2nd Annual "Christmas Tree Burning" Youth Activity...

... at the Merrill firepit, followed by a little Rock Band, the YMs favorite activity and Seth's. His favorite song to belt out is "Eye of the Tiger"! Ryan likes to team-drum, but usually she bails about halfway through to dance to the music!

I love Frank

Just called Daddy and let him know who was kicked off American Idol. The rocker guy that we love this year (kinda modern Elvis-y) is soooo sweet! His voice is awesome. He reminds me of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith who reminds me of Frank. Frank and I both loved Aerosmith when I was in highschool. And I thought it was cool that they were the only band that I could consistently pick out on the radio. Plus, I loved having something in common with my brother.

In high school, I loved going to visit Frank at the fire station. We visited and he took me on a ride along once. I'm sorry that we don't get the chance to do as much together anymore, but that comes with the territory of growing up. Now the kids love going to visit him when he makes them snow cones, gets them a candy bar from the machine and rides ithem in the truck. They are enjoying the same things with Frank that I did. I hope their kids will get to know how fun he is too!

Seth's Half-Birthday Poster

Seth has great teachers again this year! They celebrated his half birthday which is so much better than clumping all the summer birthdays at the end of the year like they did when I was in school. He gets to be interviewed and then decorate his poster. School has been a great push for Seth. Before he just shut down when he was put on the spot. But Mrs. Campbell has them sharing their stories and objects that they bring for "Mystery bag", doing talent shows, and just practicing performing. Because they were such slow, small steps in a safe place without me there to fall back on, he has really grown. He did the swim time trials, he can't wait to do gymanstics again, and though it took a ton of jokes to get a smile from him for a model photo, his father would have done no better! So him and Adam may never love being center of attention, but I think, Ryan and I can make up for that.

Ryan's half-birthday party ended with a macaroni and cheese dinner with candles because I forgot to do them at the party and a sleepover with her friend Megan. Ryan has been wanting to have a sleepover forever. Since Seth had his first at his 5 year old birthday, we made that the rule. But since she wasn't going to be having friends at her 5th bday (we will just have moved to DC), she got her sleepover at 4 and a half and had a great time!

Xbox

Seth loves his Lego Indiana Jones and now, Lego Star Wars. He and I play it every day. He doesn't always wear the Power Ranger costume that Grandma gave him, but it makes for a much better picture. I love to see his skinny little body running around in it, while Ryan twirls in her princess outfits.

I'm not really sure why Ryan is wearing goggles at breakfast (her and Seth were wearing them in the bathtub), but when she is also willing to wear ...

... this, what else can you expect! We've told her to brush her teeth a million times.

McTeacher's Night!

Us at Seth's annual McTeacher's Night! The teachers work and the rest of Sitka shows up. It's a typcial small town event- nothing big, but we are all there! I'm going to miss this feeling of community in DC, but I have been thinking that it can be replicated anywhere. I may not see half the ward at the grocery store, but we can still do neighborhood events that make us feel more connected. Another thing that I have learned from living here. It is wonderful thing about moving around-- there is always something wonderful everywhere!

Sitka on TV again!

We’re watching a National Geographic show “Cowboys of the Sea Combat Fishing” about the herring opening. It happens every year here in Sitka. A couple of years ago, we took the kids and some friends out to catch them. When you look at the fish finder normally you see the bottom and then a fish looks like a little black curve. When we would go over a school of herring, the sonar looked like it was the bottom of the ocean, they were so thick. When you dropped down the line with five little hooks on it, it felt like it hit bottom only it was the school. The kids were pulling up four and five fish at a time. It was truly amazing. We also went over to see the herring opening. The boats, and there are a lot of them in a very small space, move around and around each other, trying to get the best place while they count down to the opening over the radio. When they call it open, the boats get so close to each other and move so fast, you would swear they are going to hit. They drop their nets attached to their skiffs and eventually make a big circle around the fish. They close it up, hopefully with the herring inside and then the tenders come over and suck up the fish and take them back to the processors. This is all fine and good, except that all takes place in sometimes only a five minute opening. All the herring that year was only allowed to be caught in three five-minute openings. It is just organized chaos and the tensions are so high even just watching it. So after all that, we were watching this show about it and I realized how lucky we are that we have lived in a place that so many people only see on National Geographic. I still find it all amazing, but it is familiar. The amazing things and places we see on TV are part of our life here—the boats, the fish, the people, the lifestyle! We are really blessed to have had so many homes in so many cool places!

Coast Guard toys!

Gotta love having an in with the rescue swimmers (that's all of us in the rescur basket) and the mechs (who knows what they use the wagon for, but the kids knew what to do with it!)

An airsta visit isn't complete without...

... some b-ball and some foos. It's not just shooting hoops, but the kids also take turns turning the crank to lift and lower the hoop. And foos ball, well, Adam and I loved it in college and we still love it with our family.

Seth and Ryan still love going to see the helicopters. We've done it a million times but they love it nonetheless. They put on the harness in the back, get the seat belts on and always find the flashlight. They are lucky that Daddy has such a cool job!

Snip, Snip!

I was straightening up while Ryan was playing with some friends. As I walked by the computer, I saw something on the floor. Cat fur from the cat we were watching? No, it wasn't gray, it was blondish. Not fuzz. As I picked it up, oh my gosh, I'm pretty sure it was hair. I walked to Ryan with it in my hand, hoping it was not her friend's, and asked her if she had cut her hair. With a little shrug and that shy, quiet "I did something not good" look, I got out of her that she had cut it earlier while playing on the computer. No reason except the scissors were sitting there and she cut it. We have talked about not cutting hair since she could crawl. I really thought we were going to make it through this little episode in little girls' lives. How prideful of me! Luckily, she only cut a couple of inches off the bottom. We had been planning on a haircut and just hadn't gotten to it yet and she cut it to exactly the right length. So I gave her a little a-line bob last night and it looks great, so no damage done! And hopefully this will be the last of her "hair cutting" experiences.

Seth on Valentine's and growing up!

This really has nothing to do with Valentine's. It just happens to be on that day, but I thought it was so cute of Seth so intent on his reading. I has become such a great reader. We have started the Magic Treehouse set of chapter books which we normally take turns reading together before bed, but he has started reading them by himself. He finished one in a day a half. Now that is my boy! The other afternoon, Ryan was playing with a friend and I told Seth I was going to read for awhile. He went and got his book, cuddled with me and read his own book for about fifteen minutes. It was one of those moments! I remember when we lived in Astoria and he and I would go to Costco and get a berry smoothie and take turns sipping from the straw. He was about a year and a half, but we loved those afternoons together. He has always been my little friend.

This is his cheesy smile! It showed up about a year and a half ago, before that he always the best smiles. Now we half to do some work to get one- "don't smile, don't smile, don't smile (that gets them laughing), now smile!" They are working on their books of Valentine's. There's Ryan, of course! Seth helped her get her book together. She left out all the boy ones because they were "not pretty". After their books, we had a little party. Seth brought heart-shaped cheese that he cut out himself. Ryan did it too for her class. After making the slices at home, I went upstairs to finish getting ready and Ryan cookie cuttered each one, put them in the bowl, covered them and put them on the table. She was just so big girl about it all! They are both really growing up, I know, obviously. But it is just always so fun to watch it happening! Seth went down and got Ryan and himself bowls of cereal for a snack. He hopped up and get the cereal and bowls, Ryan got the spoons, and Seth got out and poured the milk (if it was too full, he would call me). About ten minutes later, they both came back upstairs, like no big deal. They didn't even know to be proud of themselves, but I was proud!

Ryan on Valentine's!

Ryan at preschool with her friends on Valentine's day. She is little miss fashion. She picks out her clothes and heaven forbid, she wears jeans which just are "not cute"! I am trying to explain how just because every item she might pick out has butterflies doesn't mean that they will match. The same goes with pink. Not all pinks are the same. We are still working on it. But most of the time I let her do her own thing and she looks pretty darn cute. She loves accessories, dresses, tights, and definitely, pretty shoes!


At preschool, her favorite thing to do is play babies. She gives them baths, feeds and dresses them and takes them on walks. When she was younger she did a lot of painting, not as much anymore. I kept a lot of her paintings. They usually only put out three colors, but she would cover the whole paper in such beautiful designs. They reminded me of modern Van Gohs. No matter how hard I tried, I could never be so free with my paintbrush. I am already sad to think of the day when she loses that absolute creativity. But I think Ryan will always be a creative person. She loves dancing and being dramatic. As we were walking and she was talking so cute, I thought how she might have fun in drama and acting as she gets older. Then I thought how it would be fun if her and I were in the same play (that is one of my goals of doing something different) and practicing together. We will have to see what she likes when she gets bigger. She may not want to act, but I have no doubt she will stay 100% girl till the end! And we love it!

Hollywood!

We just finished watching E.T. tonight. The kids loved it! We've been on a kick of watching the movies that I loved when I was little. We found The Neverending Story at the library and that started it all. Next we got Pete's Dragon, then Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins. Next I am going to order the Pippi Longstocking movies. Lacee and I LOVED those when we were little. Shplunk! Villa villa coola! Oh yeah, we just watched Ricki ticki tavi, too. I am thinking about trying Misty's favorite The Sound of Music. I think she made us watch that at least twice a week when we were growing up. Movies and going out to dinner were and are some of my family's favorite things to do. I think I have passed that tradition on to my kids. One of the first movies I took Seth to was Eight Below (the one with the sled dogs). My mom had said how great it was and that he would love it. She didn't mention anything about any scary parts, so when the dogs were suddenly attacked by the scariest creature I've ever seen (leopard seal), I was not prepared to shove his face into my shoulder and tell him it was OK. I probably jumped higher than he did! But despite his first terrifying experience at the theater, it was nothing compared to Grandma Milk taking us to see Rambo in elementary school or making us watch Eyes of Laura Mars on the floor beneath her big screen TV at night.