Trip to Mendenhall Glacier

Where we're staying here in Juneau, we're just a few miles away from the Mendenhall Glacier attraction. It's a great place to visit on a nice sunny day, so that's exactly what we did. Along the trail, there are lots of rock walls and boulders to climb, lots of babbling creeks to explore, etc. The girls had a blast climbing everything they could find.

And, there were a ton of these flowers all along the trail. I had to restrain the girls from picking them all. So, instead, they decided to try and smell them all. They're so funny.

It was a REALLY warm day so Kaitlyn decided to tie her jacket around her. She tried to get me to carry it for her, but I've gotten to the point where I'm making the girls carry their own stuff. Otherwise, I'm always loaded down....not fun.

"Where's the glacier, girls?"

With all the "detours" and rock climbing the girls did, it took us about an hour to actually get to the spot we were headed for. But, once we got there, it was totally worth the wait.

And, here's a close-up:

One of the best parts was at the end of our trail there was a gorgeous waterfall.

It was a great day. The girls played in the water, which in quite a few areas wasn't totally freezing. We also met up with Anthony's sister and her kids. We're definitely going back there soon.

Don't forget to click on a picture to get a good look at all of them.

A Work of Love

It was a beautiful evening last night where we live. I had the doors open and the kids stayed out playing a "bit" after their bedtimes. I usually like to get them down and snuggled in no later than 8:30, but they were engrossed in a little project and playing so well together that I just watched them through the window and didn't go out to get them until a little after 9:00. By then, they had construction the site that you see here:

Previously, it had just been dirt. Yes, they transplanted weeds, flowers, and all - along with making the cross.
I asked them if they had buried a bug or something and Alexis replied, "No Mommy. We were thinking about Jesus and how He died for us, so we made this for Him." It was very touching. We talked about how He's no longer dead and that He's with us all the time. Alexis said, "I know that. I just wanted to build something for Him and I didn't have big enough rocks to build the open tomb." So sweet.

If you click on the pictures, you can see a little bigger version of it. I like all the little details they added to the "site".

Floor Planner

Have you ever been to the website www.floorplanner.com ?
I found this site awhile back when Anthony and I were talking about how we wanted our shop/apartment to look when we started building on our property. I wasn't excited about the idea of drawing up a grid and cutting out little pictures of tables, stoves, chairs, and such (to scale), so I search around on the internet and found a free and easy to use floor planner that had all those things and much, much more. All I had to know was the dimensions of the apartment section of the shop, and off I went. I really got into it and spent about 4 hours playing around with layouts, where to have the bathroom and the stairs and all that. I finally came up with this for the downstairs of the apartment:

Anthony requested there be a T.V. room, and I really wanted a sitting place that was no where near a television, so we worked everything else around that. The kitchen is super tiny with limited storage space, but  if you look at that white space on the top left - that's the stairs going up from the back door. Underneath that is going to be all the pantry space I need. I could even forgo having a dishwasher to gain more cupboard space. No, seriously, I could. I've got more to say on the whole dishwasher subject at a later time.

On a whim, I put in a cute little chair, standing lamp, and small round table next to the front door. I like the idea of having a little space to just sit, or read, or write, or whatever. Most of the foot traffic is going to be coming in through the back door because the bathroom/mud area is right there. We'll have some "locker" spaces against the wall to the bathroom to put all the shoes, coats, umbrellas, etc. that need to find a place when people come in.

On the whole, I really like it. It's nice and cozy. I think we can be quite comfortable until the house is built. Then, we can use it as a guest house for when people want to stay a day or two. How fun :).

I'll probably do some rearranging to the upstairs layout before I'm completely satisfied with it. But, here's what it looks like right now:

The stairs come up into what will be the "school room". There's a craft table in the middle for all of our project times and we each have a desk to work at. There's plenty of space for storage cabinets, white boards, bulletin boards, and the like. It should be great.

If you're planning a room remodel, or are thinking about building a house, I would highly recommend using www.floorplanner.com to get your layout ideas down. It's very versatile and has a TON of items to put in your rooms, and it's FREE!

Wet Days

100 piece puzzle a great-uncle gave to the girls. Alexis had to hurry and do it right away :)

The last few days has been quite wet around here. The girls haven't had a chance to get out and ride their 4-wheelers at all. We've been mostly hanging out around the house reading books and watching shows. One of Alexis's favorite books right now is the Horse Diaries Series.

We accidentally started with book eight because we had seen it at the library and didn't realize there was a huge series of them. Even so, it was a really good book. We've now started at the beginning and we're picking up book 2 at the library tomorrow. We've since found out that there is a Dog Diaries series as well, which I'm sure we'll be tackling next.

As for Kaitlyn, she's been thrilled with her BOB books. We're working on set 1 right now. There are 18 books in this set.

These books are the BEST for getting the beginner reader going. Kaitlyn's been doing fantastic and the books crack her up. It's funny watching her read the words, look at the picture, and then understand what's going on, and then she laughs and laughs.

As for me, I'm doing my annual read of Stepping Heavenward.

I try to read this book once a year because it's so inspiring. There is so much that speaks to my heart and each time I bring away something new to help me become a better follower of Christ.  One of my favorite quotes from her is this:

You cannot prove to yourself that you love God by examining your feelings toward Him. They are indefinite and they fluctuate. But just as far as you obey Him, just so far, depend upon it; you love Him. It is not natural to us sinful, ungrateful beings to prefer His pleasure to our own or to follow His way instead of our own way, and nothing, nothing but love of Him can or does make us obedient to Him.

I highly encourage every woman to read it at least once. You won't be sorry.

Some Fun Pictures

The above is a little collage of Katie at the ocean. She had so much fun there playing with Alexis and our dog Suzie. Even though it was a really windy day, she giggled and giggled while chasing the surf until she got too cold and then we raced back to where the truck was. She warmed up in the soft sand and played seals and sharks with Alexis. It was a great time.

This picture is from today. Alexis went out on Summit Lake with Papa and caught herself eight fish with the largest being 14.5" long. She had such a great time. Papa said she did outstanding. Way to go Alexis!!!

Richland, Oregon

Our family decided to take a trip down to Richland, Oregon to visit hubby's twin and her family for a few days.  The land is so beautiful and the weather is very mellow (cold, but mellow). I love this barn that's on their property. Katie ran right in there to check it out and having very sensitive skin, she rashed up a bit. Poor baby. But she's doing alright.

They also have horses, chicks, and a chocolate lab.

The girls have been having a great time. Alexis, of course, is such a little farm girl.  Oh, and she got to ride a motorcycle for the first time - she did AWESOME!

We've been having a great time relaxing, visiting, and just hanging out. It was so nice of them to let us come invade their home :)

In Need of Coasters

Please tell me I'm not the only one who just got Christmas all put away? Please. I have a terrible habit of leaving it up FOREVER. One year it was March before I actually got it all put away. I know, pathetic. Not sure what my hang-up is about it. But, this year, I did manage to do it while it was still January.

This morning I realized that I no longer had a coaster to put my morning coffee on. I had been using the fabric Christmas ones that my mother had sewn up for me (which are awesome). But, alas, they were all packed safely away. However, I knew that the thing I needed to do to fix this dilemma was to drop everything (except the coffee) and grab my yarn and hook. I found a multi-colored cotton yarn in my stash and proceeded to whip out a small wagon wheel big enough for my cup to go on. I love the colors and my mug fit nicely on top of it. Dilemma solved! Now that I've got my emergency mug wheel, I can think about stitching up some variations. "ADD THAT TO THE TO-DO LIST!!!" Ha!

So far, on this overcast Saturday morning, this and two loads of laundry is all I have accomplished. Oh, yes, and I also managed to get out of bed :). Now to think about the rest of the day. Looking forward to spending a late afternoon/evening with my B.F.F. and our two families.

New Year

Happy New Year!!!

The family and I went to an amazing New Year's Day brunch at a good friend's house today. It was startling to realize that another year has passed and my oldest is now 8 years old - yikes!

As with every new year, people keep asking me if I have made any New Year's Resolutions. To be honest I haven't and I'm probably not going to. I'm going to trust in God to refine the parts that need work and make sure I'm in His Word daily so that I'm open to His prompting. Not a resolution - just a willingness.

Tomorrow, we start back on our full schedule of schooling and regular activities. It will be nice to get back into the groove of things after having a whirlwind of a holiday season. They were enjoyable, but a bit exhausting. Now we can buckle down and focus on our studies and think of fun projects to add to the mix. 

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and continue to have a wonderful New Year!

The One That Survived

Before we left Juneau in June, the girls and I stopped at Fred Meyer to stock up on some things that we thought would be nice for our "trip" to Hyder. One of those items was an envelope of flower seeds. For anyone who knows me, this might sound strange because I tend to have a black thumb. It's so bad that I even managed to kill our "wedding" fern that we were given at my bridal shower (you know, the kind that are supposed to symbolize your marriage - Ya, that one). It only took me 6 months and that thing was a crunchy corpse {ooops}. Needless to say, I don't have the best track record with being able to grow viable plants. Regardless, when you're standing in front of the "kazillion-gamillion" (Katie's words) packets of beautifully colored and artfully arranged flower seeds, it doesn't matter if you're the Grim Reaper of plants, you just have to get a packet (or 12) in hopes that maybe just one will SURVIVE your "efforts". So, that's exactly what we did. We bought a few packets of pretty, multicolored flowers to take with us.

When we first arrived here in Hyder and set up our travel trailer, I found one of the packets (Yes, you read that right.....ONE...not sure what happened to the others). The girls were so excited about the flowers that we planted them right away. We put some seeds in a pot and scattered the rest on the outskirts of our gravel pad. And, as is typical for 4- and 7-year old little girls, they checked on the seeds' progress every 5 minutes or so for the first hour and complained loudly that they weren't EVER going to grow. As the days past they started forgetting all about them, then a few weeks ago Alexis came to me all sad and deflated. She said, "Mommy, come look. There is something wrong with the flowers." Truthfully, I had forgotten all about them as well (thank goodness for all the rain). When we walked over to the little pot, what we saw did NOT look like flowers at all. It looked more like weedy, tall grass. I thought, "Great! They filled the flower seed packets with weed seeds - figures I'd only be able to grow weeds." We decided to just let them grow anyway since it was the only thing green I'd managed to keep alive (thank goodness I had completely ignored the plant, otherwise I might have succeeded in killing it).

Three days ago we found that our "weeds" had sprouted flowers.

 NO WAY!! 

Isn't it beautiful? We were so proud of it {smile}.

Of course, not knowing anything about flowers beyond what a rose, daffodil, tulip, and daisy are, AND not having saved the packet, we have no idea what kind of flower this is, but we love it anyways. As for the seeds we had scattered, nothing ever popped up - surprise, surprise {sarcastically, with an eye roll}.

Bear Visit.....Again

Now we know why Suzie was growling early in the morning. We got another visit from our local wildlife. It was even sweet enough to decorate the truck for us.

Whenever we run Anthony some lunch, I usually just have the girls eat their lunch in the truck on our way. Makes it easier - two things at once, AND they usually stay relatively quiet since they're concentrating on their food. The trick is to get them to remember to grab all their garbage and leftovers when we get back to the trailer.  Apparently, this is a skill that is extremely difficult to master......we've been working on it for months now {smile}.

I guess these "cuddly" creatures (actually, they're more like giant raccoons)just LOVE the smell of a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, I can't blame them, they are pretty delicious. Poor thing wasn't able to get to it though. He decorated our truck with mud trying to get in, but to no avail. Dejected, he wandered off to see if he could find anything substantial at the dump.

It is quite interesting to wake up to find your truck has been mauled yet again. However, beside very muddy, there was no damage - so we're thankful for that. Just another day in the Hyder life.

Women's Retreat

This is where I was last weekend - The Dunes Bible Camp in Long Beach.  We had a women's retreat there with a couple really wonderful speakers.  Donna Buhrow teaches a couple of courses at George Fox University in Oregon and was our main speaker for the retreat.  Her message was titled Revolutionize Your Personal Walk with Jesus and was broken down into three sessions.  I highly recommend attending a retreat or seminar that she is going to be speaking at.  I would love to outline everything she talked about and share it with you, but I'll let her tell her own message.  I CAN tell you it's fabulous.

The other speaker we had the privilege of hearing was Carmen Chugg, a missionary currently stationed in Mestre, Italy.  What a delightful servant of the Lord.  If you would like to learn more about Carmen, you can visit the TEAM website.  Or, if you would like to donate to God's work that she is doing, you can do that here.

Yvonne

Yeah! Some Spring Weather

Finally! Some "leave-your-door-open-because-it's-so-nice" weather.  The girls have been outside a lot today and Alexis thought it would be a great idea to tie a rope to the tree and swing on it.  So, Mommy decided to improve it just a little bit to make it a little more fun.  I went into the garage, found a small board and drilled a hole in the middle of it big enough to get the rope through.  Once I secured the board on a knot and secured it around a sturdy limb, Alexis started jumping off the tree and swinging.  That fun lasted until her next little invention.....

This was the "tie-a-rope-to-the-wagon-and-bike" and ride as fast as you can invention.  I don't know if you can make out the rope or not, but it's one of those yellow ones that I HATE trying to tie.  It worked for a while until she hanked really hard on a turn and it popped off.  Kaitlyn thought it was hilarious and laughed so hard she almost wet her pants.  She made it to the bathroom just in time.

My sweet, sweet babies playing outside.  Oh, forgive me, I mean my little girls (Katie chastizes me everytime I call her my baby - "No, Mommy, me a little girl.").

We got all of our school work done earlier this morning so we've spent a few hours soaking in the little sunshine that graced our neighborhood this afternoon.  I can't wait for Summer.



Yvonne

Jumbo Coloring Fun

Bring out the big tub of crayons!  Grandma has just given the girls jumbo coloring books.  Alexis chose the Princess book and Katie liked the Fairies one.  And off they go ......coloring? .....creating?......nope, arguing over the crayons.  (Insert deep Mommy sigh and eye-roll).  I did, however, get to capture a couple of moments when the room was quiet and all you could hear was the smooth application of crayola colored wax on paper.  Ahhhh...that's a beautiful sound :)

Did you notice what Alexis was coloring?  Yes, that would be a horse....surprised?  Me neither.  She saw that page and did a full-on freak-out.  I told her that if she did a good job I would hang it on the wall.  She nearly wiggled out of her skin in excitement.  So funny.

Yvonne

Back to the Doctor We Go

We just ended a round of amoxicillin with the girls.  Katie had a sinus infection and Alexis had a double ear infection.  Guess what? It didn't work.  Back to the doctor we go again.  Both girls are still sick and it's been three weeks.  Yikes.  But then again, Anthony and I have had ours for four and a half weeks.  Whatever this new bug is that's going around, it's been lasting a really long time for everyone.

One good thing about the doctor visit is that we'll get to see our doctor who had retired a while back.  He's covering for our new doctor who's on paternity leave.  The girls are very excited.  Dr. Mason is one of the best pediatricians out there.  He gets all kinds of loves from the girls, and they don't mind a visit to the doctor when they know he's going to be there.  They don't even ask if they're going to get shots.  Pretty impressive, huh?

Yvonne