New camera + Family trip

Sliding with Barometer in the background

I guess only kids are allowed to survive...

Russian Church

Waiting to fly

All the cousins at the "Northernmost Denny's in the World"

Aunt Rachel and Lady A next to the Alaska Pipeline

The Duchess saw a BEAR!

Cousins... too cool for school!

Deep thoughts being shared here!
Also, a word of warning about crossing the white line in the background.

Hello! I'll be your server this morning!

The Duchess knows how to race that dogsled!

Sisters

Not quite as interested in this part of the tour

Lady A was laughing because her aunt and uncle kept moving in front of the camera!

Fun family photo!

Love these two!

The men.
Alternately, the tallest flanked by the shortest.
Or, the youngest flanked by the oldest.
Take your pick.

Our "Rustic" Cabin

Taking a picture of me taking a picture of her

Not sleeping.  Also, not smiling. But we can see his face!

Flipping the switch

Denali

Another view

I asked Mom what she thought about being on the train and getting all the hiccups sorted out.
This was her response.

Lady A in a pensive pose.
I was trying to show Princess N how to adjust the camera settings to achieve different effects with the lighting.

April becomes May

It is May already.  It is hard to believe we are already into the fifth month of the year.

So many things are happening just this month.  There is the end of the school year. There will be parties and field trips and goodbyes. For our niece, the end of high school and her birthday.  For our "baby" girl, her second birthday.  For Michael, nights have become days again. And we can't forget that his birthday is coming quickly too. For friends, this is the beginning of transfer season.  Already we have seen the trucks in our neighborhood, estimating, packing, and loading.  Wednesday night is the last night for AWANA.  The girls have loved participating.  I have enjoyed having a semi regular date night with Michael and the Duchess.  And then of course, there is Mother's Day.  My girls keep asking about and reminding me that Mother's Day is coming soon.  Lady A and Miss E have both decided to make cards for me and that I need to have a scavenger hunt to find all of them.  Perhaps I will take a nap while they set it up... Michael works tomorrow so Princess N has offered to assist.  There is more, much more, going on, but what happened to April?

April was a blur.  It was a challenge.  When you have 6 people sharing germs, it generally takes 6 weeks for those germs to go away.  There was someone sick pretty much every week in April.  I'm not sure if it was all the same virus because we all had different symptoms and we were each out of commission for different lengths of time.  Princess N had fever for a day and was fine.  Miss E had fever for 5 days, but was back to normal otherwise after 3 days.  Michael was sick for three days while whatever got me knocked me out for almost two full weeks.  Lady A and the Duchess seemed to escape unscathed.

I am hoping May slows down a bit so we can enjoy it.

Year in Review - Mid Year Edition

January:

• January saw the beginning of the craziness.  We knew we were moving.  We just didn't know where.  The countdown was on and we had about six months to finish everything we needed to finish before Moving Day.  Michael also started an intense travel schedule again in January.  I had only one class for the Spring semester and absolutely no motivation to work on it.

February/ March:

• While Michael was traveling, we received word that our orders had come in.  He had been interviewed by a unit in Florida and it looked as though that would be where we would be heading.  Instead, we ended up going in the opposite direction! Alaska would be our new home for a few years at least. The Overseas Screening was supposed to be completed within ten (10) days of the receipt of orders.  Michael arrived back home ten days after he received the orders so we tried to finish the screening as quickly as we could.  A round of doctor appointments and dentist visits later and we handed everything in.  We were then told that the paperwork was incomplete as it needed signatures on another form in the packet.  I went back to the doctors and the dentist for signatures.  As my doctor was only part time, it ended up being a week before we were able to send the packet back in.  Again we were told it was missing a signature.  (and we were told the forms were self-explanatory - I disagree) Since it was again my doctor who needed to sign, it took almost another week to return the forms.  By this time we were into the middle of March.  

April:

• By the time April rolled around, we were beginning to get concerned about whether or not we were approved to move to Alaska.  We discovered the official approval came on March 29th.  We were going to Alaska!  Almost immediately I began to wonder if we made a mistake or if this was truly where God wanted us.  After all, we'd hit nothing but roadblocks up until this point.  At the end of the month, we began the process of setting up our household goods shipment. 

May:

• I finally finished my class.  It took a lot of work but it was mostly because I was so focused on trying to sort out all the details for the move that I didn't want to waste time on classwork.  I still passed with an 'A', but just barely.
• We took a short trip to Florida to visit family before we moved to Alaska.  It was a sweet time and we really enjoyed being able to see not only Michael's family, but part of my family as well.  We may not be officially related to the McQuearys, but they are officially part of our family. The girls had a great time playing with their cousins and all of us enjoyed celebrating lots of birthdays. 

June:

• June is where things really got interesting.  The girls finished their last week of school while the movers packed and loaded our belongings.  On June 8, we headed out of the Houston area.  I'll be writing more detailed posts about our trip.  Stay tuned for some beautiful scenery!!

Boys, girls, and baseball games

Miguel was crushed that his mom would buy Daivd a drink but she would not buy him anything to eat. Of course, David was the one on the field sweating...

Miss A, playing with Miguel in the bleachers.

Miss N, just before she saw the camera and smiled. I like the candid shots.

Miss E did well at the games. She enjoyed going from one person to another. She was VERY tired though.

David during a break. He sat out an inning after playing catcher for the several innings before. His team was behind by 3 points when we arrived and slid 2 more points behind shortly after we arrived. But, they ended up winning by one point! I think the score was 8 to 7.

Alex, before his game. He and Miss A had a good time playing together.

Miguel again. He was saying something, but I couldn't understand. This may have been the time he was singing or it could have been when he was complaining that his mom wouldn't get him anything to eat.

David at the catcher's position. Look at that posture! Any ballet teacher would be proud!

Alex with a pretty good swing to my untrained eye! He missed, but that is okay.

Labor Day

We had a great plan! Swimming at Laddie's. Chili cooking in the crockpot while we swam and ready for lunch without any trouble.

Problem was, I got a phone call from Rachel. She was running late. No big deal, I still had a few things to finish prepping. We left the house around 10am instead of 8:30am. By the time we arrived, it was time for lunch and the chili had not yet made it to the crockpot. Plus I still needed to make a quick run to the grocery store for some snack items I had planned to bring.

We decided to skip the crockpot and cook the chili on the stove. I got it put together and made the quick trip to the store. I arrived back at Laddie's just in time to serve the chili. It had just needed to be heated up.

The adults began serving themselves since all the children were upstairs playing Wii. As soon as we were ready to sit down to eat, 4 children came downstairs and proclaimed they were ready to eat or swim. Because of thunder, we asked that they wait and because we wanted a peaceful meal, we told them we'd serve their bowls when we were finished eating.

After the kids ate, they jumped into the pool. About 15-20 minutes later I heard Michael call me. He asked me to take Miss E because it was getting ready to storm again. And sure enough, kids were jumping out of the water left and right. Pool toys went flying onto the side of the pool and adults herded everyone inside.

Poor Miguel was standing in the dining area with his arms out from his sides dripping water all over the floor. In the rush to get inside, he wasn't given a towel. In his parent's defense, they were getting toys and floats out of the pool.

We decided to call it a day. It rained pretty hard several times while we were at Laddie's house. So our great plan was drastically revised.

No pictures though. I realized about halfway to Laddie's that I had forgotten to bring the camera.

At any rate, it was fun to hang out with family, even if things didn't go according to plan.

A word to the wise and a Copy Cat

This is the result of placing the baby in the high chair next to the phone.

And this is the result of Chicken & Dumplings. And for those who do not read Rachel's blog... click here.

Backtracking

At the end of March, Laura & Scott & their 4 came to visit. We had a wonderful time. We went to the Wilmington Railroad Museum, the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium, Mike's Farm, Airlie Gardens, and most importantly... the beach!

The only problem with where we live is the location. We LOVE where we live until it comes time to go somewhere. Anywhere. Unless we are heading to church, Food Lion, Michael's work, school, or a friend's house, it literally takes us a minimum of 30 minutes to get there. We enjoy not living in a large community. We lived near D.C. for long enough to know that we like a bit of room between us and the neighbors. We enjoy the closeness of a small community. We don't know everyone, but we know enough. We enjoy being able to tell our children that they can walk down the main road of our neighborhood and not worry about them being hit by a car or kidnapped.

So, when Laura & Scott were here, we traveled. We drove, we saw, we drove some more. Even the closest, decent hotel at a decent price was 20 minutes away. We were glad to have time with them, but it felt more like time in the car. Well, in our case, the truck & minivan!

So that bring us up to April and the camping trip. Pictures and more posts to come.

Train Museum & Airlie Gardens

Note to Mom: If you are able to come visit North Carolina in the spring time, do your best to visit Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. It is absolutely beautiful and there are tulips EVERYWHERE!!

The day started out like any other. We got the girls up and off to school.

Once everyone else was ready, around 10 am, we headed down to the hotel where Laura & Scott are staying. On the way there, Michael looked at me and told me that he thought we should take the girls out of school and bring them with us. I had thought about it earlier, but I decided that N really needed to be there. We ended up at the hotel and Michael decided that since Laura & Scott's van seat 8 people he would send Miss E & me with them and pick up N & A.

So, we headed off in different directions. We arrived at the train museum around noon and the children enjoyed a scavenger hunt with a display in the gift shop area. When they each had found all of the items, they received a prize. I believe most of them picked a train shaped eraser.

Michael and our girls arrived just as we were finishing up with the last pictures outside on the caboose. We decided lunch was a great idea for our next activity. We pulled into a Chick-fil-A that literally had only one parking space the first time we drove around. But, enough people left for us to park.

After lunch, we headed for Airlie Gardens. Airlie Gardens is a beautiful place. Originally it was used by a very wealthy family for entertaining their guests. Later, another family used the property as their primary residence. In 1999, the family sold the property to the county which has restored it and had it placed on the Historic Register. Even the children enjoyed exploring the Gardens. Miss Arty-Pants (Laura's oldest) especially enjoyed sketching the flowers that were blooming.

I apologize to my family for not discovering this beautiful place until now. I would love to have all of you visit in the next few weeks so I can share spring time with you!

And of course, pictures to come as soon as I get them downloaded onto the computer!

coming soon!

SPRING BREAK IS ALMOST HERE!!

We are so looking forward to the break. Michael's sister & her family are coming up for a visit. I have been working on cleaning the house for their visit.

The girls are getting excited about the visit. N & A asked me today who was sleeping where. All the sisters are together. The brothers & their parents will be staying at a hotel nearby.

There are so many things that we can do while they are here, it is difficult to figure out what to do. I think the one outing I am looking forward to most is the adults only dinner. We have a babysitter lined up and trying to reach another one to assist. It has been 7 months since Michael & I have gone out together without the girls. And I have no idea how long it has been for Laura & Scott.

Can hardly wait for Friday!

Gluten Free

Since my dear sister has a child who is allergic to wheat, I've sent her websites/blogs that I run across that deal with that subject. I was reading a blog tonight and I have copied several recipes that look amazing.

I'm going to try these over the next couple of months. If anything turns out good, I'll share.

Hopefully we will be able to find some things that my nephew can eat when he comes to visit. Which I hope will be often!

Christmas Take 2

Familiar skyline.

I give up!

Me too!

I'm not leaving until I get LUNCH!!!

Too many cameras to look at. Don't drop her... don't drop her...

Christmas

Making the Gingerbread House Set. By our very own Theatre Designer.

Storytime with Grammy and a beat up copy of The Polar Express.

Fighting over the baby. Round One.

Love at first sight.

Sunset on the drive into Texas.

Invaded!!!

Today this van pulled up in my driveway...

I said, "I think we have company!"

N responded, with a little jump and a clap, "COMPANY!"

Aunt Rachel and her boys are here to stay. At least for a few days.

We are excited to see them and wish Spring Break lasted a couple more weeks instead of just one.

Reunion ~ People Part 2

"Sweetness", my sister-in-law's second daughter.

"Stealth-Man", Laura's oldest boy is just hard to resist. It is so much fun to take pictures of Laura's children.

Daddy loves his girl! And she loves him too! This picture was taken on the trail up to Haceta Head Lighthouse. 'N' and Sweetness. These cousins had a wonderful time playing together.