April

Would ya look at this!  Four months updated in two days!  Seriously, I'll try to keep up better this summer!  More craziness coming on soon though so I knew if I didn't get it done NOW I'd be in even bigger trouble!  Two graduations coming up in the next month, plus summer coming on!  It's gonna be wild!  Andrei graduates May 10 and leaves for NY for two weeks the night he graduates.  Then Oksana graduates May 26.  What a year!  We might as well jump right in to pictures since I don't have enough brain power to write about goings on.  If I find my brain one of these days I might even do a "words only" post!  What a concept!  One thing we don't normally see in Alaska is raccoons.  Had to snap a picture when we saw this one dead in the road!

Her Royal Highniness, Queen Smelly Pants, is good at making herself at home wherever she should not be.

Speaking of Russians...  Oh wait, that was at the table, not here.  But now that we're here, you might as well see the not-so-little Ruskies!  Come to think of it, I wonder if that camera is dying.  There shouldn't be any breath causing that cloud in this picture.  It went from winter to warm overnight! 

Here's this year's continuous flow ice sculpture:

 This is a fence post that showed up!  The snow WAS deeper!  Pretty sure Sergei's feet weren't even touching ground!

This one cracks me up!  Silly dog!  It's hard to maintain the regal facade when your face looks like this when you run!

Some things never change!  Brotherly love in action!  More like brotherly wrestling!

Breaking up is hard to do...  Literally when it is this kind of breakup!  Miserable driving through camp for about a week!

The Matanuska Glacier again:

I just loved how the moon was peeking up over the edge of the mountain in this picture:

Sunrise:

The sun hitting the tops of the mountains:

The snow is melting quickly at this point with temperatures up in the 50s most days.  There's still PLENTY of snow to melt though as you can see here!  This is the same view as the fifth picture down in the January post.

I've been able to get a few small projects done including this chair that has been sitting around for years.  Lee Althens glued and nailed and tightened a few spots that needed work and then I was able to put in the new seat and back that my mom painted ages ago!

We drove up to Sheep Mountain the other day to spot sheep (and theoretical bears) and take pictures.  This is the north side of the mountains. 

A little different from the south facing sides!

 Lions Head was gorgeous with storms and clouds dancing around it!

And the glacier:

 

March

 March was as beautiful as I've come to expect - mild temperatures and abundant, glorious sunshine.  We took advantage with plenty of trips out on the snow machine.  If you look closely, you can see two moose on the hill in the foreground on the far right. 

This is a view of Victory from Inspiration Point, where John Gillespie, the camp founder, used to often go to pray.

It was a rough year for the moose with so much snow.  They traveled on the roads more than normal to avoid the deep snow.  As a result, many more moose killed by vehicles this winter than normal.  We had way more close calls than I care to count!  So thankful for God's protection while driving this winter! 

The moose were abundant in camp too!

Sunrises are too early now for me to see them, but there was a short period of time when they coincided with my walk to camp to work.  Here's one from that short week!

I just couldn't let this one pass.  We don't get many commercial planes flying over and it painted such a beautiful picture with the clear blue sky in the background that I couldn't ignore it!

The busybody Basket thinks she has to see out the front when you're driving so she stretches across from the back seat to the console in front.  Good thing she's a long little doggy!  In case you can't read Baskit, that face is saying, "What are you looking at?  I didn't give you permission to take my picture!"

Dan Lee and Chuck Gerwig had put in a trail to Fortress Ridge that even the ladies and kids could ride so Rodney and I went out one day to ride that.  Unfortunately we weren't certain where the trail was so we ended up going up the STEEP hill.  Rodney went first to see if I could do it.  When he got to the top I gestured to see if it was ok and I misread his gesture in return.  He was waving me off not to try it.  I thought he was urging me up.  When I got to the steepest spot, the snow was all mushy and soft.  I plowed on to see if I could get through, but didn't quite get far enough before I bogged down.  Seriously bogged down!  Good thing Rodney was there to help dig me out and turn me around! 

But it was sooooooooooo worth it! Fortress Ridge panorama overlooking the Matanuska Glacier:

White as far as the eye can see!

 Bou.  Carribou that is!

And ptarmigan.  White on white makes them hard to spot!  They just look like little shadows!

Dinner!  They were sooooooooo yummy!

Fortress Ridge from the back:

The trail in and out isn't much fun, but still worth it to get to the gorgeous scenery!  Bumpity bump bump bump!!!

P.S.  Would you look at that!  I can make the pictures bigger!  :)  Easily entertained by new blogger stuffs!

February

February brought more snow.  

The plows are AMAZING!  Check this out!

 

But my snow machine was BURIED!

And it blew too!

But eventually it stopped snowing and then it gets pretty!