More teenagers

Yes, it's true. There are two more teens in this house. Moriah and Susannah celebrated their 13th birthdays today...and officially entered teen-dom.

They awoke to crepe paper streamers at the bottom of the stairs, the number 13 made out of crepe paper on the windows and chairs festooned with crepe paper. Unfortunately, the crepe paper didn't cancel school for the day.

It wasn't an easy day, schedule-wise, to turn 13 because of all that this family had going on. Jim had to go to Anchorage, Samuel had DDF Club after school, I had to work and then had class, the girls had X-C running and the end-of-season pizza party and then piano right afterwards, Jim and I had play rehearsal and then Bible study at the church.

I had found time to make a delicious (and I mean DELICIOUS) apple pie cake for the X-C party (I stayed up insanely late last night/this morning after finishing homework to get it ready for baking), using up the last of my energy reserves and the flour and sugar. But my lack of time, energy and basic baking staples meant I couldn't make their 'official' birthday cake in time to have it for dessert, which was to be Texas Sheet Cake.

After Bible study, though, I had a little brainstorm and suggested that Jim get ice cream for a little celebration. That worked well and the girlios enjoyed (I think) being sung to over Goo Goo Cluster ice cream. They each got their own song and each got the chance to blow out their candles. Samuel insisted on helping light the candles and thankfully didn't catch anything on fire.

Here is a photo of the two 13-year-olds with their birthday ice cream:



Happy Birthday, Moriah.
Happy Birthday, Susannah.

I love you more than you could ever imagine.

Boat trip with the fam (warning...pic heavy!)

Here is part two of the boat trip from the end of June, the part of the trip that includes picking up the kids and Jim's folks and heading back out into Prince William Sound.

Anyhoo, here's a refresher on the setting: after spending an evening away, puttering around in a little bay and getting shrimp, Jim and I and our hosts boated back to Whittier to pick up the rest of the family. Betsy and Tony had gotten all five kids loaded and unloaded and they were waiting and waving up at the top of the 'marina' area.

After getting the babes safely down the pier and life-jacketed, we headed right back out. The little girls got to 'drive' the boat for a bit and enjoyed playing Captain. Abigail took it very seriously and moved the wheel back and forth. Bethany seemed happy to simply hold the wheel in place.



The boat had an upper deck that was wonderful to sit on, especially since the sun had come out. It was a little breezy but I got some nice photos.






There were even some photos taken with me!



As we traveled, we were treated to the sight of a raft of otters. The little girls were thrilled and insisted on waving goodbye to them.



The kids moved around on the boat, taking in the sights and trying to steer from down in the cabin. It wasn't until we were all the way home that I realized I hadn't gotten many photos of the other three adults in our family. I guess I was focused on the kids or something. Weird, huh?



We reached our final destination, Blackstone Bay. WOW! Beautiful and chilly, all at the same time.









We listened to the ice shifting and saw a few small ice chunks calve off. Our host also brought some glacier ice on board but I didn't get any photos of it. I'm still enchanted by the hue of glacier ice...that soft, misty blue.

Eventually, the boat had to return us to reality. After a lovely dinner and some more breathtaking scenery, we headed home. I think it's safe to say that all five of our kids would be happy to go back out into the Sound someday. Sooner rather than later, of course.

Boat Overnight 2010 (way overdue)

Jim and I were blessed to go on another overnight on a friend's boat back at the end of June. We arranged to go over night on a Tuesday to somewhere cool and then to meet up with the rest of our family on Wednesday to do a shorter 'tour' out to Blackstone Bay.

Tuesday's weather was less than stellar (read: rainy and chilly) so we ended up not going out as far. Our lovely hosts apologized about that, but I assured them it didn't matter how far out we went, we were just thrilled to be out on their boat.

When the power went out after an ill-fated attempt to hook up a new shrimp-pot-puller, our lovely hosts apologized again, this time from the depths of the engine room. And again I assured them that Jim and I were more than content--we didn't have to be anywhere until the next day, we had no email or cell phones demanding attention and most of all we had no children running around, needing us! (Plus I was certain they'd figure out and fix the problem, although being stranded on a nice boat with food and good company is definitely not the worst thing I can imagine!)

So, Jim snoozed and chatted, I made a couple of duct tape wallets and read, our hosts worked on the boat and visited with us, we all contributed in some way to a delicious steak dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed our night on the boat.

The weather was better in the morning, which encouraged Jim and I to take the dinghy and explore. There was a beach near the little cove we anchored in that is known as Kayaker's Beach. It has walkways and platforms for tents and an outhouse and looked like a neat place to stay.

Here is the view of the boat from the little dinghy:


'Captain' Jim:


One of the many wonderful views as we puttered around the little cove (note the teeny bit of blue sky peeking through!):


And the Kayaker's beach from a little ways out:


Once we got to the beach, we got to see the smooth stones, wooden steps, beautiful foliage and an outhouse perfect for clowning around in.





Here is a partial view of a platform and the view to the left from the platform:



We left the beach and kayaked back to the boat, so we could leave in time to stop by and haul up the shrimp pots before the rest of the family met us back in Whittier.

I perched on the bow, helping to run the motor that pulled in the rope and getting the rope coiled into a large tub. I believe there was at least 600 feet of rope to pull up. Might have been a couple hundred more. I was just grateful the winch was working this year. Anyone who read my post from last year might remember that we (read: mostly the two men) pulled the pots up by hand. Not an easy feat.



As the pots came into view, they were hooked and pulled over to the side and brought on board. Then the shrimp were dumped into a waiting bucket.



The kids and Jim's parents were waiting for us when we got back to Whittier and we pulled in just long enough to load 'em up and we headed back out.

More on that part of the trip in another post. Lots of cute photos of little girls 'driving' the boat and photos of Blackstone Bay. Stay tuned....

Lots to catch up on

I had so many good intentions for blogging over the summer. Didn't quite happen, as my faithful few readers know. Now that school is back in swing, it might be even harder to catch up, but I am going to try.

Stay tuned for a retrospective of our summer: a lake visit, a boat trip, VBS, and a gigantic trip to Indiana. I already wrote a little about baseball and Forest Fair, but they may make another appearance as well.

School has started

Today was the first day of school for the kids. I started back last Thursday (in case you're wondering). Officially a full-time teacher this year! Whoo hoo!

Samuel is a sophomore this year and was looking forward to some good teachers. There was a little blip with his schedule changing that we discovered last night, but it appears that the new schedule includes an engaging Honors US History teacher. Much to his and our relief.

This morning, Moriah said "I don't know why people get nervous about the first day of school" while exhibiting a small amount of nerves herself (it seemed). Today was her first day of 7th grade and she'll have three teachers instead of one. That's not a huge increase like in normal middle schools, but it's still enough to give her a little case of nerves. Especially since the science/language arts teacher is known to be a hard teacher.

Susannah seemed rather calm this morning, and ready to jump into 7th grade. She's now allowed to wear a little mascara (something those beautiful lashes of hers don't really need) and I suspect mornings will involve a bit more primping. She and Moriah have the same exact classes, including electives, and will probably have the same exact classes next year too.

I had an easy first day. One class. Tomorrow will jump to four classes and into my regular schedule, which now encompasses library classes, research class and Spanish classes. I wear many hats around school and hope I can keep my sanity this year. I have a couple more weeks before my UAS classes start and I plan to enjoy 'just' working full-time until then.

We did 'celebrate' the start of school with our traditional trip down to the Ice Cream Shop. Expensive, yes, but somehow necessary to mark the beginning of this new school year.

At my mom's

We've been in Indiana for a week now and have been at my mom's for most of it. We had to take turns on her computer, which meant that I wasn't really able to do much with this blog. But, my brilliant niece, who arrived last night with my sister and three other siblings, installed a router and now we have WiFi available. Which is a good thing. Very good.

Because Jim has a laptop.
And I have a laptop.
And Samuel has a laptop.
And Jane has a laptop.
And Katie has a laptop.

The pain of WiFi withdrawal is now over.

Homebodies

I just hugged my three older kids goodbye. They're going to be flying to Indiana with Jim's folks for a few days with Granny and Granddaddy before the rest of us fly out on Friday and join up with them.

The girls were recently at Music and Drama Camp (MAD Camp) for almost a full week and were home for one full day before turning around and flying out. They're both a little weepy at the thought of leaving again, homebodies that they are. MAD Camp was the longest they'd ever been away from home and definitely the longest they'd ever gone without being in some kind of contact with me or Jim. To leave again so soon after camp was/is very hard on them, even though logically they knew it was going to happen. And my mama heart is feeling the same emotional pull, hoping and praying they'll find the joy in their trip rather than dwelling on missing us back in Girdwood.

Their time at MAD Camp was fun and the entire camp put on two performances of a play about Daniel. We caught the second night's performance at a church in south Anchorage and they did a really good job (they=my girls and the whole cast, in case you're wondering). Moriah was one of the advisors to Darius who gets Daniel in trouble and Susannah was one of the heralds who announced Darius' entrances and exits. Both girls had a solo and sang well.

Apparently camp was rather grueling because of how long they practiced each day. But they seemed to enjoy the chance to perform (as always) and I think they had fun. The girls certainly exchanged email information with many of their fellow campers and shared a few of those camp inside jokes that will make them giggle for a few months yet. Moriah has a bum thumb in a splint right now and couldn't fully enjoy the water sports, but made it work somehow. Susannah came home with a certificate for being a Polar Bear swimmer. Which means she woke up early to plunge into the cold lake. brrrrrrrrr

After all of the emotion and last minute suitcase packing last night, today was good practice for when Jim and I get up early to fly out on Friday morning with the little girls. Well, except that we didn't pack our own suitcases. And I didn't wake the little girls up. And I'm heading back to bed to catch a bit more sleep instead of driving into the airport at this hour. So, really, today wasn't good for much beyond giving some hugs to children I'll miss a ton and an early morning blog post.