The first group of photos is at Bear Lake during my family's reunion.
My nephews, Addler holding Gavin's hand. So cute!!
Jayvin playing in the water...he stayed in the water ALL DAY! He also liked to eat the mud and drink the water...as you can tell! :)
Gavin just chillin' in the water. 
Maestin threw a bucket of water on Shayne...so Shayne threw him in the lake. :)
But, they made up :) Here they are just hangin' out in the water.
Of course Shayne couldn't stand seeing fish in the water w/o attempting to catch them on his fly rod...and he was successful...even if it was carp. :)
Dezi showing off her stylish boots. She thought they were the greatest things! We all just laughed at her...not like her legs don't already look short enough. :)
Dezi and I comparing baby bumps. She's at about 29 weeks here, and I'm at about 25 weeks. I refused to buy a maternity swim suit...where am I going to wear it in Alaska?! So...my belly is peaking out of my tankini that normally fits perfectly when there's not a little baby bump making it look too small. :)Ok...the next four pics are of Shayne babysitting...kind of. We went over to Maysi's when we got back from Bear Lake. Her little boys wanted to show Shayne the little reservoir/pond they have caught big trout in. I stayed in the house to talk to Maysi and hold my newest 10 day old nephew, Holdan. Shayne took Maestin and Addler (Ruxton was asleep) w/ him to fish. In order to entertain them, he gave them the camera, showed them how to take pictures, and told them to have fun. So, this was the result. Notice Shayne in the background...doing such a good job of watching the boys huh?! :) Good thing they are pretty independent and good little boys! :)
Addler's smiling face...Maestin is the photographer.
Maestin playing guitar w/ Shayne's fly rod case. Notice where Shayne's at. :)
Addler's funny face...again what a good uncle to watch those little boys so closely! ;)
Maestin's funny face...I love the little finger in the picture as well. :)Ok...the next four pics are of Shayne's family in Ririe. We went there after spending three days w/ my family.
Shayne's brother Dustin showing off the trout he caught...he however must think he caught a bass fish the way he's holding it! :)
Me w/ Shayne's mom Jonette and his "little" sister Tayler. We were on Tayler's girls' camp hike that was about 10 miles round trip in one day. 
Dustin again holding another trout...he obviously figured out he wasn't fishing for bass...he's holding this one much nicer. :) The evening was beautiful and perfect for fishing as you can tell from the lighting.
Shayne with either a cut throat trout, or brown trout..can't remember which. His dad is in front of him. They are on a boat floating the South Fork of the Snake River...in the dark! As you can tell...fishing is a family affair. This is what Shayne does when he goes home to visit, and it's what his family does when they come up here to visit.Ok...the next 18 pictures are of our Crescent Lake 4th of July trip. I accidentally uploaded them backwards...whoops! :)
This first pic is actually the last one taken. It's after 4 days of camping and a 6.5 mile hike back down to the trail head, which is this sign. Kaye, Jared and their little girl Malia were part of our group.
This is maybe half way back down the trail. Notice the backpack...and the belly bulging through my shirt...everyone thinks I look great...but that's not a fat roll people! :)
Tipz and Bo w/ their own packs. They not only carried their own food, they carried my snacks, first aid kit, and jacket. They did awesome with them, and I would recommend them to anyone who takes their dogs hiking. They were perfect! It was fun to be able to take the dogs and not worry about packing in their stuff.
Shayne, me, Kaye, Malia, Jared and our dogs taking one last picture of the cabin we stayed in for 3 nights. Not sure why I'm the only one w/ a backpack on at this point...mostly b/c I couldn't stand back up and pick it up off the ground...had to use the deck to put it on. :)
Kaye, Malia, Jared and Kona(their dog) hanging out by the fire on our last night at Crescent.
Me w/ Tipz and Bo hanging out by the fire...I ain't gonna lie...I was ready to go home...my back was killing me from sleeping on plywood in the cabin and sitting on hard benches for 3 nights/4 days. It was fun, and I'll do it again...just maybe not 6 months pregnant. :)
This is a very cool picture that Kaye took of Crescent lake w/ our camera. It was a beautiful day and it made for an incredible picture. It's a near perfect reflection. Nice job Kaye!!
Shayne and I in the row boat fishing for Grayling for dinner. The boat comes w/ the cabin and is a nice perk. I will have you know...I did catch dinner that night...not on a fly rod, but I did catch it! :)
Kaye & Malia hanging out on the bridge near the cabin.
Shayne fly fishing in Crescent Creek just below where it comes out of the lake. That Saturday was the best of the four days we were there...it was beautiful.
Me fishing out of the row boat...I'm slightly embarrassed...I'm using a spinning rod instead of a fly rod. I just didn't feel like I had enough balance and strength to be successful w/ a fly rod...however...I'm not that great w/ a spinning rod either! :)
Shayne looking mighty fine on the boat. He had rowed up almost clear across the lake to fish and just hang out. At this point he's just chillin' watching me make a fool out of myself w/ that spinning rod. Yes...that's snow still in the mountain right behind us...it's been a cold summer, but this day was perfect!
Bo & Tipz watching dinner flip flop on the ground. Shayne had caught it a minute earlier, and I was amused watching them.
Bo trying to figure out what Shayne's got in the water...it was our dinner for that night...and Grayling cooked over the fire w/ some butter and lemon pepper is pretty darn good!
Shayne took this picture of one of the MANY Grayling he caught...this one is still in the water, but he does have Shayne's fly in his mouth. Grayling are such a pretty fish...they can get turquoise blue and have a very cool dorsal fin. 
Corinne w/ her dad Haakon and her very first fish ever on a fly rod! The Johnson's hiked up w/ their three kids and hung out with us for about 3 days...we had so much fun w/ them. Corinne loves to fish so followed her dad when he, Shayne and Tyler went fishing on the creek. Needless to say she was pretty proud to come back into camp carrying her fish to eat for dinner.
One of the Grayling Shayne caught...cool dorsal fin huh? This one is purplish, but they get a cool blue color too.
Me taking a break on our way up to the cabin on the first day. I had pulled a muscle in my foot from the 10 mile hike 2 days before in Idaho, and so I was a little slow going. We stopped along side Crescent creek to take a break and eat a snack...Tipz thinks she's going to get part of my Clif Bar. :) I just thought the pic of the creek was pretty.Ok...the next few pics are of our canoe trip down the Swanson River. We went w/ Darcy & Aaron, and Becky & Miles. It took 2 days...and a lot of patience. :) We undertook this adventure about 4 days after we got back from Crescent Lake. Once again...I MIGHT do this trip again...but never at 6 1/2 months pregnant! It was 8 hours the first day (I was not speaking to Shayne, nor was I paddling, for the last 2.5 hours of it...let's just say that when neither of you have canoing experience, it's a very trying activity for your marriage!). Shayne and I also had an "incident" w/ a momma moose! Her calf was in the river as we passed...Shayne and I were last (b/c we couldn't paddle straight!), and as we passed by the calf, here came momma barreling down the bank towards us. I started yelling at her, but she was more concerned about getting her calf away from us. So, I don't THINK we were in any danger, but still...my heart was pounding and Becky asked if we needed to stop and change our pants afterwards! :) Anyway...back to the trip...We camped that night...yup, that means sleeping in a tent (have I mentioned I'm 6 1/2 months pregnant?). The next day I thought (I was told), was only going to be about 4 hours long...it wasn't... it was 5.5 hours long...and we didn't stop for lunch...not good for a pregnant lady who gets mean when she doesn't eat! :) Let's just say that mentally, emotionally, and physically I was done w/ canoing at about 4.5-5 hours. The last hour of the trip was not good...poor Shayne. Let's just say that by the time we got to the pull out, I had climbed OUT of the canoe and was walking down the river...I was done w/ the d@%$ boat and refused to get back in. Good thing the water was shallow and I had waders on! :) I felt better after I got home, took a shower, and ate something...but don't ask me right now if I would do it again...ask in about a year! :)
Me at the beginning of our canoe trip...notice I'm still paddling...this was before Shayne requested that I NOT paddle, b/c I wasn't helping him. :) I'm now convinced the canoe needed it's alignment checked! :)
Miles & Becky, and Aaron & Darcy navigating quite well on the very slow moving river...Actually Miles asked Becky to not paddle as well...but he also asked her to not move too! They nearly tipped over more than once! :)
Shayne cooking the carne asada while Aaron and Miles look on. They actually cooked all the meals...it was pretty nice! As you can tell...we weren't really "roughing" it too much...those canoes can hold quite a bit of stuff for camping. Too bad they couldn't carry a queen size bed!
Becky taking pics, while Darcy mans the fire.
Of course no trip is compete unless Shayne busts out the fly rod. He fished for about 2 hours, and caught a bunch of little 6 incher rainbow trout...but he doesn't care...he loves catching any fish!
Group pic of all of us...Shayne & me, Darcy & Aaron, Becky & Miles. Shayne had something on the lens, so we took another one...
Except Becky being the fruitcake she is decided to jump onto Miles and pose like this...needless to say we were all laughing hysterically! Done w/ the camping/canoing stuff. The last pics are of the last 2 weeks in July.
This is a pic of my very fist King Salmon. I caught in him a dip net while I was out w/ Darcy, Aaron and Becky dip netting from a boat. He's not very big by King standards, but he was big for me. He was bout 15-18 lbs (according to Shayne's measurements). I had caught him the night before, so Shayne took a pic of him for me before he filleted him out the next morning when he got home from work. What a good husband! It made for a very good BBQ that weekend! King Salmon is soooo good!!
Shayne, Jack Tuia (Jared's dad), and Kaye dip netting at the mouth of the Kenai River where it dumps into the Cook Inlet, or the Pacific Ocean. Our camera was about to die, so this in the only pic I got of them dip netting. It's actually a deceiving picture, b/c it looks like they are by themselves, but in reality there are hundreds of people in the river up and down of where they are at. They are standing in water up to their chests and are holding a 20 foot pole w/ a 5 foot net on the end, waiting for the Red Salmon who are swimming from the ocean up river to spawn, to swim by and into their nets. They netted about 40 Red Salmon that day, and about 12 more the day after. This is an activity/perk that Alaskans residence get to do. Shayne and I get 35 salmon/year from dip netting. Next year we can get 45 salmon b/c we will have another member in our house. However, it's been a slow run of salmon this year...so Shayne and I only got 26 Reds from dip netting...and I canned them all up. I pressure cooked up about 90 pints of salmon...can we say food storage?! It's actually really good, and we almost prefer it to thawing out frozen salmon and cooking it. Shayne has caught about as many Red Salmon on rod/reel as we did from dip netting, and we've vacuumed pack them and frozen those. This is one of those things that makes it good to be an Alaskan!
Can you see what I see? The first morning we went dip netting w/ the Tuia's this is what was in our backyard. Kaye had gotten up about 5:30 and was able to take these pictures. It's not unusual to see Moose and their babies, but can you count how many babies are in this picture? Yup...there are FOUR babies! This one momma moose had 2 sets of twins...she actually made the local paper. This is literally about 10-20 feet from our house...it is our backyard. They wandered from our backyard, into the front yard and then kept moseying up the road. 
Kaye was trying to get pics w/o scaring them so this one is a little fuzzy, but you can see the back end of the momma behind the white van, and then four little baby moose. One is in front of the other, but you can see all four of them...craziness!! Unfortunately, I didn't see them! I think I was still in the bathroom at this point, b/c I couldn't drag my but out of bed until about 5:45-6:00, and by that time they were already gone! It is pretty cool though...I've never heard of a moose having more than 3 babies, let alone 4!
This is my horse COJO...I'm posting a pic of him b/c we are selling him this weekend. I'm kinda sad, b/c he's finally starting to look like a really nice horse, instead of an awkward colt. He's also very sweet, but we are downsizing everything right now, b/c I'm not working this fall. So...paying for boarding and feed isn't in the budget. But...I've sold him to a very nice lady who'll do a great job with him, and that's all I can ask for. He looks kinda funny b/c we had to cut off his forelock in order to put stitches in the front of his head between his eyes (from the bear spooking incident over Memorial Day weekend)...so he looks like he's got a very bad hair cut! :) Anyway...just thought I would post the last pic I will have of my first horse in Alaska. We'll see if it's my last one.
Kaye convinced me to take this pic of Shayne w/ his latest Salmon creation. Shayne's actually very creative when he cooks, and especially likes to try new salmon dishes. He got this idea from one of his patients in the ER...go figure! Anyway...this was a fresh Red Salmon that he'd caught on rod/reel either that day or the day before. He filleted it butterfly style, opened it up and put seafood seasoning on the meat, then butter, then lemon wedges and then stove top stuffing, then folded the other half of the fish on top and wrapped it up in tin foil and baked it. It was DIVINE!! We think he needs to add more lemon next time, but it was SOOOO good!! Shayne cooks all the fish in our house...and I must say...he does a darn good job!! How lucky am I?!Ok...there's our July! It's only taken me about 3.5 hours to finish this post...it's almost 3 am...and I'm exhausted! Hope you enjoyed it, were somewhat entertained, and didn't fall asleep. I'll try and keep up to date from now on, b/c this was painful for me!! Can't imagine how it was for you! :)
