Fair rides

Fun times at the AK State Fair! We were blessed with a sunshiney day, which is rare at the fair! Cute Savannah as a Farmer, even though I'm quite convinced that would be her last choice profession!!!
One of the best parts of our fair day was sharing it with 2 of our fav people... Miss Maci and Miss Katie! This was our first year where we didn't have to convince the kids to check out the fair rides... they were all over it! My favorite part was seeing them choose to ride together~ I love how all 3 of them are such good buddies!

I especially LOVE that Parker has not chosen to venture over to the bigger rides~ I think he's clueless that they even exist!!! hehe!

Savannah, of course, chose the PINK car!

Spiderman Bday

Parker had an early birthday party so he could have the real Spiderman (Uncle Teag) around for his first bday party! So, of course, the natural theme would be... Spiderman!

And, you can't have a Spiderman party without a Spiderman cake so this was the easiest Spiderman cake I could find online!

Nerf Guns~ what fun!

And, we surprised Parker with a sleepover with one of his good buddies, Caden! This futon turned into a wrestling match between these 3 silly dudes. But, eventually they did fall asleep only to be wide awake at 7:00 with a Nerf Gun war! Fun party with a Fun 6~year old!

Parker over the 6 years...

It's hard to believe that God has entrusted us as parents to Parker McKinley for the past 6 fun~filled years. Every birthday we like to look at the kiddos' photo albums and all of us get to giggle at the memories. So, I thought it would be fun for you all to see some of our favorite times with Parker. It was hard to choose just one photo per year of his life but I wouldn't want to bore any of you!!!
Year 1~ Parker enjoying his (unstained) toy box made by Kep!

2 Years~ Parker practicing his fishing skills along the Seward shoreline.

Year 3~ He'll have to grow into these flippers!

4 Years~ Just the beginning of his running career at the Teeland Titan Trail Run '06.

5 Years~ Gigantic LEGO knight at LEGOland!

Year 6~ Parker will spend many more years on a bike~ just like his dad!

Parker McKinley~ we LoVe so many things about you and we are so ThAnKfUl that God gave you to us on August 29, 2004! Luv U!

sunny hike

We have been "priveleged" to live in a state that just broke a record which was set in 1951... we had over 28 consecutive days of rain! YAY... in total sarcasm! Actually, for some very odd reason it didn't bum me out as bad as I thought it would. But when the sun did sneak out of the clouds.. we bolted out to enjoy the rays. So, here we are enjoying a hike in partial sun and partial sprinkles. This is our fav family hike and all of us always leave looking forward to the next time we return.

Here is Savannah running in sheer delight! OMGoodness, she knows how to tease... I was encouraging her to walk on the trail because she has proven herself to be extremely clutzy! But, she just kept running and laughing! Fortunately, the added laugh didn't cause her to fall because normally it would have ended up in a face fall!

Noah's fav buddy is his dad! I hope it always stays that way!

Spidey sleeps over

Our kiddos love their Kroon uncles! And, they especially love to have sleepovers with them. And, we love that the uncles are "game" to do whatever in order to make our kid's lives SUPER FUN and memorable. The other night, the boys were super pumped to sleep on the futon with Uncle Spidey and Savannah made it known that she should also be a part of the sleepover! So, here is brave Teag sleeping with all 3 kids which only lasted til midnight since Savannah got squeezed into the wall! ;o) Thanks UncleS for being so aWeSoMe!!!

blueberry time

Uncle Teag is in town!!! So, we are making the most of these rainy days and getting out and enjoying every adventure with him! Today we went blueberry picking in Hatcher's Pass.

We found a motherlode of blueberries BUT since we were all getting soaked and chilled... we settled with just a couple cups of berries and came home to warmth!

yogurt thoughts

Here's a cute conversation I was having with Noah this afternoon after I spooned a bunch of yogurt into his bowl:

"Mom, what are these bumps in my yogurt? Did God make them?"

"No, God didn't make the yogurt, it came from the store" (I know it really comes from a dairy processing plant, but that is a little TMI for Noah!!!)

"hmmmm... well, did God make these bumps???"

"No, God didn't make those bumps, those are just from mom plopping the yogurt into your bowl"

Noah, sat there totally confused because I think after all our "Noah, who made you?... Noah, who made the trees?... Noah, who made your cute smile?" questions... he was surprised I didn't say "yes, God made it and He made those bumps"!

Ha... love the thoughts from little ones! It always surprises me which little thing will spark their interest into trying to understand our awesome God, more and more!!! ;o)

family fishin'

Our first time out on our li'l ski boat this summer. It's been a rainy summer so when we saw blue skies, we got out there lickety~split. It was still a bit chilly to ski so we asked the kids if they wanted to go buy li'l fishing poles with their "hard~earned" chore money... that was a no~brainer! So, here is Parker with his big Spiderman pole, Noah with his BLUE Batman pole and Savannah with her very pink Princess pole!

We were all surprised to reel in 3 fish in mid~day fishing! 7 others snatched our "yummy" worms and got away before the boys were able to reel them in. I think we got some real fishermen on our hands!

Arctic Thunder

racing machine!

We all got to spend this weekend cheering for our fav bike racer! Even though the weather was wet AGAIN, we braved the rain and cheered loudly for Kep in the Tour de Anchorage! He did awesome~ and we are proud of you DAD!

Here are 2 of his fav fans bonding under the umbrella!

2 more of his fav fans hanging in the Yukon with cars... perfect spot to stay dry!

One of the best parts about going to our dad's races is being able to hang with the Novaks... it was a fun weekend!