Kenai Lake 2013

We love Kenai Lake and it's just where we go after Memorial Day.  I don't know how we get so fortunate to have such gorgeous weather but we don't take it for granted!  We love this place and so did Rosco!

Parker spends the majority of the time tooling around on the canoe.  I thought it was pretty cute to watch him give the younger 2 rides.

There she goes getting braver by riding with just one training wheel.

Oh, and here she has goes with ZERO training wheels!!!

YAY~ we are officially done with noisy training wheels.  The boys were so proud of their sis and pedaled at her speed!

Rosco loved all the time in the lake~ I couldn't believe he could swim in those frigid temps!

One of the best parts of our campout was having Uncle Teag along.  For our last meal we broke out the $1 aisle neckties to give Uncle Teag a good laugh.  He is one of the only young guys I know to wear a necktie so when I saw these silly little velcro neckties at Target~ I just had to buy them for our boys!

Mary Poppins

The kids and I love the movie "Mary Poppins" so the 4 of us were so excited to go see the Broadway version.

Ha~ this is what Savannah looks like the next morning after she wears her piggie buns!  It's so funny to see her with curly hair and to watch her hair bounce as she walks!  

Hatcher's spring ski

The weather was ideal and some of our backcountry ski friends were available so he climbed back into Hatcher's and enjoyed a Sunday afternoon in the sun.  It was hard to believe that there was this much snow left at the end of May!  CrAzY!

Savannah was in to making these tiny snowmen.  I thought it was adorable that she gave her fav snowman a home in her Camelbak!

Rosco, Rosco!  He can be so much fun on our family outings and then he can be such a nuisance.  I was getting tired of being yanked around by him as he kept wanting to smell (or devour) everyone's snacks so I tied him up to one of our skis.  I took this picture to help me remember that I shouldn't push for him to come on the next backcountry ski event... because I will be the one in charge of the rascal!

Katie and Maci!

Maci and Katie~ we love these 2!  We don't get to see them often enough but when we do... Savannah makes sure she is right in the middle.  Maci just recently got engaged and asked Savannah to be her flower girl in June.  I think it would be safe to say that it is every mother's dream to have their daughter be a flower girl (or maybe it's just me!?!) so I am so excited!

Thursday's guitar day!

 Cathy Winter was such a fun addition to our Thursdays!  She came every Thursday evening and taught a 1/2 hour guitar lesson to Parker.  I loved preparing dinner while listening to Cathy teach and encourage my son.  He learned so quickly so it wasn't long before we had Praise music strumming in our living room.  Best first instrument ever!

We all had fun listening to Parker's first recital at our home~ he did awesome!  Parker was relieved he only had to perform in front of family members instead of at the BIG spring recital.

Thanks Cathy for doing such an amazing job teaching our son~ you are talented with kids and on the guitar!

NEW family portraits

It is safe to say that 1 of the 5 of us LOVES getting family pictures taken.  That would be... me!  The odds were not for me and neither were the conditions, it was 16* and super sunny.  Hence the squinty eyes!!!  But I am super pleased to say we all had a great time and even Rosco cooperated.  My good friend, Carrie Lambing, did a great job and I LOVE the results!

backcountry as a fam!

It's been awesome to have our kids getting more independent on skis because now we can go backcountry skiing as a family!

It's a TON of work for Kep!  I don't know how he pulls Savannah up these mountains but he loves to do whatever it takes to get his family up in Hatchers!

Kep and Parker~ they bring a whole new truth to "like father, like son".  They both love to build and work!  It's pretty sweet to climb up the mountain and then have them build us a bench in the snow!

Mrs. Gail~ we LOVE her!!!

 Noah and Parker LOVE going to Mrs. Gail's art class.  Infact, I think it's safe to say it is their favorite day of the week.  Mrs. Gail is an amazing artist and she is very talented at teaching the kids how to become one as well.  She is just so FUN and hilarious.  The boys' favorite art project was their paper mache animals.  They could create any item and they both surprised me with their choice: rhino and narwhal.  OK then!  We had just read about narwhals in school so Noah thought their spear tooth was crazy cool!

Savannah got to join in on some of the art classes when I would stay and help so all 4 of us got to enjoy art this year!