Just Keep Swimming...

Our kids have spent an hour a day for the last 4 weeks in swim lessons and their progress has been amazing to watch. Brady was deathly afraid of the water 6 months ago and wouldn't allow me to let go of him at the pool. Now he is a little fish!!! He can swim to the bottom of 3.5 ft of water to retrieve dive sticks, he can swim alone and without any floatation devices for a distance of about 12 feet, and he is loving it!!!!

Ava and Jordan are both progressing for their ages. Ava will be joining Jordan in a level 3 swim class next month because she just passed her level 2 certification today. I was shocked that she passed because she is more of a social butterfly in the class than anything else. :) She is a bit nervous about moving up because she will have to swim in 12 feet of water for most of her level 3 class.

Jordan will repeat level 3 for the 3rd time because he can't seem to fine-tune his breathing patterns when his face is in the water. He is a strong swimmer, but just doesn't have the breathing part down. I bet he will pass the level 3 test next month because who wants to have their little sister in the same class?

I am proud of all of them and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have them in swim lessons.

10K Midnight Sun Run

Last night I ran in the annual 10K Midnight Sun Run in celebration of Summer Solstice. Summer Solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska means you literally get 24 hours of daylight. The daylight is awesome! You either love it or you hate it. But if you are like me, you love it because you are well aware that winter equinox means hardly any daylight.

4,000 people ran in the race last night. There is a costume contest as well and my goal was not allowing the man in the big, fat bagel costume to beat me. Thankfully, I beat the bagel! More than just a race, it is a celebration of summer solstice. Almost every house along the route has a crowd of their own as they barbecue, drink beer, soak runners with water, and play music.

Here are a couple of photos of some folks from our Brigade and Battalion that ran the race with me. Charlie was missed, but we are alternating race events for the summer and he had just completed a 100 mile bike race last weekend. These photos were taken 11:30 pm!

Inspired by Kristina

Last summer I helped a good friend plant a vegetable garden at her house in Germany. This year I decided to see if I have a green thumb of my own. I am pleased to report that we have zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes on the plants. They are very tiny, but still flowering. I can't wait until we can eat it!

PROJECTS

When I take on projects like this:

Something has got to give, like this:

I started painting Brady and Beckett's bedroom two nights ago and it turned out to be a much larger project than I had anticipated. I had no idea how hard it was to move bunk beds from one side of the room to another and turn an area rug without another set of hands. Now it's done and I have some other household chores to catch up on....

By the way.. the window photo was taken at 11:46 pm! Loving the AK daylight!

Caribou

We drove to Anchorage for Memorial weekend and on our way, we were able to catch a close-up of 2 caribou. They were lazily grazing on the side of the road and were not at all phased by us.
I wish I had more pictures to share with everyone from our trip, but I forgot my camera and my phone took this caribou picture and that is all I have for pictures.
We spent the weekend with some Army friends and then had a chance to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle who live in Anchorage. If I could choose between Anchorage and Fairbanks... Anchorage would win. After all... they do have a Target! (And of course... friends, family, and more mountains!)

Big and Little

How to Bake an American Pie

We spent our afternoon baking an apple pie together. Tomorrow the post commander will be reading the book, "How to Bake an American Pie" by Karma Wilson to our kids at a story hour put on by The Military Child Education Coalition. There is also an American Pie bake-off at story hour, so we decided to enter and the kids did the majority of the work and I supervised.

Step 1: Peel those apples!
Step 2: Cut the apples (I did most of that, so no picture).
Step 3: Squeezing some fresh lemon juice and shredding the lemon for zest.

Step 4: Measuring the yummy stuff: sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.

Step 5: Rolling out our dough that we made the day before.

Step 6: Adding the top crust.

Step 7: Adding egg to the crust.

Step 8: Bake at 425 degrees for one hour and....TAH-DAH you have and AMERICAN APPLE PIE!!!!