May Fun

May has been a great month! First the long awaited visit from Kim! It was so much fun to be together again and have some real girl time. NO KIDS!! Thank you Nigel and Matt. Matt took time off work and we were able to spend the day down in Seward and see several different wildlifes. Kim even chased a porcupine in order to get the great picture. Two years and New York here we come! We went on a hike and posted in the snow up to our hips. Then Kim left and the sunshine came. AAAH summer is here. There is nothing like summer in AK. It's 11:00pm and looking outside you would think it was 7pm. Everything is greening up and the flowers are all out. I even got my seeds planted in the garden yesterday. The kids are getting that blond and brown skinned combo going. We even got long naps this afternoon after 2 days of being outside for more than 6 hours straight. Yesterday, the first official no more school, summer break is here day and we had a yard full of neighborhood kids and grandkids. It was so nice to have all these kids in our yard playing. This is what I long for the kids to experience during summer. The true playing to your body's content.

Our neighbor goes bear hunting every year and every year we've watched him sit on his porch and clean up the hides. This year the boys finally went over to get a closer look. Carsten loved it. He touched everything he could, while Benjamin watched from a respectful distance. Our neighbor even taught them how they could throw some of the fat and it would stick to the side of his house. I was just thrilled....The kids thought it was great and it made Matt dream even more pressing of having his own bear skin rug.

Keeping with the bear theme the next night we left on a camping trip rather late in the evening and a couple miles from where we were camping a grizzly was on the side of the road. He was about 15 feet from the car and I saw him rear up on his hind leggs. It was so cool to see a bear in the wild, from the car. The kids were especially excited. I don't ever want to run into one on my own but they are so amazing to see like that. Several cars were stopped so we weren't able to get a great picture. There was a stupid Bear hog car in front of us that was blocking any picture possibilities. This was the beginning of a great campout with some great friends that will be leaving us soon. It was also our first time tent camping in Alaska. We did a true car camping trip with the first night being spent in the car. It was 2 am when we got to the site and we didn't feel like setting up tent so we rearranged things in the car and the kids slept great! Thank goodness for a big car. Matt got a new tent to fit all 6 of us and it was huge. Matt could stand up in it. I froze but everybody else did great. It is practice for girls camp when we are all tent camping for a week. That will be the next blog, surving girls camp with 4 kids!

 

 

 

 

B. Rides a bike

Since Sophie has started riding bike like a big person she has gone on a Daddy/Daughter bike ride on Memorial day weekend. This time Benjamin really wanted to go on one with Dad but Matt nicely explained that when he could ride like a big person on two wheels they would go on their own bike ride too. I told Benjamin that we could go out and try riding with out the training wheels while they were gone. I had gotten Josette all arranged and was coming out to help Benjamin learn to ride his bike and what did I see... Benjamin riding around the circle on two wheels! He did it all on his own and hasn't had a problem since. The crazy thing is he had a hard time with the training wheels on and we were worried it would take a while. I guess this shows a little of his personality and when he wants something bad enough. This video was taken the next day. He rides like a pro now!



PS This Happened after all the info in the previous post. Just so much time has passed I'm totally off sync.

All on my own.. again

Matt's new calling as a High Councilman has finally come to reality. For the last month since Matt was called my Sunday's have remained pretty normal. I was getting used to having Matt sitting with us during sacrament meeting. Matt had his first speaking assignment and very early morning meeting. When he was in the Bishopric he wasn't sitting with us but he was there to help us get settled into our seats and stare down the boys when needed. I must admit that I was very worried about church, our new ward has a very quiet sacrament meeting, a reputation they are trying to keep. The morning started out great with us all ready to leave by 10:20, with snacks eaten and everything. After a little bit I realized that my watch still said 10:32 and it had been at least 10 minutes. The calm morning with me thinking that we would be able to be seated and enjoy some prelude music turned into "Kids hurry up and get in the car! We're late!" Now comes my frustration at being moved to the chapel that is 10 minutes away instead of our old chapel that was 2 minutes away. My first introduction to the ward with mom on her own was going to start out with us tromping in as quietly as a herd of elephants.
Then to add to it we also came in smelling like that herd of elephants. We are dog sitting and Carsten accompanied Bear out to do his duties. About a block from the church Sophie exclaims that it stinks like poop. I am a bit stuffed up and couldn't smell anything. Well, Carsten had stepped in Bear's business. With nice traction shoes on, wiping it off in the snow just wasn't cutting it. After getting the family settled I took Carsten into the bathroom and with my keys was able to clean them up and hopefully destinkafy. While at the sink I realized that Carsten had also walked all the way through the house with Bear's business on the bottom of his shoe. Despite the crazy beginning the kids did really well. We only had one outburst from B. during the closing hymn. With the kids in primary and J being the great little angel for mom that she is, I really enjoyed S.S. and R.S. And though I keep Sunday as my sacred no cleaning day, I did mop the floors and clean the carpets!

April Showers bring May...SKIING!

I was so excited to post that spring had come, all the snow was gone, the snow tires are off the car, we were spending hours at the park, the big new toy set was getting built (the list goes on and on) when 9am Friday morning IT hit. One of the fifth largest snow falls in a 24 hour period in Anchorage. By 7pm yesterday we had over a foot of snow. The crazy thing was that the day before it had been 60 and everybody was running around in shorts and tee-shirts. The snow is beautiful and I am grateful that putting away snow clothes was still on my to-do list. Oh well there is only 4 weeks left of school, it's light until 10pm and Kim will be here in 2. Kim, you might have to bring your skii clothes!

Fast or Slow

Benjamin asked tonight, "Is tomorrow Fast Sunday or is it Slow Sunday?"

Just thought it was funny.

Wish I had the camera

They have recently rearranged our stake. Our ward was like a mirror that had someone stepped on it and broke it into 4 pieces. Our new ward had a polynesian night activity as a get to know you. All 3 kids sat quietly at their table and ate their dinners. Then the entertainment part of the night. A sidenote: There is a large Tongan and Somoan community in Anchorage. In fact there are a Tongan and Somoan ward in a neighboring stake. A family was invited to do dances from around the islands and between dances the floor was opened up for dancing. Benjamin, who is a bit reserved around people he doesn't know, stood in the middle of the floor hands in pockets and knees slightly "bouncing" to the beat of the music. This was a vision of stake dances in another 10 years. During the second such dancing intermission Carsten joined him with hands in pockets, perfectly imitating his older brother. And of course, I left the camcorder at home. Typical.

This was also our first Sunday in the new ward. The kids did really well. We were a bit worried about B. who is always weary of change but he did great. C. of course went right in to nursery. S. was also a little on the nervous side but hopefully it will get better as time goes on.

We have also been attempting the potty bit, 100th times the charm. I stole Shannon B.s idea of a pull-up fairy who came and took them during the night. Thanks Shannon! So, there are no more pull-ups and so far I only have to do a wardrobe change every 4 hours or so. He'll do really well when we leave the house but at home he could care less. I wish he would just understand the money he would save us!:)

The joy of Johnny jump ups

It's just a cold

The flu finally hit this family and it has been a very quiet week and a half. The kids thankfully just ran fevers, without any of the other horrible side effects. Though you feel horrible for them it is kind of nice because all they want to do is lay on the couch, which means that I can get somewhat cleaned up with out having a mess created in the other room. Of course the worry was that Josette would get it. She has made it almost all the way through the cold/flu season with out getting anything...until now. But, I'm celebrating a land mark Dr visit today. This was the first "unplanned" dr. appointment that didn't send us to the hospital for either extensive radiology workups or a stay. So when they said it is just a cold and if it doesn't clear up in a week call us back I jumped for joy. I'll even take the nights of no sleep to hear those words for her.

On another note..we enjoyed a wonderful conference. We were warm and cozy inside while the snow fell outside. The snow had pretty much cleared out but the storm that hit the NW two weeks ago finally made it up here. I was bummed at first but it is so pretty and the roads stayed clear, so I can keep my running shoes out. My thought is that it covers up the brown. Summer fever is starting to hit. The camping trips, hikes and fishing is on everybody's mind.