We have been busy!

I am sure that most of you think that we have been absent from any recent updates because of our new addition. Yes, that is true, but mostly we have been busy, busy, busy! I do not like being pregnant, so we had a very busy August planned for months to make up for all the big, clumsy small plans of the preceding 9 months. We didn't want Pilot to think life in this house was going to be calm! He has had to jump right in to things with the rest of us. We blessed him when he was just over 1 week old while Brigg's mom and sister were here visiting. 

 It was a big and busy day for a very small boy! We were so blessed to have so many family members there for a wonderful blessing.

 Here are all of us together afterwards...considering the number of kids in the picture, I think it turned out very well.

 And the one and only current family picture of us....me and 4 boys. I love how Pilot is peeking out over his blanket in this picture. He is a cute baby! (We also finally have a couch in our house. That should have gotten its own post before Pilot was born. We lived a whole year without a couch, and now we have a couch AND a love seat. That would make me feel overly grown up, but they are purple, so maybe we aren't quite that grown up yet)

 Here are Stratton and Dash with their Idaho cousins, grandma and aunt taking in the sights of Fairbanks. We are so glad that they were able to come and meet Pilot and entertain the big boys!

 The day after the Neibaurs left to go home to Idaho, we hit the road for Valdez and some silver salmon fishing, rock collecting and rainy exploring.

 Stratton was old enough to go on the boat this year and catch his first salmon! He did great with it and loved every minute of it, even the slow parts.

 Here he is with one of his first salmon! A true Alaska boy.

 When the boat got back, Dashell didn't think it was fair that he didn't have a fish, so he adopted this one as his pet fish. It took some serious convincing for him to part from it. And when we got in the car, he asked "What's that stinky smell? It smells like fish!" I don't think he ever believed that is was him making the car smell a little too much like the ocean. We were so lucky to have beautiful weather and great company in Valdez with my brother's family and my parents.

 The next weekend, we headed south again for a quick camping trip at Fielding Lake. We found some beautiful spots and I don't think it will be our last camping trip to that part of the state. Brigg got to catch a few more grayling after the kids went to sleep and we had a great time exploring by a nearby glacier. Here are the boys with a rock snowman we found on our hike.

 All 4 Neibaur men (and Zeus) down the valley from the glacier.

Here are the boys by an old abandoned sluice box we found on the same hike. Just a few days after we came home, Brigg had to take an unexpected trip to Utah and I got to have a long weekend with all 3 boys and a case of pinkeye. That was the less fun part of the past month. But now we are back on track for a fun fall starting with Stratton's 5th birthday (pictures coming soon), the start of preschool and life as usual with a slightly bigger family picking back up.