Delaney and Daegon's last day!

Today is Delaney and Daegon's last day with us...I am very sad to see them go. I love them madly and will miss them so much!

Good luck at Bartlett Mallory!

Mallory left early this morning for Bartlett High School in Anchorage. The weight lifters had to meet at WV High at 6am for weight lifting before boarding the bus and leaving at 7:30. They're safely there and will swim all day tomorrow. Good luck West Valley and safe travels back Sunday!

Summer Photos

A look back at our summer

Well...it looks as if our summer is finally winding down. We have had a house full and been busy! Delaney, Brad and Deagon have been here for the summer and Ian joined us about 3 weeks ago. Brad worked at his summer landscaping job and Delaney worked at Regis in the Bentley Mall. I watched Daegon and ran kids to all their activities. And, I took a summer Digital Photo class up at UAF. So, there are all kinds of pics to show what we've done all summer. Ralph and I hiked Kesugi Ridge. Mallory got a job picking up the streets of our fair city. She couldn't believe how many "hobo" camps they had to clean up. They really are hidden in any bush they can find! Su Bai got a job at McDonalds and is still working there, on Fridays and Saturdays, now that school has started. Abigail swam and went to a dance camp. Annie started swimming lessons and wants to join the swim team as soon as she can! Ian got a job with the same guy Brad works for doing landscaping. He starts classes on Monday the 5th to begin life guard certification and hopes to land some good paying jobs after that so he can save up for more college come next April! Some of the pics are of all our activities and some are my photo practicing. My favorites are with DOF...depth of field...especially when it's blurry in the background. Now, it's time to get ready for winter! We've had a taste of it already with about 3 inches falling last week. It's melted in most open places now but we know it's right around the corner! Get out those winter jackets!!

Summer is on!

School is out and we've got even more going on. I used to think summer was "vacation" time and we'd get to relax and do whatever we want. I guess the kids are getting to do a lot they want and I get to drive all of them to their different activities. I guess compared to others, we're really not THAT busy. Mallory is going to be working for 5 weeks with IBEW doing litter patrol. They hire 14 and 15 year olds to do this job as there really isn't much else they will let them do till their 16. Her shift begins in July. Abby is attending a dance camp learning a bit about ballet, jazz and tap along with theater and is totally enjoying it! She wants to continue some how during the school year, along with swimming. We'll just have to see. Su Bai got a job and is working at McDonalds. She is enjoying it a lot more than she thought. She may even continue to work a little part-time after the school year begins. After all, she's only got two years until college and it's time to start saving money! Annie is learning to swim! Finally after all these years of being terrified of the water, we've gotten her used to it enough that she is excited to be in the water. She's excited to get through level 4 so she can join the swim team! Ralph is busy working with the same everything. We've got another venture going on this summer with building a detached garage. We sold the shed we had out there in the yard and then learned there were a few snags we have to work out with zoning or something. Meanwhile, the garage we do have is filled with all the stuff we want to move to the new garage when it's built! I hope it happens soon because when the snow starts flying I want to put my car back in the garage! Janet (that would be me) is taking some time every Thursday night to take a Digital Photo class at UAF. I have learned so much! Our first big excitement was to work with Depth of Field. I'll attach one of my favorites of my wild Iris plants. Other than all that, we've had some other adventures: We've traveled to Anchorage and visited the park I played at when I was just a little girl (the train pic shows the very train I climbed all over as a kid), visited the Turnagan Arms area, stopped at Byers Lake along the Parks Highway, and just yesterday hiked some of the Pinnell Trail only to walk into a thunder and lightening storm...so scary!!

Happy March 2009! Spring is around the corner!

Okay...so this picture doesn't represent signs of spring by any means...but, it is March so we're thinking spring is bound to come eventually. We have had so much snow this year and I'm wondering how long it'll take to melt! This pic is of a cabin we camped at last month out on Chena Hot Springs Road. It wasn't heated so we had to get the wood stove going and it kept us warm and toasty all night long. It was so nice and relaxing as we had no phones, no TV and no distractions. We need to do this more often!

Also this month we had the Northern Area Swimming Championships! Stingray Swim Team won first place over all so all the swimmers did great! Mallory has qualified for Junior Olympics and will be swimming down in Anchorage with all the best from the state in just a couple weeks! This of course are the girls doing their goofy thing in between events!

Happy New Year 2009!

Wow! It's a new year and new beginning! We can make new resolutions and hopefully keep some of them and try to do better in all that we do. 2008 was a great year! We had 2 new grand-children come into the world, traveled from AK through Canada to Idaho, Utah and Nevada to visit all the kids who have moved. And, we've just had fun!

The new year is beginning with some record cold temps that we haven't had since the 80's...yippee!! For a week or more we've had temps to just about -50...that's negative 50! Last night Ralph had scouts over to spend the night and build snow caves that they actually slept in all night! And, up here in the hills where it's usually warmer, it was still -40! We were really excited to see that everyone had survived the night and we didn't have any popsicle scouts!

Ian has been home since mid-July and is returning to BYU-Idaho on Monday, Jan 5. It's been nice to have him home and we'll sure miss him but he's really excited to be getting back to Idaho.

Delaney and Brad moved to Ft. Wayne, Indiana where Brad is playing for the Ft Wayne Komets...hockey! Their little boy, Daegon is growing so fast and is so danged cute! We miss them too...so much!

Scott and Kluane welcomed their third child...the first grand-daughter in October. I got to go down for a week visit to meet Cambrie and have some time with the boys (Kaiden and Connor) and of course Scott and Kluane. I wish I could visit more often because I miss them too...so much!

The girls are all doing well! Mallory is half way through her first year in high school. She started off the new year on the West Valley Swim team and made it all the way to state championships! Nattie is in the 10th grade and doing great with school, Abigail is in the 5th grade (and also a swimmer) and Annie is in 4th grade. All four girls will begin piano lessons this coming week and are very excited!

That's our excitement! I need to write more often so these posts aren't so long!!