September Happenings

It is hard to believe that we are already mid-way through September. The leaves are changing and are falling quickly up here in the great state of Alaska. By my estimations... we have approximately 3 weeks before we are freezing our patooties off and shoveling snow. Aside from the shoveling part, we are ready. Every kid has boots, ski pants, warm jackets, gloves, hats, face masks, and mittens.

Jordan and Ava are adjusting well to their new school schedule. Brady has started preschool/speech and we are falling into a nice routine. I've become Queen of the Copying room at the elementary school. I need to bring my camera, but Beckett has taken more than one nap on the floor with the copier buzzing in the background. He sleeps through anything when he is tired enough. I copy, cut, paste, and laminate for Jordan and Ava's teachers during Brady's speech sessions at their school.

I am still running our FRG (Family Readiness Group) for Charlie's company and I am counting down the days until it's over. He comes out of command in December so only a few more months!!! While I generally enjoy helping people/new Army spouses out... it's exhausting and sometimes I feel like it has taken over my life. Last month, I logged 65 hours of time toward it! Between fundraisers, sending out emails, going to meetings, etc., the time adds up fast.

More detailed posts coming soon... but I have a much-needed date with a wonderful man tonight that I need to get ready for.

First Day of School!

Jordan and Ava started traditional school on Wednesday. Jordan is now in the 3rd grade and Ava is in 1st Grade. They are getting so BIG! It was a very difficult decision to make in regards to traditional school vs. homeschool. Charlie will be away quite a bit over the next 6 months and then he will deploy to Afghanistan for 1 year in the Spring, so we decided that it would be best to let the kids try traditional school. I enjoyed every bit of homeschooling, but the days can be very long when Charlie is away and I just don't think I could do it with him away. After first semester is over we will re-evaluate and if traditional school isn't working out, then we can always bring them back home. We are continuing with our homeschool Math curriculum and history in a process that I am kindly referring to as "afterschooling" or "beforeschooling" because it doesn't take too long to do and the kids enjoy both of them.

There were other factors that went into our decision as well and the other big piece is that Brady will be attending speech therapy sessions 3 days a week at Jordan and Ava's school. He is showing improvement already, but he really needs some quality time with me as we work on getting him ready for reading next year.

After I shed my first day of school tears, I went home with Brady and Beckett and taught Brady how to tie his shoes and say the word "Yellow" properly.

Worth a pack of Wipes

We've had a few wildfires in the Interior of Alaska this summer... so when I asked Ava and Brady what happened to the moose? They told me that he was rescued from a forest fire.

Great-Grandparents!

My Grandparents visit Alaska every summer, but they usually are in Anchorage to visit my Aunt and Uncle. Anchorage is 5 hours from Fairbanks, so they flew up here for a quick visit. We had a wonderful visit and truly enjoyed our time with them. We played games, did puzzles, and visited a local park with them. Here they are with our kids right before we took them back to the airport.

Jordan's Fish

Jordan is so proud of this, that I thought he deserved a post of his own. He was our only child tall enough to go on a charter boat and fish for Halibut and Cod with Charlie. They went out on a 12 hours fishing tour and caught 4 halibut and 1 Ling Cod. When I asked Jordan his favorite part of the trip... he said that he liked to stomp on the fish when they put them on the deck of the boat. Apparently, you stomp their tails to keep them from wiggling around and it helps end their lives. Being that he was the only kid on the boat with 12 adults, he was allowed to be the official "Fish Stomper". Our freezer is full and we will be eating fish for a while.

Seward, Alaska

In the beginning of July we spent almost 2 weeks on vacation and part of it was spent in Seward, Alaska. Seward is a small fishing town on the Kenai Peninsula that is about 9 hours south of Fairbanks. It was wet and rainy for the entire week that we were there, but we still had a good time. Here are a few of the pictures from our week in Seward.

A view of Exit Glacier.
A close-up of us at Exit Glacier.

Brady showing off his Junior Ranger badge from Kenai Fjords National Park.

Jordan and Ava on our boat tour in front of another glacier. Charlie took this picture, so I don't know what Ava was so unhappy about.

A humpback whale waving "good-bye" to us.

Waiting to board our boat.

Ava and Brady in front of the harbor on a sunnier day.

Wild Raspberry Jam

On Friday afternoon we spent a couple of hours picking wild raspberries in the forest. Ava was a bit frightened that we would get eaten by a Mama Bear. She spent the first 30 minutes in the van, scared to come out and convincing Beckett that the bears were coming. After some coaxing, we got her out of the van and then she enjoyed her time. It was sort of an impromptu picking, so we didn't have the camera to take pictures. Then the boys were not as interested in making the jam as they were picking the berries. Ava spent the morning making jam in her jammies with me and I enjoyed every bit of it.