weekend visitors and stormy weather

Saturday while I was working on finishing the netting for the chicken yard, my father-in-law and his wife arrived at our house for a weekend visit. It was so great to see them both and to be able to spend a few days with them just hanging around our house. They run an eco-tourism business (kayaking, photo-safaris, and cabin rentals) across Kachemak Bay from Homer and so they're busy busy busy in the summer and we rarely get to see them (see photos of their gorgeous home from our previous visits here and here). 

I just loved watching Riggs bond with his Opa and to see three generations of Harness men talking, laughing and playing together. 

We went on a walk around Reflections Lake and I asked Rick (Steve's dad) to take some family pictures of us. I'm not sharing any of them yet (I will later though, promise!) but he managed to get these hilarious pictures of Riggs' boot falling off in the in water and I had to share them here.

The progression of these pictures just kills me. It wasn't so funny (at least to me, everyone else was laughing) at the time, at least until Rick was able to fish the boot out with a long stick. You're my hero Rick!

They brought a little wooden car to 'build' with Riggs and he just loved it. Ever since they left all I've heard about it the car (it's actually an ambulance) that Opa built. "Opa...Cah!" over and over, so cute!

The last night they were here (Sunday night) there was a crazy windstorm and we lost power for about 12 hours. In the morning we were able to go out and survey the damage. We lost about four spruce trees, but we were thankful that none of them fell on any buildings or vehicles. Still, it makes me sad to see the beautiful trees knocked down and destined to die slowly or be cut up and stacked away somewhere. An ongoing chorus of chainsaws could be heard throughout the neighborhood from late morning through the afternoon.

Steve came home early from work and Riggs 'helped' him clean up around our property both from the storm and to get ready for snow. I loved seeing them working together, it just warmed me from my head to my toes. It was a fun, crazy, busy weekend and I'm looking forward to a quiet week around the house to recover.