Crew in Training

We made it to Petersburg!

Dinner at Papa Bears.

Beach combing while Dad works.

Of course he would find this.

 

We picked up Seth for lunch then went for a hike.

Skunk cabbage was the best part of the hike for these two.

 

Ryker decided he was going to run ahead of us and hide, camouflaged.  We passed him without seeing him a couple times.

 

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Where's Waldo now?

 

 

 

 

He's right in the middle of this shot.

 

This is the close up.

Ryker picked that flower for Kya.  He was pretty pleased with himself.

We checked out another hiking spot, but this one was out in the sun.  Ryker prefers the shade.  Haha.

Bed time. 

These two are not going to fit in the same bunk for much longer.

I found this in Ryker's notebook when we were looking for a piece of paper to play hangman on.  He talked about Cosmos a lot on the trip since we'd just lost him about a week before we left.  Wilson is the Perry's dog who lives across the street.

 

Isaiah, Stevie, and Franz

 

Creative ways of entertaining ourselves.

Not enjoying her safety drills.  The hood was pulling her hair.

Rare deck turtle

 

Lake at the top of Hidden Falls at Baranof Hot springs.

Kara once swam to the log behind Kya on a bet.  This water is ice cold.  The kids only made it wading to the rocks.  They said Kara is crazy!

 

I'm not sure if it was the hike to the top or the picturesque setting that had these to flexing.  I guess that clean Alaskan air makes you feel like you can conquer the world.

River heading out of the lake and into the falls.

Hide and seek on the way back down.

You can't see it in this picture but the Alert was anchored up next to us so we stopped on the way in to see Jimmy!  He thought all four of us on a jet ski was pretty entertaining.

Bath houses

We anchored on the set the next day and Seth dropped us off at the beach while he and the crew worked on the net.

 

What luck!  A surf board!

A teeter totter!

 

A gaff hook!  Kya found this little treasure just in time to give it to Seth the next day for Father's day.

 

Snack time at our private waterfront playground!

Just in case Seth forgot about us, we started building our shelter for the night.

Kya used her gaff to be sure that anyone else that came to this beach knew that she was here first.

You can't see the fish very well, but this eagle just swooped down and picked a salmon out of the water.  Ryker and Kya were literally cheering, they thought it was so cool.

We've radioed for our ride back to the boat and collected our lifejackets from our fort.

 

Here he comes!

It's a little choppy and gets shallow where we have to get on so we went one at a time.  Kya and Seth took off down the beach to check out a whale.

We covered some ground in the last few days.

Ryker and Kya made sweet shell necklaces for themselves and Seth with their beach treasures when they got back to the boat.  I was sure to get a picture of Seth with his on:)

Breakfast and boat hair!

 

This whale just floated on the surface for hours but didn't do much else.  The kids had a good time watching for him throughout the day though.

Grandpa Randy

Jordan and Stevie working the lead.

Franz helping Ryker not be a big sissy and just hold the fish!

Kelp ball faces

 

Guess where we delivered?  The wonderful cove that I named my first puppy after.

Stevie, Franz, and Isaiah

Sorting fish

We got Handler swag!  Kara, Ty, and I always thought getting ice cream bars from the tenders was lucky.  Ryker and Kya don't know how good they have it!

Seth needed to sleep on their day off since he was working all night for the past 2 nights so we hit Sitka like 3 tourists.

 

Ocean Center

 

Playground

Beach

 

Hiking trails

Stores...they wanted this shirt bad, but they only had adult sizes.

Arcade

Movie theatre, National Park, Museum, wood carving demonstration, moccasin making demonstration, and a tour of a church that was around back when Sitka was the capital of Russia. 

This is the face of a little girl who didn't want to get on a plane without her Daddy.

Even my Red Vine bribe couldn't ease her pain.

There's the Robert Magnus on the furthest dock from shore.  Seeing that made her cry harder.

About 20 minutes in, everyone was starting to calm down.  Then they both fell asleep, thankfully!

When we got back from Alaska, I went through all the stuff Ryker had brought home from school and found this.  I guess he's ready for our next adventure, heading east.

"We were driving to Montana to stay at Kara's house. We went to the Oasis."

Pretty good sounding out for the end of his Kindergarten year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nuptuals so nice, we did them twice

Seth and I convalidated our marriage in May.  The kids were pumped to be part of this "second marriage" as they called it.  When we first got married, I didn't want to plan a wedding or spend money on a wedding and the thought of walking down the isle in front of my entire hometown parish without my Dad still brings me to tears.  I just wanted to get through what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life without a bunch of sadness.  Don't get me wrong, I still thought about him throughout my Vegas weekend, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been had we been married in Wibaux.  Plus, who would have given me my before church cert and sang our Smokey Robinson song?  Anyway, the reasons I wasn't married in the church don't really matter now.  The reason, I needed to be does.  Ryker and Kya always asked me during church why I never took communion.  I explained to them that I missed the Sacrament of Marriage and so I couldn't take communion.  Their response, "can you ever eat the bread again?"  You get the point.  There was a way for me to "get that bread again."  Here I was making them go to church and giving them the same building blocks of faith that I had, yet I wasn't following the rules.  How could I expect them too?  They are free to make their own decisions as adults, but I couldn't bare to set an example that contradicted what I was teaching them.  I try hard not to be a "do as I say, not as I do" parent so if I was going to make them sit through church on Sunday I needed to get back in good standing so I could take communion again.....preferably before Ryker had his First Communion.  

As much as I had hoped and tried for an easier way out of it, we had to take all the classes, go to Confession, and have a ceremony in the church.  In the end, it worked out well.  I'm glad I took the classes.  I learned a few things and found some interesting ways of looking at things that I hadn't thought of before.  Am I a more religious or better person than I was before I started the process?  No.  I do have a better understanding of my own faith though and it was a good review of some things that I had forgotten or had just forgotten to practice on a regular basis.  Surprisingly, I was actually relieved after my confession.  Not that I had done anything terrible, I just felt better for some reason.  It was probably just because I was done and I was so nervous and embarrassed to say how long it had been since my last confession. 

Anyway, one of the best things I learned from these classes was that no matter what I ask Seth to do, no matter if it is completely meaningless to him, he will do it.....happily, graciously, and without judgment.....no questions asked. 

 There's no one else, I'd rather remarry!

 

Ryker was the official ceremony photographer....

 

Until he found out he could stand up front with us.  Then he ditched the camera.

Ryker got to hold the Holy Water for Father Tom.  Now he has an interest in being an Alter Server.  He felt like he had a pretty important job.

I'm glad we had to bring our own witnesses or we probably would have done it with just the kids.  Vi was thrilled to be there so I was very glad that we had invited her.  She's pretty religious and has probably been wearing the knees out of her pants praying for us these last 13 years while we've been living in sin:)

Kya had been telling us for months that she was going to sing "Love is Something if You Give it Away" at our wedding.  She was really hoping to use the microphone so Father Tom turned it on for her.  I really wish this picture was closer or we had a video, because she was beaming.  This was her "important wedding job" moment!

 

 

The kids were hoping for a dance and reception to follow so we took them to Snowgoose Produce for Ice Cream.

After the ice cream, we headed to the Bayview Cemetery to put some flowers on graves for Memorial Day.