Christmas 2011

This Christmas has been kindof crazy. The month of December its self was insane since I was helping bring home the unit I work for. Somehow I managed to still get everything together for Christmas. The week of Christmas brought out a few wrenches. We managed to make it to Christmas on Ice on wednesday but thursday morning began with Giggles throwing up. And since then we each got the stomach bug in one way or another with Sassy finishing us off on the morning of Christmas. Even with all the sickness we managed to have a good Christmas. We didn't get to do all of our traditions but we did make sure and write letters to Santa and leave hime some cookies and hot chocolate(hey it was -24 that night, he needed to warm up)

The kids all enjoyed opening presents while Daddy watched on Skype, what a blessing that was. It felt almost like he was there. I am so thankful he stayed up so late to chat with the kids while they opened their presents. Although I can't wait for next year when he can be with us I think we all enjoyed this year.

Christmas in Ice 2011

One of the most beautiful things that happens up here is the all the ice sculptures. In North Pole, Alaska they do a Christmas in Ice next door to the Santa Claus House. We have made sure we have gone both years we have been here and I am always amazed by what they can do with ice.

Both years we have attended there has been a sculpture right outside the gate that has something to do with Santa. This year you could sit in his sleigh. So here are my bundled up munchkins.

Alot of the businesses around here use ice to advertise themselves. Love it, this year has been a bit rough on them though since we were averaging 20 degrees for most of December when we are usually in the single digits. Here are some of the sculptures that were in the display.

And of course they made a playground with the ice. They had multiple slides that the kids could use their sleds on or go down without. They were so fast it rattled my teeth just watching.

And of course they created merry go rounds out of ice. The younger kids loved these!!

Sassy Ballet

So we had another first today. Sassy had her first ballet recital today. I took her to the beauty salon first to let her get all prettied up. Then we ventured out to the performance. I was able to get a pic of her in costume before we got going.

And of course we had a little down time before the performance started so I had to get her lounging around.

The performance itself was great. We chose to go with a program that is religious based and she worries more about the kids enjoying themselves and having a great experience and it really showed. The kids loved it. Of course our video camera died the night before this performance so I had to adapt and overcome and used my regular camera. I will upload it to a separate post later.
The ballet praise ballet company was able to pose when the performance was finished and the group did such a wonderful job!!

Well when all was said and done she was very proud of herself and she had every right to be. She worked hard and loved doing it. I can't wait to see her spring performance!

Venting

I have a confession. I have been working on getting back in shape and losing weight but unfortenatly it has been a half-ass effort this summer. I have been working out every day(minus a week or two). I am definitely more in shape than I was at the beginning of the Summer. I can now get through a workout video without having to stop and catch my breathe. Which is great but I would really like to start seeing some results and I know that that is not going to happen until I get my eating under control. I have good days, mostly during the week, and then I have bad days(pretty much the weekends). I so want my husband to come home to someone he can workout with and that we can do all the activities that we love to do and hopefully some new ones like rock climbing and scuba diving. Okay I am done with my vent!

Horse ride at the fair

The one ride that Sassy just had to go on was the carousel. She loves horses and she was practically jumping up and down to get to ride on the carousel. As far as these go it wasn't that great but she loved it. I can't wait to take her back to Spokane so that I can take her to the one that's down town, she would love it.

Tanana Fair

The fair was definitely more than rides and was full of food, booths, and events. We of course loved all the food options and had to try out a pretzel wrapped hot dog(Yummy), kettle corn, funnel cakes and lastely my newest favorite find Flavored almonds!! I found a place that had toffee, mocha and garlic and onion flavors. Oh they are soooo yummy!

We also checked out the animals and the kids were able to interact with goats, pigs, turkeys, bunnies and horses. The kids loved all the different kinds of animals and I am very lucky that none of them were for sale or they would have tried to talk me into having a small farm by the end of the day. Our favorite animal display was a dog pull that we stumbled across. It was a large breed(meaning 125# or more) pull and watching the dogs was amazing. The winner pulled something like 1500#. We were able to go meet the dogs afterward and the Saint Bernards were amazing and just wanted to cuddle with you. They were great!

After all the fun of watching the dog show we headed over to get to snack on some funnel cakes and rest, we had been walking around the fair for over 4 hours at this point. But of course the kids couldn't just sit still and started wrestling up and down the hill we were sitting on. They played for well over a half an hour just going up and down the hill, tackling and rolling all over the place. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

Bumper Cars at the Fair

Another ride the kids just had to go on was the bumper cars. Of course, Sassy wasn't big enough to reach the pedals so she had to piggyback with her big brother but I thought she was going to have a heartattack. She was so excited she was giggling and chanting and encouraging Jack to run into as many people as they could find. Giggles had the driving down patt. The boy was zipping places and plowing people over and heading to the next one. All the kids loved being able to just run people down. They must get their driving ability from their father, lol

Skydiving at the Fair

Well I was able to take the kids to the Tanana State Fair yesterday and of course they had to do some rides.

Thud and Giggles started off the day on a hang glider ride. They were both stoked about doing the ride, even though I think Giggles was a little nervous.

This was Giggles the whole ride, just hollering and giggling. It was great!!

They both LOVED the ride and talked about how they felt like they were in one of their video games. What silly boys

Creamer's Field

We finally had a nice day today, so I decided to take the kids to Creamer's field for the nature walk. But since it was nice we had to start by going topless :). For those of you with dirty minds I was talking about the Jeep's top! Creamer's field was quite beautiful and we enjoyed wandering through the woods and fields.

Another Adventure

Well we are once again off on another adventure. Our three boys went to their first overnight camp this month. The boys started Camp Camo, a camp for kids in the military. The day of drop off was interesting, first off we needed to find the place and Alaska is not well marked!! Once we found the place trying to get the boys into their respective cabins. Then they were ready to kick us out the door. So the girls headed out to begin our testosterone free week, wooohooo! We started the week with some dinner. But of course it couldn't last. I have already received a couple calls from one of the boys wanting to come

Exploring

Well our month of exploring wasn't just done geographically but also physically. I started running again for the first time in years. I am not doing bad, I have managed to make it 2.5 miles a day and keep adding mileage every week. This is also helping me to not only get back into shape but also lose some of my shape. I have managed to drop over 10 inches off my body in the last month and hope to continue in the coming months.

The kids also did some exploring of sports. Giggles is still playing baseball and loving it and he tried out a soccer camp and ended up liking it as well.

Goobers has been doing multiple field trips with the youth center and I think his favorite was the River raft ride down the Chena river, I only say this because he hasn't stopped talking about it since then.

Sassy wrapped up her Tball and tried out a little cheerleading at camp. She was dang cute but she was not quite into the cheering part of cheerleading, she much prefers the dancing part.

While Thud looked into something a little more physical. He decided to give flag football a try. He ended up liking it alot but has decided to wait for next year when his daddy can be home and help coach his team.

He and the neighbor boy seemed to love the sport and it helped him to take a leadership role in a group setting which I was very happy with. The month of June was a very active one for us and I hope to continue that through the following months.