Spring Time in Alaska

We are so glad that Spring is finally here. The past couple of weeks the temperature has reached 40 almost every day. The snow is starting to melt and we are seeing some green patches again in the grass; it still snows every now and then, but in general more is melting than what is accumulating on the ground. On our walk today we even saw a 10 year old girl in a bikini washing her family's car, and several people out with short sleeves and/or shorts! I don't think we are that acclimatized yet to this weather, but who knows about next Spring?

The days are starting to get longer, so we've really been enjoying seeing more of the sun as well--it is 9:30 now and still somewhat light outside. We are also seeing a lot more birds and other wildlife about. Below is a moose that decided to hang out in our backyard a couple of weeks ago: he snacked on one of our bushes for a while, then laid down and took a nap in the sun.

Kind of Creepy

We got this postcard in the mail the other day. We thought it was both funny and really creepy at the same time. We decided not to tell our kids about it though (Julia and Ethan both sleep downstairs), so don't mention it next time you talk to them!

Sorry about the quality of the image. Our camera broke in the move.

Here is what it says:

"Dear New House owners! It's Mele a girl who previously lived here! Please take care of this home! It took care of 9 kids and two parents who later on divorced. My dead grandma lives downstairs. Please don't be scared if you hear noise. She's nice! -Mele-"

Christian's First Birthday

Christian had his first birthday last week. We had a great time celebrating as a family. It seemed like his favorite part of the day was getting to try his first sweets. Here are a couple of videos of him, Julia, and Ethan eating birthday cupcakes.

Our new home

We're finally in our house! We closed on the home February 24th, then spent the following weekend moving in. Joshua did most of the moving and I cleaned the apartment while some friends watched our kids. A highlight was Saturday afternoon when I got to watch Joshua muscle the refrigerator up the stairs virtually alone; his only help was a little direction pointing from me. We love it! It's an older four bedroom, two bath split-level, updated on the inside, and less than two miles from the university (nice commute). When we first started looking for homes here, we were really discouraged because house prices are so high in Alaska; but although this is not our ultimate dream home, it far exceeds all our needs and fulfills many wants, and we feel super blessed to be in it. The kids love running around in all the space, and I think there are more cabinets in the kitchen than in all our previous homes' kitchens combined!

Joshua took a video of the home before we moved our things in, so here it is--

Tour of the upstairs

Tour of the downstairs

Good bye Inlet View ward and our tiny apartment

Well, it has been a really long time since we have posted anything (not sure if it is because we have been busy or if it is because nothing much has happened) and we thought it was about time.

Today was our last Sunday in our church ward and it was an eventful one. Rebecca was called to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on the sacredness of the Sacrament. She did a great job. Many people complimented her on it afterward. One person even came up to her and said "This is one of only a handful of talks that have ever caused me to check the church handbook of instructions for accuracy, and after checking I found out that you were right." After she talked on how reverent and respectful we need to be during the meeting, there was a musical number by the choir and then all three kids started going crazy. Some weeks they are so reverent, others it is a different story. I ended up spending the rest of the meeting out in the hall with them.

After Sacrament meeting Rebecca taught her last class as CTR 8 instructor in the Primary. I came in to teach the children a few things from the scriptures and that was pretty fun. Christian was pretty fussy so I spent most of the rest of that hour in the hall with him.

Then off to Priesthood meeting for me and Christian. About five minutes into it, I heard a faint, but familiar, scream that got louder and louder by the second. I hurried out to see what was wrong with Julia and found her teacher carrying her to the bathroom. Somehow during Primary sharing time she fell face forward off her chair and her lip was bleeding all over the place. The entire building got to listen to her scream at the top of her lungs for about ten minutes. Rebecca and I both tried to console her, but when she is hurt and she has made up her mind that she is sad there is no helping her. We thought about taking her outside, but it was just too cold. Finally, after telling her that we would have to do some candy when we got home she quieted down. A few more minutes of walking her around the building and she was all better and ready to go back to class.

The meeting ended with Julia and Ethan giving big hugs to their teachers and us saying good bye to some of the people that we have gotten to know in the ward. It has been a really nice ward and we are sad that we have to go. We are excited about our new ward though. We have been wondering what it will be like and making guesses about what our new callings might be. We will meet in the same building, just at a different time.

This week will be our last week in our tiny little apartment. Our apartment manager was nice enough to let us out of our lease early, so that is really good. All in all though I don't think we are going to miss our small 2BR, 1Bath, 3rd floor, 650 sq ft apartment all that much. It is nice that we had a safe place to live, and we can't complain about the balmy 80 degrees they have kept our apartment temperature, but we are glad to be moving on to something a little bigger and closer to work.

What would you say?

In the kids' room we have a huge box full of diapers for the boys. Last night Julia started to fling out all of the diapers from the box, and when Joshua started to object, she got really upset and tried to explain how important it was for her to use the box. In desperation she said, "Dad, you're not listening and you don't understand--this is my favorite thing to do in the whole world! This was even my favorite thing to do in heaven!"

Trip to Girdwood

Last Thursday we took a trip down to Girdwood, a little ski town about about 30 miles south of Anchorage. The drive goes right along the shore of the Turnagain Arm of the Gulf of Alaska, just north of the Kenai Peninsula, and it is gorgeous. On the drive we noticed that a lot of the water in the bay was frozen into ice chunks; the other side of the road rose up into the mountains with huge icicles hanging down in colors of green, blue, yellow, and a little purple and red. We weren't able to get a good picture from the car, so next time we will have to stop to take one. When we arrived, we drove around a little but it is a really small town so it didn't take very long. We did find a park that is an open meadow in the middle of the mountains and we enjoyed walking and playing around in the snow there. Fun trip.