Julia's first day of School

Julia started school a couple of weeks ago at a charter school here for half-day Kindergarten!  We are so excited for her and proud of her.   She was a little anxious about it all summer, wondering if she would like it, and now she just loves it!  She has a great teacher and looks forward to every school day.  I have dreaded this day for a long time--it means she is growing up--and we miss her at home (Ethan feels a bit left behind), but I am glad she is so happy experiencing new things and learning so much and so that makes me happy.  Plus Ethan gets to be the man of the house for a few hours, which I think he is starting to enjoy.

The school's open house is this week, and we are all really looking forward to attending and seeing more into what her day and her classmates are like!

Summer Fun

We didn't end up going anywhere this summer (outside of Alaska that is), but we enjoyed our time here.  We spent it exploring local hike areas and the back yard, growing a garden, doing a little camping, and spending as much time outside as possible to stock up on Vitamin D before the long winter.  Towards the end of summer, we did a lot of raspberry picking, and the kids got a lot of practice riding their bikes or scooters to and from our secret raspberry patch.  Julia is now a pro at riding without training wheels!

 Christian would wear this shirt or his Spiderman shirt every day if we let him.  

New favorite pastime:  climbing the tree in the front yard to keep a lookout for Dad riding home on his bike or to play pirates. 

I love Elliott's smile and sweet little spirit! 

The kids snuggling up for a movie/blanket eat-a-thon.

This was our first year we were eligible to dip-net as Alaska residents, so Joshua went out in July for a go at it.  The rule is you have to be an Alaska resident and buy a fishing license, and then there are a couple of locations you can go with a big net and catch salmon.  You have a limit according to your family's size, but it is very generous.  Joshua went down with a friend from Church to the Kenai Peninsula, one of the approved spots, and started fishing right after they arrived around 11:30pm.  They put on chest waders and took turns heading out with a dip-net, which is a five foot diameter net with often a thirty foot pole.  Depending on whether the salmon are running or not (it seems they come in waves, depending on the tide and other things), it can take five minutes or hours to catch a fish.  As soon as they caught one, they would come back in and kill and gut the fish while the other went back out.  There were hundreds of people camped out there, all doing the same thing.  We thought about going as a family, but figured it would be hard to keep track of the kids and they would probably get bored after a while anyway.  We would like to go as a family sometime in the future though.

The mouth of the river at the Kenai Peninsula

Lots of people there, gutting the fish and whatnot.

Washington Trip

A couple of weeks ago Julia, Elliott and I headed down to Washington for my cousin Juli's wedding while Joshua held the fort with the boys here.  It was wonderful to see everyone--all of my brothers and families were there, along with many cousins on the Little side.  I got to relax while people passed Elliott around and Julia loved the attention from aunts and uncles and everyone else there.  We enjoyed some time with the Swifts too, and Julia got to meet cousins Andrew and Mallory, and also got to do a date with her aunt Talitha for her very first pedicure.

Joshua, Ethan and Christian lived it up here going camping, hiking, doing building projects at the home improvement stores, and visiting the library (reading 200+ books for the summer reading program), with unlimited treats and movies to boot.

Julia and cousins with Juli the bride

Julia and Elliott with Grandma and Grandpa Swift and Andrew and Mallory

At the temple with my immediate family

Summer Activities

For Memorial Day we tried a new hike as a family up in the mountains east of Anchorage called Wolverine Pass.  It was a great trail, but long and really muddy near the end, so we stopped after a couple of miles, had a picnic, then headed back.  Julia and Ethan walked almost all of it, and Christian would have loved to, if he hadn't been strapped into the stroller.  All of the trails around here have signs at the beginning warning hikers of bears, and so we are always on the lookout but haven't seen any to date.  We are glad.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned 4 in May!  As a family we went to a kids' bouncing place, and a couple days before his birthday he had a superhero party.  It was a lot of fun--Joshua planned it as a scavenger hunt where the superheros (all the kids) had to follow the clues and do different heroic activities to be able to ultimately find a stolen treasure.  The activities included popping balloons, sending parachute guys off the deck, musical chairs, and looking through superhero sunglasses.  Everyone had a lot of fun, and there were only minimal fights, mostly in the last 15 minutes of the party, so I would say it was a success.

The Birthday Boy and siblings (minus Elliott)

Eating Batman cupcakes at the party with friends

Looking super handsome in his new suit!

Record Breaker

It's official. We beat the record for most winter snowfall this year! So finally we have bragging rights as compensation for our hours and hours of shoveling the driveway. Below is a picture out our winter yesterday as the record breaking last three inches fell, bringing it up to 133 inches to date.

In essence, we got twice as much as average seasonal snowfall. We can't wait for spring!!

Easter fun

Who would have guessed that we could enjoy not only a white Christmas, but a white

Thanksgiving and a white Easter as well! We began some Easter festvities yesterday with a lunch/Easter egg hunt at the church. Luckily the lunch was indoors, but after we all headed to the parking lot for the hunt, or should we say mini Mt. Everest climb. It was quite a challenge, and more than a few eggs got lost in the snow, but the kids still had fun.

The terrain:

The Easter bunny also visited our home yesterday afternoon during quiet time. The kids were really excited to hunt eggs, even the second time around.

And this picture is from this morning, with everyone in their Easter best!