Summer's Over Already?

Alaskan summers are like rare flowers - their blooms are brief, and all the sweeter for it.  So it's a bit surprising to look back over scores of photos from the past few months and see just how much we were able to cram into such a short time.  Calvin celebrated his 6th birthday, Chloe her 10th, and Brandon replaced his 30 year-old Saab with a new Subaru.  We spent the night in a cabin and went canoeing at our favorite lake, visited Fairbanks for a weekend (including the University of Alaska Museum and a surprisingly fantastic car museum), and took in the State Fair.  Calvin met Santa Claus at the big guy's house in North Pole. Brandon and Malcolm backpacked several miles along a section of the Iditarod Historic Trail, hiking over a glacier and cresting the Crow Pass.  Chloe now has reading glasses and is playing the clarinet, Malcolm is nearly a First Class Boy Scout, and Calvin is officially a violin player.  And just when we thought we'd done enough for one summer, we happily hosted a very cool world-traveling English couple by the names of Ed and Rachel who are traversing the globe on a pair of tiny Honda C90 motorcycles.  We sold our own 1975 BMW R75/6 motorcycle this summer, but hope to buy a new Suzuki V-Strom 1000 next year.

 

Needless to say, it's been whirlwind, as usual.  And of course, entirely worth it.  We wouldn't have it any other way.