Alaska According to Marie

I took this picture when the sun was setting. I liked the shadows on the curvy logs.

She is so sweet! Very smiley and happy (mostly). I held her for awhile today while Karla was at a meeting for her wedding business. She is about 7 months now.

This is from my camping trip with Tucker and Gunner. We had a good time out there on the point. They spent time fishing clam shells out of the lake and our neighbor even took them on a canoe ride. It was a very calm and refreshing overnite in our backyard.

There has been so many good skies this month! Tonight is supposed to be a lunar eclipse at 2:37am. I'm gonna try see that.

It's been cloudy and rainy and I can definitely feel and smell Fall in the air. So yes, the state fair starts this week, ha. This year, Klint and Kim's kids were invited to participate in the motocross expo. I hear that participation is by invite only, so they are pretty excited about it. Here is Klint, posing in the air for a shot at a recent race over at the Anchorage track.

It's been getting busier and busier as I prepare to head down to North Carolina. I've been trying to spend as much time with the family that I can. I know I will miss having them nearby. Alexis spent the day with me on Saturday. We went running together and we went "downtown" (to Wasilla) to run errands and check out the new books at the book shop. I picked up a book by D.H. Laurence and she picked up a "chapter book" with a scary looking polar bear on the cover.

I saw this moose on my way to the races one Sunday. There was a smaller one nearby and they were just moseying around, having green salad. It's moose hunting season as of yesterday, so I'm sure these two have found that secret path to the hidden mountain that so many moose mysteriously disappear to once hunting season starts.

I went surfing for the first time behind the boat on the lake. My cousins were there, Nichole and Chanel, and Nichole took some pictures, so maybe I'll have some to post later on. I was pretty impressed that it was as easy to get up on it as Klint said. We got around to the other side of the lake and circled around on our way back and we hit the wake. That is where I finally came off the board. One of the coolest things about the whole experience? I was wearing a skirt down on the dock when I was given the opportunity to try it and Klint's confidence made me actually consider that I might not get wet, so I went surfing in a skirt. Ha!

There is an orchard off of Fairview Loop. I went with Karla one evening to check out the possibilities for it being the location of a wedding she is planning. It was beautiful! And what a view! They had so many types of apple trees, there were cherry trees, grapes even! All kinds of flowers too. It was beautiful!

So ya, lots of photo moments this month.

July has rolled into August and here we are already halfway through it.

Ashlee was a little tired and decided to take a nap while waiting at the line for her race to begin.

Ashlee wanted to try her skills as shopkeeper at the races...





View from Beluga Point, still one of my most favorite places in the world.

The boys waiting for their races to start.








Alexis and Ashlee, 2 of the most beautiful girls in the world.










This is the view from the Anchorage Motocross track. Very nice.



I will be heading down to North Carolina for the fall in a couple more weeks and have been busy make preparations for that. I'm excited for the move, but lately, especially looking through some pictures that I just got back... I'm gonna miss a lot of people.