Swanson Snapshot: July 2013

Pete baptized Claire at church. What an awesome Sunday it was...9 people were baptized.

Swanson family in May. Soooo glad to have all the kids home. Plus an extra :) Our youth pastor's baby decided she wanted in the photo too.

Our new babies. We hatched these from our own eggs in the 1st grade classroom.

Karl fished (drift netting) on the 'flats' the first few weeks of his summer vacation. Pete and Lenore drove to Whittier to pick him up for a 3 week mini-summer. Karl and Pete then flew to Phoenix where Karl bought a brand new WRX. They had a fun/fast ride back to Alaska! Karl went down intending to buy his grandpa's old pick up, but it needed a little more work than anticipated. He will have to buy it later when he has some time to work on it.

The only way in and out of Whittier is through the train tunnel. It only goes once per hour so we didn't want to miss it.

Two weeks later the girls spent Father's Day at the beach in Homer. The water was so cold, it literally made your feet go numb!

Whittier, Alaska.

Kerby and boys joined us for our beach fun.

Mom and Claire had a Spit date and enjoyed shopping, walking around, having coffee and dinner out on the Homer Spit.

Karl celebrated his 21st birthday in Homer, Alaska. Our next door neighbors took Karl and Pete halibut fishing to celebrate. They came back with about 40 pounds of fish.

Early morning archery practice. Pete and Lenore are both certified instructors and teach archery at McNeil K-6 (but only to 4-6 graders.) All three of the kids could hit bull's eyes most of the time.

We finally put our new (to us) boat in the water. The first round was just at the dock since the steering wouldn't work. Alas, a new kicker, some W-D 40 and back in the water again.

The Homer Boat Dock.

Sheldon and Kathy Beachy invited us out for an evening across the bay at Halibut Cover. We had a great time BBQ ing and enjoying the view. We were also lucky enough to each catch a King Salmon! Yum!

Pete and Lenore took the girls on a weekend camping trip. First we hiked the 5 mile round trip to Russian River Falls. We got to watch the reds (salmon) leaping up the falls and enjoy a part of Alaska we had not yet seen.

After returning from our hike, we loaded up our canoes and paddled across Dolly Varden Lake. The mosquitoes were out in force. The only respite was on the water. Even Kate didn't mind the canoe ride to get out of the bugs. We had rented a wilderness cabin on the lake.

My good friend Paula joined us for the 4th of July parade and festivities. We had a church picnic, parade and then stayed the rest of the evening celebrating with our Small Group at the Briscos.

Pete finished the new chicken coop. Whew! It was several weeks to complete. It is divided with a swinging door so the baby chicks can 'get used to' the adult hens/rooster. So far, so good.

Kirsten and Liz messing around at church. They both go to sister Nazarene schools, both work at the same place and both wore turquoise pants to church!

We enjoyed a few more days camping at Hidden Lake with the Taylor family. We brought canoes, played games, had fires, rode scooters and went swimming. We even saw a mama black bear with 3 little baby cubs.

Pete takes a needed 'rest stop' before the final portage to the lake.

The view from our canoes from the middle of the lake. You can see the tiny dock on the far shore.

Next, we head to Idaho for the Stonoff family annual retreat and a little white water rafting on the Salmon river. We hope you are enjoying your summer and look forward to hearing about yours as well. 2nd half of Summer to come!