Hey everyone! With nearly 20 hours of sunlight at summer's peak, you can imagine how busy we try to stay this time of year. We've got 5 months of winter that will be here whether we're ready or not, so right now we're enjoying the sunshine and "hot" weather (it was 78 yesterday - a scorcher!), and trying to get out every weekend. Yesterday we returned from another camping trip. As has now become our custom, we rented a canoe the next morning and paddled around Byers Lake in Denali State Park, which is the smaller cousin to Denali National Park. It's perfect for us, because power boats are prohibited. This means clean water, no waves and no yahoos. As a result, we paddled out to the lake's center and floated about eight feet away from a big loon, who preened himself next to us and put on a good show of black feathers, before diving ten feet underwater and jetting off about fifty feet, like a penguin. Later we cruised up near one of the lake's two pairs of swans, complete with their three cygnets in tow. The sky was cloudless and impossibly blue, and we'd dip our hats in the water from time to time to stay cool. To the west lay what we assumed was Denali (Mt. McKinley). It was many miles away, and behind a nearer mountain range, but it was massive. We also picked about a pound of wild blueberries during our stay, and Sunday morning Brandon made a syrup from them for breakfast.
Malcolm starts kindergarten next month, and Chloe will turn three on August 31. They're still loving preschool, have made lots of friends, and have begun spending weekends with some of their new buddies. We spend as much time together as we can, sometimes to the confusion of our coworkers, and often outside. Our vegetable garden is starting to burst with corn, zucchini, peas and broccoli, and is serving as a great test run for next year, when we plan to get serious with it. We've continued bringing down a few trees on the property to build up our firewood supply (we'll need about 2 1/2 cords), and we've even purchased a used treadmill to stay fit without having to leave the house. The weather may be beautiful now, but it's not very easy to jog when there are two feet of snow on the ground.
Stephanie has made a huge effort to land her next job, and this week will attend three interviews and an orientation. Once she's in her new position, we'll get pregnant with either Molly or Calvin. Brandon's brother Ryan and his wife Heather just found out they're pregnant with their first baby too, so Heather and Steph will be able to commiserate together. Brandon's kept up his homebrewing, and currently has a tripel and a hefeweizen fermenting. In a few more weeks the raspberries and cranberries on our property will ripen, and he'll use them in upcoming batches.
The state fair is about a month away, we still want to visit the reindeer farm again, do some more camping, barbecue our brains out and generally enjoy every last second of summer while we can. We hope everyone "Outside" is doing well. We love and miss you all. Take care!
Always,
Chloe, Malcolm, Stephanie and Brandon
