life in alaska

We've been here three years already! Alaska is still amazing to me. Last week we drove down to Seward for the day. It was rainy-ish and overcast, but absolutely gorgeous. The kids were all outfitted in raincoats and rubber boots - and out of about six pictures I have one in which they're mostly looking... People always ask what they should do when they come to Alaska. Well, Seward is one of my favorites. This is a two-hour drive (one of the most scenic drives in the US, half of it is along the Turnagain Arm) from my house, and Resurrection Bay is breath-taking. Even on a rainy day. They had fun, picked through tidal pools, tried to catch fish, Owen dumped out the bait, Emmie, Logan, and Carson all went in too deep and got icy cold water in their rubber boots. It was a good day.

School's out! Riley will be going into 8th, Logan will be going into 6th, Emmie will be in 3rd, and Carson and Brady will start Kindergarden! This is a big year for me :) The snow is gone, temps hover around 60 during the day and 40 at night. Sunrise is 5:00 and sunset is 10:54. Lots of sun! This is the happy part of the year where Alaska turns into Paradise. Owen is three now, and is a hoot. He beat-boxes all the time - even just in his breathing pattern. What's up with that? One of his favorites is "goon-cha-goonch" over and over, or "uh-uh-ch." He does it while he's playing, and sometimes dances to his own little beat. I love it! Brady has an infection in the bone of his index finger and had to have a picc line put in last week. He's so careful with it, I'm proud of him. He's patient when I have to change his stuff and is really careful to not get his line all tangled. He's methodical and precise and has been amazing. Carson is obsessed with superheroes and being one someday. He's extremely confident that he knows karate (he doesn't). I did see him do this amazing take-down move on Brady a month or two ago - he did a cartwheel and then scissored his legs around Brady and took him down. I couldn't believe it.

We took the kids to the zoo Saturday. As usual, eight attempts at a group shot resulted in zero that had all looking at the camera... My girls Lots of snow still, but it was relatively warm.

After seeing the idea of making my own box mixes on Pinterest, I opened up Betty Crocker and made three yellow cake mixes and three chocolate cake mixes. I just assembled the dry ingredient in quart ziploc bags and with a sharpie wrote the rest of the necessary ingredients on the bag. As a result, I've been baking more frequently than I usually did. Owen has especially appreciated this. Last night, his final words to me as he was drifting off to sleep were: "Mom, you're good at cooking. You're good at cooking cakes. That was a great cake."

Brady doesn't like to eat. This morning's convo: Me - Brady, you need to learn to eat more things. B - I don't like to eat what I don't like. Me - You need to learn to like more things. B - When I'm five I'll eat what you make for dinner. When I'm five.

The twins are potty-trained, time to start blogging again. Brady was just begging Carson to share something with him. C said no, because "it hurts my heart to share things with people." Immediately after I wrote this, Carson touched something I had just told him absolutely not to touch. "Didn't you hear me tell you not to touch it?" I asked. "Yes." "Why didn't you obey me?" "Well, my head heard you but my hands didn't," he grinned at me.

Here's the twins pre-buzz...

I'm hoping our friendly neighborhood moose isn't the one who was hit and then "disposed of" the other night down the street. He was cute.

Explanation of below: the littles tear up the couch a dozen times a day. It becomes their indoor playground. And I couldn't resist posting a pic of my little construction hotties.

January's nearly over! It's getting lighter. I noticed it was nearly light at 9:30 this morning :)

I'll post some pics of the kids and some of Alaska to catch up a bit to speed. They're growing lots! I'll try to youtube a couple video clips today but it'll be sporadic. I don't usually put longer stuff on facebook, but I'll link some footage of the kids playing in the snow and stuff like that.