit Grandma Karen and to check out our land. I survived my first night away from Isabel.

Grandma Karen got to witness Bell's voraceous little appetite first hand.

Bell's first experience on a swing. If she has mama's motion sickness tendencies, she will not make a habit of this.

Bell enjoyed her mini vacation by the lake. She witnessed an all out brawl between a territorial psychopath Canada goose and a pair of unsuspecting geese. She saw a nesting pair of Common Loons, and heard them sing.

Spring has sprung!

We are flying out to MN tomorrow for a few weeks so our blog posts will slow down until we get back. Thankfully it's warming up both here and there, so our next shots can be outdoor ones!. During the spring, the park road extends its "open to the driving public" distance to Teklanika Rest Stop at mile 29 as opposed to the Savage River at mile 15. We took advantage the other night and went for a walk with Isabel. We left the camera behind, but it may have helped us pay better attention. While on foot, we ended up spotting a wolf with a snowshoe hare in its mouth and a lynx crossed the road in front of us just before returning to the truck. We also saw a moose cow and calf walking into our yard when we got home. I'm sure the critters are as excited for winter's end as we are.


Isabel loves all dogs and thankfully our dogs love her too.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day and we are leaving our vehicles parked today and enjoying a little family time, working on our house plans, reading about installing a septic system, bringing electricity from the road to our work site etc.

While working on laundry I couldn't help but wonder "how cute would Isabel look in the basket?" Of course she was adorable.

Yesterday the three of us ventured out to do the Rock Creek Trail loop which is a 2 hour hike across the road from our house. The deep snow coupled with our late winter lethargy resulted in a 3 hour hike! Thankfully we brought a bottle for Isabel.Isabel made it known she was pumped for a hike off the road for a change.

This was our first opportunity to try out the fleece outerwear uncle Jeffy picked out for Bell.

I'm a sucker for emerging from the bath towel swaddled babies, need I say more?

I have been concerned about Isabel's apparent lack of interest in being read to. It turns out she just wants to do the reading herself!

Jaime comes over to visit Isabel on her lunch breaks whenever she can, and Isabel loves it.

Last week we spent most of the week in the Millenium Hotel in Anchorage. It was pretty nice. I got my fill of Law and Order and restaurant meals.

Happy Belated Easter!

Isabel opens up her Easter package from Grandma Priscilla.

Easter is a rare opportunity for Alaskan girls to don dresses.

Easter Preparations

Easter is almost here and spring is in the air. We have traded in the Chariot skis for tires and have put on hiking boots. Winter has been long and we are looking forward to summer; although there is still a lot of snow on the ground. We are getting over 12 hours of sunlight now.

We tried Bell's backpack out for the first time on a small hike with Karen and Jake. Bell insisted that we play it safe, so Scott gave her a short briefing on our route complete with contingency plans in case of an emergency.

All the dogs came along for the hike to provide protection from hungry spring bears.

After the hike we colored Easter eggs with Karen & Jake, and Jessica and Kate. Jake really got into the project, and the project got all over Jake; I don't know what was more colorful Jake's hands or the eggs.

Jake gave Bell several goodbye kisses; he 's a good boy.