18 x 24

remember this post http://themiebs.blogspot.com/2012/02/another-building-project.html ?

last weekend, ben and some loyal friends flew out to our cabin site to begin the building project.  they completed the foundation and rolled the floor joist.  i think they felt accomplished at what was finished in just a few days' time.

he's telling me: we'll be cozy by the wood stove this winter!  another trip out there, and he'll have the floor sheeted and walls framed.   but, i keep thinking, that's pretty ambitious considering he's taking the kids with him next time!  what - they're HUGE helpers!  no?!

putting in the posts for the foundation
view 1

 view 2

 putting up the beams

rolling joists 

ben didn't want to sheet the floor because he figured it would be covered in snow next time he made it out.  so, rather than shoveling snow, they wrapped the pile in a tarp and called it good.  next visit, they'll be able to throw the plywood sheets down and frame up the walls.

18 x 24 foot cabin!

sunday night, they got weathered in; talkeetna had some serious winds so the 206 couldn't take-off.  this wasn't expected, and they only brought food for the two days... so what did my mountain man do - take the boys out and catch some trout!  (boat availability, thanks to granddad!)

zoo & a work party

the owner of ben's company is a pretty smart man.  toward the end of the party, i wandered over to thank him for having such a fun gathering - to have a company party, at the zoo of all places, with a plethora of kid-focused games including prizes, i mean, huge hit for my family, in particular.  he replied that he thought it was better than doing a holiday party where the focus is around an open bar.  ha!  and to be honest, it wasn't just the kiddos that had a great time.

 super-serious face painting.

 red spider & web for jb and a pink dinosaur for dyl.

the sun & flowers were an afterthought.

 so many games!  

plinko was their favorite.

dyl & caleb.  currently, he works with ben, and also, he is living in the studio while his house is being built.  dylan tells me daily that "i like caweb" and she includes him in her prayers and thoughts at night, along with our old friend sean.  we're gonna have to watch this one - three and a half, and she's always boy-crazy.  caleb is mid-20s and not at all interested in kids, practically his words exactly.  slowly but surely, she's breaking him...

 

super-fun party!

father's day hike

the butte.  one of our favorite hikes.  it's relatively close, it doesn't take us that long, and it's exciting to see the kiddos climb faster and more swiftly with each visit.  dylan was the shining star of this trip.  she needed zero help and complained zero minutes!  we actually had to yell to her to slow down and wait for us.  that girl is going to be climbing the wrangells with benji, scoping out sheep on the mountain tops.  

ugh.  are you sick of the blue skies yet?  i know, me neither.

and, they're off!

 she's always been dada's girl

 no help needed!

 what the kiddos navigated themselves

benji's pointing to them, waaay ahead of us

 made it, dada - high five!

 opening cards & gifts

 one of the best fathers i know

the kids have discovered the best part of hiking: running down the mountain!

march 10th

our last anniversary was quite different.  i was svelte, but in a big, full gown, sun-kissed cheeks, adorned in fragrant flowers.  it was 80-some degrees and my kids were both taking daily 3-hour snoozes from being sun soaked.  this anniversary?!  no more big gown, just big ol' me.  i could use some sun, but thank goodness for daylight saving and an added hour of sun spilling into our great room.  dylan still naps; jb if i run him hard enough.  the only constant in my life, our life, is benji.  he's forever handsome.  forever lighting up the children's lives.  and mine.  he's the best thing to happen to me.  he's given me the greatest gift a girl could ever hope for

love.  

i feel an incredible amount of adoration, love and thankfulness for him.

2007.  so many blessings that year...

and 2012.  

the second love of my life.

it takes a small army for me to get dressed, while benji was ready within 15 minutes.  alone.

getting sewed in

 about to make our super-windy walk

grandpa vern's kerchief

a moment

ok, now it's coming together.  

i now know who to blame for her chapstick/lipgloss obsession...

none of this could be possible without all these fine folks.

plains bison [bison bison bison]

your chances of drawing a bison tag are to be compared to getting chomped on by a shark or struck down by lightning.  so in other words, my husband is a very lucky guy.  and, he knows it.

the day the names were released online, ben received many, many phone calls full of explicit language from extremely envious guys on the other end of the line.  he laughed it up with every single one of them.  even i was getting phone calls, yes, yes, that's my ben that received the tag.  

it's been nearly a year ago now, (that the names were posted) so this has been something he's looked forward to and planned all year.  i'm so happy and so proud of him - all the guys, really - and all his hard work to make this happen.  nobody wants to hunt in delta junction at negative 40 degrees, wind blowing, piercing through all your layers... but... wait, they DO want to, they're crazy enough, man enough and God bless them for it!

 ben and sean

 ben and jerry

they left on a friday morning and returned on a wednesday afternoon.  it wouldn't matter if it was only a long weekend, i would still have missed ben dearly.  dylan, too.  we were happy to welcome the boys home.  {ok, so dylan was really more excited to see sean, but it had been a while since his move out of state...}

ben was eager to show off his new trophy, calling me from the shop.  with the valley winds blowing (shocker, i know) they quickly unloaded the haul of meat and horns and, well, yuck.  i'm so pregnant.  this stuff never bothers me, and yet, i could smell it a mile away.  my heightened sense of smell is ridiculous these days...

but look - he's so proud.  

as he should be.

 that's bison heart, in the bottom right picture.

"mama, i luf sean."

august sheep hunt

ben and two of his friends, don and sean, went on a ten-day sheep hunt on the barnard glacier (yes, ON the glacier) near the town of mccarthy, nestled in the wrangell mountains.  

i was suppose to be on this hunt.  i really can't express the disappointment i had for days approaching and weeks after.  we had been planning this hunt for months - well, no, the better part of the year, really.  getting pregnant was something we were hoping for, but just kept saying, it can happen any time after the sheep hunt.  we all know God has different plans for us, and i was happy to be missing out on the hunt this year, if it meant bringing home a healthy babe in the not-so-distant future.  the mountains and the sheep aren't going anywhere...

as excited as i was about taking a sheep, i was even more excited to capture the beauty of that northern region of alaska.  i pleaded with benji:

 

puh-lease take pictures while you're out there - and not just the trophy pictures!  

my man more than succeeded at his task:  164 pictures in ten days.  atta boy.      

benji, spotting for sheep

the boys and sean's ram

 camp.  home.  

cooking some fresh protein to get through the last few miles until pick up.

my biggest worry about going out on a 7-10 day hunt was not so much as if i could do it, but could i go that long without a shower?  i think the longest has been a weekend camping or cabin trip.  but a week and a half?  ewww.  my husband doesn't worry about something as trivial as a shower because he's man enough to take a dip in glacier water.  i would rather be stinky than do such a silly, nonsensical task like bathing in a glacier.

after ten days, i'm sure this was a welcomed sight.