If only time were on my side!

I have decided that time is against me. I have been wanting to get over to the beach to take pictures of Mt. Redoubt on a day like this! However when I have time the days are cloudy or the haze covers the mountains. So I have to take pictures from just outside of camps' drive way instead, because it is 8:30pm and the kids are with us and I have to go home to get my camera first and if we drove all the way to the beach that would be another 30 minutes there.....I think that you get my point. The sky was so beautiful and I am happy for the pictures but to have an unobstructed view would be my preference! :) As for Mt. Redoubt it has stopped spewing large amounts of ash into the air 50-60 thousand feet into the air and has gone to a more continuous flow of steam and ash at about 15-20 thousand feet into the air. Right now it is not affecting the air quality and the air traffic is flowing at its normal pace again...for now! We all get to see a beautiful act of God's creation from a distance and every now and then get to photograph it too! :) Now if we could only get some spring weather it would be a happy day!

This is the ash cloud from the eruption at 3:30pm today. I made it to the top of the hill at camp to take these pictures at 3:40pm. The ash cloud moved so quickly....by 4pm it was over our house, which is what the last picture is of. At 4:30 it was in Anchorage depositing a little ash, so luckily we missed the ash again! :)

Had I had more time I would have driven to the beach to take these pictures. This was taken from a little over 60 miles away, so the mountain is not as visible as I would have liked, but you can definately see the steam and ash still coming out of the top.

Mt. Redoubt

Well we had quite the day of excitement with the volcano erupting again twice today. The second time it was at 9:24am and the ash cloud went 65,000ft. into the air. As it was extremely cloudy here in Soldotna we could not see a thing (of course) and so had to wait for a break in the clouds to get any pictures. I could not go all the way to the beach tonight because of time but here is a picture that I got from the road right outside the driveway to camp! It looks more like clouds because it is so white but that is the ash cloud and what it blew out this morning.

They say that this can go on for months like the last time that Mt. Redoubt erupted, so hopefully we will get a really good picture one of these times. If you would like to see better photos taken by people that were in the air at the time of the eruption got to http://www.adn.com/ and click on photos: mt. redoubt activity. As for the ash fall that closed lots of businesses because they were worried to be out driving when the ash was falling; it was so little that you had to get up really close so you could see it and try to tell it from the dirt on your car! Hope it stays that way.

Another windy cloudy day!

This week as been extra extraordinary because the mountain 50 miles west of us has been erupting all week long. So far I think it has erupted 7 times since Sunday, with Monday morning being the worst of the eruptions sending ash and debrie 15,000 ft. into the air. Thankfully the wind is also blowing West so we are not getting any of the ash from the volcano! The sad part is that it has been cloudy here most of the week and so we can't even get a picture of our volcano!!!! What good is having a volcano erupt that is only 50 miles away if you can't photograph it when it is blowing stuff out of it. :) The girls are very disappointed as well that they can not see it...so hopefully the wind will die down and the clouds will clear away so we can see something come out of the volcano!!!

Aside from the wind and the clouds I am very ready for the spring weather to arrive so we can have mud, puddles, and buds on the trees. Unfortunately for us Alaskans we know that we will not be able to plant anything in the ground unil at least the last week of May, and this year even later since the snow is still coming!!! Thankfully I have room in my house to start seeds for my garden. I just hope that this summer is warmer than last summer.

The Ultimate Blog Paty 2009

My name is Stephanie and I am a wife to a wonderful husband and mother to 4 beautiful children. I started this blog because we are missionaries in Alaska and many of our friends, family, and those who support us wanted to stay updated more often than just the every once in a while snail mail letter. Aside from being a missionary, I homeschool my pre-k, and kindergartener, and have an almost 2 and 4 month old that keep my busy! I also love photography as you can see on my blog....and I have recently taken up Triathlons. I have found this world of blogging fun both because I get to meet others who are like me, but also it is a way to go back and look at what my children and I have done in the last year or years. Please feel free to look around on my site...it is nothing fancy. I am definately still new to all of the things that could go on a blog, but at the same time I am finding that I have no time to put into it other than the occasional post. I look forward to meeting you and seeing your blogs.

These are my kids: Heidi 2, Emma 6, Mason 4 months, Madison 5

My New Goal

Emma, Madison, and myself at the end of our walk!


There are two cats at the barn named Captin & Cook...this is one of them but I do not know which name belongs to him!

This is the fence just as you enter the barn area with all of our wonderful snow.

My new goal is to take the girls walking every morning! We went yesterday and had a great time together. We walked to the barn like we normally do just because this time we were a little pressed for time. We did not make it out this morning becuase I am now comming down with the cold that has been circulating for months. I hope that I do not get the really bad fever chest cold with an awful cough that drains you for weeks. Anyway, the girls do not let me forget that we are going on a walk which is so good for us! The weather has been nice enough with the sun shining and around 30 degrees. It is great to be outside even if it is not quite spring for us yet.

Sugar Cookies!

A couple of days ago the girls helped me make sugar cookies and frost them. We made each of the kids names and this is how they turned out. They were sure nummy!

March The Month of Birthday Madness!

So in March, everyone I know has a birthday! Ok not everyone but almost. In our family alone there are 5 plus one the end of Feb. and 4 in April. At camp there are 7 in March and 1, 2 days before and 1, 2 days after! So as you can see there are a lot of birthdays. I had a wonderful birthday with my family and had a little tea party with a few friends which was fun as well. Madison went tubing for her birthday and then we had cake and hot chocolate! Here are a few pictures of the kids sledding and of her birthday cake that mommy made!

The Coffee Shop

Our family likes to spend time together at the coffee shop, whether it is me taking the kids one on one, me with all of the kids, Chad and I on a date, or the whole family, it is a great inexpensive way to spend a few moments with each other. Lately Emma and Madison have been sitting at their own table looking all grown up and having great conversations!! I took a few pictures for you all to enjoy.

My Grandpa's Farm

These are all of the surounding buildings and land around my grampa's house....one is the chicken house, one is the bunk house, and one is of the barn.

Family Pictures

Grandma Esther with Mason......he loves his grandmie!

Great Grandpa Paul with Mason.....they both took to each other rather quickly! :)

Great Grandma Dee with Mason....boy she could make him smile!

So I have gotten a little behind in my blogging!!! I made it back from MT a week ago and I am back into my regular routine again. I had a wonderful time, but a week is not enough time to see all that want to visit with me or to really see Mason!! I was able to see both my grandma (from my dads side)and my grandpa (from my mom's side), as well as speak to a couple of sunday school classes and briefly at a banquett. I was very exhausted when I returned home!