China Poot Bay

Just wanted to add some pictures to go with my story about going to get the fish. These are pictures I took on the way over, with Justin's camera - its a really nice camera, and I look forward to learning to use it more.

Part of the view to the right as we went into China Poot Bay.
One of the arches cut into the rock with the ocean. I love the color of the water.
Our fish. Red salmon (my favorite - not as big as others, but really good eating, and fun to catch, they have a great texture and aren't too "fishy")

The channel on the way into the bay is pretty much solid rock, with a few plants kind of clinging on the rock. Its beautiful over there. Justin and I would love to live over there, especially if we had fast boat. :)
The pointed peak just off center is China Poot peak, the land in the middle juts out, and you go around the right side to get into the river/bay area. Its REALLY shallow, and you have to go in when the tide is high, or going in, because otherwise you get stuck. We were in about 2-3 feet of water, which isn't a lot for a boat.
Just a view of how green the water was on the way over. Kind of a neat little arch there.

Mya

Alicia was trying to get a picture of Mya, but Mya kept coming closer and closer, so finally, Alicia reached out her hand to sit her down, and Mya tried to lick her hand.

My new baby

We added a new addition to our family this week. Five years ago, as most of you know, our beloved dog, Kate had to be put down for kidney failure and none of us could bear to replace her. But this week, there was a dog in the paper that caught my eye and when we went into the pound, I was impressed with her personality and her desire to obey, so I brought her home. I have to say "I" because there was quite a bit of resistance from everybody else in the house - Fluffy wouldn't come out of the attic for 2 days and everybody else was giving me the cold shoulder, to boot.

But this dog is sooooooooooo sweet and wants to be liked. She is really smart and loves to play ball and any other game you can think of. She was in the pound because her owner was a single woman and she said the dog just needed so much affection, it was wearing her out. I can see -that - it takes all four of us, full-time, playing with her and petting her, but she will calm down soon. The cat doesn't care for dog games, but he has come out of the attic and can occasionally be in the same room, until the dog starts sniffing him and then, we have to separate them.

Her name is Myah, but we keep calling her Kate, because she reminds us all of our Kate, so we may change her name. She is a year and a half - bigger than Kate in the legs and body. She is half black lab and supposed to be half-retriever. Her coat is black and brown with bits of yellow. We don't know if she is half golden retriever, chesapeake retriever, or german shepard. Justin used to train bird dogs for Ted Turner (tv mogul) and Brian used to train hunting dogs, so we are in good hands. The best thing about her that we never got from Kate, is that Myah will not run off when you have her off the chain. We really like that part - she is able to walk around with Brian or the kids and play in the yard, without having to be chained up all the time. She likes to ride in the front of the truck with Brian, too.

We'll try to post some pictures of her tomorrow.

An after post to the fish post alicia put up last week - Sandy asked if we had been smoking the Reds and the answer is no. Here's the schedule: we eat kings fresh and freeze just one or two - they have a really high fat content and don't stay well in the freezer for very long; we can the reds- they are a softer fish and have really pretty flesh, but aren't really dense enough to withstand the smoking process; we smoke the silvers - they have a pretty flesh, but are dense enough to not fall apart in the smoker. Silvers come in August and September.... so never fear, the smoker will be used this summer.

Check back in tomorrow or the next day, and we will have some pictures of my baby. Love, Charlotte

Fourth of July

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post from our fourth of July activities. We had mostly a quiet day, then Justin and I convinced dad to take us out in the boat, over to China Poot Bay, for dipnetting some salmon. I LOVE to go over there, ever since my friend Angie and her family took me years ago. Its so beautiful over there. Though I am kind of accident prone over there. Dad and I were figuring today that it might have something to do with hiking all this way up the river, then you have to pack out like 30-40 pounds of salmon in a gunny sack on your back, and it throws off your balance. Well, it does mine anyway......

So dad and I hiked up the river (Justin couldn't dipnet this year, since he isn't technically considered a "resident" until next year), to the first big waterfalls, I'm not sure how far it is, but its a ways. Then we waded across the river, and you stand about mid thigh in water, and sweep the net down river around this great big rock in the middle of the river, and the fish kind of "hide" at the base of it. Dad was dipping them out 2-3 at a time, but I only took one at a time, I couldn't have gotten more than one anyway, they were pretty fresh and wild. It only took us about 5 minutes for both of us to dip all 12 of our fish out, way longer to walk up there then get all the fish.

Then we loaded our fish into our bags, and started back out. Dad went a lot faster, so I was kind of plodding along behind, as I'm prone to do because I'm not big on balance when I'm hiking, its like I lose all sense of up and down, but anway, I'm walking along yesterday when SLIP down I went crossing the river, and before I could even think I was up to my neck in water, one hand gripping the 35 pounds of fish hanging off my back, and my other hand gushing blood from where I cut it on the rock.

Later then I thought about it, this was almost EXACTLY the same spot where I mashed up/broke my leg a few years ago. But anyway, I kind of scraped myself out of the river, and hobbled the rest of the way across, then had to try and maneuver my way down the river and back to the boat, over big slippery rocks and boulders, and some fast, cold water. By the time I got back to the boat I was NOT happy, my hand was still bleeding, and my other one was still carrying all the fish, and was so tired from not being able to switch back and forth between hands. It took me forever to get back to the boat, the guys were wondering what had happened to me, but I finally got back, and Justin and dad helped me rinse my hand, and put a bandaid on it. So today I've got it all butterflied together, it was pretty deep at the beginning. Then we decided to go halibut fishing to kind of cheer me up a little bit. :) It was pretty fun, no halibut, but I caught a pollock (pollock are what they use to make fish sticks, fake crab, fish sandwiches at McDonalds, etc.), and an Irish Lord (totally useless fish that have no purpose that anyone has yet discovered). So we ended up with 13 red salmon, and 1 pollock.

Today I've been canning the fish we got yesterday, two canner loads so far (30 pints), and still have some fish leftover, and dad went to get more today, so might have to do 2 canners tomorrow too. I did some special fish for Justin and dad, and put a dried chili pepper and garlic salt in a few jars to kind of mix things up a little. Should be good on sandwiches for them.

Other than that, not much has been going on around here except fishing, working, and getting settled into married life (well Justin and I have been getting settled anyway, I assume mom and dad are already used to being married after 30 years, hehe). Hope you're all well, and I didn't bore you with my bloody hand story. :) Love you all. Alicia

More pictures

Wedding pictures

WE DID IT !!!!

I don't have any photos, yet, they are still in Anchorage with Alicia and Justin -- so you'll just have to take my word for it, but we actually did manage to have a wedding today. It was a perfect summer day for our drive up to Anchorage. Alicia was just glowing and she and I had a special time together getting ready in the bride's room at the temple. When our temple was first built, it didn't have a bride's room, and ever since we went thru during the open house, we have been dreaming about getting ready for her wedding in that beautiful room. On the wall, is a beautiful painting of Queen Esther from the Bible. As we were getting ready, I reminded her of the story of Queen Esther and what her uncle had said to her, That it was possible that she had been born at this time for this purpose and how Alicia had been born at this time for her life's purpose.

Without knowing we had that conversation, President Briggs mentioned something to that effect when he started the wedding. We were glad to have Pres. Briggs do the sealing - he had originally said he would love to do the wedding whenever we could get the clearance, but then we had to arrange it so quickly and he had already scheduled a patriarchal blessing for a girl who was flying in from Dutch Harbor ( hundreds and hundreds of miles away - out on the Aleutian chain) that obviously, he couldn't reschedule. On Thursdays, Pres. Briggs does a session as the sealer and one of his ordinance workers is a distant cousin of Brian's that we had never met before. He came today, and I suspect he had a hand in helping Pres. Briggs to rearrange his schedule by a few minutes, so he was able to do the wedding. President Briggs was our stake president for many years, before we were active, then he was the education person for our stake, so he had come to our house, to set us up for home seminary when we first moved back from Tok...then for 6 years he was the temple president. He was so excited the first time he saw us in the temple - he remembered how inactive we had been and how hostile some of us were to the church.

Anyway, back to the wedding, it was very small - our dear Bishop and Maxine came, and Jess and Jennifer Clutts came and Bob Duncan. Jess and the Hillmans were three of the folks that came when Brian and I were sealed, and Jess was the only one that came when Alicia was sealed to us. We have missed them while they were off in the Army and have missed grandparenting their babies. and are glad they are home.

We felt many angels and loved ones there with us in the sealing room - it was an unusual wedding talk, but it was very special and we were all touched by his pronouncements of Alicia being a choice and special pearl of great worth.

The kids are spending a couple days in Anchorage for a mini-honeymoon and Brian and I are rattling around our big empty house. I guess we will need to learn to talk to each other. We've had "kids" around for 35 years and are entering that new ground that we hope will be a great new time in our relationship.

We will post pictures as soon as the kids get back and settled. It was hard to get a good picture of the kids and the temple - when it is sunny like this, Moroni is SOOOOOO bright, you can't photograph him - the temple is so small, he is so close. LOVE YOU ALL and thank you for your love and support. Charlotte

WEDDING Confirmed

We, Brian and Charlotte Carper, are pleased to announce the wedding of our daughter, Alicia Marie, to Justin Clark. The wedding will take place in the Anchorage Alaska Temple on Friday, June 29, at 12 noon. Please be at the temple by 11:30 am, if you would like to attend.

That's what you call ironic

So after 5 years of waiting and praying and hoping and begging, we got DSL........ My computer doesn't have a port for DSL. SIGH

Interesting letter in mail today

Alicia stopped to get their mail today and had a very quiet, dignified envelope from room 408, south temple street, Salt Lake City, Utah. She immediately called Justin and as soon as Alicia got home, the stake president called and said he got a letter from the same place today.

So, There are 3 tiny steps that have to happen now. interview with the bishop, interview with the stake president, schedule the temple. They are hoping for this Saturday, so Alicia can be a June bride (watch the movie, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers). We'll post when we find out if the temple can do the wedding this weekend or not. Thanks for all your prayers. Love, Charlotte

Solstice, Part 2

I forgot one of the main reasons I blogged yesterday.

After five years of calling and begging and emailing the phone company, we are so excited to announce that we will have DSL, starting this week. We have, literally, been on the waiting list for five years. What this means for all of you, is that if you call us now, and we are online, we will be able to answer the phone....so you don't have to keep calling and calling while we tie up the phone line playing Bookworm or doing family history. the modem is supposed to be here today or tomorrow.

the other thing I forgot to tell you about was the wildfires. After 4 excessively wet years, we are having a somewhat dry month. People are so used to it being soking wet that they are not using proper precautions with burn piles and such and we have had three wildfires this week. One was on the next street over from us. It was the first one and they had little bombers and big bombers and the helicopter with the water bag. That was all exciting as they flew over our house. At one point, when the fire was first starting, the helicopter was looking for a place to fill the water bag, and he spent some time hovering over our pond trying to decide if it was deep enough to use (it is only 1 foot deep and full of grasses now, so it wasn't enough). then at bedtime another plane flew over low and we went out to see what it was and we looked up and here was something floating out of the plane - they dropped 8 smoke jumpers and then their gear. It was not that serious a fire - it never broke 3 acres- and Alicia could hear the jumpers late at night laughing and talking amongst themselves. It was basically just a practice.

so we started with a 3 acre fire, then one broke out half-way between here and Homer, and it burned about 40 acres, I think. then last night one broke east of ninilchik, where Brian used to log and it went to 100 acres in less than 1/2 hour and just kept growing all night. We haven't heard how big it is yet today, but it was over 600 acres before we went to bed. It is so weird to hear helicopters and air planes flying back and forth. They had 3 blackhawk helicopters running around yesterday.

We are pretty protected here - we cleared out our dead trees years ago and keep a green barrier around the house. All these dumb people who have left the beetle killed trees just standing all over their property are the ones having the fires. (don't have to worry about lightning caused fires here - we don't have lightning, one of the few places on earth that doesn't).
Okay, that is all I think I forgot to tell you. Love, Charlotte

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice is upon us and we still don't have a wedding or a wedding date. The First Presidency sent for more information last week so we sort of feel like we are back to square one. It is very frustrating for the kids. Our dear bishop is going to work really hard this week to see if he can find out what is going on.

In the meantime - we got thru king salmon season. Brian caught our limits in the Anchor river...he didn't feel the need to stand around down at the lagoon in Homer to add to those numbers. Then Saturday was the best clamming tide of the year, so Brian and Alicia and Justin went down and got some clams. Alicia fried them up a new way and they were spectacular. It was definitely a labor of love because she is allergic to them now and her hand felt like it was on fire the whole time she was cooking them for us and then she had to eat a chicken patty. She's a sweety.

We got a garden planted this year - we have radishes and spinach and peas up. We planted a lot of broccoli, but it has been cold and they don't look too happy. This is the first couple days of summer weather we have had in 2 years. It is so nice to have sunshine and warmth. YAY!!!

Alicia and Autumn have restarted their catering company and are in the loop to cater a golf tournament at the grand opening of the Anchor Point Golf course. It is a great opportunity for them, they have to come up with final pricing and menu, but it looks like they will have lots of contacts from this - (thank goodness for small towns) - alicia was standing in line at the post office when the manager of the golf course was asking the postal person if she knew any caterers.

Justin is working about 70 hours a week; Brian welds on boats and such - a couple days a week; Alicia works with me and teaches at the scrap book store and is developing her catering with Autumn and she has her work with the Young women; I just lay around.... I have been lupus flaring since early May and can't seem to shake it, but everyone has been really kind and taking care of me, which I appreciate ; the cat is sleep deprived because it is summer all day and night and there are BIRDS out THERE - just when he gets in and calmed down and ready to sleep, he will hear a bird call or the door open and he's off again for 3 or 4 hours. He's really, really tired.

So tomorrow is our longest day. Happy birthday to Alli and Joanna. And Happy Father's Day to all the fathers. We love you all. Charlotte

Hello!

Just a random picture from my bridal shower, of the Young Women dressed up in their toilet paper wedding dresses, from the TP dress competition. I couldn't choose a winner, they were all great! :)
Its been a while since we've updated on here, so thought I'd just post and say that we're still here, still hanging in there. :) Justin and I still aren't married, we're still waiting for everything to get straightened out. Other than that, we're kind of waiting for summer to get here too. It doesn't seem to want to break the 50 degree mark around here much. We'll get one day that's warm, and then it'll cool down again. We're waiting so that we can till and plant the garden too. Looks like its going to be another rainy summer - but we've still got hope that it'll clear up soon.

Mom's birthday was monday, so we had a little celebration for her. We had barbecued steaks, fresh corn, and cake. It was nice! Dad got mom a Mayday tree and Justin and I got her a guttendoort rugosa rose, that's supposed to grow 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and its hardy to -50, and resistant to sea spray, so should do good we hope.

Other than that, not much is new here. We're just hanging out doing our thing. :) Hope you're all well. We love you! Alicia :)

More reception pictures

Here's where my shoes ended up about an hour into the event. I've never been a big shoe wearer..... :)
here's mom, Aunt Shirley, and I, in front of the arbor thingy. Sorry you can't see all of my dress. I need to get Carolee's pictures, and Justins and see if there's a better shot of the dress.
The girls with their flowers.

Getting ready to toss the boquet to the young women. It was an "exploding" boquet (I know that's spelled wrong I just can't remember how to spell it0 but anyway, I untied it before I threw it, because I wanted everyone to get a flower. It was really fun. They were beautiful yellow/orange roses. I kept a couple at home for me. :)

Here's dad and Aunt Shirley.

Here's the gift table, before everyone showed up.
here's the coconut bon bon chocolates, these were all gone before me and Justin even got to eat.
Here's us getting ready to feed each other cake. We used forks, and were very agreed that we wouldn't smush the cake. the slice we had was pumpkin.
Eating the cake...
Sorry this picture looks weird, there were about 5 people taking pictures all at the same time, so there were several flashes, so we kind of "glow"
Here's how the room looked before everyone showed up. The tablecloths were alternating red and gold.

Heres the meat side of the food table.

Here's the fruit and veggie side of the food table.

The table for everone to sign my guest pages. I used engagement photos and put one on each 12x12 piece of paper, so there was lots of room to sign around.

Here's one of the center pieces that Carolee designed and made.

Here's the watermelon bowl. We hollowed out watermelons (Autumn did, I only did one) and then filled it with fruit mixture, then the skewers that mom made were stuck in the back like a fan.

Welcome to the land of wedding food

Here's my Cake! I think it turned out really good. It had purple wax flowers, pink roses, red roses, babies breath, this pink flower that I'm not sure what it was called, purple daisy type flowers (we think they were asters), and dark red/purple snapdragons.

Here's mom! :)

Here's the hall as we were prepping. Carolee and Ashley (one of the young women) are in the background. In front is my cake! I'd just finished putting it together, and wanted to get a picture of everything getting ready. Those are the leftover flowers on the bottom right.

Here's a big pile of the food, all prepped up. We had strawberries (10 pounds), 4 watermelons, a box of Kiwi that were SOOOOO not ripe, broccoli, celery, red/orange/yellow bell peppers, carrots, and pineapples, plus olives and pickles.

Here are the brownie cakes. I circle cut big sheet pans of brownies, into two sizes, rolled the sides in powdered sugar, then stuck them together with chocolate frosting, then put another "C" on top. These got snapped up in a hurry! :)

Here's Aunt Shirley, helping with the prep stuff. Her and Autumn worked on the fruits and vegetables while I put the cookies and brownies together, and when I was doing the cake. They were invaluable. Then mom put the skewers together after they got the fruits all cut up.

Here's the sugar cookie wedding "cakes". I made them with 4 sugar cookies, held together with frosting, then put a "C" on top. I think they were my favorite dessert, but then I'm a sugar cookies girl. :)

Recepted

Well, we pulled off the pre-wedding reception last night. It turned out really beautiful. Everyone kept going over and over about how elegant the room looked and how good the food was and how beautiful the cake and dress were. We have tons of pictures that I don't know how to download off the cameras, but I will have Alicia and Justin post them for you. It was really a magical evening and we can't wait for the paperwork to come thru so they can be officially married. We're all exhausted today so I will wait and write more later when we post the pics, just wanted you to know that it turned out really, really perfect. thanks for all your prayers and good wishes. Love, charlotte

Engagement Pictures

I just wanted to share a few of the engagement pictures that my friend Carolee took for us. It was fun to take them, and then to get to look through them all. Hope you all like them. :) Love ya! Alicia