Our Time In Bethel June 2005- August 2008

We thought it would be fun to share our life in Bethel, Alaska with a picture journal.

A lot happened to us, and for us in our time there. While I will never look at Bethel as one of my favorite places to live, we did have a lot of good times there. We made good friends, had fun family times, and it is the place that both Hunter and Chance came home to. It was the "simple life" not very many things "of the world" there, and I will miss that too. No competing with the Jones', no fashion trends to keep up with....heck no one even would care if you didn't shower for a WEEK!

So here it is!!!

On July 30th, 2005 we had our first baby

Hunter Kelly McGee

On July 30th, 2007 we had our second baby

Chance Ben McGee


While we were in Bethel we purchased a boat. With that boat we were able to do lots, and lots of fishing. We caught some huge salmon and some medium salmon, but either way they tasted good. Believe it or not though, you can get TIRED of eating salmon!

This was a fairly good sized one.

Daddy and Hunter driving the boat!

Hunter even learned how to "bonk" the fish with the "bonking stick"

Chance and Mom were usually spectators, but we were awfully cute!

A lot of times we would pack a picnic and eat it on the boat while we were floating around. It was so much fun. Hunter loves picnics no matter where we are.

We would mostly fish from our boat with a drift net, so we could catch a lot of fish all at once.
But, Kelly still enjoyed sport fishing too.

This was a BIG one!

And this is a little one! This is actually called a smelt and it smells like a cucumber before it is cooked...weird! Hunter wasn't too sure about holding a fish.

Since we were out on the boat so much, that means we spent some time on sand bars playing too. We had fun camping with friends or just having a dinner of roasted hot dogs and s'mores with friends. It is beautiful on the river, it actually was green with trees and grass, unlike Bethel.

Dad and his boys

Kelly and Tammy with a gorgeous sunset

Family picture...smile please!

These are each of our kids on the river at the same age.

Hunter

Chance

Kelly had a great time in Bethel learning how to trap. He trapped quite a few fox and enjoyed getting them cleaned up so he could send them off to the furrier.

Hunter enjoyed wearing the furs

Kelly was also able to do some hunting. Not as much as he would have liked, but he still had fun.

Kelly and his friend Doug shot a few Ptarmigan!

Kelly of course topped off his Bethel experience with an excellent moose hunt.
(This wasn't his moose, but he helped with it!)

This is Kelly's foot next to a bear track that he saw.

We didn't usually leave Bethel to go visit family for holidays, so we created new traditions and followed the old ones too. We had fun celebrating as a little family!

Hunter's second Halloween- what a cute puppy!

Halloween 2007 -Max and the Wild Thing

Bethel usually isn't much to look at, but the fall colors are beautiful.
Fall 2006

Christmas was always fun too! We just had a 4' very fake Christmas tree. Believe it or not, there really aren't any trees to cut down and use for the holiday. But, Christmas was still great...real tree or not.

Making "gingerbread" houses- 2007

Our Family of Four- Christmas 2007
(nice hair Chance)

Kelly had a chance to fly in the blackhawk helicopter with Santa to deliver Christmas presents to the kids in the villages

Three years gave us plenty of time to experience the COLD....

And the warm with all of the BUGS!!
(Hunter is wearing a bug jacket so the no-see-ums and mosquitoes don't eat him alive)

We also had the opportunity to design and have a home built in Bethel...not the easiest place to do so.

It turned out really nice, and we will always have great memories from our "Bethel House"