Summer is underway

I am hoping to do shorter and more frequent posts this summer so I don't get buried. I still have to go back and post about our epic spring months.

The kids have been out of school a month already, but it just now feels like summer is getting underway. As soon as the ship got back from their spring buoy run to the Kuskokwim River, we made a trip to Anchorage for a family obstacle course/mud run. The kids were amazing. James ran the whole 1.5 miles and Kate could've run the adult 5k as she knocked out the kid run easily.

Note how clean everyone is before the run starts.

The Farmer's Market is up and running again with all its silly quirks. Last week, the musical entertainment was ragtime from a van. Can you see him playing the piano in his van in the background of the photo?

Last year we started a Best Homer Hippie photo contest with some friends, but I don't feel like I put forth enough effort. Here is my favorite hippie mobile so far this summer.

Last weekend, I walked all night for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The family came to kick off the event in the rain. James and his buddies walked several laps.

It barely gets dark here in June, so ideal conditions for an all night walk except for a bit of rain and temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s. I took the above photo around 3am as the sun was beginning to rise (about an hour after it set).

I came home at 6:30am and tagged out Brian who had an invite to go acroos the bay and learn how to clam. The tide was a rare -3.4 feet, so perfect for collecting mussels and digging for clams.

SO MANY MUSSELS!

Brian said digging for clams was back breaking, but the haul was pretty good. Below are the butter clams. We changed their water a few times to help them filter out sand and they in turn sprayed water all over our garage floor. I spent most of yesterday watching World Cup and shucking clams, but we've yet to cook them up.

The mussels, however, were delicious and much easier to get, so I would definitely like to try it out with the kids next time.

We dropped off Kate a few days ago for a week of sleep away camp. She had so much fun last year and is attending with one of her best buddies who is moving back to Virginia at the end of the month. I'm sure they are doing all sorts of cool stuff like horse back riding and launching themselves into a very cold lake via rope swing as I am typing this.

We are a week into World Cup and there is absolutely no better time to be a stay at home mom. We invested in the Panini sticker album help get the kids more involved...and it's really fun to do. James is loving it so far.

We don't have a proper pub here in Homer, but we did paint our faces for the first US match. Although it wasn't pretty, we were happy with the result.

 

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