rafting

Over Memorial Day weekend we were blessed with an amazingly gorgeous day to float the Matanuska River with good friends, the Buchanans!

Ha~ gotta love this shot... each of their personalities are in full bloom!

Here I am bobbing my head to the fun river tunes we were making up that day! It's always an adventure in the bow of our raft.

Sweet sibling loving! We were happy that Sissy was all smiles and loving the "rapids" because there was no time for naps on this day.

Our boys love to jump back and take their turns being captains...

Gotta bring a kite for the bank beach time!

watching & waiting

Momma Robin has been faithfully building nests on the side of our shed this spring. Kep took the first nest down because he didn't want one on HIS shed. But, I was happy Momma Robin felt welcome to come back and build a second nest in the same place! And it didn't take long to convince Kep to keep it up there since it could be a "science" lesson for our boys! hehehe. The nest is way too high for the boys to see inside so we just keep taking pix to show them the progress. Here are the 3 beautiful eggs we are watching... she laid 2 earlier in the week and then we saw a 3rd today! We'll post more pix later of our baby Robins...

Parker can pump!

Quick disclaimer: Our AK weather has been aMAZing so I am way behind on blogging but it is rainy today... so here is my blogging marathon day! Have fun catching up on our fun:

YAY~ Parker can swing on his own. It's been cute watching him learn how to pump but now he's got it and he is so proud of his new accomplishment! Good Job buddy!

fun in the SUN!

When it's sunny and warm in AK... I drop all household responsibilities and we play outside non~stop!!!

And believe it or not... we even needed sun breaks one day with pink lemonade!

Savannah can be such a "li'l princess" but she also knows how to get dirty and LOVES the outdoors!

Our boys having fun digging lakes and rivers with the DeKruif boys! We got to enjoy hanging out with these 3 cuties while their mom had jury duty for 2 days.

We bought this bike off of CraigsList last year and Savannah thought it needed a good cleaning!

i TRI'd again!

On May 16th, I competed in my 2nd triathlon. It was a much different experience than last year because... some of our Valley Rookies could not compete, the tri was longer, it was in a different location, I was using a road bike instead of a mountain bike AND it was 20 degrees cooler. But, now that I have finished I can say... it was fun and I am glad I did it!!!
Hehehe... isn't the tri gear just so attractive?!? We looked like Qtips!

Making the trek across to the deep~end pool! I was a lot more nervous this year after inhaling a TON of water in last year's swim.

Noah... his li'l face was just one of the many that kept me smiling throughout the race! It was fun to have Kep, the boys, Mo~mo and Popeye AND other friends there to cheer me on! Thanks Mo~mo for being my personal photographer with your fancy camera! I only wish I would have remembered to get a pic with all my supporters! Next year!!!

Swimming the 500 meters

Almost done with the 13 mile bike...

And, almost done with the 5K run!

We did it! And here are some of the Valley Rookies with our matchy~matchy shirts... the real reason we do these TRIs is for the shirts!!! Pam and Kathleen got to compete with their 10~year old daughters which is something I would love to do in 8 more years with Savannah! We'll see if I can get our li'l princess to share the same dream! hehehe

puzzle MaNiAcS

I love that my kiddos all lOvE puzzles. My boys have always been known to get up at "seven, zero, zero"... earlier if they could... but never any later! And, now that we took the "bink" away from sissy she has followed suit! So, even though their little minds and bodies are ready to do anything & everything... mommy needs 3 cups of coffee to attempt to match their level of energy! Thank goodness for these puzzles, they are my "7:00AM life~savers"!

PS: I did not line them up like this for a photo~op... they were all sitting on the ottoman, the younger 2 were handing pieces to Parker! They aren't always helping eachother so peacefully, but today they were... so I snapped a quick shot!

her dolly quilt

I love this picture of Savannah loving every minute in Mo~mo's arms and on her new quilt! We got to preview the quilt on Savannah's bday but now it is completely done and is perfectly adorable in Savannah's room. I wish all of you could see it in person because the pictures don't begin to show all the adorable details! Each little dolly has her own little set of accessories.

Here's Savannah sitting next to one of her 2 favorite dollies! Two of the dolls even have pockets that are just big enough to hold a little stuffed bear and puppy~ which are never in the pockets!!! Savannah likes to fall asleep with one in each hand! And, that cute little matching dolly was also made by our lovingly talented Mo~mo!

Mo~mo... thank you for all the time, creativity and LOVE that went into this sweet sweet quilt set! We LoVe it!

SNOWCAT ride!

Seriously, our boys have not stopped talking about this superb privelage... a ride in the Alyeska Snow Cat!!! We recently spent a weekend at Alyeska Ski Resort with our fellow Young Life friends. While there, the Snow Cat driver was super gracious to give all our kiddos a ride in his machine. So, our boys got to ride through the half~pipe and see how the grooming gets done! A boys dream come true!

Here's just a few of the pumped Young Life kiddos after their rides!

Thanks Molly and Blink Photographic for the use of your pix!!! :o)

our li'l fishy

Noah and Thomas, his bday buddy, have been taking a swim lesson together all month. These 2 are 2 little clowns that are super adorable to watch! They both love the water and love to have a good time!
Noah is seriously a little fish! He has no fear of the water and once he jumps in... he flails every which limb to get himself across this little pool without any help and ONE breath! I don't know how he does it but it's super comical/amazing to watch our li'l 3 1/2 year old! The funnier thing is all those skills come to a complete "halt" in swim class... I guess he doesn't feel the need to impress the teacher!
We are proud of your (swimming) skills, little buddy!

Savannah is TWO!

I can't believe our sweet Savannah is 2! She has brought so much jOy, giGGles, MeMoRiEs and PINK into our lives and we look forward to more of ALL of these! She was soooo excited about her Stawberry Shortcake hat cake but I think her fav part was... blowing out her candles! This is one of her fav. things to do whenever we have friends over for dinner! :)

Cuz Hannah and Savannah~ the rhyming girls have a special li'l bond and now they have a cute monkey to share their bond!

And these are just 2 of her precious girlfriends... these 3 were so adorable together. I love this one of them giggling (about nothing!)... because that's what girls do!!!

Savannah has two sweet brothers that just adore having a sister so here they are helping her get excited about opening 2 MORE giftsAnd, here's an attractive shot of our Strawberry girl at 3months old... seems like yesterday, only now she's 2! We love you, Savannah!