Audrey comes for a visit

My sister Audrey and her family got to come for a visit two weeks ago. It was so much fun! I always feel so at home with Audrey and Sydney and Wynn warmed right up to their cousins. We spent a lot of time at the beaches and I was impressed with their weather hardiness. They even were brave enough to swim in the north Pacific Ocean! It was such a beautiful week in Juneau we got to do tons of fun things. We really miss them. I keep finding myself thinking as I lay in bed in the morning that I wonder when all the kids are going to wake up and then realizing they aren't here anymore. Sure looking forward to seeing everyone at the Pack family reunion in the next few weeks.

Yummy

My favorite creation from our raspberry patch this year has been the homemade ice cream. It had such an authentic raspberry taste and was soooo creamy! Love being able to try out different things with our abundance of raspberries!

The Berry Radar

Here he is in all his glory.... the berry radar. Bet you can't see the dozens of tiny raspberry like berries hidden in that grass can you? The berry radar can! Probably due to his smallish nature and keen eye for any kind of food.

Andy's latest craze is the coveted nagoonberry. This berries are considered the "King of the Berries" to berry hunters and are found about 2-4 inches of the ground in boggy meadows. They look like a raspberry, smell like a strawberry and taste a way I don't even know how to describe. They keep their stem and are seedy so they have to be juiced before they can be processed into jelly . Wynn was great at leading us to little patches when we flew over to Gustavus a few times in the past weeks to pick them on the Nagoonberry trail. They are found in Juneau but not anywhere close to the numbers in Gustavus. This kids are having a lot of fun with all the different berries and jams we have been making, I think its 5 so far this year. Wynn has finally realized we are in a plane when we are flying and spent the better half of our last flight back from Gustavus chanting, "Fly! Fly! Fly!" and whirling his seaplane around in the air. 

Love the berry juice all over Sydney's chin! LOL, she's not the most efficient picker since she eats them all, but she loves her berry basket.

Sassy Pants Shinsel

Mama Shinsel commonly refers to her three younger boys as sassy pants Shinsel. Today I asked Sydney to go do something and without even a pause she said, "If you give me five dollars." - She wasn't being rude; she said it very matter of factly and was serious. I have no idea where she learned that, I know I didn't teach her that so perhaps Mama Shinsel is right. Sydney got the sassy pants Shinsel gene from her daddy. :)

Southeast Alaska State Fair

We flew over to Haines for the day last Friday and checked out the southeast Alaska State Fair. The kids had a ton of fun. Sydney got to ride her first Ferris Wheel and Wynn his first carousel. Sydney was laughing hysterically on the carousel for some reason this time, and Wynn liked it until about halfway through when he wanted down... that wasn't so fun to handle a wriggling boy one a spinning ride. Apparently Wynn doesn't like animals that are bigger than him since he said no to getting close to all the goats, alpacas, and miniature ponies, but Sydney enjoyed feeding them and holding some bunnies. We had a fun time and then walked around Haines for a bit after before we flew back home. We hope to go back to Haines probably next summer and rent a car for a day to explore its "out the road" adventures since the town is just that, a town.