Our friends hosted their annual Halloween party on Saturday night. Frightful fun was had by all. My little goblins were too busy with pumpkin whoopee cushions to keep their costumes on. Here is a quick review of the evening:

All the guys in costume:



All the ladies (take extra notice of the skeleton!):


The Viking couple (hostess and host):



The costume contest winners. The Leprechaun won the "Best Male" and "Best Overall". Wonder Woman won "Best Female". Laura Ingalls won "Best Kid".


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Location:Fright Night

Apple Picking

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Kansas buddies!

We spent two weeks in Kansas visiting with our wonderful friends, the Bartholomew's. It was fun and relaxing. All of our children still get along wonderfully and it was sad to have to say goodbye as always. Here are some of my favorites from our time with them.











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Santa Claus Half Marathon

I did it! At some point in the last four months, I decided it would be a good idea to run a half marathon this year. It has taken me a week to appreciate having done it, (yes, I felt like I was ninety for two days afterwards!) so here are the "home stretch" photos from my fan club. The course was nice... 12 miles of big gravel and about a mile of pavement. At one point I found my mind wandering and wishing that a big, Alaska bear or wolf that roams the area would have mauled me (somewhere around mile 11)!!!!

I survived it and I owe most of my success to my kids. Had they not been willing to ride their bikes for many 6-10 mile rides while I ran, I would not have been able to do this. Yes they sometimes whined and sometimes they convinced me to stop and pick berries! But they are awesome and if I were any where near fast enough to receive a medal, I would have given it to them! I finished in 2 hours and 17 minutes. I am satisfied that I ran a race with the word "marathon" in the title and until I lose my mind again, I have no plans to do another.








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Backcountry Skills!

Putting our arms to work because our campground didn't have any wood for sale on our first day. Jordan is turning into quite the little man!








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Lil' Cowboy

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Quilts

I upgraded my sewing machine for this deployment with the goal of completing 12 quilts for the year. I'm on schedule so far, but my sewing machine started having trouble last week and I had to take it back to the dealer for repairs. It would straight stitch and free motion quilt, but the first time I tried to do a zig-zag stitch to make cloth bowls, it sounded like it was breaking needles.....but without a needle actually breaking. Sorry for the boring post... But blogging is much easier than scrapbooking!

This is a table runner that I made for a friend after she attempted to learn and decided she didn't really enjoy her new hobby. I stole her fabric and made it for her, then surprised her with it.



I made this doll-size quilt for my niece to use on her baby dolls. The one below matches and was made for her newborn sister.







This one I made and shipped to Charlie for his cot. Super-long and too wide. He claims that he has the most fashionable cot.


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Homegrown Broccoli

Our kids tried their hands at growing their favorite vegetable....BROCCOLI! It worked and it was delicious!








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The most honorable project I've ever made

This past weekend, our Battalion lost two soldiers in Afghanistan and seven were wounded. I was asked to make the families Gold Star Banners along with the help of my friend. Pray for their families as they walk through the grieving process for months to come. Please continue to pray for the safety of all our soldiers in Afghanistan and around the world, the wounded, and all military families that endure separations.


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Location:The most honorable project I've ever made.

Independence Day!

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The Fireweed!

Jordan and Ava just read the last post and said, "Mom there is no fireweed in any of your pictures!" Oops! Forgive me, but these days I am caught somewhere between folding laundry and finding time to play with my kids and then my brain is trying to balance somewhere in the middle.



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Angel Rocks

Today we beat the rain that we've been having and hiked up to Angel Rocks. My kids were troopers and enjoyed playing around the rocks and picking wildflowers. The flower in the picture is Fireweed. When the last flowers at the top bloom, it is said that we have six weeks until the first snow. I've payed attention to this for our four summers in Alaska and it is fairly accurate.











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All Aboard!

Last weekend I booked a trip to Denali National Park on the Alaska Railroad. My friends Joanna (plus her Mom) and Erin joined me for a long day of riding and hiking! Altogether we had twelve kids ranging from the ages of 11 months to 12 years old.
We packed a picnic lunch and decided to hike a 3 mile route out to a small lake and back. There was a giant sign at the base of the trail, warning that grizzlies had been spotted in the area in the past. Ava freaked. I calmed her down, assuring her that there were way too many of us and surely we would scare them off the trail. I was fairly confident in my tale, until we found bear POO in the middle of the trail. Thankfully, we only saw one bear....safely from the moving train!




Yes, that's the bears potty break. :-/



There was still snow under this little foot bridge.



All the kids, after the trip. (minus Beckett!).



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Time is flying by!

It's been forever since I've updated... But I finally had two seconds to pause and figure out how to blog from my iPad. Charlie took the laptop to Afghanistan with him and so I'm now an Apple girl... although I prefer berries!

I'm 1/6th of the way through my deployment marathon. Most days pass by with a blink of my eyes because I'm constantly working hard to keep up with our busy life. But, I do have to say... I am not a whiner in the sense of "poor me, my life is so terrible because my best friend is gone for a year." But somehow people find it necessary to remind me that, "this is what we signed up for." I've gotten a little snarky in my sole, physical parenting lifestyle and started responding with, "Got it. But did you know that if my husband and every other soldier didn't volunteer, there would be a draft and it would be you or your own husband."

But seriously, we are doing great. It started out a bit tougher than I expected for our kids. But they are on cruise control now and are doing great. Ava and Beckett had their tonsils and adenoids removed on June 7th and three weeks later they are all recovered. On our worst days I remind myself that conditions are so much worse for Charlie and he is most likely missing us too.

On the Charlie note... He is doing great. Working ultra-long days and living in a tent with one semi- " real" meal a day. He doesn't have much time to communicate with us because they don't have phones where they are and Internet connections are spotty at best. When we do hear from him it is a real treat.

Next up is a a post with pictures. I've got quite a few photos from our summer fun!


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Trial and Error

2011 World Ice Art Championships

March is a wonderful month to live in Alaska. You've been SO COLD all winter than when March hits and it reaches 20 degrees... it feels like a HEAT WAVE. Kids are back to playing outside everyday and being a Mom is much easier! Here are a few of our favorites from this year's ice sculptures.

Visitors

Charlie took two weeks of vacation in March and we had visitors come, Grampa and his girlfriend, Beth. They flew up from New Hampshire and stayed for a week. Our kids kept them as busy as could be and I'm not sure who is more bored now that they are gone, them or my kids. We spent a day in Anchorage with Grampa's brother and his family. Then we drove all the way back to Fairbanks (a 6 hour drive) and spent the rest of the week at our house. It was a wonderful visit and we all enjoyed spending time with them. Grampa with his grand kids. Grampa and Beth with a couple of our kids.

Grampa and Beth braved the ice slides.

Grampa with his brother, Kevin.

Dog Mushing in Alaska

A couple of weeks ago we had an opportunity to take the kids on a dog mushing field trip with a few other homeschooling families. We spent probably 4 hours with all of the dogs and everyone went home with smiles on our faces. A few family members wanted to add a couple of more dogs to our family... and of course Mom is the big party pooper on that concept. One puppy is enough for me! Every kid (including Beckett) had a chance to drive the sled with a team of dogs. For the kids the owner only put 4 dogs on a team so that they wouldn't be too fast or too strong for the kids to slow them down. Ava got a fresh team of dogs that went so fast around a corner that she dumped the sled in the deep snow. Afterwards she said she wanted to fall into the snow with them again! For all of the PETA fans out there...this is not abusive. From the moment we harnessed them to the sleds, all they wanted to do was RUN and PULL! Petting the pups before they took off. While the kids were waiting, they hooked themselves to the harnesses and pulled a sled full of kids around. Jordan is in the front in red, Ava and Brady are sitting in the sled.

Charlie getting a quick lesson in how to handle the dogs and the sled. Beckett and Ava are sitting in the front of the sled.

And he's off!

Jordan giving me a ride!

Ava's turn!

Brady driving with Ava and Beckett in the sled.

Me with Beckett and my friends' children.