Ho, hum.

Leigh says that I should post something... I don't have any good current pictures right now. I tried to take one of Abigails missing teeth but she wasn't being cooperative. Oh, well.

Today we are going to drive by some properties that were in the newspaper. Maybe we will see something we like. Mostly what catches our eyes is the size and the area, hopefully the houses on the land are adequate. We shall see.

Again its kind of a ho, hum day so far.

Last night we went to dinner at Benny's Grill in North Pole. It was pretty good but the atmosphere was not quite right, more of a diner than an upscale steak joint. They tried but missed the mark. The desserts were awesome and the wine was good if a bit warm. Also the steaks were cooked exactly like we ordered them.

Well that's all for now.

Kyle

Golden Days

Today was the street fair downtown for golden days...Abbie loved the sled dog puppies. Even Liam couldn't resist a little pet.

Liam trying out the racing sled!

Val's birthday cake

This year with raspberry filling. Home-made seedless jam with berries picked in the backyard.

Fresh fish

I have only cooked our fresh stock of halibut one time, but it was good! The kids were taken by Grammie Lorna to a BBQ at a friends house so Kyle and I were left on our own for dinner. Yay for grown-up food without the need to make something else my picky children will eat! I made pan seared halibut with pico de gallo, can you tell Kyle liked it?

Big kids

The kiddos and I went to a wedding yesterday. The reception was at the Princess hotel, as we were parking some tourists were getting their picture taken with this moose sculpture. The kids thought it was too funny the were the same size as a moose with a big rack!! I hope the tourists don't think this thing is life size.

Fishes!!

Kyle and Liam got home early this morning and brought us tons of halibut! They were all chunked up in bags but needed to be rinsed and wrapped for the freezer. After they were all processed we ended up with 38 pounds of fish! Yum!

Outdoors girl

Abbie was finally convinced to have some outside girl time so we (along with Auntie Zara) went to scout for blueberries. We got out of town a little late, but still had a nice drive and picnic. The blueberries are ripe in one spot we looked, unfortunately we aren't able to pick today because the boys got home with bunches of fish!!! Also when Abbie tried to show her Dad the super loose tooth she had, this happened:

Girl time

Had to give you one shot in progress, she was so excited!
Kyle and Liam left Sunday night to go fishing in Valdez, so Abbie and I have been having a little girl time. She has had big plans for this time. They include lunch and dinner at a restaurant, trips to the movies, crab dinner, tea parties, shoe shopping, and a trip to the salon to get pink hair. That was our mission today. You will be glad to see I didn't let her do the all over pink (like mine) which made her a little upset, but she really likes it and I think it is pretty tasteful. Abbie also wanted it shorter, we cut it in a wedge towards the back so it wasn't too much shorter in the front, but still off her neck. She is very happy with it, whenever she catches sight of herself in a mirror, she has to stop and flip her hair around! Many thanks to awesome Auntie Cayla!!

Pie

I tried again today to make pie crust. This time, success!! Pastry is one thing I have always failed at. It takes a much lighter touch than bread dough! Lorna was kind enough to pass along her recipe for pastry. (Hers always turns out nicely so I knew I had a tried and trusted method.) It was not too sticky to roll out, even though today was warm again. The crust baked up just right, flaky and sweet. Delicious!!

Bonus points if you can tell what kind of filling I made...my favorite!

Wind

We have been having some wild weather! Very smoky and HOT all this past week. We broke the recorded high temperature! Last night it thunder-stormed and the wind started blowing...no more rain today, but still lots of wind. As you can see it has been gusting pretty strong. This is what I found when we got home from town...

Sure glad I wasn't parked in my usual spot for that!!

Healthy breakfast?

Well, it does have fruit in it!

Chick

Had to check on the baby robin today....I think we interrupted feeding time. The mama robin kept trying to fly at us with a bug!

Bread

Yesterday we tried baking bread in the big oven again. We mostly do pizza or flat breads. Something you can cook quickly and see through the open door. Kyle has been wanting to perfect baking loaves, so we made it our project for the day. After firing one load of wood, we left the door off till the temp came down to about 500. We put the door on and let the temp equalize for about 20 minutes, then sprayed down the inside with water (good for the breads oven-spring) In went the bread and we let it bake closed for about 10 minutes, then sprayed again. The bread baked for about another 25 minutes. Then we pulled out pretty golden brown loaves! The oven was hot enough to bake another time, but I was out of dough. The loaves got baked through and the crust was soooooo good! The even heat from the oven almost made them toasted on the outside. We will definitely be doing this again, it was an excellent way to have fresh bread in the heat of summer!