Snyder News

2012-02-09T22:31:00.001-09:00

These last few weeks have been busy and full of events and places for people to be driven. In addition to Cecile, our exchange student, we had a friend from MT staying with us for a few weeks! It made our house just that more exciting, and we did not lack in the entertainment department. On any given night there were about 10-15 people in our house! The kids have swimming and swim meets, and swim lessons for the younger two. We are in awana's and Chad is doing Ju Jitsu 5 nights a week for 2-3 hours a night. Cecile joins him when she can, otherwise she is dancing on her school dance team! Then there are weekend rentals that Chad works and and various activities for the kids to run off too! Yes we lead a very full and exciting schedual, and we try to fit our school work and housely chores in there somewhere as well. I am working hard at getting my photos ready for next July for my art show at the coffee shop, and in the process getting my website with pictures up and prices so they could be purchased if someone wanted to, and with that of course is also my facebook page which is just waiting now for my website to be finished. I am so thankful for my sister and her help setting it all up for me!!! And on top of that I have started another business with DoTerra Essential Oils. I have a website for that as well as a facebook page and now am spreading the word! They are amazing oils that really work with your body to help you become healthy. My favorite is the oil blend called On Gaurd that has helped our family fend off colds and sickness. Now it is not a magical cure all by any means, but when our family was hit by this horendous flu bug that was going around, instead of being really really sick for over a week like a lot of our friends, we were only kind of sick for a day or two. This stuff has been tested in hospitals and has been proven to kill infections as tough as staph and MRSA! I am truely sold. :) If you ever have any questions about these oils please don't hesitate to ask!
Anyway last week we were in the midst of several blizzards and lots of snow, and after much snow removal we are now in the high 30's for temps this week! The kids are a little sad, they don't think winter should leave us quite this soon, but I keep telling them this is only temporary.....we will get more snow soon. We always do! I always have to laugh because Cecile keeps asking when all the snow is going to be gone, and I respond like the end of April! She squawks just a little at this and then says....it's ok I like the snow! :) We really have enjoyed having her here with us!

Mason on his last jump off the diving board.....last of at least 5! He was amazing this set of lessons and he passed level 1 and is ready for level 2! He loves to be in the water swimming just like his big sisters!!

Heidi swimming to the edge at her last swim lesson....she passed level 2 and will start level 3 end of March!

Sunrise the morning of the meet after a whole lot of snow got dumped on us!

Emma and Madison's Swim Team at a home meet.....getting geared up for the start!

Just a few of the oils DoTerra offers!

2012-01-27T22:45:00.001-09:00

Took these on the way to Anchorage the other day to pick up a friend! It was only -31 below out!!! Emma came with me for an eye exam and we found out that she is a little far sighted so she was having trouble reading....since then she has really taken off! I also think it has helped having a tutor to work with Emma and Madison, just because they don't argue with her as much! Anyway we spent the night in a wonderful hotel on the 15th floor with amazing views went to the doc. and then headed home! Our weeks have been busy and weekends even more so...the girls had a swim meet last weekend and they have another one next weekend! They have been working really hard to improve their times so this next meet will be exciting to watch. Heidi and Mason have been taking swim lessons again and they are both swimming really well. It won't be too long before they get onto the swim team too! Chad has been going to Ju Jitsu for several hours most week nights and enjoying it, although he is often pretty sore... Overall we are trying to stay warm in the fridgid temperatures....thankful that they are not the -75 with windchill that the northslope has!!!

2012-01-27T22:25:00.003-09:00

Some pictures of the sunrises we have been having lately! With the temperatures being well below zero for several weeks now they have been beautiful!

Snow and Sunsets

2012-01-16T22:31:00.002-09:00

Last Saturday Chad Emma and Madison spent the day plowing, while Hiedi Mason and I hung out together. So the little ones and I went to town, then went to wagon train to take some pictures and then back home again where they wore my hats and posed for me to capture their adorableness! The sunset was beautiful we now have more than 2 feet of new snow....and now it is -20's outside so we can't really enjoy it....at all! For school I am teaching Emma and Madison how to sew and use the sewing machine and these are the bags that I and each of them made! They turned out amazing and I am ready to make one for myself as the other one was for Heidi.....we made ours for swim bags and lined it with duct tape so it was waterproof~!

Our Christmas Break!

2012-01-06T08:52:00.000-09:00

The kids had lots of fun playing in the snow, making cookies and eating them, opening presents, playing with friends, staying up late, going to snow camp, and sledding! I enjoyed spending time with friends from far away, my family, baking, staying up late and sleeping in :) I must say I am a little glad school has started back up because I am now getting to bed before 11pm where before I was lucky to get to bed before 1 or 2 am just because of all the teenagers here! :) We had fun at a cookie exchange party, celebrating our exchange students birthday, having friends over on Christmas Day and Thai dinner the next night, and playing games all the other nights, mostly mario cart that I got for my christmas present.....but really haven't gotten to play yet! :) So to say the least we had a very full, exciting, jam packed Christmas Break!

Heidi and Mason have taken to dressing up in our snow gear and wearing it on all different parts of the body!

Our kitten Crush decided to climb a tree and it took a few hours for him to climb back down....The kids were convinced that the cat was stuck and in dire need of rescuing!

Mocha and Crush like to play together, and sometimes it looks like Crush might die, but Mocha is usually pretty gentle with him.

A friend was kind enough to make the gingerbread for the houses and brought them over for the kids and I to decorate! We had such a fun time. Made me miss decorating them with my mom when I was young.

For Cecile's birthday party all of her exchange student friends came over and played broom ball

The cake I made for her 18th birthday

Cecile and her cake!

The day after Christmas in the morning the kids got out their sleds and we took them over to our big hill and let them sled down. Then we pulled them back up to the top with my vehicle! Some of the kids went for a sleigh ride while they waited their turn for a sled!

The last day before break ended I needed to get a family picture taken, and I conned my friend into taking it for us.......it was -20 degrees outside :) this was right before we jumped back in our cars and headed home!

2011-12-31T00:58:00.001-09:00

So I have been again trying to upload photos to the blog from a little before Christmas to now. It keeps acting up and kicking my photos out.....so I am working out the kinks! Anyway in the meantime I have started a new wordpress blog for my photography. You can click on the link on the sidebar of this blog to head on over there to see them. I only have a few pictures on at this time but will continue to add more as time goes on. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a happy start to the New Year!!!

Christmas decorations

2011-12-17T01:49:00.003-09:00

I absolutely love christmas lights and would love to do a whole bunch of stuff outside, but cost is a big factor, and I already use so much electricity during this month (which Chad is quick to remind me about :)), so I really do try to limit what I do. So here is our house with the christmas decorations all up!

I had to add these last few pictures just because we have had the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets making the sky full of pink! I was even privilaged enough to see the Lunar Eclips last weekend and the northern lights the next evening! I have always loved being outside to see all of God's creation and every season brings a new beauty to capture.....sometimes only with my eyes, and I shoot myself when I forget my camera, but still awesome all the same!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

2011-12-09T00:34:00.001-09:00

Every year as I was growing up it has been a tradition in my family to hunt for our christmas trees on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I have tried to keep that tradition going in my own family. Some years, though, I have bought our christmas tree from Home Depot so that I can get a beautiful full one (because I like that in a tree) but this year I decided to let the kids have some in their bedrooms and I wanted a few tiny ones for downstairs as well. So off we went to go and hunt for our trees! It really did not take us very long, the trees are so cute and compact and perfect for what we needed them for, and there is always an abundance of them, but each of the girls picked one out and I picked a few and we cut them and brought them back for Mason, Mocha, and Chad to inspect (for they had stayed at the car waiting on us girls)!! We had a wonderful time and now they are all set up and decorated and I will post pictures of that soon! But for now you can see the ones of our adventure for the day!

Birthday #3

2011-12-03T20:51:00.001-09:00

November 21st was Mason's birthday and we had lots of fun! Emma and Madison helped me pick out the cake design and then did a few of the frosting things as well, I think it turned out really cute! Mason loves balls of every kind so this was pretty fitting. He also loves trucks....and that is an understatment! He got a really cute bowling ball set from my parents and lots of trucks, and a couple of books about trucks, which is he pretending to read in the picture below! I love my little man and I can not believe how big he has grown. 3 years already!!! He can talk so very well and is very particular in how he wants things done, which I am sure he got from his father......:) He has also become very independent and wants to do everything by himself, so if you try to help him it is the end of the world and he lets you know it! (much to the dismay of his mother!) He loves his sister Heidi and they are almost inseperable, except when he is trying to punch her....then she doesn't love him so much....but otherwise they get along very well and do lots of things together! He is a very sweet little boy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!

November 19th Homer Swim Meet

2011-12-02T15:53:00.001-09:00

Saturday November 19th Emma and Madison swam in their first meet of the season. For Madison it was her first swim meet ever and she was just a bit nervous about doing her events. Emma has done this a few times, but she was doing a new event (the 100 IM which is swimming 25yrds of each stroke, butterfly, back, breast, free in the correct order) and she was nervous about that. We had to get up at 5:30 that morning so we could be down in Homer at 8:30 to start warm ups. Luckily it was a small meet and we got through each event quickly! Madison did great and is excited to improve on her times in the next meet, and Emma is wanting to do better in her next IM since she did it a little wrong the first time and got disqualified or DQed! Not so fun, especially if you win your heat because then you get a mini rubber ducky, and at this age they are cherished if you get them! Both Emma and Madison came fractions of a seconds close to winning their heats to get that ducky, so they are practicing hard now so that when the next meet comes around (Dec. 10th) they will be ready! December 10th is the next meet and they call it Sprints Championships so it is an extremely big one, with 5 or more teams competing against each other it should be exciting!

Emma starting her 100 IM

Madison starting her 25yrd freestyle

2011-12-02T12:48:00.001-09:00

I know two posts ago I promised to get pictures up of all the work that the work teams did this summer, but now my hard drive is jammed and wont open, and the 3000 pictures that I have to sort through are on discs that were sent to us by one of the guys who was with the work teams. Alas someday I will get them on my computer and loaded here for all to see!!! I can'te tell you truely how amazing it is to see all of those people give their time to help us get things built and how great it really is. In the two weeks that these teams were here, they built a heated well house for the barn, stairs up to the loft for the barn, a pavillion down at Wagon Train for playing under during rainy days, a pavillion at Lakeside for the same purpose, a vehicle shed at the shop, helped finish a temporary refrigerator/freezer unit until we can get a new one built, and tore down the old refrigerator/freezer and room above because it was caving in on itself. So I have lots of pictures to show you, hopefully in the near future!

October 28th-Nov. 15th

2011-11-20T23:46:00.001-09:00

We had spent the last part of October and the first week of November all sick with strep throat and so Emma had to wait to have her birthday party until Nov. 6th. We did do a family party on her birthday and she opened all her presents from us and grandparents! On the 30th of October we got our first snow, and it really did not stop snowing until the following weekend. The trees were all covered in a blanket of snow which made for beautiful scenery, and then we had a big wind storm that blew down a few trees in our yard thankfully missing our house and the swingset! It snowed some more, and then we had 40mph winds with gusts up to 60mph that lasted for over 24 hours. We had several trees blown down all over camp and several power outages that lasted about 9 hours overall, and for some people around our community 24 hours!

Then the trees were snowless, which always makes me sad. We have been playing catch up in school due to all the the sickness....The girls have also gone back to swimming practice every night, and Heidi and Mason are in swim lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The have Awanas on Wednesday evenings and every other Thursday is Kids Club, put on by a few staff here at camp. We have been doing lots of Bible memorization and the kids are all doing a great job at it.

To add to all of this crazy comotion at our house we have also taken in an exchange student whos family that she was staying with was having family issues and needed her to find a new place to stay. So we got to take her in! Her name is Cecile and she is from Belgium. She has actually already graduated highschool in Belgium, but came here to work on her English. It has been fun and challenging, and interesting to have a teenager and having to adjust our parenting to fit that. She will be staying with us until the end of May!

early morning fog

moose in our back yard

Our new kitten "Sir Crush" LOL or OC (orange crush)

It's snowing!!

Emma and her friends out playing in the first snow!

Emma's new MP3 player that she has been wanting for forever! :)

Her horse stuff from Aunt Leah and Uncle Dave, and Grandma and Grandpa Fishbaugh!

Sunset through the trees

More Snow!!!!

The day to build snowmen!

Emma's birthday cake and birthday celebration on Nov. 6th.....complete with sleepover!

Lots of snow falling from the sky!

Our Carved Pumpkins

2011-11-20T22:49:00.001-09:00

Just to show you our carved pumkins for this year! Top to bottom is Madisons, Emma's, and Heidi and Mason's and on the right is the one James carved. Emma's is hard to see, but she did one with drilled holes in the pattern of flowers. My mom also sent up lots of pumpkins for us to carve, but we have left them whole so that we can make them into soups or other such things.....maybe even a pie for my husband!

The Sickness and Other Tidbits of Life

2011-10-28T22:57:00.003-08:00

There comes a time in your life where you are just ready to give up and let the house run itself (into the ground), and I have reached that point (although Emma and Madison do try to help with the cleaning). Nothing much has been getting done around here since I have been sick for the last 8 weeks with a horrible cough that has kept me up most nights. I finally went to the doctor on Monday to see if they could do something for the cough, and they gave me an inhaler and another med, but so far it has not seemed to keep me from coughing. So because of all this coughing, I am not sleeping, and becasue I am not sleeping I am exhausted. It is all I can do to keep the house in some kind of order (still mostly messy) and get the kids to and from their repective activities. While all this was happening, Chad has been to Fairbanks twice making up for 11 of those days, and very very busy trying to get projects finished up before the snow falls here. Chad is also helping a guy fix up a building that will serve as his Jujitsu studio rewiring and making two changing rooms along with a few other things. Chad is really excited about his friend Isaac (studio owner) opening this up for kids and all ages. One of his friends (George) who has been training with Isaac, took first place in one of the top competitions for Jujitsu down in CA. Anyway when the studio opens in Nov. we will be signing up the three girls, and possibly Mason if he is old enough.
Heidi and Emma this week have been very sick with strep throat and rashes and vomiting (aka Scarlet Fever), and Mason has my cough, so we have been taking naps most days. With the pennicillan they are getting much better thankfully, and hopefully by next week they will be back to normal! Somehow Madison has managed to skate through unscathed.....we are keeping our fingers crossed.
Unfortunately for Emma this has ment postponing her birthday party until next weekend because most of her friends have "it" to.
A more exciting tidbit of news is that I am going to have my photography hanging in our local coffee shop for the month of July, which could be anywhere between 20-40 photos depending on how big or small I make them. The hard part is choosing which ones, and then sizes, and last but not least the frames for them all. I am hoping to drag Chad into my little project and have him make me a lot of the frames so it will not cost as much.
In my next post, we finally have the pictures that were taken of all the projects that the two work teams did when the were here in Aug. and Sept. so I will be able to show you all that was accomplished. God is good all the time, and we are so blessed by the people who come to work at camp, support camp, pray for camp and for us, and those who support us. Without people like you none of this would be here and we thank you for all that you do.

September 25th-October 4th

2011-10-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

The Week of 17-24th of September

2011-10-02T22:40:00.000-08:00

Bings Landing Sterling AK

Chad and the kids went to the beach while I ran my 5k on Saturday the 17th

Lake at camp

The month of September

2011-10-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

So I just realized that I have not posted anything for over 10 days! We have been so very busy. After two very large work teams that were 2 weeks apart, which I will share more about in a later post, and took up over 30 days of work time for Chad and James, there was another blessing for camp in the package of an indoor riding arena, that just happened to be all the way in Fairbanks. So 4 people + Chad went to Fairbanks for 7 days and took it down bundled it all up and got it ready to be loaded onto a semi so it can be delivered to camp a little later this fall. The kids have been doing school, even though we were off to a slow start it is starting to pick up now and we are getting in the swing of things. Emma and Madison also are involved with their swim team 2 times a week, riding lessons 2 times a week, and Awana's on Wednesday. On top of all that we have managed to slip in a 5k race for me, a bike ride up by Hope, and a berry picking hiking adventure in the rain. The fall colors have been amazing, but yesterday only 65 miles from us up in the pass they got snow, so we know it is coming.....most of us are not quite ready!!!! Chad, who has so much to do to get camp ready for the winter, managed to put his hip out of place by 1/2 an inch and so he has been laid up in bed for the last 4 days recovering from the pain of having to put it back in etc. He is very ready for James to be home to help lighten the load and maybe get caught up!

Celebrating #11 (9/9/00-9/9/11)

2011-09-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago Chad and I celebrated our 11th anniversary! I am not sure how we could possibly have been married for that long, but it has been a great journey nonetheless. After what has been one of the busiest and craziest summers here at camp, especially the last 7 weeks, it was so very good for the two of us to get away for the weekend. We are also very lucky to have good friends that are willing to take on an extra four kids for the weekend!

We both had so much fun and enjoyed talking without being interrupted :), going on a drive to places we had not been before, and staying at a hotel that we hadn't been to in almost 10 years.

Adventure #8 Camping in Hope

2011-09-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

We had two days of sunny weather before the rain was to set in again and I wanted to go hiking or camping while I still could. I really had wanted to hike a trail called Lost Lake, which is 15 miles long from one end to the other, but was not able to find anyone else to go with me. I did have one friend who had wanted to hike Skyline trail again, but I decided that I wanted to take the kids camping instead. Chad has been pretty busy getting the projects ready for another rental work group of 90 people so he was not able to come with us, which left me with the kids. We went to the little town of Hope, which is a 90 minute drive from our house, and hiked a trail called Gull Rock that is 10+ miles round trip (we ended up doing 3 miles), and then we went to our campsite at the end of Main St. We played by the river/ocean and the girls tried to rescue dying silver salmon that had spawned already and were half dead anyway. The river rises and lowers with the tide and so on low tide the little pools of water fill up with these half dead fish and as the water leaves it also leaves lots of dead fish around the rocks until the tide comes back in and washes them away only to start the process all over again! So while it was low tide the kids were throwing the fish that were still alive in these little pools back into the river.....:) It at least kept them busy for a while! We also walked around the town a little looking at the old historical buildings before we went to the cafe to have dinner. Then we built our fire and played a little more before bedtime. Now because I was camping with the kids by myself I decided to "camp" in our suburban, which worked out ok, but Emma got sick and was heading to the bathroom every 5 minutes. So after a few hours of this, and it being pitch black outside, we headed home, and finally got everyone settled into their own bed by 2am. So all in all it was a great adventure and we have many great memories that we will take from it! I am still continuously in awe of God's amazing creation and feel so blessed that I get to live in this every day.

Tern Lake

The start to Gull Rock Hike

At our campsite looking across turnagain arm to the mountains and cars passing by.

Old historic cabin in Hope on Main St.

Someones house, but I liked the red and the windows :)

I love this style of fencing.

The girls being goofy!

Road to somewhere....

The spot where we had our campfire.

Seaview Cafe is where we paid for our campsite, and had a nice dinner there too!

Downy Woodpecker

Tide is in with sunset and covers up what was once all grassy a few hours ago.

A Beach Day

2011-09-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon, since it was the first sunny day in a while, I loaded the kids up and headed over to the beach. I thought it would be fun to take pictures at the Kenai Landing, and I found this great old rusty truck there. I was really bummed to find out that Madison had her mouth gaping open in most of the pictures though when I got home!!!! I will just have to go back another day :) Anyway after a few picuters we went to the beach with our dog Mocha and played and played for over an hour. We all had a wonderful time and as I was driving home I discovered that it had been 10 degrees warmer at the beach than at home so we really lucked out!

Lingonberries

2011-08-21T10:42:00.000-08:00

A week ago I was ready to go out to pick lingonberries, or what Alaskans call lowbush branberries. The day was beautiful and the kids were wanting to get out of the house, so we loaded up and headed for Watson Lake, about 20 miles from home, with one extra kid (Jordan). The kids were very excited to get in the lake to find fish and other lake dwelling things, but I was able to convince them that we should pick the lingonberries first and then we would have lots of time to play in the lake. They agreed to my wishes, and we all set out in search of the berries. On a previous trip we had stopped at this lake and found lots of them, so I knew they were there, but I found out the hard way that letting the kids lead we went further into the forest and the berries became less and less and the kids became tired of picking.....so I let them go to the lake to play and I picked around by them. In the 20 minutes that the kids and I picked berries I got 6 cups, which was enough for 2 quarts and 1/2 of a pint of jam. I tell you what, trying to find a good jam recipe for lingonberries or under any other name that they are called is quite difficult. I wanted to put it through a hot water bath to can them, and all the recipe's called for just putting it all in the fridge. Anyway I think that they turned out wonderful, and I think I will go back out to pick more soon!

The look that says "I am done!!"

Lingonberries

Watson Lake

Climbing trees and finding lake life!

Lake creatures

All done and ready to head home!

Fireweed-Adventure #7

2011-08-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to go out and pick fireweed to make jelly out of it for years now, and I finally got a trip planned to do just that! My friend Farrah and her daughter Luthien accompanied us on our little "fireweed" adventure. We left around 10am and drove for about an hour, when we found the perfect spot by a mining road just past Cooper Landing. We were able to stop there for an hour and between Emma and I picking, we got about 16 packed cups of flowers....which equals 1 quart of juice to be made into jam or syrup. After we had finished picking fireweed we moved on to the wild rasberries, and ate and ate to our hearts content....especially Madison and Mason!!! We all got back into the car and drove up into the pass by Hope, and stopped ate lunch, explored a little, and Farrah hid one of her letterboxes. We then stopped at the rest area by the Hope cut off, and walked on the path to the old bridge, and hid another letterbox, as well as meandered along looking at the river below and playing. Farrah and I are thinking that it would be fun to float the river on innertubes, but we will have to investigate that a little more! After all that we jumped back into the car and headed for home. We made one little stop at a lake called Watson Lake, where there are hundreds of lillie pads, and lots of cute little fish running around. Farrah also pointed out that there were hundreds of lingonberries there, as well as blueberries, so we will be making a trip back there in the near future to grab some of those for more jam and syrup and stuff! :) The day was beautiful with hardly a cloud in the sky, and the temperature reaching 70, we were so thankful for time out of the house and the friends we could share it with!!! I was able to finish the day off with a piece of Farrah's homemade chocolate cake and yummy tea, and then at around 10pm a great swim in the lake as an end of the day workout!

With the fireweed came lots of bugs!!!

Yum!

Mason insisted on carrying his own bag so he could fill it with "flowers." :)

Luthien and Heidi spent their time racing about, climbing on rocks, and eating rasberries!

I loved this pinetree that was growing out of the rocks....maybe it could be my christmas tree this year! LOL

The old "Seward Hwy" bridge

Watson Lake

Playing Close to Home

2011-08-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

On this fine sunny day the kids got out the bubbles that my mom had sent up and started playing with them. We were sent a really cool bubble maker that Emma is holding in the picture below, and that kept the kids entertained for an hour or so. The dog also had lots of fun running around jumping into the air to catch the floating bubbles! In the afternoon, we went on a little walk down what is called powerline (because that is where the powerline goes), and found different kinds of plants to bring home and use for a craft. We had fun eating the watermelon berries, lingonberries, and blueberries that we found. Just a little excited about finding blueberries down there, because in past years the plants have not been producing any. When we came home, we got out solar print kit out and placed our plants in various places on the special paper and set it out in the sun for a minute or so, then we brought them inside rinsed them in water for a minute and set them out to dry, and the spot where our plants were turned white, and the rest of the paper blue. It turned out beautiful and the kids are eager to try it out some more!!!

Bridal Showers

2011-08-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we had a bridal shower for two of our counselors that are getting married soon. I was asked to make the cake and I hosted the party at my house. We had fun laughing, sharing advise, eating, and opening presents.

JC and Lindsey :)

Triple Chocolate Celebration cake!

A Hike in the Pass Adventure #6

2011-08-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

After several days of clouds and rain, Friday surprised us with all of its sun, and so we grabbed the kids and a van and headed out for another hike! We drove a little further this time all the way to the pass, so it was a 75 minute drive instead of 30, but the views were worth it. We actually took a trail that the Wilderness camp had taken the week before. The trail doesn't have a name,,,,or at least not one that I saw, so we will call it trail A :) We ate our lunch in the parking lot and then headed up the moutain. The grass was tall, so tall that even Katie and Emma had a hard time peeking over to see the view! Mason was really over the stuff hitting him in the face and all the mud that was on the trail from the rain. This mud caused much difficulty getting up and down the trail, and none of us escaped getting mud all over! Crystal, Catherine and I all thought the hike was so beautiful and would really like to hike it again (without kids) so we can make it up into the soft tundra and out of the weeds and bushes.

This little fungus that grows is cool to me because it is growing straight up or out!

These are the leaves that belong to the watermelon berry plant.

Examining his watermelon berry :) He liked to hold them in his hands, and not really eat them.

You can barely see Emma and Katie, but they are in the tall fireweed!

My feet....and they got a lot more muddy :)

Homer

2011-08-05T22:54:00.000-08:00

Two days ago I took my friends from Oregon, Fred and Marti Butcher, to Homer. Along the way we stopped at Anchor Point to see the most westerly point, by continuous highway. We went down to the beach and played around a little, but it was so windy there that Mason was soon cold and ready to go back to the car! We headed on to Homer, and stopped to overlook the city and surrounding area, and then went to the Wednesday Farmers Market. I have been wanting to get down here all year, because there are some ladies that make the best jams and jellies, and I was ready to stock up! :) We also walked around the spit looked at some shops and had dinner before we headed home again.

2011-08-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

Emma was away at horse camp all of last week. For one of their activities they each pick a skill to work on throughout the week, whether it be driving our draft horses, showmanship, or manuvering around obstacles (called trail class, not to be confused with trail rides! ). Well Emma chose to participate in the trail class, and then she competed in it at the end of the week Roundup. I took the kids over to watch her ride, and of course Mason had to go potty, so I took him for fear of him dropping his pants in front of all the other parents and kids there and peeing....:) When we got out from the outhouse, Emma was just finishing her ride....So I missed all of it :( She did really well, and I think she would have gotten a ribbon, but she missed one obstacle, partly, and had a DQ, so maybe next year! I got a few pictures of her sitting on the horse waiting!

Emma waiting for her turn to ride.

Emma just finishing her ride.

Mason finding the tractor and insiting on sitting on said tractor!

Found a frog in the back yard, so I caught it and took a few pitures and then returned it to his wild grassy spot. The kids are mad because I did not bring the frog to them....but I was thinking more of the frog and the fact that he would have been held and poked, and let him go instead. :)

Anchorage 7-28-11

2011-08-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

On Thursday we headed to Anchorage to pick friends up from the airport. They will be working at camp and visiting with us for the next 12 days! We had the most beautiful day for the drive, and I am so glad, because now it has turned cloudy and rainy. Anyway back to the day....We picked them up from the airport and then had lunch at the Artic Roadrunner. The kids played in the stream outside while we waited for the food and then sat and had a picnic by the stream! After lunch we took them to the Wild Berry Products store, and saw the reindeer and big stuffed bears! On the way out of town we stopped for a much needed cup of coffee from Kaladi's and then headed for Portage Glacier. It was a great trip except for the horrid drivers that seem to crawl out of the woodworks during the summer....we had some very close calls, because everyone is in a hurry and stop paying attention.

Swim Lessons for Heidi and Mason

2011-07-29T21:03:00.000-08:00

Heidi started out in level one for her first set of swim lessons, but was clearly ready for level 2 and so for the second set she moved up and really did a great job at swimming. She just needs to combine her kicking and arm movement to move up to level 3...so I guess we will be working on that a lot. I figure the faster we can get her to the swim team the better (so much easier on scheduals!). Mason just started level 1 for the first time and he did a great job, swimming with someone other than mommy! He had so much fun being in the water, and it is so hard to sit and watch Emma and Madison swim everyday. Now it is finally his turn!!! He did a great job, just not so ready to jump into the water to someone else. He is only 2 and a half and normally the start age is 3, but since he is potty trained and listens so well they let him start early. Yay for us :)

I threw one in of Madison on the swim team :)

Mason didn't want to jump off the diving board so he tried to go off the ledge.

Heidi had no problem jumping off the diving board!

Progress Days Parade!

2011-07-29T18:43:00.000-08:00

So last weekend was Soldotna's Prgress Days, which makes for a very busy tourist weekend, and this year was no exception. Except for this year the "red salmon" run came in that week, and so instead of maybe 5000 fish running up the river there was 400,000 fish running up the river in a day. Because of this "running of the reds" we went from having 10,000 people in town to having 20-30,000 in town!!! The streets were overflowing with people and cars and it was downright insane! Our family tries to avoid going to town when such events occur, just because it really is not very much fun. However my friend asked if we wanted to go to the parade, and since the kids are of the age to enjoy such things I thought it was about time we attended it! Much fun was had by all and they came home with a grocery sack full of candy and smiles on their faces.

This little thing was only 7 weeks old and the kids were begging me for one of their own! LOL

2011-07-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

Our adventure in Homer started out a windy one, as we set our tents up and prepared dinner. We actually did not do much in the evening because of the wind. As the night fell upon us and the wind swept over the ocean it made the temperature pretty cold and a little misserable to be out by the fire. Farrah and I started putting kids to bed around 9:30 and the last one fell asleep by 10:50. I drove into town to get bowls that I had forgetten at home and some cough medicine for my kids. I finally fell asleep by 12:30 and slept pretty soundly through the night. A few of my kids thought they would try to get up at 6:30 but I made them stay in the tent until 7:45, and by then it was starting to become sunny and there wasn't any wind! We had breakfast and sat and stared at the ocean and enjoyed the sun coming out of the clouds and warming the sand and rocks on the beach. The kids played down in the water and found all kinds of sea life, before we packed our tents up and headed to the shops for a bit of shopping. By 12:30 I was getting tired and run down, so the kids and I got some coffee and headed home, but my friend Farrah and her kids had another adventure on their own, which I wish we would have stayed for! The played on the beach some more, found some hermit crabs and brought a few home to watch grow their new homes, and found wild strawberries to pick and eat! They did not get home until 11:30 last night but had one of the best times in Homer that they had had in a long time!!!

Driving to Homer while the clouds are moving in.

Eagle at our campsite picking up some seaweed to take back to his nest.

Looking accross the bay from the Homer Spit

Eating dinner and dessert :)

the tents by the ocean

Add caption

Some of the little shops that line the beach of the spit.

Making breakfast

My little princess is not quite awake :)

Friend Luthien is holding seaweed!

Mason rolls out of bed finally :)

Momma Eagle with 2 babies in her nest!

Our adventure #4 Quartz Creek

2011-07-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday my friend Farrah and I headed to Cooper Landing to a little campground called Quartz Creek. It sits along the edge of Kenai Lake, and so we made a few snacks to bring with us to have a picnic, sit on the rocky beach, throw rocks, and do some wading. After that we went on a bike ride around the campground and then came back for some cake, more wading and more throwing rocks before packing up and heading home. The day was nice and sunny and even quite hot and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Kenai Lake

getting ready to bike

you can see that Farrah has dessert by the crowded circle of kids! :)

all that was left of mason by the end of the day......aka swimming sans clothes :)

Halibut/Silver Salmon Fishing Trip in Seward Alaska

2011-07-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

Thursday Chad, our friends Gary and Judy Anderson, Craig and Catherine went halibut fishing in Seward. They left at 4:30am to get to the boat by 6:30am for an early start, and got in to Seward by 5:30 that evening. Crystal and I along with 7 of our 11 kids (4 of them were at primary camp) drove to Seward at 2pm so we could do a little hike and play at the playground before we met up with the fishing crew. We did a little hike to see Exit Glacier (1 mile) and we thought about doing a longer one, but decided the kids would have more fun at the park. We were there only a few minutes when the guys called and said they were in and to hurry over to the filleting tables. Catherine had caught the biggest fish of the group and it weighed in at 74lbs and they wanted us the kids to see it before they cut it all up! The group caught all their halibut but one, and they were able to get their limit in silver salmon as well! When the fish was taken in to be packaged we headed out to eat and then picked up the fish and headed home! The kids and the adults were tired and all went straight to bed! :)

P.S. I gave Chad the camera so he could take pictures of the trip.....and well he missed the whales and pretty much everything else, so I probably wont be giving him the camera again any time soon! LOL

Catherine smiling about her catch

The gang with their fish....well most of it at least!

Mount Marathon

Letterboxing

2011-07-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that last Friday my friend Farrah and our children and I went on a little mission on Skilak Loop Road, to hide Farrah's Letterboxes. Farrah introduced me to this fun little treasure hunt of sorts a few years back, and this is the summer that I think we are finally going to do it! Anyway, letterboxing dates back to the 1800's over in England and you can read all about it at http://www.letterboxing.org/ if you would like, as well as look up places to find some that have been hidden in your area!

On Bottenintnin Lake....the kids loved the lake and wanted to go and touch all the lillie pads!

Mason and I waiting in Hidden Creek Campground while the others found a spot to hide one of the letterboxes on top of very large rock....which is why he did not go up! :)

The gang after hiding a letterbox up high

A nice little black bear walking across the road as we headed home!

Across the Lake Swim and Other Water Activities July 5, 2011

2011-07-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was a gorgeous day and the kids and I had fun doing water activities. Chad watched the kids for me while I swam across the lake, which is a 900 yard swim (1/2 mile) and then the kids went swimming for the rest of the afternoon. I got some great pictures of my friends going off the blob and the rope swing, showing flair while in the air! :) We all had fun and were tuckered out by the time bed time rolled around!

These are my friends, and we decided that the winner of the across the lake swim would get coffee from everyone else! Catherine, who is on the far right won, and is happily sipping coffee from the rest of us! :)

This is Catherine jumping onto the blob!

Farrah being blobbed into the air :)

Craig, about to blob Catherine

she goes up....

and she fell down.....hard!

Then Catherine decided to do the rope swing

Perfect rope release and jump into the water!

Madison and some of her friends riding the wasp

Mason thoroughly enjoying the water

Fourth of July

2011-07-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Every year for the 4th of July we have our Family Camp, and on the 4th we have the country fair, which my children look forward to every year. They are fairly certain that if we were to miss the country fair that the world just might come to an end. One of their favorite things to do when they get to the fair is to get their faces painted, and this year was no exception. Other fun things to do are the fun jump for the kids 5 and under, the bungee run, the climbing mountain, funnel cakes, ball toss, ring toss, horse riding, carrige rides, and of course dinner, to name a few!

One of my favorite people who came up as a councelor from Montana! :) My kids love her to death...literally!

Heidi and Mason walking to the country fair. I alwyas love the balloon archway that greets you so cheery like.

supposed to be a cheeta....

also supposed to be a cheeta.....I think it looks a little like a yellow dalmation! LOL

Heidi went with a simple heart....and Mason wanted nothing to do with the face paint!

He went fishing for a toy instead!

This is what Chad does on the fourth....He cooks the burgers and brawts. The other two guys facing us are the camp cooks, and the guy with his back to us is the camp director!

Climbing Mountain

see even adults can have fun on the bungee run! Although it is not fair when one has a leg over their rope so they can not reach as far!!!

A balloon that was lost

Mason and Heidi spent a good amount of time jumping all day

Adventure #3 Hidden Creek Trail

2011-06-29T00:06:00.000-08:00

Today...yes today I got all my pictures to load in about 2 hours!! I know it is still a long time....but we are seeing some improvement! :) Anyway, today Crystal and I took the kids to Hidden Creek Trail to hike and the day was mostly beautiful for it! We did get a down pour once we were at Skilak lake, but we found a wonderful tree that kept us all dry. The kids threw rocks in the lake for a while, and then we continued on the loop back up to the van and headed home! The trip was about 2.6 miles this time around, and the furthest that we have taken the kids on a hike. Most of them did very well, and while we had squables and the occasional youngster wanting to be carried, they all did very well!

Most of the group

The group minus me and Elijah, who was in the stroller

we are not sure why this milage is given, since just a 100ft down the trail it says 2.6 miles....

being silly on a rock

Eli

staring into a pond

friends!

Ahh the walking stick....Crystal and I are not so fond of the walking sticks....in fact we pretty much hate them!!! Many fights are caused by walking sticks, and then there is the constant finding of new walking sticks that make us stop every 3 seconds!!!

Heidi

Skilak Lake

Throwing rocks.....

sitting under our "protection" eating while we wait out the rain

that little mark by his eye is a wound from the rock throwing....one was accidentally launched in his direction :( He is fine though, as long as you don't bring it up!

Hiking buddies

At the end waiting for the others to catch up

Had to get a picture of me in there too, just to show that I do go on the hikes :) So here is Crystal and I still smiling after finishing another great adventure!

Emma stole Zechary's hat and she looks quite cute in it!

That looks sums up how the kids were feeling after the hike....They were very tired! I think they will sleep well tonigh!

Girlst Night

2011-06-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

This week has gone by as quickly as the last and again we are at a close. Emma made it through a whole week of camp, and did very well. So well that she has not been crabby or cranky at all today, and helped with whatever I needed without any complaint!! Her siblings missed her a lot though, and so did I. I don't know what I am going to do when the grandparents want the kids to come stay with them for the summer! :) Anyway, this week was the first full week of camp, and I decided it would be fun to have a "girls night" with the staff that stuck around for the weekend. There were 6 counselors and an LT who showed up and we watched a movie, did our nails, soaked our feet, had popcorn, drank tea, and talked and giggled! It was so much fun and relaxing that it might become a little tradition for Saturday night! It was fun for me, because it is a way for me to stay connected to the staff, and I miss that from the old days of being on program. Next week is Hockey camp at Lakeside, and an all girls horse camp at Wagon Train, so I pray that they get the rest they need to start another week of camp, and that they stay mindful of God knowing that He is in control.

Adventure #2 Skyline 6/20/11

2011-06-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

So again with blogger it has taken me all week to load my pictures on here. Liz and I hiked Skyline on Monday and I started loading pictures on Tuesday, and now I finally can post about it! :) We had a good hike. The trail is only a mile up to the saddle, which is the deciding point of which hill to climb to the top of either left or right and then another .5 miles to the very top, and it is all straight uphill. In the 1.5 miles to the very top, you gain 1800 feet in elevation! It took Liz and I 1hour 40 minutes to get a little past the saddle. We figured we almost did 2.5 miles, and it took us about an hour to get down. Our legs were feeling it but we had fun and we are ready to go hike it again. It took me 2.5 days to fully recover, so it should only get better from here on out. :) We missed our two friends that plan on doing more hikes with us this summer, but both were unable to get away. Next week is a new adventure and we are looking forward to it! :)

Smiling and laughing before we start the hike!

lovely flowers

Skyline Lake

It was much hotter and muggier than we anticipated, luckily for Liz she had shorts....I did not :(

looking out towads Soldotna area

Still smiling when we stopped to turn around :)

Skilak lake in behind the hills

Clam Gulch Staff Trip

2011-06-19T13:11:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Heidi and Mason and I went to Clam Gulch with the summer staff to relax and enjoy the sunny day. Emma and Madison headed to Anchorage with Chad on the bus run and get back today at 5.

We had a good time getting to know the counselors and leadership trainees a little bit better, and they all seem to love the kids! Mason even played a little football :).

Clam Gulch during low tides is an excellent place to catch razor clams, and while I would have loved to find some to take home, I could not do that and keep and eye on the kiddo's. So I will have to return for that adventure :)

Ben, our Wilderness Program leader, climbing the rocks

lots of staff playing in the water and attempting to build sand castles!

Mason, well.....being Mason I guess!

Lots of motorhomes dot the edge of the beach, but this one was abandoned and was full of bullet marks and holes.

This is what is left of a whale that was washed ashore this spring....you can barely make out the tail....it was pretty disgusting!

Getting ready to play football!

Heidi stole Adrian's hat and was looking pretty adorable in it!

Mason playing football with the Torkelson boys!

Set Netting

2011-06-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I took Emma, Heidi, and Mason with me to see a friend who was camping on the beach set netting for fish. They call it fish camp and it lasts about 10 days, but you can only set up on this beach and there is only about a mile-mile and a half that you can do this in. The key is to set your camp up 3 or 4 weeks in advance, and then every few days spend an evening and check on things to make sure none of it is stolen or moved, to get the spot you want for that year. The furthest point that you can set up on is the most desired because the tide hits there first and leaves last giving you prime location, but there are a certain group of people that have "held" those spots for years (like 30+) and they bring guns, and so I learned that you just leave those and try to get the next best spot you can! Set netting is only for Alaska residents and the number of fish you can catch depends on the number in your family. Our family could get 75 fish if we did this because the head of household gets 25 fish and then 10 fish for every person in you house hold after that. This is what people do to fill their freezers for the winter, or you can smoke it, or can it.

While the kids and I were there we were served potato chowder with bread and cheese, and I brought some sushi and strawberries for whenever, which eveyone there was pretty happy about! Then we sat and visited and watched the kids play on the bluffs and in the ocean. The day was so beautiful and you could see for miles, a huge improvement to the day before when it was downpouring rain!

see all the tents/camps set up along the beach!

walking the half mile to camp from the entrace by the Kasilof river

Emma climbing the bluff behind camp

Mason right after he belly flopped in the ocean

My friend Farrah who invieted us down to "fish camp" for dinner and visiting :)

It is always cool to see an eagle flying overhead even if you see them all the time!

Mt. Redoubt

Heidi wearing Esther's hat....Hiedi had a good time with Esther! :)

Hiking Adventure #1 June 14, 2011

2011-06-19T00:46:00.000-08:00

We have started our hikes again this year and this time we have added another mom and two kids, and sometimes a 4th and 5th mom and some extra kids will be joining us. We plan to do at least one hike/adventure type thing a week, but some of us are planning on doing more, when we can fit it in! This first trip out the day was rather drab, and the rain was more than a drizzle so even though we might have thought about staying indoors and sipping tea....we were determined to get outside and hike no matter what type of weather it was. We were headed for Hidden Creek Trail, but as we pulled up a bus with about 20 kids and 10 adults pulled up and unloaded, and we decided to move to another trail that was less crowed for the day! Haha. So we made our way to the Kenai River Trail, which could be about a 3 mile loop but we just made our way to the river and then turned around and came back instead of doing the loop, because of weather and the fact that we did not want to disrupt the rather good mood of the youngest 3 kiddos! We all had a great time, and only 2 kids (Eli who is 22 months old, and his older brother Tommy, but only then 1/2 a mile) had to be carried. There wasn't any screaming and not too many fights, which I find refreshing when you have 13 kids walking together! So here is to the start of the summer and many more adventures to come!!!

The group of 12 kids + one not pictured here

Here is the other kiddo :)

preparing for the hike

a butterfly that Emma caught and later let go

downed trees from the fire of 96

the group hiking

Mason pouting because I would not carry him....luckly it only lasted a few seconds and he was back on his way!

I love moss

Crystal and Eli hiking together

Heidi excited about seeing the Kenai river I guess :)

Kenai River

All of us except Catherine, who took the picture for us

What a pill with that face....he was happy a second before!!

Look we are still smiling when it's all said and done :)

Tri the Kenai Team "Tea" and Team "The Finishers" :)

2011-06-15T20:36:00.002-08:00

naiAfter the kids race my friends (teammates) and I waited for the start time of our triathlon. We each had a really good race, and a great time. I was happy that the 4 who had never done a triathlon had good experiences and want to maybe try a whole one next time. My team had a time of 1 hour and 29 minutes and the other team did it in 1 hour 46 min.!! I am secretly hoping that I can get a big group of my friends into triathlons so I am not doing them by myself! :) It is much more enjoyable when you do it with someone you know!

Teressa and I waiting to start our swim

Farrah just starting out on the bike

Farrah returning from the bike course

Crystal waiting in the transition area to be tagged by Farrah

Farrah giving me the look that she is so happy that I convincered to do this race :)

Tri The Kenai #2

2011-06-13T19:16:00.000-08:00

Emma and Madison competed in their 2nd triathlon yesterday and had huge improvements over last year! They did a fantastic job and I am so proud of their accomplishments and their good attitudes! I had so many people ask me "are those your girls?? They were so great because of their smiles the whole way through the triathlon!!!!" Both girls have asked me if there is another one that they can do this year, so we will be practicing lots. As for more tri's for them this year, I am not sure that there are any more, but that does not mean that we won't practice them....I guess we can have our own mini tri, right here at camp!

The End of May

2011-06-10T15:56:00.000-08:00

So this is some of the activities that we did the week leading up to Memorial weekend. We had amazing weather and had lots of fun being outside! For Memorial weekend we had about 200 people come to camp to help get it cleaned up and ready for the summer. We do that on Saturday and then spend the rest of the weekend doing stuff with our families. Emma, Madison, and Heidi got to ride horses, and they all went swimming in the lake, and I even went in that night for my first lake swim of the year. I must say it was a bit cold, and I am guessing that the water was about 50 degrees then (because it is about 57 now 2 weeks later)! We also moved the girls to a different bedroom and painted it, played with wildlife, posed for photos, and got into peanut butter! One full week of many I am sure. :)

Wedding

2011-06-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

On Sunday May 22, the camp directors' son got married! It seems weird because when I came to camp 12 years ago he was 8....I don't feel like it has been that long yet! The wedding was beautiful with tea being served and individual tea pot cakes. We sat a tables for the whole ceremony and reception, which made it a nice change of pace from other weddings I have attended. Chad and I are so very happy for the newlyweds and wish them much happieness and joy as they begin their journey of life together!

The flower girls and ring bearers!

I know it is dark and hard to see....I did not use my flash because I did not want to disrupt the ceremony....

One of the beautiful tea pot cakes that a friend made for the wedding!

Date to Anchorage

2011-06-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

May 21st Chad and I went to Anchorage on a date! We were supposed to pick up some people from the airport, and so because we did not have room for them and all of our kids, we found babysitters to watch them all day! However, the flight was cancelled and they could not get another flight to AK until the next day, so we went to Anchorage anyway since we already had the babysitters lined up....and there were things there that some of our friends needed picked up. We had a beautiful day for driving and we both had a wonderful time talking and spending time together alone....you cannot tell from the pictures that we did much, with my zoom lense I can't get any good pictures of the two of us, and my regular lense is still at the repair shop, so you are stuck with scenery :)!!!

On our way home we saw some parasailors, glad I had my zoom lens on!!

Was able to get a guy mid jump! They looked like they were having a good time.

The clouds over turnagain arm were amazing!

The Science of Food

2011-05-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

I know the title of this post sounded scientific, with lots of facts....but it is really about what we made. :) I made some gelato. Caramel Sea Salt Gelato to be exact. I made the Caramel from scratch and then added it to the rest of my creation. Gelato is Italian ice cream, while it is very similar to ice cream, it has a lower butterfat content, but a slightly higher suger content. I will say that it is simply amazing and my family thought so as well!
The other day we bought a science kit to make gum. We had lots of fun and made a really big mess. I did the messy part, and then the kids streched and kneaded the gum for 15 minutes so the gums elasticity stayed in place as you chewed it. The longer you do that the better the gum was. I found that it was good gum. but the flavors didn't last at all. So I think we will leave the gum making up to the professionals :).

Gelato! Yum!

streaching the gum out

Madison's "juicy watermelon" gum

Mocha

2011-05-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

We have had our puppy for just under a month now, and she is pretty much potty trained, and listens sort of. She is a very smart dog, and loves to cuddle, which when she is all grown could be quite interesting, and we all love her to death. It has had it's ups and downs, like having 2 two year olds in the house at the same time!!! I am still not quite sure which listens better yet! :) The cats are still getting used to her, and she would dearly love to play with them, but they are not to that point yet. To them she is really anoying, constantly staring, and barking, and intruding upon their space, but they have not left in disgust yet, nor have they resorted to getting even with me by marking on everything upstairs, so we are doing ok!

Easter

2011-04-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

So I know it is like 4 days later but for some reason my pictures didn't want to load on here, and I had a few of them. On Sunday, we had a wonderful afternoon with friends. We had an excellent home smoked ham, and turkey for lunch and then we all headed to another families home for a giant easter egg hunt!

Phyllo tart with lime curd and blackberries!

the boys eatin' lunch

the big kids headed to their starting point before the easter egg hunt

the littles waiting for the hunt to start

face off :)

I have to get it all the way up there?

beautiful miss C.

all in a hard days work

Tea

2011-04-17T22:31:00.000-08:00

Every so often I like to have tea with my friends. We have an amazing fresh loose leaf tea supplier in the town of Anchorage that we all frequent by internet or in person whenever we can. There is just no comparison to tea in a bag. While we have tea we talk of our everyday lives, of parenting, motherhood, the Bible, politics and anything else that might intrigue us. We all try to chip in and prepare a goody or two and all of our children play....or try to drink our tea too! :) I love this time that I get to spend with my dear friends and I missed it ever so much when I was away.

Just a few of our goodies for the afternoon!

The teapots were my grandmothers and I am so happy that I get to use them like she did. She loved to entertain and serve tea to her friends, so I guess the tradition has been passed down in our family.

Seward Swim Meet

2011-04-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Emma's first swim meet of the season since we have been gone for so long, and for not swimming for 6 months she did a fantastic job. She took 3rd overall in breaststroke, 4th in freestyle, and 7th in backstroke. In the butterfly she did one stroke wrong and got dq'ed but so did 2 other girls, and this was the first time in a meet that she had done that event. We had a good time, despite the pool area being too small and having to sit out in the school lobby with a screen set up to watch the kids swim from there. Seating was a little hard. but Madison and I had a good time anyway!

Mountains in Seward

Pictures of the Family and New Family Member

2011-04-08T11:10:00.001-08:00

The first few pictures are from Heidi's birthday party, and it was so cute when the little boys jumped into the photo session the girls were having to show off their cute dresses. The look on Lu's face is priceless!!! It's like excuse me what do you think you are doing here! :)

Tom, Heidi, Sammy, Ali, Luthein, and Mason

Heidi wanted stars on her birthday cake

Heidi posing for her first shots as a four year old. She did all the posing on her own. I did not direct her a bit! My little Ham :)

Madison and Heidi....a love hate relationship right now.

Madison

Mason, my handsome little man

This was Madison's birthday castle cake. She turned 7 on March 10th.

Her birthday dinner of macaroni and cheese and hotdogs!

Chad and Emma wrapped Maddie's gum in tons of paper and tape and it made them all laugh histerically!

Our friend C and the littles playing rock a bye baby!

Heidi

2011-04-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Today is my 300th post and it is only fitting that it should be for my daughters birthday today! This little girl of mine turns 4 today and I can hardly believe that my baby has grown so big. Heidi is the girls who loves everyone. In the last 6 months we have met a few hundred people during our travels and she hugs them all! A lot of them she was ready to go to their home and visit with them. She is also the little diva of the family, with two older sisters she has to do something to get their attention! She loves to be in dresses and wants to be as tall as her big sister, to the point that she will go take a nap when we tell her to just because she might grow taller while she is sleeping. My dear Heidi I love you more than words can tell, Happy Happy Birthday my sweet little girl.