Happy October, people of the south :)

Emily and her friend are at an Ice Dogs hockey game tonight, then coming back here to spend the night. Caleb is at the same game, then heading to his friends for the night. I'm on my own till pick up so I thought I'd update. Not many pictures, but...

Some interior festive decorations. The candles are the best :)

Bought a new shelving unit for the living room/office area. 

Got rid of a lot of unneeded stuff in the process.

Looks much better :)

Caleb's truck go TP'd!! He got home from the leadership conference he was attending in Eagle River and was asked to attend a party. He declined saying he was tired (which he was), and this is the result!! LOVE IT :) Bahahaha 

Our front yard decorations. I'm proud but...

My neighbors ROCK! They both work at Fred Meyer and come home just about everyday with new stuff. Their front yard is completely full and they have a fog machine coming out of a well and a spooky girl that says "la la la la la la" in a very creepy way when you walk by her.

One last thing... Emily is going to France!  Thought about it for a while and finally made the decision. She travels during spring break with her French teacher and probably 8 students from her class. She is REALLY excited!

Parent Teacher Conferences next Monday and Tuesday.

Wish me luck :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

August and September :)

Hello dear family. I had major computer issues and did not have access to it for about a month. Finally back and all glitches are fixed. We've experienced an early (yuck) winter here in the north. Pics of that near the end. This is basically a recap of what's been going on the past two months.

One of my favorite pictures from Cozumel with Caleb being studly.

Bought the senior a better desk at Office Max.

The old one went back to my classroom :)

Emily and her crew at the beginning of cheer season. 

She is the center/top

Emily and Stephen at the Tanana Valley State Fair.

Getting ready to ride the Sling Shot for the first time...

Off they go....!!!

These sleepy, kissing pigs were too adorable :)

Emily and Morgan off to school for first day for Freshman. 

The day is called Ignition.

Morgan is a Freshman this year and the Cheer team was there to "cheer" them on!

Caleb and Emily's first official day.

My first day with kids :)

I think this hike will have to be an annual event for me.

Donnelly Dome.

So beautiful :)

Cooper found some snow part way up and loved the diversion :)

At the top.

It was chilly

Dropped Emily off at practice one day and found this little gem in front of me.

Friday, September 25th football game

Bleh!

Thankfully the girls were able to wear lots of clothes to keep warm.

We built a happy snowman...

and a happy snowdog :)

We rock!

Haven't been bowling in a while so we went.

That's my score in the middle! Booyah!

With Caleb's mild concussion prognosis, he found himself on the other side of the bench last weekend. The coaches let him join them by observing and giving feedback to the players.

There were some really awful plays and the team pretty much choked. 

This is a great picture of how Caleb felt about the game!!

Yeah... so, winter hit WAY TOO EARLY!

School was cancelled on Wednesday, Sept. 30th.

I got a lot done around the house and ran lots of errands. It was great!!

Hope you are all well.

Love you :)

New Roof

Old, mossy, roof...

End of day 1

Emily, Cooper and I drove to anchorage to watch Caleb play ball.

We stayed at a campground and showered at Planet Fitness.

Had a good time...

Love watching the boys play ball - they all have such a good time!

Pretty drive home...

Sleepy kids...

Got home to a new roof - all done!

They were fast and it looks great!

See you all this weekend!  Can't believe it's already here :)

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Another glorious day on the River!

Just Em and me this time :)

The birthday boy hard at work on his big day.

We surprised him and showed up for breakfast (he works the morning shift at the Westmark Hotel)

He takes his job (everything really) very seriously, so there are no posed pictures.

Back at home, relaxed, surrounded by his loot and drooling dog (he smells the jerky!)

A typical look for pictures...

Another typical look for pictures - this one he does very well and often.

Ahhhh.... the RARE smile - I love it! :)

Thank you for all the gift cards, $$ and jerky!

Emily wanted to post some "then and now" photos of her and her brother on Instagram so they took a few...

Happy 17th birthday, Caleb!

We love you and are so very proud of you :)

We are off to Anchorage this weekend for baseball, then dun dun dun...

New Orleans - HERE WE COME!!!

SO EXCITED :)

Can't wait to see you all. 

Once we get there, we need to figure out how to slow down time!

Brian, you're the inventor... get on that! :)

4th of July Weekend

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're having a wonderful summer so far.

Emily and Stephen celebrated their 1 year anniversary on June 24th

Awwww... so cute

They went to the same spot where he asked her to be his sweetie.

The 4th of July weekend found us doing several things over the course of a few days. 

We had a BBQ Friday night on the deck.

Caleb had a ball game Saturday morning then headed out to Harding Lake with a bunch of friends for an overnight. Stormy, here, has chosen her spot for the day :)

The flowers were pretty, so they got photographed.

This is called relationship "art"

Saturday afternoon we headed to Tanana Lake near town.

We didn't see many people we knew, but that was fine by me.  

The kids floated on rafts and I soaked in the sunshine!

And then the burying began...

Sunday was SOOOO smoky, but I wanted to go hike Grapefruit Rocks with Cooper.

We made it to the top!  Not the greatest view :(

We'll have to do it again when it's clear.

Selfie!

Selfie with Coop

On our drive out there I noticed this beautiful gem, so on the way back we stopped to check it out.

It's called Washington Creek and it's my new favorite "happy place" - SO PRETTY.

It's located only 7 miles north of where we used to live on Haystack Mountain and I never knew it existed. Definitely be traveling out there more often.

Monday was another clear, gorgeous day, so we set afloat on the Chena River.

(Laura and Morgan)

(Me, Laura and Morgan)

(Stephen, Laura, Emily Morgan)

This is the walking bridge near Pioneer Park that is a popular jumping off spot.

There's Em, Morgan and Stephen getting ready to plunge...

Off they go....

Laura and I went, too, of course.

 Emily got a great slo-mo film of it, but my technological incompetence deterred me from including it in this blog!

We had a great time, tho:)

19 days and counting!!