Just wanted to add a picture that didn't make it in, although it should have.   This is a picture of Jacob pulling in a Red Salmon, also known as a Sockeye Salmon.   He is using my fly rod to full in the fish.  He did a great job and is learning the importance of keeping the rod bent.   Not long after this picture was taken Jacob was fishing from the bank while I was in the river fishing.   He yelled at me saying "Dad Bear!!"   I turned around and there was a Grisly bear standing about 15 feet away from Jacob.  He did a great job and didn't get scared at all.  I of course scared the bear away and he left with no harm done.   I suspect he wanted to partake of hard work, but we wouldn't have anything to do with that.   For this very reason we fish with guns in Alaska.   Hopefully we will never have to use it.  We don't tempt fate though.   One of these days we will learn how to put a slide show on the blog so that more pictures can be seen.   

Caribou Hunt

This is the caribou that Jake spotted on our hunting trip to northern Alaska.  Our family and another family just got back from a trip to the top of Alaska.  It took us 17 hours to drive there.  It was a lot of fun.  We passed the Arctic Circle and the Yukon River.  We drove north of Fairbanks for about 450 miles, most of which was on dirt road.  We went in search of caribou that the guys could shoot with a bow and arrow.  The hunt up there is only open to the bow unless you hike 5 miles off of he road and then you can use a gun.  This proved to be a bit of a challenge since you have to be pretty close to get off a good shot with the bow.  Jeremiah and Cameron (our friend) spent 4 days stalking up on many caribou only to have the animals spook just when they were getting close.  Somewhat frustrating but they definitely learned a lot for the trip next year.   We saw 100's of caribou, some wild musk ox and a lot of other little critters.  The temperature up there was never above 40 degrees and mostly stayed in the 30's.  We woke up a couple of mornings to snow on the ground.  It was quite the adventure.  We stayed warm in our tents with little space heaters and some good sleeping bags.  The kids did awesome and want to go back.   They got a little bored on the long drive up and back but other than that we had a fabulous time.

OK everybody is sooooo mad that we haven't updated the blog.  Well Jeremiah set it up and I never knew how to log into it, then the computer crashed and we had to spend some time recovering pictures.  So now, this is a rough start as I try to figure this blogging thing out.   I'm not making any promises that it will be updated very often but at least you can get this much.  We have had very busy summer.  Jeremiah was called to be the Young Men's President back in April and that has kept him extremely busy with all of the summer activities they have going on.  I am now the 1st counselor in the Relief Society and that has been a big change since I have rarely been in Relief Society since I have been old enough to go.  I have had various callings in the other auxillaries.   On top of that the bishop asked me to double as the YW camp director this year.  So that of course kept my life from being dull.  So I went to girl's camp the first of June.  Then we all headed down to Utah for my youngest brother, Benson's,  mission farewell.  Jeremiah was only able to go for the weekend but the kids and I stayed on for a bit longer.  That was a good thing, because summer here in Alaska this year has been anything but warm.  It has rained the majority of the summer.  So it was good for the kids to be able to enjoy the sun.  It was in the 100 degree range while we were there and personally I was cooking but it was good times.  When we got back to Alaska we had a few days of down time and then we took off to go on our annual family outing to the Russian River.  We spent two nights there and had a good time camping and fishing.  I bear attacked the camp site right next to ours one night and we were awakened at about 5 am from gun shots scaring the bear away.  We just rolled over and went back to sleep.   Jake really enjoyed it this year.  Jeremiah felt he was old enough to put a real hook on his fishing pole.  He hooked a big one but it got away just as he was pulling it onto the shore.  So that was a highlight.  He helped Jeremiah pull some in on Jer's pole so he feels he is a big fisherman.  From the Russian River we headed down to the Kenai River to try our hand once again at dipnetting.  That is where you stick a big 5 foot diameter pole out in the water and wait for fish to swim into it.  Last year we picked up 25 fish that way but out timing must have been off this year because our lucky number was 8.  Oh well, it was fun anyway, in spite of the rain.    Life since then has calmed a little but not much.  Our next big adventure is coming up in September when we plan to drive up past the Arctic Circle in hopes of finding a caribou or two that Jeremiah can shoot with his bow, from the road.  It is about a 14-16 hour drive north of Anchorage and we could be in the middle of snow by the time we reach our destination.  We will be camping in a tent and it should prove to be an adventure.  The last gas station as you head up the road currently sells gas for about 9 dollars a gallon.   We hope to take enough fuel with us to hopefully not spend our live savings at that gas station.   Then in October we are heading to Disneyland and Legoland.  So if nothing else we are at least playing a lot this year.  We may not be able to take another family vacation for 10 years.   So if anybody wants to know anything more, let us know.  

Jacob, Alex and I spent a few weeks in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Cluff.  We were able to celebrate the 4th of July there and it was the first time little Alex ever saw fireworks.  They don't do too many fireworks here in Alaska because it doesn't get dark enough on the 4th of July to be able to see them.  So that was an enjoyable experience.

Well I am trying this again to learn more about blogging.  This is a picture we took this Aug 2007.  We were at the Russian River hiking along the river, actually looking for bears.  My mother, aka Grandma Newbold, was desperate to see wildlife in Alaska.  Up until this point she had been very bad luck, when it came to seeing wildlife.   On this trip we were able to change her luck.  We sat on a board walk just talking, when all the sudden a Grizzly Sow and cub came walking into the river.   We watched for several minutes as they walked through the water looking for Salmon.   We ended up following them down the river taking pictures and video for probably 45 minutes.   They ran away when a Black bear showed up.   It was a neat experience watching them fishing and playing in the river.  At some points we were only 15 feet away.  So anyways this was a enjoyable experience that doesn't happen to often, even for us that live in Alaska.  We have been living in Alaska for nearly 4 years and have enjoyed out time here.   At the present time we don't anticipate leaving, but who knows what the future holds.