Summer Fun...

We have had a lot of fun this year...many family outings... We have gone such places as Eklutna, Independance Mine, hiking in Hatcher's Pass, Thunderbird Falls, Camping at Lake Lucille, Lost Lake, halibut fishing in Homer, the zoo, and all around other little fairs and events....Here are a few photo's from our travels...

Here is Mel and her favorite niece....

I think this is the only picture of a tiger sleeping in a field of Fireweed...(at the Zoo)

Three little cousins at the zoo...they have named themselves as "the buddies"

Aidan found his calling out at the Forest Fair....

Out at Lake Lucille...

After a evening of catching minnows at Lake Lucille...

Spying from the trees...

I found gold at the Independace Mine...

I call this one "Suspicious"

Taking a break at Thunderbird Falls...

Misadventures in Bush...

I was looking through my photos trying to organize them. I was reminded of one of my misadventures. Enough time has passed and I think the scars have healed. So I will tell the tail that has to be told...It was in early December and I had a sheep tag that needed to be filled. My Buddy Todd and I planned a two day trip which would take us over a couple of hundred miles into the Baird Mountains or so we hoped.

As we were putting our gear together and making the final preparations we got a couple of conflicting opinions about the way that we should go. One " from a local friend of ours" said that we should go up the Noatak because there was not enough snow to cover the tundra. Our other friend "a certain game warden" said we should cut across to the Noatak by using a short cut. He said "oh there is a marked trail all the way there." So we decided to follow the latter advice and set out on our expedition. We followed the trail for 15 miles or so and then as if snow elf magic they all disappeared. So we stopped...scratched our heads...looked at the map...decided we could pick our way through the hills. We did a good job of it...and then we got back to the Noatak river...almost. We stopped at a steep embankment that looked down over the river. It was about 50 feet down. We looked left...looked right... the terrain did not look any better. We walked down the river looking for a better way down. We found one shoot that looked like our best bet. We sat around for the next 45 minutes or so. Jumping up and down on the little cornice and debating who would be dumb enough to go first. Somehow I won the dumb guy draw. I sat at the top of my snow machine looking at the cornice that had formed on the lip of the cliff that dropped down at a 90 degree angle and then curved to the basin below like a ski jump. It was very hard like concrete. As I got right to the edge I realized that the drop was a little more severe that I had planned. I edged inch by inch out and then...whoosh down and smooth ...like I was riding on one of those water rides at Disney Land. I stopped at the bottom with no problem. Then Todd's turn. It took a little coaxing but at last he came down and the sled that he was pulling didn't even land on his head!!. Wow...What a long time to get where we were. We had traveled about 60 miles but it took all day to do it. We decided to look for a place to camp. We went up a little side creek and found a nice little place away from the main river. It was getting colder. and darker...We decided to break out the Arctic Oven tent that a friend of ours let us borrow. We pulled it out of this huge box and started to set it up. We got it up and it looked good. An Arctic oven tent..cool. Our friend that lent us the tent had a couple of presto logs that he let us have. They burn for about 3 hours each. If we broke them in half so they would fit in the stove they would allow we figured 12 hours of heat. So we broke them in half and got the stove going. We set up our camp and bedded down for the night. It quickly started to get warm. We took a thermometer out and it read 82 degrees at the top of the tent. and 33 degrees at the floor...Sweet!. Good night.
Then... At about one in the morning the air started to taste odd....I thought...okay presto logs kind of smell different...Then it got a little hard to breath. I grabbed my flashlight and aimed it at the ceiling..I could barley see the top of the tent. I yelled Todd!!! He hopped out of his bag...I took a deep breath and almost vomited. We lunged out of the tent in nothing but our thermal underwear. Hacking...Coughing...violent retching. When we had caught our breath we opened up the tent. Tried to vent it and then quickly grabbed our clothes and worked at warming up. After we had built a fire "outside" and had gotten comfortable.Then it was time to work on finding out what was wrong with the stove. I grabbed my gloves that had leather palms.The plan was to remove the stove from the tent so that we could clean it out. I tried to pull the stove pipe apart. It was a very tight fit...and then it came apart. Oxygen rushed into the stove and like a giant blowtorch... fire shot from the pipe still connected to the stove. I slammed the loose piece of pipe perpendicular over the bazooka of flames. Todd and I stood there not knowing what to do. Then we had the idea that since I had the leather gloves...Todd was going to hold the pipe and at the count of three I was going to throw the entire stove outside of the tent. We got into the respective positions...One...Two...Three. I am sure that looking at the tent from afar it was a spectacular sight as the ball of fire exploded out onto the snow. Things calmed down after that. We inspected the stove and found out that the presto log had not burned cleanly. They were mainly made out of creosote and the unburned goo coated the inside of the pipe and plugged the spark arrestor at the top of the chimney and caused all the poisons to back up inside of the tent...So we tried it again we got back into our sleeping bags...started it up and shortly discovered that it was just not going to work...Now it is 25 below zero out and I am not happy about getting back outside of the tent. Again we cleaned the stove out and this time we decide that we must go gather wood. So out into the cold and very dark woods and brush did I go and man...trying to cut frozen trees down with a little pack saw is not my favorite memory. Well, we got enough wood to try it again. But alas the wood would burn so quickly that we had to keep stoking it every 20 minutes or so....thus a very long cold night.
We awoke in the morning. Packed up the best we could and headed up river. Although it was still close to 20 below zero we soon came upon a lot of open water. We looked toward the mountains where the sheep were I felt in my heart that if we were to go up into the mountains that day we were not going to come home. I talked to Todd and we decided that we had tempted fate enough and it was time to go home...I thank Heavenly Father for protecting us...live to hunt another day.

Trying to warm up after our near death experience.

Cold and Dark

Looking up at the top of the tent at our make shift drying lines

The infamous stove...before it attacked us

Oh!! I need to repent...

Okay...so I need to repent. I am horrible at keeping up this thing. Mel informed me the other day that I have to give up my total control and let her have an input. Okay...update. I am living in Wasilla and working in Kotzebue. I am still on a two week on and off shift. It has been a struggle as my employer does not know what it wants to do with our program from day to day...Our lives have consisted of the perfect storm of decisions. Where do we live? Do we buy or rent? Should we keep the foster kids? Where should I work? etc...Hopefully we will start knocking some of these things off the list.

It is beautiful in Wasilla. The snow has melted, everything is green and the birds are singing. I wish I had a little time to go play some golf. The kids are having fun in the yard digging holes and filling them with water to make "soup". Reminds me of the "potions I use to make when I was little. The yard is not landscaped. So in order to clean it up I get the kids to gather all of the scrub brush and we have little campfires where they roast marshmallows and make smores. The funny thing about girls is that they are very reserved around a campfire...where boys would be lighting sticks on fire and waving them about in erratic patterns over there heads...my girls sit quietly around the fire reading and chatting in a very controlled manner....I need to buy Mel some of those lounge chairs so she can hang out in the back and read her books.

Kotzebue is still struggling to start summer. The ice is half rotten. There is still piles of snow everywhere trying to melt. The temperature is in the high 30's and I hope it will rising soon. I love summer in Kotzebue...boating...fishing...hunting...hanging out on the beach...shooting...camping...riding the honda...

Talked to Mel on the phone yesterday. She told me that she caught Aidan bringing the paper in from out by the road. Let me paint the picture (A small 4 year old boy in his underwear and a T-shirt wearing green dinosaur boots swinging the paper side to side singing ...You work hard for your money...so hard for your money..

Mel has instituted a new game in the house, it is called utensil surprise. It consists of Mel blindfolding the kids, spinning them around and around and then the random picking of an assorted array of kitchen utensils. This is not knife fork or spoon. We are talking the thing you stir and scoop spaghetti with, Spatulas, tongs etc...then the kids have to eat their entire meal with the one utensil...The kids love it and it is fun to watch...

Random thoughts by Chris Olsen

Things have gotten a little more complicated for the Olsen's. I am now commuting back and forth from Wasilla to Kotzebue for work. Although in this day and age we just have to be thankful that we are employed and that the family is healthy... I just finished my first two weeks on the new schedule. I tried to come home a day early so I could make sure I got home in time but the plane broke down in Nome and Alaska Airlines put us up in the Aurora Hotel. It was really nice... much better than anything in Kotzebue. I was surprised how much Nome is like a real city. They had little shops and everything. People claim that Kotz is a city,but it is just a big Village. There really is nothing in Kotz. Nome actually has a swimming pool, a movie theater and at least one fast food chain (Subway)... The next morning another Jet landed and took us on to Anchorage. I got home and we immediately had to prepare for Emma's baptism. Mel bought her a beautiful white dress, she looked like a little princess. And if you know Em. She put it through a fair amount of twirl practice. It was a very nice night. I got to baptize and confirm my little girl. We had some family over and I got to see my lovely wife for the first time in a month. I really appreciate her for all the work she does while I am gone. It is amazing how being away for a while, magnifies all of the things we love about a person...Man I love that woman...

This week we have been having blizzards left and right. The day before I came back to Kotzebue there was a big storm and one of the cargo planes crashed on the ice. No one was hurt thank goodness. I was kind of disappointed when I went out to take a picture of it and it had already been moved. One of my co-workers got a good picture. Maybe I will get a copy and post it. This is a picture of the mailbox out front of the post office. This might be the reason that mail delivery is so slow here.

Emma had her 2ND grade concert last week. (She is the one in the middle with the blue dress) Mel and I went and was expecting the same o'l kid concert, but the music teacher had other ideas. Instead of a holiday concert they took a few more months and worked really hard on a Broadway theme. Each class sung 2 songs and then they had a big finally at the end. It was amazing!!! they were all in tune, they knew the songs and it was the shortest concert ever at 25 minutes, Perfect!!!

Aidan is the funniest little guy...He loves music. He likes to borrow Emma's I-pod. He has the music bug. The little man can remember lyrics to almost everything he hears. Although in the car when Mel and I are talking he is always yelling "turn it up" He loves the radio blaring while he sits back in his car seat and belts it out...Man we get a kick out of him...

Raylene is quite the little character. She loves to dress up and play superhero. Although I am not sure what she is suppose to be in this picture... Kind of looks like a sword fighting super airline pilot... although if you can fly with a cape why would you be flying a airplane.. and how would you get the sword pass TSA?