Snow to Sun

How long does it take to get from snowy Alaska


to sunny Arizona?

About 12 hours. It was a L O N G day of traveling, but we made it and were happy to get to Mesa. My sister was nice enough to let us stay the night at her apartment so we wouldn't have to drive the extra 4 hours home. I even got to sleep in the next morning. It was SO nice to have help with the kids. My mom kept the kids so I could go to the temple too, which was a bonus since I hadn't been since before Liberty was born. A new temple is being built in the Gila Valley,

but the Mesa Temple will always be special to me because almost all of my siblings were married there, along with Ryan and I.



We started our trip off with tractor rides and cousin time. Grandpa was really great about letting Glade ride the tractor with him when he was running. Glade loved this and talked about it on and on.



My sister Tara came and spent a long weekend with us our first weekend there along with her little cutie Karleigh.

Liberty found joy in the jumper. (Although she has since decided she hates it. My other two loved it. Oh well, what do you do?)

Armand and Cheryl are always really good about coming to visit when we are there. They came up for Sunday afternoon and the girls enjoyed being together. Emilee, Maren, and Camryn are great fun!


The kids discovered some old-school skates that I used to love. They are pretty safe, fortunately, and I don't think anyone got hurt while using them.


Here's a six-month old picture of Liberty. She is really fun and loves to smile.




I think that's it for this post. To be continued. Hopefully tomorrow.

A Little Break

I know it's been a really long time since I wrote on this blog. We took a trip down South to make the time go by more quickly until Ryan comes home. It worked. We are over halfway there now. I am planning to do a few posts after I get all of our pictures uploaded to the computer.

Please stay tuned . . .

The Cutest

Can I just say that our little Liberty is the cutest? Beth, you would love to get your hands on her. She is a lot like Glade at this age. Sweet, happy, and fun. There is a lady in our new ward that always steals her during Primary (Beth and Denise, sorry to say you've been replaced! :) )

We're still waiting for her to take off crawling. She is getting happier to be on her tummy though.


Her first experience with a graham cracker. They are well acquainted now, although I'm not sure which gets more her, or her high chair tray.

My Big Day

I was a little apprehensive about being without Ryan on my birthday. I decided to invite some friends over for dinner to help make it more fun. I was really glad I did, since the evening was great.

Glade, Kim, and I made this cake for my birthday. It turned out pretty well, although I wasn't crazy about the frosting. I think my favorite has been Pumpkin Praline Torte



Kimberly likes to wrap presents and she found some things to wrap for me, including this teddy bear that my mom made for me when I was a baby. What a sweetie! She is also proving that she can take decent pictures.



My mom made me the cutest bag! I didn't get a picture of it though.

Here are the kids enjoying their favorite part of the birthday. Those singing cards are really fun!

Visitors

Do you remember the visitors we had a few weeks ago? Well, they were back. This time by daylight so we could see them well.

Mama checking things out.



It's all right, let's go. I thought it was interesting that the calf was darker than the mom. I don't know if you can really see it that well in the picture.

So Long, Farewell, Alvederzein, Goodbye

Unlike "The Sound of Music," this wasn't that fun of a Goodbye. On the first day of the New Year, we took our favorite guy to the airport and kissed him goodbye for 6 months.

Daddy getting a little snuggle time in with Libby.


Dad and Kim with the polar bear. She HAD to have a picture by this.


Glade was not in the mood for picture taking. He was too busy playing in the dinosaur park. (They have a little sandbox in the airport with dinosaurs in it.) I'm sure his two-year-old mind couldn't wrap itself around the fact that Dad wouldn't be around for a while. In fact, he just asked me the other day where Dad was. It wasn't the first time I heard the question, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Ryan is serving in Afghanistan for 6 months on a Spanish/Italian base in the western part of the country. After the initial trial of losing him, we have learned that the sun still rises and sets.


And some days are better than others.


At least the sun is returning to the frozen North.

I have been doing pretty well at coping without Ryan. His frequent calls and e-mails help with this. We all love and miss him so much.

I am looking forward to spending some time with family to help the separation go by more quickly. It will be good for everyone to meet Libby.

Not Your Everyday Park

Our last family activity with Dad was a trip to the Ice Park. They have an event every year called Christmas in Ice. We decided to go the week after Christmas. Why? I don't know since it was freezing! We should have gone Christmas week when it was only 10 below instead! It was still fun though.

That SC is for Scott Calvin, I mean Santa Claus. We missed his visit since we went after Christmas. The kids thought it was cool though.


Kim and my favorite ice sculpture. The tree looked so realistic.


We took other pictures, but it is sometimes hard to see them. Here's the website for the event where you can look at most of the pieces. I thought it was awesome!


They had some things that were fun for the kids too. There were about 5 or 6 ice slides of varying sized that you could ride down on sleds.


They also had spinners made of ice. (This clip is super short, but you get the idea.)


Even though it was cold, it was a really fun outing. We stopped by McDonald's for hot chocolate afterward and everyone enjoyed that too.

Alaska Night

Tonight Heather noticed two moose sleeping in our yard. We took many pictures of them from our bedroom window. Here is a 15-second exposure of one with the planet Mars.

'Tis the Season!

We had a great Christmas together as a family, made bittersweet by the upcoming deployment. The kids are great and make Christmas even better. We started out the day VERY early. After a story from her teacher, Kim decided to get up early and jump on us to wake us up. So up they both came at 5:00. This was a little surprising since she usually doesn't want to get up until 7:30 or 8:00. After trying to get them to lie down and be quiet, we gave up and started the day.

After the gifts we enjoyed a pretty quiet day as a family enjoying gifts and each other.

I just had to include this picture from Christmas Eve since she's just so dang cute! Plus, she managed to sleep through all of the gift part of Christmas morning.


Kim was excited to get this nutcracker on Christmas Eve. She really loved the ballet we attended.


I had the good surprise of a serger from Ryan. I have played with it a little bit and think it will be great to have and fun to experiment with.



Grammy sent a neat gift for Glade. An Army bear complete with beret and tan shoes. So cute! The great part is that Ryan can record a message for Glade on a little box and we can listen to it while he is deployed.


Grammy made this hat for Glade, but I think Ryan was a little jealous! She better make one for her boy next year I think!



Glade did finally get his hat back from Dad and used it riding his airplane. He did turn into a bear later in the day (from getting up so early) and had to have a nap.


I think we have an organizer on our hands. Glade has always been good about putting toys away and wanting things where they go. Here's how we found his stocking and the candy he had left. Yellow is his favorite color so all gold wrapped candy was gone.


Kimberly must be growing up. She didn't get too many toys for Christmas, mostly clothes and things like that. Here's a wonderfully soft blanket made by Grandma. She loves it and Dad has been tempted to steal it. The crib set she made for Libby is adorable too, but I didn't get any pictures of it yet.


Very cute jumper for our Princess.


More handmade creations on our girls from Grammy.

Mt Aurora

I was tempted to head down to Alyeska ski resort this weekend, but it was threatening about a nine-hour drive and five total days by the time we satisfied all objectives of the trip. We decided to simplify and stay home, so I visited Mount Aurora Skiland, 30 miles north of Fairbanks, this morning. It was to be the opening day of the season. They bill the hill as "The Farthest North Downhill Ski Area in North America!"

I arrived about 9:30, before dawn, and found only a few other cars in the parking lot. Most everybody was teen or college age. We milled around waiting for some sign of life from the proprietors.



Rumors started to circulate that they weren't opening after all, so I walked over to the Ski Patrol shack and chatted with the lone patrolman there. He let me know they weren't opening, either due to thin snow or high winds--he hadn't heard which. I told him I was a dentist and thought I might be interested in doing Ski Patrol. He encouraged me to come back next year, after my deployment.



Disappointed, I considered packing up and heading out like the other people in the lot. But then I thought, "Aw, what the heck. I don't have anywhere to go." So I stepped into my skis and took a run down to the base of the lift.

It was a lot of fun. I would go back when they are open. Of course all the fresh, untracked powder helped.

I listened to Handel's Messiah hiking back to the top, and it made for a spiritually satisfying experience. I stopped to jump off a big rock that was beckoning (sorry, no video; I sure miss my brothers). Views of the sunrise on the White Mountains to the north were really gorgeous. I took another half run after reaching the lodge at the summit.

The moon rose low, near the horizon.

I finished up around 12:30 or 13:00. It was a great morning. Since the lifts didn't open, I got some extra exercise and saved twenty-five bucks.