All we are saying....

is set Maggie free...



Maggie is the one and only elephant here in Alaska. There is A LOT of controversy surrounding her Arctic existence. Jamison's little friend Abe (pictured above) adores her and they make frequent trips to the zoo just to see her. Poor Abe had no idea that we spent part of our Memorial Day weekend at a small rally to encourage the zoo to send her to a sanctuary somewhere outside of Alaska.

Ok, ok...truth be told..we-my brood(to include Kenai), Abe, his mom Jodi and little brother Dallion-we were more than partly drawn by the idea of something as bizarrely Alaskan as an elephant protest. Oh, did I mention her treadmill?

YeeHaw!!

The 2nd and 3rd graders did a little country hoedown with great music and some serious square dancing. I have to admit, while the parents were told not to go out and buy things for the event, I couldn't resist the red boots. AND if you could have seen her when they were told to swing their hips....she had her back to us and even LeighAnne commented on her little booty.

First rule of fight club is...

you don't talk about fight club.

How High Can You Fly

The girls participated in a Jump for Heart jump-rope-a-thon. It was a wonderful Alaskan spring afternoon and they were worn out by the end.

If we are lucky, they will be able to have their choir concert outdoors next week...watch for those pictures coming soon

The $1,000,000 playground

Seriously.

Nanah nanah boo boo

This post is 100% for Brandon.

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so....

Sister secrets

You know, the girls fight-A LOT. But, they get along like the best of friends, too. Which I love-because, let's face it, when you are an Army Brat, sometimes the only friend you have is your sibling...and when you have a crazy evil moma, a sister is an important ally.

Here's a glimpse at some sisters plotting their moma's demise.

Train boy rides the short bus

Here's my train boy. He found a Thomas bike helmet at Walmart. Best $21.68 I ever spent. He wore it non-stop the first 48 hours. To the grocery, my friend's house, picking up the sisters from school, TO BED!!! He got a big ol' headache the 2nd day and I convinced him not to wear it 24/7. Whew.

All my April Fools

Should you be living under a rock and somehow missed this little news clip, then you might be wondering...and the answer is yes, we are affected by it, yes, we are disappointed that our "half way mark" was pushed back, but yes, we are fine....

However, our month has be riddled by other issues...like, strep throat....
...which is why we missed our 2nd Easter Sunday service in a row.....


and, my personal favorite....


CHICKEN POX!!!

Yes...he's got the chicken pox shot...I don't know...my wonderful doctor neighbor came over and had a look and verified...and told me now Jamison was doubly immune. I'm just hoping and praying that the girls don't get it. They don't need to miss any more school.

Speakig of school, the girls are doing great. I had parent/teacher conferences on Thursday, and I tell you, I've always known my girls were pretty special, but to have 2 teachers in a row tell you how wonderful they are...well, I guess my fears of raising ax murders...or worse-mini-Paris Hilton's...are put to rest. I do have to give a lot of acknowledgement to the incredible teachers they have-teachers that really "get" my girls.

Well, that's been our April in a nutshell. Hopefully illnesses and extra sunshine won't keep me from posting regularly.

Hoppy Easter

Alright, a little cliche, but here's some pics to keep you from rolling your eyes.

Little Mermaid conquers a mountain

Tim took each girl on an individual date. SarahBeth wanted to climb a mountain. OK. So they climbed a mountain.

Frick 'n Frack

I tried my hardest to get these two to look at me and give me a nice smile. HOWEVER, the TV was on...you all know how they are....but they look so alike in this picture, I just had to share.

Spring has....sprung?????

Yeah, yeah, bad blogger....anyway...one winter later....


Well, sort of one winter later. I guess that depends on who you ask and where they are livin'. 'Round here is seems to be part of the Spring Break package deal to get yourself a fresh bit of snow. BUT!!!! I'm an eternal weather optimist...it should be turning around any day now and melting real quick. It is, after all, the end of March.

I guess I should also add that I didn't take this picture. TIM DID!!! He's home for a little R 'n R until the end of the month. The kids are on spring break, so it's been kids and daddy wrestle hour everyday all day. Jamison hardly recognizes me as a part of his world and Kenai is sleeping oh so peacefully now that she doesn't have to keep watch over us all. If you squint your eyes and tilt your head it would almost appear that Tim never left at all.

Friends in all spaces and far away places

A.K.A My new desktop background

Here's a picture of Tim and Kent, a friend from Germany. I could be wrong, but I believe they last saw each other in Afghanistan.

Tim is well. He's offically in the place he will be for the next year. We don't have an offical address yet, but if your interested in knowing just email me.

Got any halibut recipes?

Tim had this whole week off. The end is very near and everybody had block leave. (If you aren't following, email me. We'll talk.) So, while we've been busy wrapping up a few last minute details and honey-do's, we've also made sure to have fun too.

Tim took a charter boat out of Seward on Wednesday with a friend from work. After a long day of fishing Tim helped reel in a 276 pound Halibut! While he didn't get to lay ultimate claim to the big one, he still came home with 50 POUNDS of Halibut!!!

Here's a few pics of his conquest.

Following the tourist

If there is anything we have learned in our world travels, it's this: when all else fails, follow the tourist, they seem to know where they are going.

This is especially true with wildlife here in Alaska. No matter how long people have lived here, they will pull over and stop to observe any creature that is in sight.

As we were headed to catch the train the other day, the traffic came to a stand still. And that's when I hollered, "start looking!" Sure enough there was a giant pod of Beluga whales swimming down the Turnagain Arm. Everyone one was so in awe that we were all silent and you could hear them "pppshhhhh" as they came to the surface. However, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get a picture of their white backs. Here's a picture anyway. It was only last night that I realized how beautiful the water and mountains were behing them.

I Found my thrill....

on Blueberry Hill....

We found a TON of blueberries last year on a ski slope, so we couldn't let the rest of town rob us of the yummy memories. And just in case we forgot who provided all that natural goodness, He put a beautiful, perfect rainbow behind the mountain-just to remind us!

Alaska Railroad Riders!!!

We finally did it yesterday. We took our train boy on his first offical train ride. We caught the train at Portage (the glacier for those that have been here) and rode into the mountains. The journey was absolutely beautiful. We sat in a dome topped train that allowed us a great view all around and a sweet park ranger that just ended up hanging out with us answering every single question LeighAnne could fire at her. Oh, and there were only 9 of us on the whole train. If we saw something we wanted to look at longer, they radioed the driver, and we would stop. A few times we even backed up to look at things.

Jamison was in hog heaven and could care less about all the glaciers and creatures we saw. He loved standing between the cars and watching the engine do it's thing. He just talked and talked to the conductor. The only time he was uncomfortable was when he got to take pictures with the conductor right on the engine. He wasn't real thrilled about the loud noise.

Overall, it was a precious memory and the best way to spend a Labor Day.

Termination Dust

'Round here we call that first dusting of snow on the mountain tops termination dust-meaning ofcourse, summer has been terminated.

Last year it hit September 1st. I was OK with that. It was, after all, September. And it didn't snow until Thanksgiving. Sooo, imagine how unhappy I am that the "dust" hit August 11th this year!

But, no matter what this winter may bring, there is something so beautiful about that first sprinkle of snow on those mountain tops. It's like God dusted them with powdered sugar.

The Deck

If you recall, we moved in last year and set to work on putting in the yard. This year, Tim's goal was to get a deck put in. I have to tell you, I'm always impressed by my husband's ability to get jobs done-but this time he outdid himself. It's a great deck!


Now, here's my favorite view of the deck!!!!