Sweet Smells!

Since we are talking about lilac's here is my story.
A man at work today brought me some from his house( he just lives right beside the shop).  He remembered from last year I guess when  I said I  really liked the spring lilacs. So I put it in some water and enjoyed the WONDERFUL perfume alllll night long as I sat here at the computer and did my work :)))))))))) 

Birthday Flowers !!

How about these spring flowers?!
Pam's birthday was this week and her daughter sent her these flowers. I just had to take a picture of them they are so pretty, and just make you happy to look at them :)

 

 

Yippe is't finally getting warm, I'm soooo happy!!!!  My hands and feet and nose have been cold for months now. I would love to run outside without putting on sooo many layers :/
  I haven't had even one little peep from my flowers yet, I thought for sure they would have been sticking their little heads up by now. I will have more sun out behind our place this year because a HUGE tree was cut down this winter right beside us, so maybe I can have more flowers this year!
  The chickens are ready for some green stuff too.
The birds must have come out of winter hungry, because they are emptying the bird feeders daily now, there was even a crow out there the other day and he took my suet and flew off with it!!  I found some venison  suet that we had put in the freezer a couple years ago and we melted it down and mixed some seeds in it and made some homemade suit cakes. The birds dove right in.  It may be more cost effective to buy them because it took 2 hours to melt it all down on the stove, but it was fun making them.

Happy Easter!!

Just because nobody  has put anything much on here for awhile, just thought I would wish everyone a Happy Easter, and for all of us to remember with out Jesus going to the cross and taking all that for us none of us would be here today. So we should tell him how thankful we are for what He did for us...

Window Seat!

Here is a picture I took out the window of the little puddle jumper. The scene was just breathtaking and this picture doesn't do it justice. I was glued to the window and every time I took a picture some people would turn around and look at me. Maybe they are used to it, I would never take all that for gran it. Every where I was on a plane the first thing people did was go to sleep, and never looked out the window!! Something is the matter with them for sure! I didn't sleep on any of the flights, I was like a little kid-might miss something if I went to sleep :)

Sunrise picture, we drove up on the hill behind April's house for some pictures, the snow was up to the bottom of the road signs!

Good thing we had someone with us that knew what to do!!

Jeana and Joel, he thought it was the funest thing to through rock ad make them splash!

Some of the local resdents, hanging around :)

No chance of getting sun burned on this beach!

Vacation Food!

Bear sasuage and gravy over wonderful waffles,Mmm good!

April fixed us delicious salmon for supper one night, so fast and simple too!

These are moose sasuage that Jeana brought for us to try-very good too!

She got up at 6:00 a.m. to help me make cinn. rolls for her mama and daddy before they left on their trip!

Family

Here is the wonderful family we spent the week with! Had a good time, everyone was a joy to be around. It is so nice to have a family that all gets along, we are so blessed!

Two Sisters

Here we are enjoying a brunch at a quaint little 
shop called Two Sisters. A bakery that sells homemade pastries, soups and sandwiches, with the likes that I have never tasted before!!! Amazing, that is what I would have envisioned how it would be like if we the GRAYBILL'S would have ever had a little eatery!

Little Helper!

Here is Alaiyah proud of the cinnamon rolls she helped me bake. She got up at 6:00 a.m. to help me make them so her mama and daddy would have some for breakfast before they left for their trip.
She is a good little helper, and has a sweet tooth also April said.

Heading for the Equator!

How is this for a cold picture! Yes that is snow you see too, they were delayed 1 1/2 hours in that little terminal waiting for the snow to let up so they could board the plane. It is a 30 minute flight to get from Homer, to Anchorage but it takes 5 hours to drive over the mountains that  separate the 2 places. We had turbulence coming into Homer from all the updrafts coming off those mountains. Anchorage is the only flat spot around and it is like flying down into a bowl to get to it from all the mountain ranges around. 

Little House In the Big Woods

Here is April and Jonah's house, this looks like a postcard itself if the car wasn't in it. That pile of snow is what was pushed up from the driveway. Most of it is melting but what you see is what we got today looks like more but it is only about 2 or 3 inches. April said there has been a mama moose with her baby hanging around in their back yard . I am waiting to see that!

Little Puddle Jumper

I just liked this one!

Flying low.

Here is our little puddle jumper, we had all of 16 people on this plane.

Here we are finally in Alaska, this was taken out the terminal window, b That was our plane coming around the bend to get us. You could call these little planes sky taxis because all the people that were using them had lunch boxes, grandmas and grandpas, or people coming and going to work. Kids and dogs also. Quite interesting to take it all in. A lot of the people were local Indian people. Don't know what they were because we are too far south for Eskimos.
We arrived with a temp. of 33 degrees and it hasn't changed yet, but what is so funny it I have seen numerous people with shorts and tank tops, with the windows rolled down in the cars!!! Brrrrrrrr!!!  Jonah said this is spring weather to them, wow! 
I did get to experience the north woods snow, it snowed 2" today and was so pretty-big lazy, slow snow.
In a half hour from walking off the plane here in Homer, we were sitting in April's kitchen eating smoked salmon!!
It was soo good, don't know if I have had anything quite like that.

Alaska !!

 

The day of departure is approaching quite fast and I am beginning to jump up and down on the inside now! It will be an adventure for sure we, being Rachel and I, will be traveling 3,809 miles one way. According to Google, it would take us 65 hours to drive. That would be an interesting trip also.

According to the last photos I saw of Homer there wasn't even any snow on the ground, but that could change. Rachel said last time she went a blizzard hit and impaired almost all travel. I might be in trouble because I didn't pack my snow boots :(  Oh well time will tell. So I hope to have pictures to post here if I can find access to a computer up there. So keep looking :))) 

Pretty in Pink!

A very happy birthday girl. That was a wonderful dinner we had and was very enjoyable! We always have a good time around Mama's kitchen table!!

Hungry

I think this little guy though he wasn't going to get his share so he was being a little greedy! I have had more blue jays this year than I have ever seen before. They far out numbered all the other birds put together. There favorite were the peanuts!

Excited!!!!!!!

Here is some of the beautiful wildlife that I get to see out here on the lake! I have been out here 5 years and this is only the second time I have seen eagles. The first time was only1 sitting in a tree. I was soooo excited to take these pictures. I stood outside in the same spot for more than a hour with my hands so cold I could hardly take the pictures. The wind is always blowing off the lake-that makes it bad when you are trying to take pictures. It was totally worth it though because I haven't ever seen that many at one time before. There were 8 of them out there. I think one  pictures looks like a mature pair and maybe a juvenile sitting with them. There are little fish out there that were killed when we had the bad rain storm last week maybe that brought them here, the gulls have been squabbling out there for a while now, eating all the fish. I'm glad it's cold because the smell from all the fish washed up on the bank in piles is going to be bad once it warms up :(

Minny

This was my little house guest the other say! I spoiled her- I was hand feeding her chicken she loved it! We should all be spoiled once in awhile.

Breakfast!

If you come to my house, I will fix you one of these : ) 
My specialty!

Hard at Work!

It is always a good sign when 3 Graybill ladies are  hard at work in a kitchen!!!