Cabin Fever

Even with the beauty all around us, we still spent a fair amount of time in the cabin. The weather, bears, and mosquitos kept us in-doors quite a bit. But we still had plenty to do. Between reading (I'm amazed at how many books the boys have read), watching movies, playing games, indoor basketball, making things, loving Kylie, and enjoying the beautiful views out the window, being inside wasn't too bad (well, most of the time)!

A friendly game of "stink boggle" (don't ask!)

Making peanut-butter dough creations

Roasting marsh-mellows over the stove

Not sure what Caleb is doing--creating his own long hair, I think.

Katelyn cleaning the kitchen

Holding my baby girl

Being lazy on the couch (we did a lot of that).

A yummy package from Grandma. Lots of good stuff!

A fishing boat out in the cove

A shot from the deck

Katelyn enjoying the view out her bedroom

A pancake re-heat in the microwave gone wrong! Pushed the easy to use "1 minute" button, but forgot to take it out after the only needed 15 seconds. Flames and lots of smoke! Oops.

The boys playing basketball on their little nerf hoop

Fishing at the Docks

Our first adventure in fishing started at the boat docks in town. We would eventually branch out to the rivers, oceans, and lakes, but it all started at the docks. It was interesting to fish at the docks because of the variety of strange and unusual fish that we caught. None of them were very big, but they were all a little strange (at least compared to what we were used to catching). Once while I was working Kristen took the kids to fish at the dock. Caleb caught some long, eel-looking type thing, and nobody dared to touch it to get it off the hook. They finally had to ask some man that was cleaning his fish at the cleaning station to help them. Apart from that incidence, they all did pretty good at baiting their own hooks, and taking off the fish that they caught.

We caught lots of flounder fish

Patiently waiting!

Here's the long, strange fish that Caleb caught

The rewards of patience

Kaden caught a fish and hooked it in the eye. When he tried to pull the hook out, the eye came out with it. Yes, this is the fish's eye on his hook. Gross!

Mom and baby hanging around with us

Manicures & Pedicures

What do girls do when they are sitting around with nothing to do? Well, they do their nails, of course! So Mom & Katelyn decided to give themselves a manicure and pedicure. But they didn't want anyone to feel left out, so they decided to let Kylie and the boys join in on their little party. Fortunately, Dad was working when this took place, or he probably would have been forced to do it as well!

Kylie's first pedicure and manicure

What a nice big brother Caleb is, to let his sister paint his toes.

I'm not sure whose feet these are--maybe someone who's trying to stay anonymous!

Town Salmon Bake

One night the town put on its annual "salmon bake" dinner at the county fairgrounds. The entire town was invited, and all the local fisherman donated some of their catch from the week's fishing. Donations were suggested (which went to benefit the town), and a yummy dinner was enjoyed. A live band played great music, and the rest of us sat around and enjoyed a fun night hangin' out with the community.

Waiting in the long line to get our food

The band playing through the smoke of the bbq

Bike Race

The local Elks Lodge organization held their annual "Say No to Drugs" bike race. The kids all wanted to participate, so after many phone calls, and driving all around town, we finally rounded up enough bikes for everyone (except for Kristen and Kylie, they rode in the "support" truck).
The course was a 6 mile ride from the ferry terminal, along the inlet, up to lake Chilkoot. Everyone finished the race, even Katelyn. Those little legs of hers had to peddle really hard on that small bike, but she was determined. And although her and I were the last ones who rode across the finish line--we still did it. Everyone was there at the end cheering her on. Her face just beamed!
The race was followed by a yummy barbecue at the lake campground, and then they had a drawing. I guess it was our lucky day, because we walked away with an ipod and a Nintendo DSi. Not bad!

And the winner is.....?

The Crab Shack

For one night, our cabin became the crab shack.
Earlier in the day we had been at the docks and heard people talking about "the crab guy". He fishes for crab during the day, and then sells them out of his boat--$5.00 for an entire dungenes crab. Kristen really wanted some, so we bought two. You should have seen the look of horror on the kids' faces as they watched the man kill the crab, making it ready for cooking. It was pretty rough and cruel. I think it was traumatic for them.
So we went home and cooked it up. The kids tried it, but I'm not sure they loved it. I'm not a huge crab fan, but thought it was pretty good. Kristen was in heaven!
Three days later a man in Haines died from crab poisoning. GULP! Fortunately, we were all OK.



















Move over Freddy Krueger

Wild Life Preserve

Just outside of town is a wild life preserve. The owners not only take care of the animals, but they train them to be in movies as well. It's usually pretty expensive to go there, but one day they opened it up as a fundraiser for the Allgood family, with all proceeds going to them. So Kristen took the kids, and they spent the day playing with the animals. Here is some of the wildlife they got to see...