In His Hands: Finally....

Aunt Laurel sent Eden this beautiful stuffed animal as a birthday present. H. christened it "Rusty" and Eden loves it! Here she is, discovering its marvels for the first time.

Using the easel as a walker!

Nate took us on a boat ride up the Naknek River for a picnic. It was a beautiful day, quite chilly, but lots of fun! Eden was really scared though, besides being tired and cold, and this was the closest we got to a smile. :)

New mobility brings new discoveries!

She climbs all the way inside, behind the door, and throws out the plastic stuff we keep in there.

A beautiful evening during the two short but lovely weeks of autumn we enjoyed.

Hurray for brushing teeth! Eden loves to brush her own or anyone else's!

What a good daddy!

It was too cold and snowy to go out, but we made do, playing in the snow on the back porch from the doorsill!

Yes, she climbed up there by herself. At least she stopped trying to stand up after I told her not to. Nothing is safe now!

She pee's on the potty every morning when we get up, and usually at bathtime, too. Not at all afraid!

I thought that was a cool pic with Mt. Chiginigak volcano in the background. This is one of the rivers I would take people out heli-fishing to.

This is the view from the mahogony throne (ok, not actually mahogony, but it sounds good) in the outhouse at the sport fishing camp that I flew to all summer long. This camp was posh - gourmet chef, hot water shower, wood burning stove - all this and no one else around for 130mi in any direction!

Looking south across Mt. Chiginigak. I flew by here a couple times a week all season long. This is one of the 3 calm clear days when I could get good pics of the volcano.

This is an open plume on the North side of the Chiginigak Volcano. The plume is probably at about 5500'.

This is looking at the bottom of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Katmai National Park. The valley floor is just one big ash flow from the last eruption of Mt. Griggs in 1912. There are deep canyons where the rivers have cut through. The cool thing about this pic is the dust you see blowing. It is volcanic ash. Very dangerous to helicopters. On this particular day the wind was blowing up to 45-50 mph through the mountain passes. It is hard to tell from the picture but the ash cloud (blowing down the valley from right to left) is over 1000' thick! Needless to say, I had to take the long way for the rest of the day. I also ended up flying through the worst turbulence I've ever been in.

Another of our autumn adventures. You can't see much of Eden; she's actually asleep between us. At first she was pretty scared, but by the end she was out cold.