This is it!! No, not an earthquake…  The big 1-0-0 th post. I’m a little behind schedule in getting here, I thought I would coincide with our one year anniversary and make it a super big post of sorts. Well that didn’t turn out as planned, so here it is.

We have been super busy here of late. We moved to Soldotna to be closer to work and school and all the fun things we find ourselves doing all seem to be focused over here, so it made sense to move closer. It is nice to only have a few minutes drive to anywhere and anything, better than half an hour!

We’ve spent a fair amount of time indoors these past few weeks due to the poor air quality resulting from the Funny River Fire, but thankfully the fire is fully contained now and only smoldering in a few spots, being fully managed by fire crews. Amazing enough as it was, no homes or businesses were lost in this massive fire. Over 700 personnel were brought in to fight it and it got way too close for comfort for many families. Our friends who live up Funny River Road (the cabin we built last fall) were evacuated but thankfully the fire was stopped about a half mile from their home. Much too close! But all is well that ends well. We remain a grateful community to all of those firefighters, volunteers and incident team workers who were able to keep homes from harm and eventually with the help of the rain get this monster under control.

Time enough has passed, the fire teams are gone, new things are happening and for most of the community the fire is “old” news.

We celebrated the girls’ birthdays this month. I can’t believe that I am the Mother of an 11-year-old! Time does seem to fly. And a five-year old who seems to have discovered mischief in a new way. Little Bit has always been the easy-going, doesn’t get into much trouble, sweet little cutie pie that everyone loves. Here lately she has discovered that her cuteness only goes so far. 😉

Last weekend for Little Bit’s birthday we spent some time at the Kenai River Festival. We didn’t get to go to this last year as we really weren’t here long enough to know about it. We discovered that it was a great thing to go to! The kids had so much fun and could have easily spent all day there. As it was, three and a half hours was enough fun for Mama… The festival is full of learning opportunities and activity booths designed to educate young ones about our water ways and salmon, our livelihood around here in many ways. They learned the life cycle of salmon, why properly fitted and worn life vests are so important, how to properly poop in the woods (yes, there is a proper way to poop) and what an 8.0 earthquake is likely to feel like.  The festival was a lot of fun, but the best part about it came afterwards… and I’ll tell you about that in another post!

That pretty much sums up things for us now. Father’s Day found me emotional and sappy. Thoughts of Dad, this time last year I was spending time at his cabin. Also about Richie, my awesome step-dad. I sure do miss his fuzzy mustache kisses and “face spanks” as he calls them… 😉 He’s the sort of step-dad I always wanted growing up and never had. I guess I can truly say good things come to those who wait. I can’t wait until he brings himself here for a visit. He will love the great outdoors, fishing and community, he’ll fit in like a real Alaska man. Love you Richie!