Jaycie Playing

Here is Jaycie playing on her toys in the backyard. Her favorite thing to do is "go outisde". Most days the first thing she asks me is, "go outside" or "go bye-bye." She's getting so tall and her hair is getting longer. She talks so much and loves to sing songs.

Shannon's Growing Belly

Here are some pictures of my growing belly. In both of these pictures I'm about 26 weeks.




This was on our Memorial Day hike.

A view from our deck (pre-fence).

Memorial Day at Eagle River Nature Center

On Memorial Day, we decided to go on a hike and break out Jaycie's backpack carrier. We went up to the Eagle River Nature Center a few miles up the canyon from our house. We had fun taking a liesurely stroll by the river. We saw a moose running around and splashing in the river (almost like it wanted to cool off). We had great weather and Jaycie had fun in her carrier.


Here is the moose in the river.

Daddy and Jaycie having a great time in the beautiful scenery.

Easter Pictures

I know it is a little late, but thought I'd throw on some Easter pictures. We dyed easter eggs and had a relaxing Easter Sunday at home and Church.


Jaycie in her new Easter dress.

Jaycie's first egg dying experience. And of course, it was tough for her to be patient and let the eggs sit in the dye.

She did like putting stickers on them though.

Black Bear Hunt

Wow, we sure have been enjoying some summer weather already. We were in the low 70's last Saturday. These temperatures are usually only felt in the summer months. We took advantage of the nice weather and went out black bear hunting.

Tyler and one of his co-workers ask me to come along on about a ten mile hike into prime bear country. I am not yet a resident, so I wasn't hunting, but was there to learn and pack out any bear that we might get. I really had a great time. I was anxious to get out and hike in the mountains. We didn't see any black bears, but we did find some absolutely HUGE brown bear tracks. They were fairly fresh and monstrous! The kind that sends a shiver down your spine when you find them. I also picked up a nice moose shed antler. This was quite a find. I also found four other sheds, but all were a year or two old (not worth keeping). However, this might prove to be a great moose hunting area due to all the sign and sheds.



This is Tyler trying to spot a bear. Notice how dry everything is. We figured that the bears and moose were closer to the river where there may be more food and not in the ravines where we were. In a week or two these mountains will be covered with green grasses, berries and hence, bears. Maybe we were too early.

Here is a nice moose shed (last year's) that must have fallen off the moose's head and into the brush. The antler is about four feet off the ground.

Here is the grizzly track. We figure it is an eight foot bear. You figure this out by measuring the width of the front foot and add 1 to get the estimated height.

Here is the fresh shed that I found (found in the ravine that is pictured above).

Not very tall or wide, but very heavy and nice mass. Maybe we can find this bull on this year's moose hunt in August. He would be a legal bull, due to the fact that he has three brow tines. The moose have to either be spikes, two points, over 50 inch spread or have at least three brow tines to be legal.

Everything else is going great. Shannon is fairing well in the pregnancy and Jaycie is learning many new phrases. My favorite is, "Daddy where are you?" She yells this in the house when I am in another room and she can't find me. She is also learning to sing some songs. She is learning Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.

Thank You All for the Birthday Gifts

Thanks for all the gifts for my birthday. I don't feel like I am 30?




Here is the awesome cake Shannon made for me.


The snow was finally sticky enough for us to build a snowman (the only one of the year). Our snow is rapidly melting. Which is just fine with me.

Doesn't it look great?

It's a Girl

We found out yesterday that we are having a girl. We are so excited for Jaycie to have a little sister! Here is 3D ultrasound photo...