Lots of Random Pictures from the last couple of months

Super-Nana!  Eden LOVED all the adventures that Nana was willing to include her in, like hauling wood, picking citrus fruit from a neighbor, visiting the chickens or the horses or the dogs, working in the garden plot, or just going for adventures.  I was so thankful!

Walking with cousin Chloe.

Lucy, not an hour old.  In my parent's kitchen, in Papa's arms.

Another snuggle time with Papa. It warms my heart to see my children as the recipients of my parents love and care.

Lucy, napping with Aunt Brynne.  Less than 2 weeks old.

I love the delight on my mom's face! A precious, though squished, moment, with four cousins and their Nana.

Lucy looks a little skeptical.

Another adventure with cousin Chloe!

Sisters!

Home in Alaska...Eden is going through cousin withdrawals and insists on including Lucy in her play.  She clearly indicated where I was to put each one of the elements of the above picture.

I just love this one!

Eden with homemade tub paints.  She loved it, and kept saying, "Rainbow! Rainbow!" as she smeared and glopped.

Out for a walk with her baby sometime in April.  She's making the baby wave "hello!"  The hat and socks were her additions to make sure baby Peter was warm enough outside. 

Babywearing - its never too early to learn!

"Yeah...my sister has a thing for hats... At least she didn't cover my eyes this time!"

Applesauce on the door sill on a lovely May day.

Where Eden gets her ideas about babywearing. :)

Family Portraits

These were taken during our Christmas visit to California by my very talented sister, Rochelle Rupp.

My Handsome Husband!  How I love this man!

Eden's Adventures (and some of Daddy's too)

(by Nate)

Enjoy!

It snowed abt 6" and then the wind picked up and blew the snow away. This is what the Kvichak (pronounced quee-jack) River looked like when I flew over at sunrise.

 These are some pics from the job I was supporting just before Christmas. They were fixing a fiber-optic line. The line runs through the Kvichak River at this point. The river ice cracked and smashed the cable and they lost some functionality. They laid a temporary line in a shallow trench as a short term fix till March when they will come back.

This is the vault (where they put the splice box). It was filled with water when we got here so they had to melt it and then put this electric blanket over to keep it melted.

You can see a little water down in the bottom still.

 Some fibers

The splice box. It was encased in jell goo and then in a metal box. They already cut off the metal box.

Inside the splice box.

He is holding up a bunch of fibers.

Here you can see the fibers and the colors and how small they are.

This little box she is pushing down on is the cutter. It simultaneously scores and cuts the fiber in order to make a nice end to splice too.

 The bigger box with the LCD screen is the splicer. She lays the fibers in the top and closes the lid and hits the go button and then you can watch on the screen as the machine lines up the fibers and fuses them as if they had never been broken. This box costs something like $20k.

Now she is lining up the heat shrink material over the splice. Then she drops it in the upper part of the box and presto..nice heat shrinked splice ready to wind up in the splice box.

Here you can see the glass shards (pieces of fiber) that were cut off.

Here she is putting the splice in its new home.

Eden with her new hat that Kathleen made for her. She put it on and left it and loved it.

Learning to put hands in pockets when it gets chilly on our walks.

Eating cornbread with Papa.

Eden and Gram checking on the dogs.

Eden's 1st motorbike ride! We just went around in a 10' circle on the driveway (no helmet her size..she is just a bit too small for a real ride yet), but she had fun.