Fire in the Sky

Awsome sunrise this morning! Photo's never capture the depth and hues of a sunrise like this.

Coke and Turkey do mix

We had the Coke family over for Thanksgiving. Karla and I made the mistake of telling the boys they'd be here at 10:30, but they didn't arrive until 10:42... I know this because every time the clock ticked another minute I had 3 boys reminding me that they were late. :) We had all the fixn's and then some. Jeremy and I stacked some plywood on our table so we could all fit at one table- something that was important to me. I wanted to get a few pictures of all of us at the table, but the camera battery died after one. As you can see we had to do some old fashion Alaska improvising with seating. A fish cooler and booster seats work well in a pinch. The winner in the "I'm going to eat until it hurts so good" contest was Sarah. She went back for more at least 3 times.... and then layed down on the couch with a stomach ache.

We then had the "traditional" dance off. Yea don't ask; it was a joke said to all the kids a few weeks back; they took it literal and... a tradition begins. What I didn't expect was the absolute enthusiasm in which Jeremy took to the contest. His spot on Michael Jackson moves were quite impressive and a bit embarrassing for the audience, but we are beginning to expect the unexpected with the Cokes.

After that we put on Ice Age 2 (or was it 3?) for the kids as us adults retreated to the big room for ping pong and....whatever the ladies talked about. Despite the hellacious serves by Jeremy, I'm still undefeated in this house.

After ping pong we played "Scene it Seinfeld". Karla and I won, a point that I'm pretty sure still bothers Jeremy and Sarah. 11:00 came fast, the day flew by, and I had to get to bed to go to work the next day. I must say it was one of the best Thanksgiving we've had in Alaska- thanks Coke family.

The Jawa's

This year for Halloween I made up some Jawa costumes for the kid's. Yes, I went a little bit overboard but it was really so much fun to make them!
I started with the robes which are made from Monk's cloth that you can buy at any Fabric store. I got 8yards for the 3 robes. (Rae Rae is wearing Anakin's robe from Tuckers costume last year). Dying them the dk brown color was the longest part of the whole process. Luckily all the dye came out of the tub!

Then I made the ammo belts which are cut from a roll of burlap type material for tow straps I think. I spray painted them black and sewed on a peice of elastic and stuck in little cardboard boxes (spray painted black) and bullets. :) Chris let us borrow some perfect size rifle bullets for the evening. The ion blaster guns are funnels (walmart $1/each) with cardboard wrapped around the skinny end, taped up for handles, then spray painted black. The masks are basic black eye masks with led lights attached to the front right under their eyes. I bought the led lights from ebay for $2/set. Attach a 9volt battery and viola! Glowing eyes!

I painted the parts of their faces that still showed black to finish it off. It was really a fun, suprisingly easy project to do.

The kids had so much fun trick or treating and what an awesome day it was for it. It wasn't snowing or super cold. Good times, great memories!!

African Savanna

We have been learning about the African Savanna in school for the past month or so and soon will be shifting gears to the Rainforest. So Gunner had a great idea of making our school room look like the African Savanna. I think he was envisioning importing plants, sod, trees, maybe a few creepy crawlies, but he settled with inviting the Coke's over to paint a backdrop, and make some animal crafts. You guys did awesome!

pig races

The kids look forward to the fair every year. This year we tried out the scarecrow contest and the boys teamed up with the Coke boys. Being pretty competitive by nature I have to admit that it was sooooo hard not to jump in there and completely take over their project. But they did a great job. They were the proud creators of "Big head scarecrow".


The kids also went to watch their first pig race. They each took a moment to check out the quality of the racers before choosing the one they would root for.


It is quite obvious who Tucker chose to root for. Gunner and Calvin's choice was behind the front runner #2.


Tucker: "Come on #2!, oh man, is he faltering?"
Gunner: "Oh, here is your chance little pig...#2 is stumbling..."


Tucker: "Oh Man!!! He fell! Shoot!"
Gunner: "Oh yeah, #2 is out of the game, go fast little one!"


Tucker: (maybe my bro's didn't see that I was rooting for #2)
Gunner: "Oh! so close! My little pig got second. That darn #5 pig won"



Tucker: "I really was rooting for #5 you know...I was just saying #2 because...I felt sorry for #2 you know..#5 was my first pick for real"
Gunner: "Tucker's pig won..."



Tucker: "Yea, see I had this connection with #5 from the first...."
Gunner: "wait, huh?.."



Gunner: (Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense, I heard him voting for #2...right?)
Tucker: (Cause a diversion before questioning) "Hey, what's over this way?"

Good times!

Perfect Picture

Wow! This one is going on the wall.

Fox Island

Chris and I recently got to go to Fox Island with Kenai Fjord Tours for the weekend. This is such a cool place! You catch a boat from Seward which takes you to the island for a salmon bake lunch, we splurged and paid an extra $15 for a pound of fresh King Crab. Yum! After the lunch was over the rest of the tour group gets back on the boat for a glacier cruise. We stayed on the island with 3 other couples as overnight guests. We all had our own private cabins and shared a common "meal" cabin. Chef Chris was amazing. He prepared all kinds of goodies for us.

There was no cell phone service (except for near a cave on the far side of the island), no computers, no kids, just mind settling silence. Aaaaaaah! Everyone needs to do something like this now and then. It is good for the soul to be out in God's beautiful creation and without any interuptions.

It was raining while we were there but we still enjoyed our strolls along the beach, skipping rocks, and our deep conversations with the Coke's. Yes, our good friends Sarah and Jeremy Coke came with us. They tried their best to skip out but we made them come. :)Here is Chris and Jeremy discussing the big sheep he shot this weekend.And here is Chris losing to Sarah in Poker....again.

Here is Chris skipping rocks..

Oops! I think he accidentally skipped Sarah...Sorry Jeremy!

No worries! She washed back up again. (we had a lot of free time on the island) :)

Lake Pics

Few pics from recent lake visit. Last pic is of Gunner's leg after Tucker removed the leech.

Dipnetting in Kenai

We went dipnetting on the Kenai a couple of weekends ago and were very lucky to have our wonderful friends, the Coke's, join us for the weekend! The kids had so much fun getting up close and personal with the fish guts on the beach.

Chris and Jeremy got 34 fish in one day! Here they are all cleaned, filleted, and vacuum packed. Salmon tonight!

Clear

Over 4th of July weekend we got to camping in Clear, AK. Mom and Dad have some property out there and we all camped on it. It was sooooooo hot! In the upper 80's which is hot for us. We had so much fun 4-wheeling all over the place. Trails everywhere! It was so nice for our family to get away from the moving, packing, unpacking, work, etc. and spend some quality time together. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come with you!

July 2009

I can't believe we are at the end of July already! Summer goes by way to fast. The boys finished up baseball. They were on a really good team this year and Mom and Dad were very proud of their skills on the field. You can really see the difference in their personalities during a game. Tucker is all seriousness. He wants to make sure everyone is playing fair. He happens to be a really good hitter too. I like it when, before he steps inside the batters box, he points at his teamates who are on base and tells them that when he hits the ball to run home. It is not "if" he hits the ball, it is "when" he hits the ball. Ha!

Gunner definately takes time to smell the roses, or grass, in the outfield..and practice his dance moves now and then. But when he got to play 3rd base, he was all about stopping those grounders. This was his first year not playing T-ball and he did great. Should have heard his mom and dad whooping it up when he would hit the ball at his turn up to bat!

Show me your roses!

I wanted to see pictures from all of you who bought roses from Big Brothers Bushy Buckets last spring. Can you send me some or post them on your blog? Here are some pictures from ones that were left over.