Playing at the pool

Riddle: How many times does it take to get three kids to jump into the water at the same time AND get a picture of it?
Answer: 7

The kids relentlessly flipped each other off of this floaty plane. Half of the time they fell off of the plane before anyone could get to them. Kira has her "seriously trying to hang on" face for this picture.

Just playing around in the pool.

Zipline

We are standing at the top of the zip line course. The view was amazing, but our excitement was at its peak thinking about seeing the valley while speeding across the cable.

Looking up the valley to the tower where we started (right side of picture), it sure was a beautiful ride.

This was the final zipline ending us at a "wateringhole" for a picnic lunch and some time swimming. Unfortunately, the swimming was limited because of high waters; it had rained for several days before our trip and it mad the water high, swift, and dangerous.

First Day in Hawaii

After flying all night, picking up the rental car, playing at the beach while waiting for our condo to be ready, and swimming in the condo pool, Kira was exhausted. She fell asleep smack in the middle of Morie and Christy's living room floor. (Our condo was not cleaned and ready for us to occupy it, so the Mahugh's opened their condo to us.)

One last lesson

Kira had one last swim/snorkel lesson the day before we went to Hawaii. She had been in swim lessons since November, but we changed her last 4 lessons to snorkel lessons with a little bit of swimming.

Kira's Backyard Carnival

The fun, smart, beautiful girl who is the reason for the party.
Patrick designed our ticket booth to collect the "ticket for admission" which was a golden invitations designed and produced by Patrick.

Devon, Tasha, and Kayla ready to help the kids decorate the 50-100 cookies that Devon and I made Thursday night until midnight.

Paul and Devon posed for a moment. I think that this was the only time during the party that they were not helping us to make this party so great. The bounce house (lent to us by Kira's friend Amanda) was a huge hit and a tiring factor since we loaded them up with sugar on the cookies and gave them cupcakes.

Boomer made an appearance to the joy of all the kids but a few who were frightened.

Morie painted the kids' faces using what we thought were these great face painting crayons. Lesson learned: face paints don't work as planned when in a cold environment.

Solution used: paint the kids' faces inside.

Savanna, Mitchell, and Marcus are enjoying fishing (with fishing poles that Patrick made) for ducks in the duck pond.

River is throwing a beanbag (that Patrick made)at the toss board (that Patrick made.)
Can you tell who is the family's creative genius?

We all enjoyed the products of the grill as Scott cooked, and Lori gave him direction.

Kira was opening her gifts and I am writing down what she got. Notice our very different attire here. It was an unusually cold June day. I could see my breath, and here you see Kira as the truly Alaskan girl in shorts and a short sleeved shirt.

Back to School Essay

Since I have been missing from the blog most of the summer and have not really posted any pictures of our summer I thought that summarizing the events and then posting pictures as time allowed would be the best option.



If I had to write a back to school essay it would contain the following events:

*Memorial Day weekend: drive 5 1/2 hours to Homer for a great camping weekend and our first ever halibut fishing excursion.

Lesson's learned on this trip... Phoenix gets car sick from long car rides and fast food. We will never leave on time for a camping trip because even when we are organized and stuff seems to be going smoothly... our kids turn on the car lights and the battery dies. Where did we put those jumper cables again?

* Kira's Backyard Carnival birthday party: June 2, 2007. Kira had her birthday party with friends from school and church. It was great fun and a huge success with the kids. We spent most of week prior to the party preparing for the event. Games and fun included: duck pond fishing, bean bag toss, foam disk shooting, sugar cookie decorating (thank you Devon for staying up until midnight with me Thursday to bake cookies), goodie bag decorating, face painting (thanks to Morie being willing to apply his artistic skills to children's' faces), a bounce house (thank you to Nicole for letting us borrow this), and a special appearance by Boomer (thank you Paul for sweating a little longer for the sake of the kids). Several more thanks are in order because everyone who stayed here was helping with something... grilling and other food, gluing magnets back on ducks, helping organize bag and cookie decorations, monitoring the number of kids in the bounce house, taking a list of kids wanting faces painted. Patrick's creativity and "go-get-em" put most of the games together.

*The following week we spent cleaning up from the party and getting ready for our family vacation to Hawaii.

* June 9-29 we were in Hawaii on the Islands of Kauai and Oahu. This trip included visiting a new beach everyday with snorkeling and playing in the waves, going to the pool at the condos where we stayed, zip lining across a valley, tubing down an irrigation canal through and old sugar plantation, visiting the Kauai Museum, going to a water park, shark diving, hiking the Napali coast and swimming at a waterfall 4 miles in, visiting with friends who had moved there about a year ago. A very busy vacation, but totally memorable and the kids slept well every night.

* July 4 we relaxed in the morning, but the outdoors was calling to us in the afternoon. Although it was raining, we drove out to Thunderbird falls to hike the trail. Phoenix fell asleep and we had not brought the Kelty kids backpack because he would have ran and played on the trails had he been awake. Patrick took Kira up to the falls despite the rain.

*Two play dates with friends from school. This was a time for the kids to see each other since they missed each other from school and for us as parents to get to know one another.

*Val's wedding shower. Although I did not host it here, I helped Christy with some of the party preparations and food.

*Japanese summer festival at Kincaid park. We all dressed up in our Yukatas (summer kimono- for girls) and Hapi coat (celebration coat- for boys) and ventured out to Kincaid for a summer celebration. We enjoyed food, play time, Taiko drumming performance, and a Japanese dance (which they were willing to teach some of the more brave souls).

*Bible camp. For Senior Week at Bible camp, I was blessed with the opportunity to be a counselor. Patrick had the kids at home since he was unable to take time off of work to go this year. While I was at camp, Kira lost her first tooth, lost her second tooth, and climbed Flat Top for the first time completely using all of her own power. Daddy power was reserved for carrying Phoenix.

*One day to rest and recover from camp and one day to pack for IL/MO. Fortunately, I have a husband who loves me so much that he washed all my laundry the day I recovered from camp so that I could pack with ease for the next trip.

*Flying out Monday night for Chicago, I finally got to sleep again on Tuesday night. Our whirlwind trip to the Midwest included a family and friends BBQ, visiting my grandparents old and new homes, dinner with my dad's dad, a canoeing trip, a water park twice (due to the insane heat of 95 degrees with a heat index of 108), a wedding, getting to see new houses of family members, and saving the best for last... getting to meet my 2 new nieces and seeing Christina's pregnant belly with my third niece on the way.

*Patrick finished scraping the wall paper in the kitchen (the hard stuff that I couldn't do... like behind the refrigerator and stove and above the cabinets), patched the drywall, textured the walls in the kitchen and painted it all a beautiful new shade called "high plateau."

*Valerie and Hayden were married Saturday with a beautiful wedding that matched their personalities perfectly.

*Back to school shopping has been completed and school begins on the 22nd of this month. I begin working again on the 15th and then we will have a sense of everyday routine and normalcy returning to our lives.

Add to this the stuff of everyday life (guard duty once a month, getting weed and feed on the lawn, regular car maintenance, mowing the lawn, softball games on Monday nights, Bible class on Wednesday nights and worship services on Sundays) and now you have a picture of what our summer has been like. Pictures of all or most of our events will eventually make it to the website, but for now only the story has been told and your imagination will have to fill you in on the pictures for now.

Camping on the Homer Spit

Across the road from our campsite, we visited the beach. As you can see, it is not the typical tropical sandy beach... that is because it is an Alaskan beach. The kids had a great time throwing rocks into the water and filling sand toys with rocks.

Phoenix found great ways to entertain himself at the campsite. Nothing says "all boy" quite like a handful of dirt.

Kira was trying to help Quinn find hand and foot holds to climb up on the tree stump.
Phoenix and Quinn were playing in the dog kennel. They took turns with Ben and I think at one point all 3 boys were in there together.

Cherry Blossom Festival

In April, Kira's school had a Cherry Blossom Festival. The kindergarteners sang 3 songs in Japanese.

Kira and her friend Channing went fishing for goldfish. It was quiet a challenge for them and great entertainment for the parents to watch. The kids had to learn a balance of their quick movements and the element of surprise to be able to catch anything.

Each of the girls were proud of their accomplishments.

The school also had Japanese games and crafts thruoghout the building for kids to enjoy all day long.

Baby Girl Cousin

Michaela Grace McClain-Smith came into the world at 3:54 pm on May 29, 2007.Michaela was 8lbs 11ozs and 20.5 inches long. She was born at SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford, IL. Doug and Christa McClain-Smith are the proud 1st time parents who are doing well with little Miss Michaela. Congratulations!

Easter Morning

After many attempts to add more pictures to this post, I am just going to leave it at this. This is what the Easter Bunny left for the kids for Easter morning. Then the kids had an egg hunt to follow time spent digging through their baskets. Phoenix enjoyed dumping out his box of band aids and eating animal crackers for breakfast. Kira enjoyed her Littlest Petshop animal. The coins that Kira found during the hunt she is calling her Japan money. In March, they had "banking day" at school where they discussed the value of money and how much of the money that it takes to buy certain things. They sent home a paper explaining that to the parents and encouraged the parents to start planning for the Chitose exchange that 5th & 6th graders do. It is an experience where the kids go to Japan in 5th or 6th grade for a few weeks as an exchange program. Every other year the kids from the Chitose school come here too. So Kira is saving up her money to buy a plane ticket to Japan and spending money while she is there. If she finds loose change, she also claims it as "Japan money."

I found it!!!

"Daddy, daddy, I found my long lost nostril!" said Phoenix. When playing the "where's your nose?" game, Phoenix used to touch the end of his nose. One day, he missed the end of his nose and that finger just slipped up his nostril. since then his finger goes straight up his nostril when anyone says "nose" or "knows."

Signs of Summer

In Alaska, several things clue you in to the summer season. Break up is over, and summer has begun. Here are a few things I saw today indicating the beginning of summer.
1. The sun was shining and Kira asked if she could wear shorts and a tank top to school today.
2. Bright white and yellow lines have been painted on the road. (I am trying to remember what significance of those lines with regards to my driving.)
3. A pressure washer disguised as a truck was washing our street off.
4. I pulled up to a friends house and their boat had snuck out of storage taken my usual parking spot.
5. The line at the car wash was longer than the line at the post office in December.
6. As we walked to the park this afternoon, our neighbor was out staining his deck in shorts and a tank top in our sunny 56 degree weather.
7. Dandelions popped up next to the house. (Our grass is still brown and we still have a pile of snow out front.)
8. I killed a spider.
9. Kira has freckles across her nose from batting practice in the backyard with Daddy.
10. Someone walking their dog picked up their dog's poop-- since it didn't instantly disappear into a pile of snow.

Just adorable

1-Phoenix frequently dumps the toys out of the red box and climbs inside for a nice cozy seat.

2- This is Phoenix's "aahhhh" I have just taken a refreshing drink face. This it the same face he makes when he laughs to show approval, but not complete amusement (one little "ha" usually comes from the back of his throat.)

3- He is coming for the camera to see. He is obviously concerned that he is not the one taking the pictures.

One step closer

I am finally downloading pictures from the past 3 weeks. This is a big step in getting a new posting since so much has been happening in our lives. Starting with the most recent events, we have had half days of school, guard duty weekend, for Patrick, Ladies' Night at church, parent teacher conferences, Cherry Blossom Festival (pictures to come), taxes, and Easter. Wow, when I type it out like that, it doesn't seem like we have been that busy; but in reality, that all combined with the boring daily stuff that I would dare put in here for fear of boring people so much that they would quit reading the blog, it really has been a busy few weeks. So today I tuckered the kids out with a trip to the zoo and I have a few minutes to myself to download pictures.

Thankful Thursday

Thirteen things today that I am so grateful for:
1. My loving husband got up with Phoenix when he started screaming 22 minutes before my alarm went off.
2. Kira woke up in a good and playful mood.
3. Phone calls with family.
4. The high today is going to be 44 degrees. (yeah! more snow melting)
5. I have had time to do dishes and laundry (with the help of a few sweet little people.)
6. My computer didn't crash near the end of making a 7 picture post.
7. I have a place in my house to safely burn yummy smelling candles.
8. A single bath will remove most blueberry stains from small children.
9. I had 30 minutes of uninterrupted silence during nap time.
10. The strawberries that we bought actually smell like strawberries. Yum!
11. Packing peanuts.
12. Phoenix running to every chunk of ice I scrape off the driveway and earnestly trying to stomp it to little pieces with his tiny little feet.
13. Friends who are more like family than you can imagine... unless you have met them, then you know.

Out for a Sunday ride

1. OK... I am ready to get this pony ride started.

2. I still have the no handed riding mastered...oh starting to wobble.

3. Giddy up, giddy up. Why is my pony continuing at the same pace?

4. Phoenix is back there screaming. What is wrong with him?

5. I love my pony.

6. You're not a natural brunette?! I found blonde. Don't try to deny it.

7. I am so lovin' the pony ride.

Phoenix's pony ride

Sunday we dicided to go back for another pony ride. This time we waited until after naps so that Phoenix would be able to participate in this childhood experience. We stood in line for about 20 minutes; the kids were happy eating dorritos in line and just looking around.

As soon as I set Phoenix on the pony, the screaming began. I dug in my pocket and found a pcaifier. The screaming continued. I thought that if I could comfort him until the ponies started walking, he would be fine. The screaming rallied. Finally the ponies started walking and Phoenix calmed down for 2 turns around the circle. He started to scoot my direction on the saddle so I lifted him back to the center of the saddle. The screaming followed. I guess he thought that I was picking him up. I thought that if I hugged him a little and could comfort him, he would calm down. The screaming persisted. The owner/trainer of the ponies asked if I wanted him off the ponies. I wanted to try one more circle. He calmed down a wee bit. I tried to get him to look at Patrick for a photo opportunity. The screaming returned. I took the owner up on her offer to take Phoenix off the pony. In the blink of an eye, she had unbuckled Phoenix, taken him off the pony, and swept him into my arms. The screaming ended.

Petting Zoo

Saturday at the car dealership, they also had a mini-petting zoo set up for the kids. As soon as Kira entered the gate, she was greated by a hair eating goat. The goat practically attacked Kira for a bite of her hair.