Primrose Trail

We went to Primrose Landing by Kenai Lake, parked the car and set out on the trail. We took off on the Primrose Creek Trail.

Merek and Nat all smiles and ready to go!

 The trail is well groomed for about the first 4-5 miles like this before it starts narrowing and skirting along the mountains above.

Beginning of the Trail.

The trail tees, the way we were heading we went up, the other trail is for snow machines when its snowing.

Looking down the trail where we came up from

The snow machine trail

The trail we head up

Nic, Merek and Nat

 The trail leads you up and through some really neat forests that are over grown with moss and mushrooms. It looks like something from a fairytale. The trees are tall and some are really thick.

Some mushrooms on a tree a small animal was eating.

We followed coyote tracks along the trail for about a mile before they branched off over a saddle to our left. Then we came to what was left of the Primrose Mine. All that remains is some pipe and a small wood building that is falling apart and looks like a tiny cottage on the left side of the trail. It is neat to see.

The trail starts heading out of the tree line and into a less developed trail towards mount Ascension.

Some parts you can walk over and see it clearly then other parts narrow 

It started snowing up higher

Merek smiling and having fun!

We hiked 12 miles in 4.5 hours. It started getting dark so we headed back. We were ok with that though. We got about 1000 feet of elevation gain in 6 miles and made excellent time so we cant complain.

going back

our view through the trees while coming down

The hike was excellent! The weather was perfect. No one was out there so it was really peaceful and had great views!  

Lexi's Trip to ANSEP

Lexi had a blast at ANSEP! She stayed at UAA campus dorms and took classes at UAA with her peers. She built a computer, designed, built, and tested a bridge to withstand earthquake pressures, dissected a squid, stayed the night at the Sealife Center, and much more.  We missed her but were so happy she had a wonderful time and learned so much as well as met many nice people that live in the school district on the Peninsula that she would not have met otherwise.

Lexi the morning she was leaving, she was pretty nervous.

We got her laughing so she was ready to rock and roll:)

We took lexi to Skyview Middle School where her bus was coming to pick up the kids. We went into the building for the introductions and to see her off on her journey. She was soo excited!

Lexi at Skyview Middle School

The really nice bus they got to drive to Anchorage in.

The inside of the computer Lexi made.

Lexis computer

A picture Lex took of inside the building and the designs 

:Lex's view in one of her classes

The first bridge they made out of kenects then they made the official one from balsa wood

On the way to Seward Sealife Center

The room at the Sealife Center where they had class and then were moved into another to dissect a squid

Another team that was there testing their bridge designs

Victor Creek Trail Scouting Trip

We took off from Soldotna this morning and headed towards Victor Creek for a day hike and to see if there was any ice forming there yet. It was unfortunately 40+ degrees :( The lower area was like a tropical rain forest on the trail, finally about 2 miles back some ice was starting to form along the creek, and definitely up above on the drainage's. Overall it was an awesome day and all of us had a great time being out in the mountains.

Merek and Natalie ready to roll

Nic all ready to go with all our gear, just in case we saw any walls to climb:)

The creek

Drainage; starting to freeze up

Natalie and Merek while coming out of the Confer Forrest

Towards the glacier through the canyon

View of the canyon from in the forest

Merek, serious face:) He was so peaceful on our hike and completely captivated by everything around us.

Merek all ready to go on our hike, all smiles!

Coming out of the forest

Our epic mountain!

Awesome day!

Nic while walking back through the forest.

Gear Testing!

Yesterday we went to anchorage to drop Grama off so we took our new snowshoes, crampons and axes along to test them out in the pass!

Turnagain pass, about a foot of snow, it was warm 32F so it was crusty on top

Nic, Nat and Baby Merek 

Nat, Mia and Merek, we walked over to that hill in the background testing out the snowshoes 

Mia testing out the MSR Evo Ascent

Was pretty foggy up in the mountains around us very cool looking :)

Happy Halloween 2014

We had a blast carving pumpkins. The kids each had their own little pumpkin and design to make it theirs.

Madi carving her pumpkin

Mia getting the insides out of her pumpkin.

Nic and Nat
Happy Halloween!

The kiddos:
Merek is a tiger, Mia is a ninja, Lex is a parcour zombie, and Madi is a vampire.

Merek liked trying to eat the zipper lol

The kids again, retake.

Merek finally not eating the zipper lol!

The beginning of a busy night of trick treaters


The neighborhoods get so busy later on down here you cant even walk down the streets without bumping into kids.

Lord business lol!

Not even the beginning of a busy night

The girls went out to trick or treat with their friends while we stayed in and handed out candy. Grandma Michele, Nic, Nat, and Merek were home and couldnt even go upstairs because of the constant flow of trick or treaters. We didnt mind as we sat in our entry way watching the kids come and go.
 Mia's friend Caitlin came and got her, Izzy came and got Lex, and Madi went with her friend Mia. They were out there getting loads of candy and also having a lot of fun with their friends.
We were out of candy by 8 pm after the swarms of kids came which is always a blast to see all the cool costumes! Merek was watching all the crazy looking people come and go lol! Im not sure what he thought of all that! The girls got home shortly after we ran out of candy and we watched a funny movie and hung out. The girls were loaded with treats! Halloween was definitely a success this year!