Summertime Leftovers

Here's some sort of leftover pictures from the end of last summer. We did a family bike chart last summer like we've done for the past few years, but this year we kept it at 50 miles instead of the 80 or 100 that we usually do since we had so many projects going on at home. We usually try to plan our routes so that we can stop at playground.

Another place we often end up is at the Alaska Wildberry Products store because it's right along one of the main bike paths through town. They have benches outside for eating our lunch...

...and the big chocolatefall inside, and they usually have chocolates to sample.

The girls also spent quite a lot of time biking on their own in the driveway, and once they put their helmets on, they didn't tend to take them off even when they were done biking. They would be playing in the grass or drawing with chalk, or in this case making sandwiches, with their helmets still on.

We had a decent garden this year. The girls liked being able to pull a carrot out of the ground and eat it, and Caleb quickly learned to do it himself.

We were also lucky enough to have some friends invite us for some raspberry picking. (They also gave us some starts so we hope to have some of our own this year.)

Before too long it was time for school to start: Celia in 2nd grade and Sabrina in Preschool.

Shortly after school started, we were grocery shopping one Saturday and got word from a friend that the belugas were in the inlet, so we hurried and checked out and went straight there. There were quite  a few belugas, a few within 20 or 30 yards from shore. It's neat to see them, although they don't actually look like much. They don't have a dorsal fin like orcas, and they don't raise their tail above the water when they dive like humpbacks do, but when they're close enough you can make out their faces, which is pretty cool. We didn't want to risk missing them and stop at home and grab our good camera, so this is about the best photo we could come up with using our phones. The beluga is the white blob out in the water.

And even after the belugas had left, we still enjoyed a beautiful sunny day on the inlet.

The kids also helped out raking a bit.

And we all helped with a food drive one day. It was quite rainy that day.

One day Marel fell asleep on the couch, and awoke to find that "someone" had snapped her glasses in half. She got by with super glue and electrical tape until new ones came in.

For Marel's 30th birthday I made her a cake that turned out to be quite large. We started inviting friends over just to eat cake.

And when Caleb ate it, he somehow managed to get one little line of frosting on each eyebrow like clown makeup.