Alaska Adventures with the Johnsons!

AZ Johnsons Take AK

2011-08-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

I'm so behind... but here I am, nonetheless. So we had 2 big visits from siblings and their fams this summer... the post above chronicles my brother's visit. Our second sibling visit was from Clayton's brother and family. I'd like to start this blog post by thanking God for the lovely weather he sent to Alaska for the AZ Johnson's visit. Last summer, we had rain pretty much every day. THIS summer, we had sun pretty much the ENTIRE time except for one day in Homer and one day in Anchorage. 14 days of sun out of 16. You CANNOT beat that in July, folks. (in all, this has been a GREAT summer weather-wise, for sure)

Editor's Note: I ought to be ashamed about the lack of good pictures from all our summer visitors this year.. I'm telling myself that since this was the AZ Johnson's second visit, I was less diligent with the camera... Don't spoil that for me, it's working. I seemed to get good pics of the kids but there is a severe lack of group shots this time around. Will work on that next summer for ALL of our visitors.

So how did we spend our second annual AZ Johnson visit? First answer: OUTSIDE, baby, outside! The weather was so much more cooperative this time around so we did, we went outdoors (and sometimes in shorts and sometimes without rain jackets!). One of the days that Clayton worked, we took the kids to a campsite at Eagle River Campground.. that is about 5 minutes from home but it feels like several hours removed. We built a fire (eventually) and the kids rode their bikes, hiked and ate their way through the afternoon. It was a really fun day. Some of the highlights were the kids finding a moose across the river (no pictures, take it on faith)... grilling the perfect hot dog and the boys putting out the fire in a way that only little boys can (I do have pictures but you'll have to message me for them, I'm not that stupid to post them on this blog!). Suffice it to say, nothing in the world smells quite like a campfire put out by urine. NOTHING. Super disgusting!!

Playing with or in the fire.. it never gets old for boys, does it??

The ONE thing we didn't bring enough of on this day trip was water... and all the water faucet things in the campground were out of order. I can't remember how exactly we solved the problem (without driving home or to the store).. I sort of think I found some water bottles in the car leftover from a previous hiking trip.. all's well that ends well as none of the kids ended up with diarrhea :)

This is Evie wearing the shark bike helmet, always a hit with kids.. this is also one of the last days that Evie got to be called by her Christian name. Our neighbor Ryan thought everyone was calling Evie "Debbie".. it stuck. Evie's Alaska name is heretofore Debbie or Deb. However you are moved. And the sad thing is, she answers to it!! Hilarity at the expense of an innocent child. It was also around this time that Troy was rechristened as Roy. Same circumstances. Too funny!! What goes around comes around, however.. Loges decided to rename Ryan's mom Christy "Crispy".

Our biggest adventure on this trip was a 3 dayer down to Homer. We rented a fabulous house overlooking the bay. It had plenty of actual beds, an enormous yard and an awesomely stocked kitchen. The boys (adult ones) went on an overnight halibut charter with the benefit being 4 halibut coming home versus 2. This is a pic of the kids on the beach at Homer.

On the docks, sending the men off on their fishing adventure.. You want to make a bunch of adults sweat?? Let 6+ kids run wild on a dock.. Seriously. I kept saying "They'll roll to a float if they go in. I promise!!" It helped not at all. And for the record, no one fell in. But if they had, they'd have been a-ok.

All the guys boarding the boat. A few coasties, a few reserve pilots and some granddads.

The white boat is the dads' fishing boat heading out to open waters (I guess).. it was cool for the kids to see them head out.

So what does one do with a huge rental house in Homer?? You invite all your friends over for a fish fry! We made the most tasty fish tacos ever. I suppose it doesn't hurt to fry halibut that had been swimming peacefully in the ocean with its friends 12 hours earlier.. I think we had 25+ people in the house for dinner that night. It was so much fun!! This picture was probably taken about 10:00 pm, don't be deceived by the sunlight.. summer in AK and all! We managed to convince the Feuchts to stay and play Nerts. Too much fun.

So how do you top an awesome trip to Homer?? Besides stopping at the DQ in Soldotna for the world's best blizzards?? (side note, the DQ burned to the ground that night.. how horrible for EVERYONE!!!! Hope they rebuild and carry on with their awesome blizzard making) You top off an awesome trip by totaling the Alitma. For reals. The thing is, there is so much more to this story (including, but not limited to the fact that they boys and TJ stopped to fish for salmon unbeknownst to Melissa and I.. which made for a 4-5 hour lag in hearing from them once the moms arrived home in Eagle River.. and no cell service.. suffice it to say, the imaginations tend to get a little wild!). Fortunately, it wasn't Clayton's fault. Some TOURIST in a rented truck/camper BACKED UP on the Seward highway, right into the Altima. The only mammal harmed was the Altima which was promptly totaled out by USAA. As you can tell from the picture (taken at nearly midnight), the hood flew up whilst driving home. MacGuyver and brother did what they could with fishing line to tie it down. Looked a lot like Tommy Boy minus the deer in the backseat. UGH!!! Oh, and if you're wondering, no salmon were harmed on this outing..

A mega hike up the North Face at Alyeska... my absolute #1 choice of hikes in our area by a long shot. This is BEFORE :)

Almost to the top... all the kids. It was an incredibly beautiful day!

The one and only picture of Melissa and I. We were WORKING HARD!!

The kids and I at the top of the tram.. you hike up and ride the tram down (for free). This is what our ski runs look like in the summer. So strange!

The brothers.. the ONLY picture on my camera of them together..

So that's it for pictures.. but not the memories!! Some things you don't see on film... Melissa and I conquering Super Mario Brothers (well, it was all her.. I was in a friggin' bubble); ten people buckling into a 9-buckle Tahoe; empty bottles of champagne; countless candy/cookie/brownie treats consumed; hysterical laughing at 1:00 in the morning; an impromptu 4th of July celebration at our house; wild cheering Kara on to her first goal in soccer.. then Melissa and Clayton getting trash-talked by the other team's coach for being too close to the goalie (Kara) during game-play; thousands (literally) of legos spread over the top floor of our house and the hours of entertainment they provided... It was another great trip. Again, we thank Roy and Melissa for dragging their family up here. We love you!!

To Eli, I say this: Thank you for sleeping in Kara's room. I LOVE the sweet relationship you guys have. I hope it stays like that for a long time. I love listening to you school the younger boys on life and legos. Thanks, too, for endlessly entertaining me on our hike as we came up with synonyms galore. I will never forget that :)

TJ: Your quiet sweetness with Clay warms my heart.. You guys look alike to me with your big brown eyes. I also love watching you and Kara forge a new relationship the last few visits as well. Hug Jojo for me!!! The real Jojo would like to come live at your house.. can we work on that??

Oh Logey.. you make me laugh (you and Grayson together ruin my bladder control all together). I love your smelly shee blankets! Thanks for going shopping with me even though it didn't work out quite as well for you as you'd hoped :) I'm sorry in advance for never letting go of Bushee stories.. not even when you're married.

To my only niece Debbie.. As for your name change, well, blame Ryan.. it's just so FUNNY! I love how girlie you are.. but at the same time, you will be able to take any of these boys in another 6 months to a year (if not sooner). I'm sorry you spent so much of your time in Alaska in our guest closet but you really did look tired!!!!! Maybe next year you will be able to hike on your own two feet? Then again, maybe not...

Summer FUN! Fillemans Vist!

2011-07-27T09:06:00.002-08:00

Well, we're winding down our summer... it's going WAY TOO FAST! We've had visitors and then, between visits, the kids and I have stayed very busy going and doing. It's been (thus far) a great summer. I'm not ready for the kids to head back to school in less than a month.

Our first visitors this summer, all the way back at the end of May were the Fillemans of Chandler, Arizona. My brother and his family made their maiden voyage to visit us in what was a fairly sunny, warmish Alaska! They were here for about 10 days so you KNOW we packed in the fun stuff. We celebrated my brother's birthday, Kara's start of soccer, Clay's birthday, went to Seward, biked like mad and the kids/dad camped a night in the wilderness. I felt like I did a good job photographing while they were here, but as it turns out, I did a horrible job.

And yet another thing I'm doing a horrible job at: BLOG POSTING! So, in an effort to get this post online, I'm going to just post pictures in no particular order...

I think one thing people expect when they come to AK is animal viewing. Normally, we see animals all the time unless you are visiting us. I don't know why that is!! But sometimes we get lucky. As in our drive home from Seward (or maybe it was to Seward). Anyhow, we were cruising down the highway and there was this little guy. I pulled a uey in the middle of the road and we went back around. Moose are everywhere!!!

We also got to see a bunch of salmon in one of their sanctuary areas... no salmon were killed or injured on this trip (sadly). Although Michelle did get to enjoy fresh Copper River kings on several restaurant outings and she's a convert to AK salmon. I'm sorry kids, but even if the menu says it's fresh, wild caught Alaska salmon, assume they're lying (unless you've confirmed an overnight flight in of fish, and it's in the SUMMER). I hated salmon until we moved here and I'm officially a convert. Reds are my favorite. I digress...

Believe it or not, there were TONS of salmon jumping into this waterfall.

My weird kids waiting in the lobby for their cousins in Seward.

The 4 of us in Seward. My first trip down there. It was a cute little town. I wanted to see some Orcas in the bay but all I saw were some harbor seals and sea otters (not complaining).

Kara and Parker. This girl LOVES herself some Parker Boyd. She treats him like her little assistant and I am glad he was tolerant, he will probably not enjoy her "attentions" for too much longer :) This was before they headed out on their back country back packing trip.

Ice cream in Seward (see how you're getting your own "Around Alaska in 40 seconds or Less" for free!?). GB is really a hoot. I think when he got here, he wasn't feeling me at all.. However, given enough QT on car rides, in grocery carts, in bike trailers, he came around. In fact, at one point, he opted to stay home with me while Michelle went to Walmart. A true milestone! He's pretty funny.. while we were driving to Seward, when he was supposed to be "resting", he announced in a very loud voice "I DON'T LIKE SOUP". That one stuck. I'll keep it alive until he's married :)

The big kids in Seward. I don't remember what Kara's problem was.. not very much actually grosses her out...

Fishing at the Sea Life Center...

The touch tank at the Sea Life Center. The kids LOVED touching sea cucumbers, star fish and the like. This place is cool.

My brother. His second trip to AK in less than one calendar year! WOOT! I don't know if he was really feeling my taking his picture. If you know Mark, you know that he LOVES himself a camera. Almost all of his adult pictures exude a true joie de vivre! Like he is having the MOST FUN EVER and how much he LOVES having his image captured (I'm practically a professional photographer)!! Actually, I think he loathes having his picture taken. We celebrated his birthday in true AK style: sent him off into the wilderness with some freeze dried food, a whole gaggle of kids and 10 miles of hiking. Happy Birthday, come back next year when we'll do a 3 night at Eklutna!!

Speaking of birthdays... the night before, we celebrated with the traditional banana spice cake a la my Gram Boyd. I love the cake, not so much the icing.. Michelle really goes out of her way to make foods that Mark likes. I could take a lesson on that... Just ask Clayton!

Oh GB. I was a hard-sell for you, I know.. but we will be forever bonded over our Eklutna trail ride. I will forever remind you that you don't like soup and I will also take full credit for anytime you tell someone "I. Will. Cut. You". You're crazy!!!!

To sweet Parker I say that I am sorry for letting Kara treat you like her assistant. She does it out of love. You are so funny and I loved how excited you got about visiting the exiled cats in the basement. If I could buy you a hairless cat as a pet, I would.

Davis is the most hilarious kid ever. He has a very refined dry sense of humor. He really says the funniest things (things that I should have written down because I don't remember them like I wish I did). He was at Kara's first soccer game where he offered to go on the field and school the girls how to play soccer "for real" (for the record, they only lost like 2 games!!).

We had so much fun with the Fillemans. I can't tell you, dear readers, how much it means to us when our families visit up here. We go to AZ but our visits are lightning fast and we have a lot of ground to cover so it makes for inconsistent times with everyone. When you come to Alaska, we have (for better or worse) concentrated time to hang out and develop our relationships in really cool ways. I got to spend a ton of time with Michelle just hanging out, riding bikes (in the sun, cold and rain) and that NEVER happens in AZ!! My kids LOVE having their cousins at their house.. getting to sleep in (or not), play the Wii (or just argue), watch shows, ride bikes, hike, camp and fish with them in their normal environment. Many thanks to Mark and Michelle for coming up. I know it was a thrash and that it is expensive. We have lifetime memories from your trip. I loved having Michelle meet my friends and see how I while away my time up here. Clayton LOVED camping with Mark (and I KNOW Mark would do it again... in another life). THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for coming up. You're welcome back anytime. xoxooxox

Happy Birthday, Clay-Clay!

2011-06-20T17:16:00.003-08:00

Clay is 6. He was 3 when we moved to Alaska.. that means the boy has lived half of his life up here. That blows my mind. This year for Clay's birthday, his Filleman cousins were in town. He was very wishy-washy about what he wanted to do to party so, at the last minute, we decided to do a movie theatre party. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2 and partied at the theatre. It was a brilliant move on my part as there was no mess, no cleaning for me! I highly recommend movie theatre parties in case you're wondering...

The whole crew.. (where's Grayson?!)

Clay's birthday cake as specifically requested from Miss Kamdon... she's the best. The cake was AWESOME!!! And tasty.

Opening his present from his aunts and uncles... they obviously didn't ask Clayton for his permission.

On Clay's actual birthday, we celebrated with a costco apple pie that I pretty much ruined by attempting a crumble topping. It was a quiet night at home to celebrate our quirky, extremely bright, adventurous, momma-loving son. We love you, Udes.. how is it that you're 6? We are so proud of you.

8 is Great!!

2011-06-15T08:09:00.004-08:00

This year's cake creation courtesy of Kamdon.. Kara wasn't as specific on the "theme" this year.. she wanted something beachy or Hawaiian. It was a tremendous hit, as usual :)

So Miss Kara turned 8 about a month ago... blogging slacker, I already know that about myself. She had a birthday of surprises this year.. Her first surprise was a redo on her bedroom. Not that there was anything wrong with Kara's bedroom, but she was asking for more "green" in her bedroom. I convinced my trusty friend Kamdon to "help me out" (come up with a design) and we pulled a "Trading Spaces" on Kara while she was at school the last day. She loves it!! (for the record, I did my fair share of the sewing on this one.. LOOK! This mommy can sew!!!!)

Her second surprise was a visit from her Miss Karen. Kara was really missing Karen and Karen graciously scheduled a visit up here... Kara slept over with Ainsley the night before her bday and Karen surprised her at Jitter's the next morning. TOO FUN!

Kara's last surprise was our Alaska cousin Ashley's surprise visit to her birthday party. I think Kara felt honored that day (despite a mini-drama at the party related to VERY loud singing by a couple of guests whilst Kara was playing Liv dolls with the other 2 guests... small drama, worked out.. Kara cried.. shocker). We did nails at home and then we hit up Simon & Seafort's for an early dinner.. between spa snacks at the house and fancy food at Simon's, the girls forwent the cake!!!! WHAT?! Too funny, 8-9 year old girls. I loved Kara's party this year for sure...

Miss Karen was our most in-demand manicurist for sure :)

I, myself, sported bright blue toes on one foot, orange on the other for 2 weeks!

Kara's friend Olivia.. Olivia moved away about a week ago. SAD DAYS! You will be missed at the counter after school, Olivia.

After Simon's, it was so sunny and warm! The girls BEGGED to go play on the playground by the inlet. This was about 7:30-8:00 in the evening. Got to love AK summer sunshine!!

And so we wished Kara a very happy 8th year. She is so creative, fun-loving, sweet hearted, kind spirited (where does she get all those traits!?). We love you, Lukey!!!!!!! May the next year be even better than the last.

If I Don't Post Now....

2011-05-26T21:04:00.008-08:00

If I don't post now (when I should be cleaning the downstairs bathroom... my brother's family is en route), it will be another 2 weeks and I'll have 10,000 more pictures to sift through.... SO, I'm going to try and cram in the next-to-last week of school, the last week of school and Kara's birthday. The last 2 weeks have been a doozie. There are so many end-of-the-year activities, I could scream!!! Mostly they were fun and we've had the most beautiful weather, so all in all, it was a good time.

Let's start with the next-to-last-week-of-school...

Clay had his animal report.. it was on the cheetah. A kindergartner doing an animal report translates out to mom doing the animal report.. except for the horrible handwriting. That was all Clay. He wanted a picture of a cheetah hunting. There are some good ones online. This was pretty much the only one that was appropriate for kindergartners...

Kara's end-of-the-year choir concert. She LOVES choir even though I'm skeptical about her natural singing abilities. Anyway, it was a fun year for her and made her more confident musically and for that, I'm grateful.

Mother's Day fell in there somewhere.. we had dinner at Sullivan's (a favorite of mine) with our friends the Hollingers. They're moving (BOO!!!) in about 10 days and we're trying to squeeze in as much time with them as possible.

Last week of school... CrAaaaaZZZZZZyyyy!!! Seriously. Field Day... outside in AK.. it was pretty chilly that day but the kids had a ball. I was glad that both kids had field day at the same time so that I could multi-task and kill two birds with one field day, as it was.

Field day was followed by an author's tea in Kara's class that night. Kara spent a great deal of time writing books this year. She discovered a love for reading and she read A TON! I love seeing her challenge herself with new books. She loves certain mysteries and she loves Clementine series. The author's tea was my favorite of the week because of how excited Kara was. Clayton was able to make the tea on his way to the airport and to Seattle for a few days.

Baby chicks that had just hatched in her classroom. Poor little friends.. pecking their way out of the eggs to be received by a room full of second graders!! AAAArrrrggghhH!!!

The next day was a kindergarten field trip to the Eagle River Nature Center... Not my favorite place this time of year as it is normally pretty muddy (all the melting snow) which leads to many small birds some people call mosquitoes. They're kamikazee freaky bugs and I hate them! And they're gigantic. However, this year it was warm, dry and bug-free (if you don't count 50 kindergartners).

Clay's very awesome kindergarten teacher.. she was such a blessing and an answered prayer for sure. Clay had a GREAT year and he ended up loving school thanks in no small part to Mrs. Hardy.

The whole group... what a back drop!?!?

Ooops.. Somewhere in there was the kindergarten performance.. sort of a little end-of-the-year celebration.. but not a graduation, thankfully! Those kind of drive me nuts :) Clay's in the top row, middle.

The last day of Kindergarten and 2nd grade at Alpenglow Elementary. Where did the year go?!? My grandmother is one of the wisest people I know. A long time ago, I must have just graduated college, I was commenting on how fast the 4 years had gone. She kind of laughed at me and said "You ain't seen nothing yet". She's right. The years FLY by. So very proud of Kara and Clay and all they accomplished this last year.

Upon reflection... I will give Kara's birthday its own post.. but I will post a teaser.. Kara wanted one thing for her birthday this year. That was for Karen to come from Denver. We told her it wasn't going to work out for Karen to come but that she would have 3 surprises for her birthday.. the first one was a redecorated room. She came home from the last day of school (oh yeah, that's what I worked on in my free time the last week of school... while Clayton was in Seattle) to her new room. She was STOKED! These aren't good pictures, I'll post more later but I like her surprised face :)

Aloha!!

2011-05-10T12:47:00.012-08:00

Hello, my name is April and I'm a defunct blogger.....

I don't know where my blogging mojo has gone!! I have, however, had five people in the last week request a post and so here I am, posting ;) You're welcome.

When we last left you, Clayton was in Japan. He was there for about 5 weeks and yes, he was there for the big earthquake and pursuant tsunami. But, no (thankfully), he did not feel the earthquake nor did he have any fallout from the tsunami. He was in Okinawa which is VERY far from where the action occurred. I was glad to have him come home not very long after the event. The kids and I had a pretty uneventful TDY for which I am ever grateful.

Since then, we've said good-bye (I sincerely hope!!) to the snow and ice. Hello and goodbye to break-up (Alaska's WORST time of year)... And hopefully, as I type, hello to a beautiful spring and summer.

To reward ourselves for persevering through another long winter and a deployment to boot, we booked a trip to Hawaii (Alaskans favorite vacation spot, for sure.. costs less to fly to Oahu than it does to get to AZ, by several hundred dollars per person at times). This was to be our first family vacation in a very long time. When Clayton was in Japan, my parents were going to come to AK but we soon figured out that they could meet us in Hawaii for less than half of their trip to AK.. PLUS, Hawaii is much more scenic than AK at this time of year.

SO, since my last post, we've done all manner of things not the least of which was a week to Hawaii...

This is how the AK Johnsons rolled in Hawaii... our rental house had bikes and we made good use of them.. Kara commanded an adult sized, 500# beach cruiser. Turns out, our mountain bikes are like Porsches compared to beach cruises. Also, another friendly tip, don't ride beach bikes if you haven't made good use of the beach showers before riding a couple miles back home. Just sayin'.

Our very awesome rental house in Haleiwa... we decided to skip the hotel scene this trip in favor for more space, more control over our food and quiet :) We were about 1/2 block from Shark's Cove and we basically backed up to Sunset Beach. It was really fabulous.

Clay practicing with his binoculars. He wore them around his neck pretty much anytime we left the house in the car...

Chances are he was checking out on of these guys.....

One of the benefits of being in Haleiwa?? World-famous shave ice. We didn't love it from Matsumoto's this time so we had to keep trying out new places....

So we did another touristy thing and went to a luau at Kara's desperate request. We were far too lazy to go back to Honolulu so we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center's luau. No mai tais but it was still an excellent show even if the premise of the "show" was beyond lame.

I think this is Clay and I riding around on an ocean tricycle. Clayton was surfing way far down on the beach and Clay BEGGED me to rent one. They're a lot more work than you'd think..

Buzz and Billie at Pearl Harbor. They left us at the beach and enjoyed a touristy day with the rest of the old fogeys :)

We spent Easter in Hawaii... We ended up going to a really cool church in a school about 1/2 mile from our house (random) and then the kids hunted money-stuffed eggs in the back yard. They're really feeling the money eggs versus the candy eggs. DUH!

This is how we spent most of our days. Camped out at a beach. We tried out a few.. the waves were still pretty gnarly which made for lots of fun for Clayton, not so much for the kids being in the water. They played for HOURS in the sand, however, and we quite content.

Random back yard grill picture.. also in the back yard, many gecko lizards (who warred, ask Clay about that.. a highlight for him), patio set, 5 bikes, boogie boards and a hammock.

We drove to Ko Olina on Easter night for dinner at the original Roy's restaurant. Clayton, my dad and my dad's GPS were the navigators. I think I should have just used an old fashioned map to get there.. we would have been faster. However, Roy's is reliable for mai tais and such so I got over it quickly :)

Kara being sun aware. One of about 6 people total on the beach (our entire crew) who cared about sun protection.....

Sunset surfing. Someone random. Clayton stuck to the boogie board... he also found out how territorial locals are with the waves. He saw two guys almost come to blows over a wave in the water.. and they were both locals. So he surfed one day at Waikiki and then boogie boarded on the North Shore for the sake of his personal safety..!

I know this won't shock anyone who knows Clayton but he's not really into excursions whilst on vacation. He doesn't really like to spend a lot of money on services (or sights). However, this trip, he took both the kids gliding. They both loved it but Clay loved it more. Which was a surprise to this mom-of-a-daredevil-daughter.

Eating grapes on the front porch with the grandparents... this is what my kids did pretty much every night. Someday they'll grow grape vines in Haleiwa because of my kids!! Most mornings my kids walked to Starbucks with the grandparents. This was good for me because I woke up to my venti iced green tea with 5 (yes, 5) splenda. Good Morning!

One last trip to the ocean before we caught our respective night flights back to the mainland (I assume Alaska counts as the mainland.. it is connected to the MAIN LAND.. would some retailers please take this fact into consideration when shipping to me????)

** Author's note.. I remember why I haven't been posting. I hate blogger. And I hate uploading 10,000,000 pictures one at a time.

Spring Break 2011: Joint-Ops

2011-03-13T20:56:00.006-08:00

Well, spring break 2011 has come and gone. It was a great week, albeit a long one at times.. with Clayton still being gone, it was a lot of uninterrupted togetherness for the kids and I which was fun at times; trying at others. Our big adventure was a trip to Girdwood. Why is that a big adventure, you ask? You're probably thinking that we do that all the time.. well, sort of. But not like SPRING BREAK 2011!! No siree, Bob, not like this. We trekked down with our friends the Feuchts (and the Sutterfields for the first night) to a rented house near the slopes (the ad said it was within walking distance to ski lifts... not so much. It was like 3 blocks, uphill, on ice roads.. with ski boots, carrying skis and kids??? Forget that, we drove our butts and parked RIGHT IN FRONT OF CHAIR 3! Yes we did). Jenny found this house and managed to get the lady to give it to us for $100 less than her advertised price per night. With such a great deal, who can resist 3 nights in Girdwood? That's right, me neither! We sold it to the husbands (who are both out of the country) by telling them how much $$ we'd save by eating in. Well (sounding very defensive), we did TOO eat all 3 dinners at the house. Say again? Oh, sure, we ate at the Sitzmark for lunch.. but it was LUNCH! We can't ski hard core all day and skip lunch now, can we?

Anyway, the skiing was amazing. It hasn't snowed in a LONG time and with all the sunshine, the snow is kind of melting.. so I thought the skiing would be horrible but it was AWESOME! It wasn't very icy and there were no crowds. In fact, I skied my first black diamond with Jen while the kids were in ski school (where they learned to do parallel turns, a monumental achievement, let me tell you what). Over apres-ski drinks, Jen and I decided that we'd rather ski with each other as opposed to our snowboarding husbands because we challenge each other to ski better while not being made to feel like gutless wonders on the slopes (you can't trust a fighter pilot to be honest about the speed nor the steepness of a ski run). What a refreshing change from the norm! (I love you, Clayton.. I just don't enjoy being critiqued by you while skiing)

Speaking of apres-ski, after our 2nd FULL day of skiing, Jen and I decided to call it quits at 5:00 and grab a table at the Sitzmark, a pub-restaurant that overlooks the green lifts/run. We turned the girls loose on Chair 3 and we had a little refreshment whilst watching the sunset turn the mountains from white to pink to purple to gray. The girls skied in the little terrain park until they turned the lifts off at 5:30 (so HARD CORE!!!) and they joined us for hot chocolates and enormous pretzels (super tasty) - hey, kids need apres-ski, too!! Anyway, Kara takes this huge bite of her pretzel and knocks this semi-loose tooth all the way to hanging-by-a-thread status. She kind of surprised herself because, normally, the loose-tooth thing is a long, drawn out event.. each stage of looseness is LONG and dramatic, culminated by Kara just yanking the thing out of her mouth (why she doesn't do that days before remains a mystery). Anyway, this thing is hanging by a thread. And Ariel says "I have one that looks like that, too". And, what do you know? She sure as heck does! The same darn tooth, hanging out of her little old mouth by a thread. Jen looks at me and says "That tooth has been like that for weeks. She won't pull it out". Meanwhile, the two boys (Clay is 5 and Hunter is 10) start in on the girls "Pull your teeth out!" "Pull it out!!" "You won't pull it out, you're too scared" and so on.. So, Kara has her epiphany and tells Hunter "Get me a napkin and I'll pull it out". Well, Hunter is totally into this and he runs and gets 2 napkins: 1 for Kara and 1 for Ariel. Kara gets right to work. She puts the paper towel on the tooth and plucks it right out of her head. Well, poor Ariel realizes she's on the spot. Kara's bleeding, holding her tooth and the boys are oooo-ing and ahhh-ing over the blood. So there's Ariel, holding the the stupid napkin in her mouth looking pretty miserable. About 30 seconds later, in a very exhausted voice, she says "I got it!".. and she, too, is the proud owner of a tooth and a bloody napkin. Meanwhile, the little commotion at our table has garnered the attention of other tables nearby.. we had the older dad (60s) and his grown son who had clearly been apres-skiing for a long time (!!) hooting and hollering, laughing it up, VERY red-faced (and nosed); the table of barely-21 year old girls offered their congratulations; and then, our sweet waitress brings each girl $1 for their victorious pulls. It was really a riotous end to a very fun couple of days skiing. Add to it a fun winter hike, a few decent after-hours Super Mario Bros sessions and some tasty bacon for breakfast and it was a really fun time. Again, we're reminded of what a blessing our Alaska friends are.

We wrapped up the week seeing the new Narnia Movie: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D. Kara had a sleepover; Clay went to the water park and the zoo.. I cleaned my house and considered chipping the ice off the driveway (I decided against it, I wanted to leave something for Clayton to do when he comes home, I'm really thoughtful like that). We even went to Palmer and hung out with Mandie for a day and painted. It was a great week off school for the kids, but I'm not going to lie, I'm ready for them to go back :)

The kids and I at the tram, getting ready to rock-n-roll.

Our whole group on day 2.

Kara and Ariel upon hearing they were going to ski school (Kara was OK with it, she thought they might learn to do tricks (big disappointment), Ariel was not very excited)... they did awesome though!

This is Alaska Clay... my nephew Logan was Alaska Logey (the good) this summer.. Clay was Alaska Clay (the evil) for most of this trip. I don't know what his deal was.

Stunning view from the almost-top.

Apres-ski, the aftermath.

Jenny and April.

The girls, minus 2 teeth, plus two $1 from our awesome waitress!!

What kind of mothers would we be if we didn't get a picture of the bloody napkins? I LOVE their faces in this picture.. it is so accurate of the individual extraction experiences :)

Lest anyone think I've lost my touch, I wanted to be clear that I still resort to the ultimate humiliation: playtime and mcnuggets at McD's. It was a long, desperate afternoon that day.. I had no choice!!!!!!

Goings On........

2011-02-26T15:10:00.002-09:00

Hello from a warmish Alaska (30s)... we're getting all kinds of sun these days, in fact, our days are pretty regular.. however, we're gaining so much sunlight, it won't be long until we're down to 3 hour darkness at nights (my least favorite). BUT, when the nights get short, that means our visitors are coming soon and that is our FAVORITE part about Alaska summers :)

We're trudging along on our Daddy-less days. As the kids get older, the TDYs get a little harder (for them, they're all the same for me). Fortunately, the skype works pretty well where Clayton is at so, despite an 18 hour time difference, we get to "see" Clayton almost every day. That definitely makes it easier. I think he's doing pretty well where he's at. And so are we. We're staying busy despite 4 day school weeks and spring break coming up in a week. We have some plans in the works to make the time go faster and I think it will be a fun week in the end.

The kids have been snowshoeing at school these last few weeks. Yesterday, I went snowshoeing with both classes. I don't know which class did better.. the kindergartners complained a lot more but had fewer problems keeping the snowshoes on. The 2nd graders went farther but it seemed like they couldn't keep their shoes attached to their feet.. Anyway, it was fun and both the kids were glad to have me along. I for sure like watching Clay with his classmates.. especially this one little girl who drives him nuts. She is the CUTEST thing and it makes him crazy when I ask about her..

I have been skiing with my friends, dog-sitting Trooper for the last week and keeping the kids and cats alive. At the end of the day, we all go to bed fed and I feel like that is a successful day! I'll attach some pics of what we've been doing (I know, you've been waiting with bated breath.. well, wait no more). Book a trip to AK!!!!!!

Beautiful downtown Anchorage at sunset.... I was on a sunset ski with Miss Kim Jones one night last week. It was lovely.

We call these excursions "ski and sip". It was really fun.. we were commiserating with both husbands out of town.

Kara and I went to a mother-daughter tea for her American Heritage Girl's scouting group. Kamdon and I sponsored a table and I dug out all my violet dishes for the occasion. It was a shabby chic kind of theme.

What could be worse than TDY Daddy? For Clay, it's when his buddy Ryan is also gone for a week to Hawaii. Ryan brought Clay snorkeling gear. It was a huge hit on land... we'll see how it does in the water when we go to hawaii ourselves in April.

Kara's class on their snowshoeing expedition around the elementary school..

Later the same day, snowshoeing with the kindergartners around the school... that's Clay looking at the camera.

Pre-TDY Ski Weekend

2011-02-09T16:50:00.004-09:00

We ventured south to Girdwood last weekend for one last hurrah before Clayton heads overseas for about a month. They had had a ton of new snow so we had a blast skiing at the top of the mountain over and over and over. We headed down Friday after school and the kids immediately hit the pool.. we wore them out in hopes of a good night's sleep. I don't know why we think that particular tactic will ever work because it never does. I would know... I've been trying it for 7 years!!

Anyway, we had a great time skiing with each other and with the McNeils. Here are the iphone photos to prove it.

Swimming on a Friday afternoon is a real treat.. Not being sarcastic. The pool was relatively empty minus a few Girdwood locals. That made for mommy entertainment while the kids swam.

Kara the shark.

First run of the day.. this is about half-way up the mountain, at the tram. On a clear day like this one, you can see the inlet and the mountains across the water. It really is spectacular. Unfortunately, this big view doesn't come out all that often.

Clay and I waiting for our hot chocolate and nachos. Clayton doesn't really believe in taking a lunch break when we ski. He likes to feed us big breakfasts and then avoid taking any substantial breaks during the course of the day. He doesn't like to A) spend the money or B) take the hour out of the ski day. I now if you know Clayton, this is not shocking news to you.. the only way we get a nice lunch break is if it's -20 or there are a bunch of our friends present!

Me and Kara. Snow gear is not flattering. At. All.

Partial family.

Clay and Bauer, the Feucht's golden doodle. This is the most gentle dog ever. It was funny how he let Clay lay on him while we were watching the Super Bowl.

So this is how we spent our last weekend before the now standard winter TDY. I always dread these stupid things to the point where I just want it to get here so I can get it under way. If you want to pray for us while Clayton's gone, that's great. Pray for him, too, that he can get a lot of good flying while he's away and for everyone to stay safe.

If you feel so moved as to come visit us in Alaska while he's gone, I'll show you a very good time!!!!!

Our Life as Viewed Through the iPhone Camera

2011-02-02T21:45:00.006-09:00

February 2nd (practically 3rd!). *sigh* I am neither a good, nor faithful blogger.

I was syncing my iphone tonight and I found a BUNCH of pictures that my kids have been taking. Not surprisingly, it is a good overview of what we've been doing up here lately. Things are good. I think we're a little short on snow this winter but we have faith that things will pick up one day soon :)

So, I take you on a tour of the last few weeks as viewed by (mostly) Kara through the lens of my phone.

Ah, Snacko.. our super good kitty. He's getting old but he's still sweet. He LOVES it when Clayton's gone because he sleeps under the covers of our bed, on Clayton's side. Keep your judgments to yourself ;)

Clay and Ryan.. at 1:00 on a Saturday afternoon.. in full PJ regalia. These two are also known as "tweedle dee and tweedle dum" by both sets of their parents. They sure enjoy playing together (and arguing from time to time).

Later that same day hiking out on the other side of Eagle River, Southfork is what they call it. It was BEAUTIFUL!! And cold.. It's about a 5 mile roundtrip and the kids all did great (as usual). **And by cold, I don't mean the 20s.. I mean below zero.

Ah sushi.. with Mike and Christy (our neighbors).. on a Wednesday night when no one wanted to cook dinner at home. Shine Sushi in Eagle River, Alaska. Try the yaki udon noodles with beef. YUM!

Kara playing with my phone at sushi... there is a series of about 15 pictures that look just like this one. I think with the lips, she might be channeling her inner model..

Yes, friends.. that says -22.. 22 degrees BELOW zero. We were driving to Alyeska where it was -7 when we skied. That is cold folks. Cold. No amount of hot chocolate will warm you up when it's that cold outside.

I think Clay took this picture.. Kara collapsed outside of our room, still in her full ski gear. Poor kid, that was a miserable day skiing on ice and in the arctic air.

Guess who!? If you said tweedle dee and tweedle dum, you are right!!!!

Kara channeling her Uncle Mark with all the self-portraits... again, there are about 10 in this series. She is going to kill me someday when she reads this blog. I think it's sweet.. she wont' always do this.

Kara and our jackalope cat, Satan.. I mean Jojo. He's like 20#, no lie. He's a beast and he's incredibly anti-social. He has completely forgotten that we saved his butt when we "adopted" him into the fold last fall.. dumb cat. He really only likes Kara.

Uncle Troy at Moose's Tooth after 3 days of pretending to be 18 with Mark and Clayton. The uncle's visit was ENTIRELY too short but the kids LOVED skiing with them. Kara caught her first serious "air" jumping on her skis with her Uncle Troy. Very fun times.

Ah, Saturday was a very rough day for me.. for more than one reason. My friend (and neighbor) Christy chilled a bottle of champers for after the PTA taco feed on Saturday night. (enter in the old song, "That's What Friends Are For".. So fun and very sweet.

On our way home from church on Sunday, the kids and I were finally able to see the lady in Eagle River who feeds eagles. Apparently you can't feed eagles without a permit (you also cannot posses eagle feathers.. they belong to the AK Natives.. weird) and this lady has one. So she pulls her car up and starts pitching out chunks of salmon. The eagles are HUGE and they swoop down and grab the fish, fly it back to the trees and chow down. It is AMAZING to see. Eagles are huge and powerful and very magnificent when they fly. I LOVED seeing this.

Tuesday is choir day at school.. Kara finally got her choir t-shirt so she wanted me to take a picture of her dressed up in the shirt. I like her little jeans and belt.. also it cracked me up that she made a knot with the t-shirt using a rubber band for her hair. Where does she learn this stuff?!

That about sums it up.. we're good up here. Thinking about possible trips out of Alaska, either before or after Clayton's TDY. I am not looking forward to the 5-6 week deployment.. the winter ones are a lot worse than the ones in other seasons. However, the kids ski well enough that I'm comfortable taking them skiing by myself this year. Small victories!!

Happy 2011!!!!

2011-01-13T18:30:00.004-09:00

2011??? For someone born in the early '70s, that feels like "old"... but who has time to be old with such a fabulous life?? Not me!! We rang in 2011 with friends out to eat and at our neighbors'. It was a fun night, in bed before midnight (but not asleep because there are a lot of hillbillies around here who shot off fireworks well into January 1). Goals for 2011?? Nah, I don't really do the resolution thing because I don't enjoy failure :)

What have the Johnsons been up to so far in this new year?? Clayton has been working.. a lot.. sitting alert.. some snow boarding (but not enough).. some snowshoeing.. working.. alert... Kara is loving the heck out of 2nd grade. Sometime during the Christmas break the girl decided she loved reading. YAY!!!!!! I was a voracious reader when I was little so I couldn't figure out why this kid didn't like to read. Well, God was gracious or she just grew into it, but she loves it now. She must have read 5-6 chapter books over the break.. most of them AFTER she was put to bed. I didn't care until after school started back up. Now we have to regulate but not too much :) Clay is Clay. If you know him, you know what I mean. He's a great little skier when we go, he is also a gamer in the making. Not something I prayed for in my son.. he turns into a zombie when he's playing his DS or our Wii.. you can imagine how that goes over with his dad. Right. SO, we work on his sight words and trust that he, too, will one day choose to color a picture, sew a bag or read a book instead of the video games. OR NOT! Anyway, he's his same old nutty self and we wouldn't have it another way for now. I am LOVING my life. I was at a birthday lunch for my friend Jen(ny) last week and I was running to the car to feed the meter. And it was cold (shocker). Anyhow, when I was wogging (jogging/running) back to the restaurant (and the yummiest hamburger EVER.. Sack's in Anchroage), I thought of that crazy '80s song that goes something like "This is not my beautiful house.. This is not my beautiful wife".. and I thought "This is not my awesome life". Awesome friends, beautiful family, cool(ish) husband, STUNNING city to live in, snow to ski on. God has been so gracious. Who knows what 2011 will bring but we trust that God's hand will be on our family and we are excited to see how it goes!!!!

Clay and Clayton making queso.. our blog may be a little short on pictures these days due to one of our Christmas gifts.. you might see the iphone box on the counter.. Clayton got us BOTH iphones!! And we have been taking pictures with them instead of our camera. I would like to figure out how to upload the pics from the phone to the blog.. but haven't just yet....

I had to throw in a picture of Trooper. If you follow this blog at all, you might recognize him. He's my friend Jen(ny)'s dog. When they go on trips out of AK, he sometimes stays with us. We VERY much enjoy having him... He was with us for 2 weeks during Christmas.

IDK what is going on in this picture but it is funny. We're having pancakes, bacon and a movie tonight while Daddy protects us from the Russians.

Kara proving that she can in fact carry Clay. Even if it is only for 2 feet.. :)

Well, we're currently booking trips for the summer...if you've booked one, let me know so I can put it on our calendar!! Our first visitors of 2011 will be here in one week. MY BROTHER (Mark) AND MY BROTHER-IN-LAW (Troy)!! WHAT!?!?!? They're coming as a birthday trip for Troy to ski. Clayton and Melissa schemed and this is the result. My kids are very excited to see their uncles. It's going to be a quick trip and we'll only see them for a day or so before they head to Alyeska with Fokker. We'll miss the cousins this go-round but I know the guys will have a good time.

Oh, speaking of iphones.. Clayton and I both have new phone numbers. And if you have a 907 number on your caller ID that says Hellion Tactical, that'd be one of us ;) And if you don't know what Hellion Tactical is already, you probably don't want to know.

Christmastime

2010-12-24T13:59:00.005-09:00

Well, here I am.. end of December, wrapping up our third Christmas in Alaska. We had a white Christmas, no big surprise :) It was a COLD, white Christmas (like -15). We did lots of fun things in the days leading up to Christmas and after.. I'll just give you a pictorial with commentary.

Kara making her stage debut as "Elf #4" in the 2nd grade Christmas play. For some unknown reason, she took her script to the microphone for all her lines.. even though she had them memorized. Another one of life's mysteries..

A few days before Christmas, we headed to Girdwood, Alaska, for two fun-filled days of skiing. We stayed the night at the resort which is always a hit with the kids because they can ski and swim in the same day. They are really amazing to me, how they pick right back up on the skis every season. Kara is our daredevil (Clayton's child) while Clay is our creature of habit (my child). It definitely took Clay longer to get his mojo back trying new runs but they did great. I so wish I had learned to ski before age 36.

The view from our room at Alyeska.

Heading out for day 2 of skiing.. it was only about 2-3 F that day.. warm if you can stay moving, freezing cold if you don't.

The boy loves his momma.. What can I say?

Christmas morning.. seeing the lego ship unwrapped under the tree... we are in Lego purgatory around here. Ever stepped on one barefooted? It hurts.

Kara unwrapping her sewing machine from her Grandma and Grammie. It's NOT a kid's sewing machine, for the record.

Our winter visitor, Trooper, with his chew stocking.

Traditional Christmas morning breakfast on the Christmas dishes.. egg casserole and monkey bread. Yummy, if I may say so.

Post-Christmas hike up Mt Baldy. This is a pretty mild hike in the summer but it is downright treacherous in the snow. Clayton and I have snow-shoes but the kids don't, yet.. I think we'll be getting them. It took us over an hour to get just below the summit.. it was too steep to take the kids up all the way. But it was a BEAUTIFUL day and view from the top that we made that day.

We call this move the "butt sled". This is how they got down. Sledding on the butt. I am so proud that Clay knows the difference in spelling butt and but. He's more than happy to share that with anyone who cares to know. Clayton also taught them how to do a farmer's nose blow or something equally nasty. Awesome.

Well, I hope this post finds you at the end of a great 2010. It has been a great year for us. We had so many visitors this summer and fall/winter. We love showing Alaska off to you.. We also got to Arizona a couple times and those vacations are always too short. We are so blessed.. It was a hard year at Elmendorf with a couple of airplane crashes, one in Clayton's attached squadron. It makes us all the more grateful for safe flights of fast gray airplanes, something we do not take for granted for us nor for our friends flying out of other bases. We are grateful for our families and for our friends. We are grateful for God's continued blessing of safety and health for the Alaska Johnsons. Book a trip out on 2011!!! We'd love to have you :)

Christmas Madness

2010-12-16T09:35:00.004-09:00

Mid-December... must be time for a blog update. We have been running up here in Alaska. I didn't know there would be so many Christmas (or "holiday", if you're trying to be PC.. which I'm not. Ever.) activities for Kara and Clay at school!! And, ever observant mother that I am, I have been surprised several times at the last minute with concerts and plays. It will all be over today as the kids are at their last day of school before Christmas break. Whew!!!!

We started out the month with Clayton's birthday. It was a mid-level celebration for us. Neither Clayton nor myself are super big "birthday" people so sometimes we don't really celebrate like we could or should. This year, I made dinner and some of our neighbors came for dinner and cake. The kids and I gave Clayton a "sick" new snowboard (at least that's what the kid at REI assured me). He kept it instead of returning or exchanging it so that is a victory in my book. The thing is, the last new snowboard he had was one I gave him the year before we were married.. that would be 1996. So 14 years ago. He was due. I think he was really surprised and he rode it last weekend at Alyeska and Hillberg. Good times.

In addition to regular downhill skiing, I've been cross-country skiing. Clayton gave me skis last year for Christmas and I was sort of irritated because I felt like he was implying that I wasn't exercising enough. Well, I found a bunch of friends who skied or at least were willing to try and I was hooked. I've been probably 10-12 times already this season and I'm loving it!! If you come visit us in the winter, I will take you out. SO. MUCH. FUN.

So I'm going to post some pictures of the concerts... But I must tell you about Clay's not-so-good day last week. He has been telling us lately that he hates his name because kids have been making fun of him at school. Apparently, it all started with the dreidel song "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of "CLAY"". Yes, that is his thorn in the flesh right now. We have tried to talk him off the ledge and were met with some moderate success.. UNTIL the kindergarten "Holiday" concert... the kindergartners were singing their dreidel song and when it came to the "clay" part, they all turned around and looked at Clay. If you know him, you know that Clay doesn't deal real well with public humiliation. He did not melt down or start whacking at anyone but he did give me the death glare through the rest of the song. His teacher was mortified. It was actually pretty funny but we can't laugh about it with him yet... And that was also the day that he carried on a fine family tradition of drug trouble. Yes, he was caught with a cough drop at school. Fortunately, he wasn't intentionally smuggling it or trying to sell it, but he did have to go to the nurse's office (because what if someone stole the cough drop and died from the deadly poison it contains!?!??!) where the nurse called me and flogged me over the phone. I have now promised to take all medicines into the nurse myself and not put them in my kids' pockets for prn dosing. Oops.

I'll now leave you with pictures from the above said adventures/activities..

Clayton and his white cake with white frosting birthday cake. I will not be accused of being a cake-lady, in case you're wondering...

Random pic of my xc skis.. do you love the light at 9:30 in the morning??

Kara and her choir on their "tour" of Eagle River.. First stop: Walmart. Awesome.

My stupid camera kept focusing on other kids but there's Kara in the pinky-purple hat.

Clay at his Christmas concert.. before he got all postal about the making-fun...

Clay and his snowman outside his classroom. You can tell the sparkle has left his eyes :(

Kara at her nighttime choir concert.... We learned that if you don't show up to these gigs at least 30 minutes early, you WILL stand in the back.

I will post in the next few days something of a Christmas letter.. I think.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T09:40:00.008-09:00

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Thanksgiving 2010 has come and gone. This year (I know, this is a central theme for me lately) has been flying by. The last couple weeks have been very difficult but it made it easier to count the blessings this year, for sure. I was so thankful to have Clayton's mom, Anne, in town to help keep me organized and on-task this Thanksgiving. We went to the Sutterfield's for the meal and, I have to say, our eats were fantastic. We had way too much food and it was fun to be pretty low-key. It was also our first snowy day after a week of rain and way too much ice. In fact, there was so much ice that the kids' school was cancelled Tues. and Wed. of last week. It was fun having them around and we managed to not let the ice keep us down.

The turkey... before the carve. Clayton accused me of drying it out in the manner of Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation. It pleases me to say he was wrong.

Desserts.. yum.

A snowy attempt at pictures in the snow... will have to try again later.

Random picture of my blooming Christmas Cactus.

When we aren't actually celebrating Thanksgiving, here are some of the things that we're thankful for during the week at our house....

A little Lego Star Wars action on the Wii...

Destroying Clay's (yes, he was MAD) turkey project and wearing the "feathers" on their faces..I just know in about 6 years, they won't find face spots funny any more :(

Dancing with the Wii late on a Saturday night.

3 weeks of swimming lessons culminating in a solo slide down the "big slide" at Fort Rich.

Victory!

Last night we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting in downtown Anchorage.. before hand, we did a little shopping at REI.. Clay was modeling the absolute latest in warm-face wear. Or bank-robbing wear. Either one will work.

Kara tried on about 15 hats. She loves herself some hats.. winter or summer. Since Clayton was along on the shopping trip, she left empty handed, naturally.

This picture was taken at 4:00 on Friday, on our way to shop and tree light. We're getting to the worst of the darkness here.. in a couple weeks, it will be dark as night by 4:00. But, nevertheless, we start with the longer days on December 22.

On our way to Town Square, we passed the reindeer being off loaded from their trailer.. it was sort of anti-climactic for the kids... they still don't know what to do with the whole Santa thing. I think they are unbelievers but sort of afraid not to go along with it which is hilarious to me. Anyway, these poor reindeer definitely did not sign up for last night's job...

The unlit tree.

Santa pulled up in his sleigh right in front of us. Kara was in the front row and when they asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said "a computer". Santa said she should ask for a puppy instead (like every other kid they polled).. I don't know what it is with a computer. She's not getting one, BTW.

This picture was taken at 5:30. It was 20 degrees (which actually is considered warmish) but I did not insist on warm foot-wear for Kara or myself so we suffered.. but we had fashionable boots on so we at least looked good on the feet while we were in pain ;)

We are so thankful this year. Thank you to everyone who checked in with us after the crash last week. I think that the pilots and their families in the 525 are limping along. Our hearts are so very heavy for the Haneys. No one expects their husband not to come home from work. Continued prayers for the Haneys will not go unanswered, that I believe. There is a Jeff Haney memorial page on facebook that has some information on donating to the girls' education funds if you want to participate in helping in a tangible way. And for those of you who pray for safe flights, pray on.

2010-11-21T07:40:00.004-09:00

US Air Force Hymn

Lord, guard and guide all those who fly

Through the great spaces of the sky;

Be with them traversing the air
In darkening storms or sunshine fair

Thou who dost keep with tender might
The balanced birds in all their flight
Thou of the tempered winds be near
That, having you, they know no fear

Control their minds with instinct fit
What time, adventuring, they quit
The firm security of land;
Grant steadfast eye and skilful hand

Aloft in solitudes of space,
Uphold them with Thy saving grace.
O God, protect all those who fly
Thru lonely ways beneath the sky.

Happy Veteran's Day

2010-11-11T16:43:00.002-09:00

Thankful for a husband that serves. Thankful for dad/father-in-law's service. Thankful for the sacrifices of my WWII serving grandfathers. Godspeed to our friends and family who are currently overseas.. may you stay safe and come home quickly.

In Other News....

2010-11-01T17:34:00.005-08:00

November??!! I can remember when I was in high school complaining about how time seemed to go so slowly. My Grandmother told me that once I got older, time would seem to speed by me. I didn't believe her but she turned out to be correct, AGAIN! It's amazing to me that we're coming up to Thanksgiving. We have some snow on the ground but not enough to work with.. it'll come, I'm sure :) We're very excited about dragging out the skis... so, we say, "Let It Snow"!!!

Here are some recent highlights and goings on around our house...

Kara at her American Heritage Girl joining ceremony. She was so proud to walk behind the flag, for some reason :) Patriotism runs deep around here, that's for sure and we are happy our kids value our country.

Lighting the candles and getting their patches.

While the Claytons were in AZ, Kara had spirit week at school.. one day was crazy hair day. Kara knew exactly how she wanted her hair to be.. little pony-tails all over and a big flower on top. I believe it qualified as crazy.. unless you're shopping in a Walmart in Texas on any given day.. then it's status quo.

As the weather turns, kids go out less often.. and they turn to fort building. This picture doesn't do the fort any justice.. in fact, it just makes my living room look messier than usual. Suffice it to say, this was their masterpiece fort to date..

Halloween is not really celebrated at our house, per se, but far be it from Clayton to deny his chance at free candy from the kids!! Kara was dead set on being a barrista this year. I have no clue where she came up with the idea but we made it work. I ordered a kids' apron from some guy in Taiwan on eBay for $17. Worth every penny. She got a latte painted on her face at Peace Lutheran's Harvest Fest on Friday night.

Ooops... an out-of-order photo... Kara lost both her front teeth in a week. She very much enjoys talking funny and she is VERY much enjoying double-duty tooth fairy money.

Back to Halloween.. we went to our neighbors' house for dinner.. my friend Kim was telling me about a spooky tree cake she made so I gave it a whirl with some help from Clayton (he made the tree!!!). It looked awesome, if I may say, which I may since it's my blog.. but it tasted HORRIBLE! I don't know what happened. Good thing there was lots of candy.

Boba Fett and Boba Fett.

All the kiddies before heading out to beg for candy...

So, all in all, we're doing great and waiting patiently for full-on winter. Come visit and bring a coat, hat and gloves.. you'll need it when we drag you out for some winter-time fun!

A True Story

2010-10-27T10:20:00.006-08:00

So, a few weeks ago, Kamdon and I were asked by a friend to help decorate for a VP cocktail party on base. Turns out, the VP was Jay Leno. The AF Reserves were opening a new recruiting center and Jay Leno was coming up to "open" it. After the opening, he was giving a free show on base for any military ID card holder. SO, there was going to be this cocktail party after the opening before the comedy show that our friend was tasked with throwing. There was going to be some serious AF and Army brass as well as high profile community leaders. The more we found out about it (after we agreed), the bigger deal it seemed to be. Karla and her husband pointed us in the general direction they wanted to go and we ran with it. I'm not going to lie: it was a lot of work. I cut out a lot of aircraft out of balsa wood.. a lot. Kamdon painted a picture of a P-something airplane one day.. we special ordered napkins and coasters.. we were harassed by a very insecure lady from air force protocol (this is the manners department.. they make sure the right behinds are kissed properly, etc... not to take away from their very important job, but really, we're 2 SAHM moms decorating a room for a party as a favor for a friend.. we don't want your job!!).. we created a lot of silly drama for our poor friend and her husband.. but I think the room looked fantastic at the end. IN FACT, my bible study leader was at the party (from the community side) and she told me that of all the parties she's been to in that room, ours looked the best by a long shot. OH, and we did meet Jay Leno. Poor guy looked like he had infant triplets at home that he'd been up with for the last 7 nights straight. He was, however, very funny and Clayton and I laughed HARD at his show. We had VIP passes and seats right in the front (obviously a bonus for helping out with the party... we would NEVER have made the invite list otherwise!). It was a fun end to a long week...

The room all finished... we brought in art from the 477FG... old Tuskeegee airmen images, lots of fighter pilot nic-knacks. It was really cool looking, if I say so myself :)

Centerpieces with balsa airplanes.. there were P-somethings, F16 and F22s, all airplanes flown by the 302FS.

P-40 (???) Super cool painting.. it's for sale.

Yes.. we are shameless.. actually, there was a line and they herded you through like passengers boarding a Southwest jet. As a side note, please notice my very cool shoes that my darling husband informed me were "hooker" shoes on the way (in the car) to the party. He sure knows how to make a girl feel good about herself :)

Proof positive that we returned the room to its original condition.

A Full Heart

2010-10-16T11:42:00.003-08:00

(a random moose-in-the-neighborhood photo from a week or two ago)

2010 is sure to go down as the super-slacker blogging year for me. I won't beleaguer you with reasons for such slackerness but I like to think that we're busy people, people :) Lots going on this time of year as school is in full-swing and various kid activities are going (and going..and going). Clayton has been in town more lately so that has been nice as long as there aren't too many alert shifts or 16 hour days (sigh). He has some traveling coming down the pipe this winter so we're enjoying his local presence while we can.

Little Clay and Kara are doing great in school. I chaperoned one of Clay's field trips last week to the Botanical Gardens. Um, it is pretty cold here (20s in the AM) and most of the plant life outdoors have been dead for WEEKS... so I'm not sure why they're still doing field trips to the botanical gardens but they are. Well, actually, Clay's group was the last one of the season.. Anyway, I realized that I am a very strict parent. Like in the category of, perhaps, nazi or the KGB. Some of those kids were HORRID (despite the fact that it was well below freezing and we were outside for 3.5 hours). I mean to tell you, I can't get over how rude kids are to adults. I'm pretty sure they'll lose my license to go on these trips after last week. I'll post some pics of all the kiddies in their winter gear.

Getting a story read to them in the sunrise.. at 10:00AM. Good-bye sunlight.

Learning about lady bugs (a garden visitor as opposed to garden pest).

Clay-Clay in his new winter coat. He wouldn't fasten the hood. His exact words "It's killing me to have the hood buckled".

Some sad news for us is that our friends NATO and Camille are leaving Alaska for sunnier (literally) pastures. Clayton has worked with NATO for the last 10 years. I have known Camille for about 6 of those years. There is a hole in the collective Johnson heart with their departure. It has, however, caused me to reflect on the great blessing of friendship in my life. God has been so faithful to provide GOOD friends for me in every season of life thus far. I have always been aware of that blessing but never more than here in Alaska. This place is so amazing and beautiful but it's FAR from home. There's no jumping in the car in the middle of the night, driving 24 hours and getting to Arizona.. There's no guarantee of a flight out if there is bad weather or a volcano (please, no more volcanoes). Most of the time, we pay no attention to that nonsense.. but sometimes, the reality sets in. I'm telling you, we have the most special group of friends up here. I thank God for them everyday. So when someone leaves, it is PAINFUL! Our friends are our family in Alaska and I treasure each and every one of them. If you've traveled up here, you've probably seen how integral they are in my/our life. I'll post some pictures of our recent antics with said friends. My heart is full tonight thinking of the blessing of friendships even as it is heavy with the Hegtvedt's departure. We'll miss you guys.. but it's not good-bye. It's see you later.

The Hellion and his angel going to the Hegtvedt farewell.. Camille requested "Hellion" attire. Needless to say, we obliged. (If I may comment.. there is a rich military history behind the whole hellion thing.. but it's another story for another day)

Kamdon, Jen and I. Fast Jet babes, right?

The original Hellions Angels.. almost the whole group. A finer group of ladies, you'll never meet.

One last dinner at Simon & Seafort's just before Camille left.. She and I have logged a fair amount of time in the S & S saloon.... often times splitting the halibut like we did that night.

(Bad mom moment... realized I didn't have any photos of Kara.. here she is trying on Daddy's mullet wig after we got home from the going away party.. I hope the biker look always remains a costume for Kara :))

Our Life in Pictures

2010-09-27T16:28:00.004-08:00

Hello from an officially fall/winterish Alaska. Yes, folks, our winter is en route. It snowed yesterday (Sunday, September 26). I was teaching in the 4/5 year old class at church and one of the dads ran in and was shouting (no exaggeration) to his kid that it was snowing. All the kids and I ran to the one window in the room and sure enough, we saw the flurries. It built up to the point that it was a mini-blizzard by noon. Fortunately, the ground is still warm so there was no stickage.

In other news, my friend Greta was in town for 5 days last week. We hadn't seen each other since we moved to AK so we had a lot of ground to cover. The thing about those kinds of friendships, though, is that even if it had been 10 years since we'd been together, we pick up right where we left off. We had so much fun. Pictures below :)

Here are some pics of Kara's class field trip to Campbell Creek. The 2nd graders in all of Anchorage do a year-long project where they harvest salmon eggs, nurture them in the classroom and then set the mini-fishies free at the end of the school year. This trip was to harvest (and fertilize!!) the salmon eggs. It was really cool to watch..

Kara and her friend Olivia.

The biologists getting ready to "harvest" the (dead) female salmon's eggs. It was kind of gross, to be honest. But the fertilization part was much grosser. By far.

When Greta came to town, we took advantage of the warmer (50s) weather and relative sunshine every day. This day was a hiking trip up Mount Baldy with the kids after school. I am a genius and I brought 2 friends for the kids.. that significantly cuts down on my kids' complaining but it significantly adds to the feeling of cat herding. They did great and it was beautiful.

Greta and I at the top of Mount Baldy. It was pretty chilly. We rewarded ourselves with a lovely pizza dinner and brownies. We are very good at rewarding ourselves with food. Been doing it for 20 years now :)

Clay and Ryan at the top... they were feeling just fine :)

Another day, we went to Girdwood/Alyeska to hike on a 5 mile trail that leads to this huge gorge where you can pull yourself across using a hand tram.. what that is is a basket hanging onto a relatively thin cable that you tow yourself across using a rope.. the hike was beautiful and we ended up running into some other friends and their kids. It was another awesome day.

Another awesome thing we did when Greta was here was taking our bikes out to some AWESOME bike trails... it's usually a cross-country ski trail in the winter, complete with green and black runs for skiiers. In the non-snow time, you can bike. We had a BLAST. My bike was made for this kind of riding (thanks, Fokker). So much fun. We again rewarded ourselves with an early (11:00am) happy hour at a local mexican food joint. Good times.

One night, Clayton took the kids and we met up with a bunch of friends at a restaurant downtown (Sullivan's). It was so much fun for me to introduce my new Alaska friends to one of my oldest friends (you know what I mean!!). We had a fabulous time without the kiddos. Thanks to ALL the dads who kept their kiddos so the moms could go out on Friday :)

This is Christy, me, Christen and Greta.

Proof of the random September snow shower... a lovely preview of what is sure to come.

Greta's trip was pretty successful: she saw a bull moose up close and personal, bear tracks at the river (fresh), a bald eagle (but no bear)... experienced the first snow and a 5.4 earthquake. Not bad for 5 days! I'm sending a big shout out to her mom and dad and her husband Jason. I love you guys and thanks for freeing Greta up to come to Alaska. We had a great time. I love you, friend! Thanks for coming :)

Happy Fall, Y'all!

2010-09-16T20:06:00.005-08:00

Greetings from Alaska the beautiful! After a grisly summer (read: rain, heater running, dreary days) weather-wise, we are having a LOVELY fall complete with sunny days, warmish (60s) temperatures, changing leaves and happy Johnsons.

Last weekend was my birthday. It was my 9th anniversary of turning 29. I have never really had issues with my age but this birthday made me feel old. When my mom was my age, I was 16! Thankfully, there are certain treatments that make me look not so old all the time (wink, wink). I had a really great weekend. We went to Girdwood for the day on Saturday and we hiked the North Face with the Sutterfields. In fact, Clayton flew down there with Kevin while Kamdon and I drove the girls in the car. It was a great day. Sunday was far less active but great, nonetheless. Kara and Clayton made me breakfast in bed (egg and bagel sandwich). On Sunday night, we went to the coolest place in Anchorage.. it's an old steak place, Club Paris, that is caught in about 1976 both musically and decoration-wise. It's awesome!! Dark, wood paneling, pleather seats, low lighting, fabulous tunes and super-yummy steaks. Kamdon booked a sitter so the 4 adults could eat out in peace. It was a great day . Thanks to everyone who called, messaged and facebooked. I felt celebrated, for sure.

Meanwhile, the 2010-2011 school year marches on. Due to a variety of factors, our kids aren't doing AWANA this year.. mainly that is due to it moving to Sunday nights, one of the few nights Clayton is generally at home. SO, Clay is having a break and Kara is doing Heritage Girls, a Christian-focused take on girl scouts. She is also in choir.. we are considering a keyboard (the horror!!) for piano lessons as well. We're staying busy. Even I am managing to stay busy during the days that BOTH kids are in school. Granted, some of that time is spent riding the bike trails in Anchorage with the bike mafia we have going (a group of moms who bike like mad). I LOVE it!! We have to do something to keep in shape until the snow gets here and we can XC ski. The fall is flying by....

Oh, and Fokker... well, he's working a lot.. he always works a lot but it's even more frantic these days. Prayer arrows with his name on them are always welcome :)

Kara and Ainsley hiking at Girdwood on 9/11.

The kids and mommy on my birthday...

Hanging out by Eagle River 9/14...it looked more fall-y in real life..

Clay at Eagle River.

Karen and Kara 2 weeks ago..

My awesome new painting that Kamdon and I finished today... it's based on a painting at a local restaurant here in Anchorage. I have always LOVED the painting because it reminded me of home (Arizona) with the pool but it's so Alaska with the polar bear. Kamdon helped me figure out a way to get the general idea (my own) onto a canvas on my wall!! I LOVE it !!!!! Kamdon put on little cactuses (it's acceptable to say cactuses OR cacti according to Mrs Theibert, my HS humanities teacher, so there) to really give it the AZ feel.

We're all loving Alaska this time of year.. all that's missing is you!!!!!

Clay-Clay'isms

2010-08-29T14:01:00.003-08:00

I just wanted to share a few funny things that Clay has said lately... He can be pretty funny, but mostly when he's not trying. On Friday after school, he was mad at me because I was chatting with a friend and he had to wait for me for about 3 minutes after school (they wait with the teacher outside but in line until a parent comes to get them.. this is only the kindergartners.. everyone else is turned loose at the bell). So we get in the car and Clay is still kind of mad. I let him sit in the front seat on the drive home (about 3/4 mile down the street.. judge later) because Kara had a little friend coming to play and they were in the middle seat. Clay looks at me with this bizarre look on his face and says "Hey Mom. Watch this. (turning to the girls) Hey Ladies. Guess what? I don't have any homework". Without missing a beat, in an annoyed tone and almost perfectly in synch, Kara and her friend go "That's because you're in kindergarten". Major shoot-down. But I don't think Clay really noticed. What made it so funny was that (as some of you may have experienced) the "Hey Ladies" remark is a constant coming out of big Clayton's mouth.. It's like he's some kind of smooth operator or something, which he obviously isn't. It made me laugh and pained me at the same time to see little Clay following in his father's foot steps...

The second funny thing he did recently was on Saturday morning.. he was lounging on the couch and he whines to me "Mommy, do I have to go to school today?" to which I replied "Not today, it's Saturday". Instant transformation for Clay :"Yippeee!!!!". I made a disapproving face and Clay goes "You should be happy. You said you missed me while I was in school". What a funny kid.. I don't know what to make of him half the time but he does keep life interesting ;)

We've Got a Kindergartner!!

2010-08-24T16:26:00.003-08:00

So, Clay survived his first day of kindergarten. He hasn't been very excited about going.. mostly I think he didn't want to be gone all day. I don't really think he knows what that means but it sounded like too much to him regardless. He only asked to go back to Peace Pre-school once but it gave me pause, for sure. Thankfully, he got up this morning and he was rarin' to go. We had the now traditional "K" pancake and he was out the door. The kindergarten process for the first day is a little much. All these parents squeezing into the classroom with their cameras and expectations, it's no wonder the kids cry sometimes! Fortunately, there were no Johnson tears shed by either Clay or myself. I did tear up on Kara's first day but I knew that Clay had no significant margin for error. He walked right in, put his stuff away and found his seat. He never really looked back! I was so proud of him and SUPER relieved. The little boy next to him was crying and his parents were definitely NOT making the situation better.. SO, I took my cue and exited stage left. When I picked him up, he was all smiles. His big complaint was being starving.. they only have 30 minutes for lunch. Well, Clay is a leisurely eater, to put it mildly. He is NEVER to be rushed at the table.. for real. I think tomorrow will be a more "filling" experience for him at lunch :) He did great. He is not overly forthcoming with the details but I am listening in as he talks to Grammie and Kara, I'll figure out how it went one way or the other. All in all, I'm thankful for the answered prayer of a good first day of kindergarten. I didn't have great expectations so I'm more than happy with the outcome :)

Whirlwind Life

2010-08-19T15:16:00.005-08:00

So we went to Arizona for a quick end-of-the-summer/looking-for-sun trip. We had so many visitors this summer that we never really planned for our annual trip to the Valley of the Sun. It's been a pretty wet and not very warm summer in Alaska. We, all 4 of us, were ready for some Arizona sun and Arizona family. I've said it before, but we LOVE going home to Arizona. Nearly all of our immediate family lives within about 15 miles of one another. We get to hang out with our nephews and niece, the aunts and uncles as well as the grandparents. This summer was no different. We had less time but we packed in more fun than usual. We made Grayson's birthday party, a baby shower and a bridal shower. We invaded both grandparents' homes as well as the AZ Johnsons' house and Mark/Michelle's house. Seriously, everyone must sleep for a week after we leave. Then, I KNOW they spend that second week cleaning up after us. We had a great time as usual and we left Arizona with thankful hearts. We are thankful for the relationship we have with our siblings and inlaws as well as the relationships our kids have with their cousins.

The whole crew.. Filleman, Johnson and Saylor cousins.

The Filleman grandkids with Great Gram Boyd (my grandmother who we saw for breakfast the morning we got to town.. after flying all night and sleeping hardly-at-all).

(I was horrible at picture taking this trip because Clayton returned my first new camera and didn't get me replacement until we got home to AK.... sorry, i know you must be heartbroken.)

While we were in AZ, Kara got her hair cut. She had pretty long hair and it was driving her nuts. Somewhere along the line, she heard about Locks of Love and she decided she wanted to donate her hair. My favorite girl for hair cutting in AZ did the honors. Kara LOVES her new short hair and she is marginally disappointed that more people aren't noticing up here... I will say it's MUCH easier to take care of shorter and she looks adorable. I still need to send her pigtails to LOL, though.. (note to self, as I stare at the bag on my kitchen windowsill). Kara is pretty sweet and she is thoughtful (I'm not one of those parents who is quick to attribute desirable characteristics to their kids, FYI.. so trust me on this one). I think she might actually enjoy giving as much as she enjoys receiving so it was cool to watch her go through this process. I think we all sort of like thinking about a little girl getting a wig made out of some of Kara's hair :)

Before

Just before the cut...

After...

Right after we got home, Kara started 2nd grade. She is in class with 2 of her little friends who she has NEVER been in class with. I don't know a lot about her teacher but we trust that she's in the class she's supposed to be in. So far, two days in, she is excited about both the teacher and the kids in her class. That's good enough for me...

Her requested breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes...

Daddy and Kara before school.

Mommy and Kara before school.. she was tired of pictures at this point.

Obviously the next big day will be Tuesday, the 23rd.. Clay's first day of kindergarten. He met his teacher who happens to go to our church. She seems very kind and he responded well to her. I was pretty apprehensive because he tends to be a little "clingy" (I am understating the problem) but he did well. I have renewed hope. (As a side note, if you don't already know, we intended to keep Clay out of school for one more year since his birthday is early June.. however, on the advice of my MIL and his teacher last year, we're sending him next week. Clayton has NO backward looking on this decision which is strange for him so it's just me.)

If you're short on things to pray for (in addition to safe landings in fast, gray airplanes), you could add that to your list: Clay going to kindergarten. Pictures to follow.

This is Clay and Ryan just before "meet-the-teacher".. they aren't in the same class which is probably for the best considering they were karate kicking each other in the rain.

Checking In

2010-08-01T08:45:00.004-08:00

I predicted only posting once a month and it seems like maybe that's the way it's going to go even though I had better intentions. This weekend finds us with our last scheduled summer visitor, our friend Michele from Texas. Her husband and son have been in Iraq for nearly a year.. her second son goes overseas sometime in the next several months. Needless to say, the girl needed a getaway. Not sure how relaxing her trip to Alaska will be, but we're having fun so far :)

The kids have had a pretty mellow last few weeks. They went to a VBS at Clay's old school and had a ball. I had a very difficult time trying to figure out how to spend my mornings without them for the week. It was really challenging, but don't worry about me. I'm a survivor. We've also spent some QT at the local museum. They have a cool area for kids and I had forgotten that I bought a family membership a while ago (I'm a sucker for family memberships at places, especially if they offer a military discount.... not unlike my suckerishness at a make-up counter). We went two days in a row last week and met up with various friends both days. Good times!!

On the schedule this weekend is the Arctic Thunder Air Show at Elmendorf. It was almost the air show that wasn't because a C-17 crashed last week. All 4 guys on board died. I didn't know any of them personally but I know lots of people who did. It's a total nightmare for everyone in the military. I can't even describe to you the feeling you get when you hear that a plane crashed on the base. Clayton was sitting right next to me when we got the call and my heart still seized up and my blood ran cold. Anchorage isn't that big and the military community is TIGHT. Pray for the families that are left behind. The guys were mostly young and they have young families.

Anyway, the air show has been a major item on our calendar for the last 6 months or so. Clayton is still sort-of a SnackO (snack officer)... the snacko is the guy who coordinates important things like the pilot slush fund, beer and snacks in the bar and t-shirts to sell at community events. We have been having BOXES of snacko gear delivered for months. And they sat around inside and outside my house for months. I was GLAD to see them out on tables for sale yesterday. Clayton hawked t-shirts, caps, shot glasses and F22 shells while I took pictures of kids dressed up like fighter pilots for a wive's fund. All day. It was fun but exhausting. May the 302 and 477 raise lots of $$$ today (Sunday) while I sit it out (sorry!!).

9 Seat Belts, 10 Hind-Ends

2010-07-13T13:25:00.007-08:00

Hello from mid-July. My goal is to blog monthly this summer and I feel like I'm going to have no trouble meeting that goal :) We just said good-bye to the Arizona Johnsons. They were with us for 2 fabulous weeks. We jam packed their time with Alaska fun and their visit FLEW by. We had been looking forward to their visit FOREVER, so that it went quickly was no surprise. I'll just post a ton of pictures and try to give my dear reader(s) a small glimpse into our awesome (awe-shome, as Clay says) time with them.

After a "welcome to Alaska" lunch at Moose's Tooth... where we converted TJ and Loges to eating salads w/ranch :)

Fishing for lake trout at Clay-Clay's chalet birthday bash (we sang to TJ as well). The sun was shining and it was warmish after a few days of chilly rainy weather.

The boys got Star Wars ships. They ALL played Star Wars Ships the rest of the vacation. It was loud but very fun to watch. Even Evie would get in on the action.

Baby Evie. Best. Sleeper. Ever. And always happy, she wins "trooper of the trip" award for being schlepped around all over the place and not complaining a bit!!

Logan being Logan. We got to hang out with him for 2 days while Clayton and Troy took the bigger kids hiking. He definitely missed all the bigger kids but I like to think he enjoyed being the cat's meow while they were gone. Evie was with us, too, but she slept a lot of that time :) There were pics from that camping extravaganza (they hiked out 5 miles into the mountains and camped overnight in tents..ate dehydrated food, etc) but they are MIA for now.

Hiking Mount Magnificent with the whole crew. The kids did pretty well.. they all hike for food or at least for the promise of food. We were all well rewarded with homemade tater tots afterwards at a yummy local restaurant. I think the moms were maybe more excited about that meal than the kids were!

Hiking at Hatcher's Pass. The sun was out and it was sunny.. but cold. The kids hiked for a while and then played in an abandoned mine town for a while until they hit their walls. It was a great day!! (Troy and Clayton went halibut fishing this day). I really wish this thing wouldn't randomly underline..it drives me crazy!!

For 2 nights and 3 days, we went camping!! At the Russian River.. where there are generally A LOT of red salmon making their runs this time of year. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans? No salmon in the Russian this year... but we didn't let that deter us. We camped on. In an RV. All 10 of us. Evie slept in a shower... where she turned the water on herself. Twice in one night. The stories from this short trip are endless... I won't belabor you, dear reader(s) with the details. But suffice it to say, Melissa and I did a lot of waiting on the men that first night. Like 8 hours. In the dark and rain. Eventually they returned from a midnight fishing trip FISHLESS.. and after we set off looking for them in the RV.. with 6 sleeping kids in the back... down dark Alaska roads at 2:00 AM. Good times, folks, good times.

Our only bear sighting on the trip. Bears are abundant at Russian River... but with fewer salmon, they weren't out and about like usual. This guy was across the river and could have cared less about all of the gawkers across the way. It made for awesome viewing and decent pictures.

S'Mores!!! Always a big hit. If I may say so (and I may, because this is my blog, no?), the food on this camping trip was practically gourmet. We had ASSUMED that there would be fresh salmon for at least one meal (wrong assumption) so we had some fabulous sides. However, being full-on boy scouts at heart, Melissa and I had a contingency plan should there be no salmon (now you see why we make the big bucks).. We had chili that Troy made pre-trip. We had corn bread w/chili, chili dogs, chili nachos.. sort of like Forest Gump and his shrimp. But we ate well, even sans salmon. And we had lots of food just in case any errant bears decided to hit us up for a meal :)

Here's a picture of us after bowling on our last day together. It was a great visit. Those of you who have been up here know the cost and time involved in traveling to Alaska. We appreciate so much that people would come up here to hang out with us!! We made great memories and are anxious to do it all again someday. Everyone at my house is wishing that the visit was still ahead of us instead of behind, for sure.. we've been rattling around the house (the kids and I) trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. Having family in Alaska always makes us miss you guys down in Arizona that much more.. Thanks to Troy and Melissa for coming up. COME BACK ALREADY!!!!!!

Backwards Posting.. Pictures of Kara's Birthday Party

2010-06-23T20:10:00.006-08:00

I am so scrambled brain these days. I thought I had put up some pics from Kara's birthday party and pics of her Kamdon cake but I realized I hadn't. I know some of you probably have ulcers from wondering where these photos are, and considering I don't like to disappoint, I'm posting them a month late :)

The theme for this year's birthday was "Art"... Kara loves art and wanted an art party. This is a cake she co-designed with Miss Kamdon. The little paintings were painted by she and Ainsley on fondant canvases.

pre-party irritation (already)

Clay's last day of pre-school was on Kara's birthday.. excellent timing because her party was for "girls only". I'm still not even sure he realizes he missed the whole thing!!

Party table.

Instead of games, the girls painted these little wooden dog houses from Michael's. They were a huge hit and they turned out really cute.

The cake was tye-dyed!! How cool is that?!

It was a good day.. fun celebration of Kara and her 7th birthday. We sure love that girl.

Since We Last Met....

2010-06-18T20:36:00.007-08:00

Greetings from mid-June. This summer is FLYING by, folks.. Lots to report since the last update. I know everyone is just waiting with bated breath.

I'll get straight to the point and use the bullet system for this post. Since you last heard from the Johnsons, the following has happened:

* Clay turned 5! Seriously, where has the time gone??? I feel like he should still be 3.. which he occasionally acts like. We aren't partying big until TJ gets here but we did go to Chuck E Cheese with the Sutterfields the night of his birthday for a mini celebration. He thoroughly enjoyed the attention. We're saving the awesome cake for the TJ party to follow.

* Summer 2010 visitor round 3 has come and gone. Our sweet friend Jenn from Fort Worth came up for 2 weeks. We had lots of fun trekking around, showing off Alaska. The weather her first week was awesome. It was pretty dreary the second week. Add the exhaustion from the first week and some summer colds (UGH!), the second week was probably a little anticlimactic. Oh well, it was great to see her. It had been 3 years since we'd seen her with our eyes.. she's been to Africa and back in that time.. and we've moved to AK (obviously). We're thankful for good friends, old ones and new ones.

* Clayton and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Sometimes it seems like we've been married for 13 months and sometimes it seems like we've been married for 31 years. We got to go out to dinner in Anchorage while Miss Jenn hung out with the kids. AND, we got a new camera!! Hallelujah!!!

Here are some pics to keep you entertained and to prove that the sporadic blogging isn't merely a result of my laziness :)

Fishing at Lake Hillberg on base... the kids and Jenn caught some little fishies. They threw them all back.

Trooper is back with us for a week or so... We love him!!

Happy Birthday to Clay... LOVE HIM!

The family that hikes together.....

Miss Jenn and her fan club at Alyeska.

Clay and Chase eating smores.

Summer 2010 Visitors: Rounds 1 and 2

2010-06-02T08:08:00.006-08:00

We're only about 10 days into our summer vacation but I can already tell it's going to FLY by this year. We've already logged 2 visitors so far this year and it's only June 2. I think that's not too shabby. The first round was my mom and dad and grandma Jeanette. My dad actually had meetings in Anchorage so they all trekked up here and made a trip of it. We had so much fun dragging Jeanette all across "south central Alaska". The kids thoroughly enjoyed having 2 grandmothers and a granddad in town, to cater to their every whim (what a shock this week will be when it's just me..not catering to their every whim). The grandparents stayed until early Saturday morning and their replacement, Karen, arrived late Friday night. She stayed through a lovely Memorial Day weekend and left us Monday night. Good times. Lots of ground covered. Yesterday it was back to business as usual. I spent the entire day with my new best friend, the rug doctor, cleaning our foul carpet. I nearly tore off my pinky finger in the process but I have clean carpets... just in time for our next visitor, Miss Jenn from Fort Worth!

Kara's birthday celebration (round 2) with the grandparents.

Chocolate chip cookie dough cake from Cold Stone... yum.

The whole fam damily at the Anchorage Saturday Market.. lots of "bargains".

The grandparents took the kiddos to the animal preserve that wasn't that cool after all.. no bears but lots of moose. At least we can check it off the list of things to do in Anchorage.

Eklutna Lake picnic with the Sutterfields, Fillemans and Ryan. Beautiful day, beautiful lake.

Portage Glacier cruise... it was really warm but there is still an off-glacier breeze on the top of the boat so we gave in to the windbreakers.

**********

Miss Karen, our frequent Alaska visitor, offered to pierce Kara's ears last Christmas. Kara thought about it, Daddy agreed so it happened last weekend. Kara was pretty brave though I know the "deadening" part hurt.

I think this picture is SO FUNNY with the needle hanging out of her ear. Kara does not share in that humor. At all.

All smiles and 2 pierced ears. I was hedging bets that Kara would only end up with one pierced ear.. I was wrong! She did great. Thanks go out to Miss Karen for all the pokes she gave out last weekend ;)

This One's a Doozie, Folks!

2010-05-19T19:17:00.004-08:00

This is going to be a lot of pictures, this post.. We're in the middle of a BIG week around here. Lots of "lasts"... A first... Kara's turning 7... Grandparents and a Great Grandma are coming to visit. Daddy's TDY for a few days. DETAILS GALORE. We're at the half-way point. I think we're gonna make it :)

This is Jojo. He's our new cat (said very grudgingly by me). He was clearly abandoned in our neighborhood about a week before the first snow. What were we to do?? He's HUGE! I don't think you can really tell from this picture. I think he's part jackalope.

This Tuesday was the last "Trade-off Tuesday" of the season. This has been a winner of a deal for both the kids and the moms (I think). This day at our house, the sun was out and the kids were literally soaking it in.

Building a campfire in our backyard... fortunately, no matches were involved.

A true first!! April biking with a dog in a backpack (40+ miles in 2 days). Trooper seemed to enjoy himself. He got to stay with us again for a week. Good times, Troopie!

A last: Kara's last field trip as a firstgrader.. We went to the zoo. It was freezing. This was the middle of May in south Anchorage. Fleeces were not overkill this day, sadly enough.

Kara and Mommy.. there was a grizzly bear behind us in case you were wondering!

Clay's last Sunday as a Lutheran :) He's all done with preschool. I can't say enough good things about Little Lambs of Peace Preschool. He has loved going and has learned a lot from Mrs. Hackmann. We'll miss you guys!!!!

Clay's last field trip as a preschooler. We went to Matanuska Creamery in Wasilla. This is Clay milking a fake cow. No words.

Enjoying some very tasty ice cream at the creamery.

Clay and I cheesing it up after we ate cheese curds for the first time. They're not nearly as gross as they sound.

In my mind I am composing an awesome post for Kara's 7th birthday on Friday. I seriously doubt that I'll get it posted in a timely manner.. but it's going to be a good one, I just know it. In case you're wondering, we're having an art birthday party for 7 of her friends on Friday. Kamdon made the cake and it's awesome. I think it's going to be a good time. I'll probably get pictures of the party up on a relatively timely manner.

Aviation Trade Show May 2010

2010-05-07T22:39:00.001-08:00

For anyone who might be interested, Clayton is at 1:40ish of this youtube video. Don't know who the people are in the video.. there were so many people filming that day, we knew we'd eventually stumble on a video to share with all our loved ones (cough, choke, gag).

Hellions Angels and a Rockstar

2010-05-03T15:04:00.005-08:00

Hello from the most beautiful day on record so far this 2010. It is nearly 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. There is still snow on the tops of the mountains and the grass on the ground is starting to get green. You can literally SMELL spring today in Eagle River, Alaska. I NEVER paid attention to the weather coming from Arizona. It was either hot or warm. In Texas, the weather was schizophrenic but at least it was predictable in its unpredictability. Here in AK, it makes TX weather look down right boring. SO, when we get the rare day of warmth AND sun, people sit up and take notice. WHAT?! (insert screeching brake noise here) Am I 50 years old? Did I really just blog a whole paragraph about the weather?! I AM SO SORRY!!!

I wanted to post some pics from our epic weekend. It was pretty jam-packed with a sick kid (Clay) thrown in for good measure... Clayton worked this weekend and I had this thing called a "dining in". It's basically a big banquet for the AF spouses where you have to come up with a theme, a costume and a skit. Yes, there is much potential for lameness and humiliation.. Nevertheless, a few of us decided to fly our freak-flags and give it a whirl. Considering Clayton's squadron is called the Hellions (please keep all comments to yourself.. like we had any say in the name of a squadron), we decided to be original and be biker chicks and call ourselves the Hellions Angels. We made cool vests, came up with a skit and had some awesome table decorations. It was a lot of work over the last month but it was also pretty fun. That and we won "best costume".. Enjoy the pictures...

The Original Hellions Angels: April, Beth, Kamdon, Jen and Camille in front of the table extraordinaire.

Our awesomely gigantic centerpiece. It says 302 which is our squadron # (in case you're wondering).

Sunday brought another work day, a recovering Clay and an aviation trade show. Turns out that Clayton was going to fly a jet from the trade show thing back to Elmendorf. With Clay feeling better, I decided to take the kids down and they could see Daddy take off in the jet a little more up close and personal than usual (which is NEVER that close at all). It was a lovely grey, cold and windy day out at Ted Steven's Airport. Did I take warm enough clothes for myself and my kids? NO WAY! Did we let that deter us? HECK NO! (Alaska has made us all so hardcore) So we traipsed out to this trade show thing that had all kinds of military and private airplanes out on static display. Clay was in hog heaven. The LAST thing he wanted to do was stand still and watch Clayton suit up and taxi the jet out and take-off. I thought that was kind of funny because literally the entire crowd watched this whole ordeal... Honestly, the son of the F22 pilot was more interested in the FedEX jet!! And he kept saying so.. LOUDLY! As an aside, I don't know if I've shared my loathing of air shows. I have a repeating nightmare of being at an air show and planes just falling out of the sky. Therefore, I despise them. Granted, this wasn't an airshow, it was a trade show so there weren't planes flying all the time and doing random tricks, etc.. HOWEVER, this involved a crowd of people watching my husband take off in the rad F22 (said somewhat tongue-in-cheek) so it technically qualified as somewhat of a living nightmare for me. I don't know what it is about that.. I've seen one too many shows on AIR SHOW DISASTERS on Discovery Channel, I guess. Suffice it to say, since I'm snarkily blogging about it, Clayton's plane didn't fall out of the sky (thank God.. again). And even though Clay-Clay was unmoved by his dad's rockstar status, it was not lost on Kara. She LOVED seeing all the little boys (and some big ones, too) go nuts over the F22 knowing Daddy was at the stick (or throttle or whatever it is they call it). She talked about it all evening. Unfortunately, my camera is a piece and the batteries died long before Clayton actually started moving so the pictures are kind of boring.

Clayton and the kids.

Putting on the gear.. it takes a long time..

Clayton climbing in. The kids think it is HILARIOUS that someone has to buckle him in "like he's in a car seat" (said in a wicked voice by Clay-Clay.. he loves to know that someone besides himself is tortured by a 5 point-harness)

It is really too bad that there is no sound in this picture. Perhaps then you would understand why my ears were literally dripping blood by the time Clayton got airborne. (And yes, I had earplugs but I gave them to my kids.. I'm just that good of a mom. I sacrificed my own hearing for that of my kids. Someday they'll thank me...when they're sneaking out and I can't hear them)

Oh Fokker, we give you a lot of grief but we are secretly both thrilled by and proud of you (there is NO DANGER of him ever reading this blog..that's how I can put that!).

Spring-y Time in AK

2010-04-26T19:57:00.002-08:00

Hello faithful blog follower(s).. I know, I've been away awhile. No excuses from me, no judgement from you! Deal?!

OK. Good. Now for the fun stuff... what we've been up to? Well, first and foremost, the skis are officially retired for the season. Most of our snow is gone! FINALLY! There's still a patch here and there, but it's pretty much gone. What we're left with is a lot of dust (an improvement on the mud) and a million little rocks (leftover from sanding the roads during the winter). It is truly the ugliest season of the year.. BUT, we know that the grass will start growing and shortly thereafter, the flowers. Another hallmark of spring in Alaska is the ever-increasing daylight. Yes, kids, we're gaining about 6 minutes per day. That's 42 minutes per week. Sounds minor to you, does it? Well, it adds up. It's dark about 10:00pm and getting light by 5:30am. By the time June 21 rolls around, we'll have no significant darkness, just duskiness for a few hours. I digress... this post isn't about random Alaska irritations.. it's about the Johnsons (who are possibly considered random Alaska irritations by some!). So here we go..

Clayton: Working. Sitting alert. Building shelves in the garage (yay!). Buying April a new mountain bike (YAY!). Looking for a road bike for himself (huh?). Working. Sitting alert. Traveling. Working. Being a good dad and husband in between the above :)

Kara: Finishing up first grade. Completing AWANA book #2 in Sparkies. Winning art and "good example" awards in school. Riding 15+ miles out of 24 when we ride to Target as a family. Sadly saying good-bye to 3 fun friends from school this summer. Missing her family in Phoenix, Arizona. Reading, drawing, writing and playing lots. Making her mom and dad PROUD!

Clay-Clay: Random weirdness as usual :) Bike riding FOOL! Traded the painted-black-Kara's-old-Princess-bike for his new mountain bike. Possibly finishing his AWANA's Cubbie's book. Thoroughly enjoying neighbor Ryan at every possible moment. Wrapping up pre-school (learning LOTS!). Driving mommy nuts. Negotiating a Star Wars birthday party that will NOT take place until TJ is in Alaska (how sweet is that?!).

April: Making lame attempts at humor on the blog. Riding 20 miles to Target with girlfriends three days/wk (trying to fit as much in as possible before school gets out). Bible study. Breakfasting/lunching with friends. Loving her life these days for sure (SERIOUSLY!).

Cats: Hating the new kitty Jojo (Snackie and Abby, that is). Being cranky and old (Abby). Trying to act young by chasing new Jojo but really just wanting to eat, sleep and be fat (Snackie). Plotting his escape daily.. figuring that bears and moose are more desirable than two old fart cats (Jojo).

So as you can see, we're alive and thriving in the 49th state. Life is good. All that's missing is you.. Wish you were here :)

Skating Show, No Mustache and a Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T17:43:00.004-08:00

Happy Easter!! We are teaching the kids about the early church and saying "He is risen!" Then responding "He is risen indeed".. Clay can be found randomly saying "Hey!! MOMMY!! He is risen". It seemed like a good idea at the time... Anyway, we've had a good day. Lots of (too much) yummy food, easter eggs and church. I'm still not used to Easter morning being 30 degrees...but the snow is almost gone and green grass is not far behind.

Kara just finished up a short series of ice skating lessons and, how awesome, the ice skating rink decided that the beginners should skate in their end-of-the-season show.. SO, Kara and Ainsley were disco ducks in their 60 second on-ice debut. I'm happy to report that neither one of them crashed so it was deemed successful. Kara is dying to take ice skating lessons again so I guess she'll go again later in the summer when Clay goes to his "learn to play hockey" lessons. I still kind of have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that we live in Alaska and my kids are most interested in the winter sports :) Obviously, I secretly love it!! Life really is like a box of chocolates...

I'll finish up this post with some pictures of Clayton, freshly shorn. He lost the mustache on 4/1...before the stupid contest or whatever it was even took place. But he held onto it through the entire month of March so I guess that was his goal. In the words of my friend Corby.. "I'm glad mustache March is over. Now I can be attracted to my husband again". IDK, the mustache was more than just a little creepy.. and it made Clayton look even older than he is.

March 31, 2010

April 1, 2010

As I close this post, I am listening to the sounds of an Easter hangover.. two kids short on sleep, heavy on sugar and dueling with a broom handle and a snow shoe. This one is going to leave a mark....

California!.. and that darn mustache

2010-03-30T13:48:00.006-08:00

Keeping with the theme of mustache March, I would be remiss if I didn't post a new picture of the beastly thing. Here you go. We only have 2 days left. Clayton is weirdly proud of it... Figures.

Apart from the mustache, we (I) had a big weekend. I went to California to surprise my mom at her 60th Birthday Extravaganza at Disneyland. She had planned this trip about a month or so ago, basically right after we were in AZ. I didn't think there was any way I could go.. it's sort of pricey to fly down to the lower-48.. Anyway, long story short, Clayton approved the transaction and I bought a ticket. AND kept it all a surprise. I didn't want to implicate anyone else to spoil the surprise, so we kept it on the down low.. My kids knew and they weren't amused, but they also were able to keep it quiet. Suffice it to say, it is a vacation in itself to travel alone these days.. add on a super fun, fast and furious 3 days at DLand, and it was a super weekend. My mom was very surprised, to say the least! And it was an added bonus to see my aunts, uncle, cousins, siblings and nephews on top. We had such a good time. Naturally, actually getting out of town wasn't without some bonus drama (Clay-Clay getting sick on Wednesday.. Clayton working a 24hr alert shift on Thursday (thanks Kamdon, again, for watching the kids overnight)..but I made it. And I made it home safely and without incident. (However, when did I become a nervous flyer?? I HATE those people and somehow, I am joining their ranks..must get some medicine for that. The turbulence is my downfall.. hardy, har-har)

I'm not too sure what Clayton and the kids did.. I know they tried to go to happy hour at our favorite place, Simon & Seaforts, but it was too packed so they went to Taco Bell instead. Needless to say, that did not sit well with Kara. She enjoys herself some fancy happy hour food. Speaking of Kara, she split her chin open riding her bike on Sunday. I came home to her with an enormous band-aid on her chin (not fancy). I guess that black ice got the best of her (again).. but no stitches!

OK, rambling post. Mainly I wanted to confess my trip to California and I wanted you all to share in the horror of the mustache. I'll post one more picture of it in all its glory before Clayton shaves it off.. I know you're anxiously awaiting already.

Mustache March

2010-03-18T19:17:00.005-08:00

So we're about half-way through the drama of Mustache March. I think it's some fighter pilot tradition where they grow mustaches through March. And then there's some contest at the end, who has the most pervy mustache or something like that. I think Aunt Cindy said it best when she wrote on my facebook page "It's not 1985 and Tom Selleck is no longer handsome" or something to that effect. It was well-said, whatever it was :) As promised, here is a photo of Clayton's pet:

The kids' spring break ended up being a very fun week. Clayton took 2 days off and took the kids hiking/snowshoeing up Mt Magnificent. We've had a fair amount of new snow so it was fun for them (and fun for Mom to have a few minutes with a quiet house).

Kara, Clay and Ryan sledding in the front yard. Good times. It's all about the sled.

Random night at an Alaska Aces hockey game.. this is Clayton's squadron commander and squadron mascot, Fado, the bulldog, dropping the puck at the start of the game. We were wondering if Fado would christen the ice, if you know what I mean... he's not the best behaved doggie on the planet (what can you expect, though, really, being raised in a fighter squadron?!). He did everyone proud and we had a fun time at the game.

Hiking with the kids (Clayton).. Don't know why he would give Clay-Clay "Venom", much less take a picture of it...

Clearly this is a post-venom picture as Clay appears to have tackled Kara going down the mountain.

OBVIOUSLY, post-venom. Look at the look on poor Kara's face... really? An energy drink for a 4 yr old boy? Really?

All good things must come to an end.. School resumed on Monday. Clay tried to talk me out of going to school.. he wanted to sit in the car while I cross-country skied with a friend.. I told him he had to go to school. He was sad. I had a close call with a moose (3 times this week!!). Good times, folks, good times.

Alyeska!

2010-03-08T18:39:00.007-09:00

We are off to a running start for Spring Break '10. We just returned from a quick trip down to Girdwood to ski Alyeska. We haven't skied as much this year (it doesn't seem like) as last year so we were excited to head down for an overnighter last night. Even better, our friends the Sutterfields, the Feuchts, and the McNeils were all down for the night as well. Sunday afternoon was the best skiing we've had since moving to Alaska.. it was clear skies, warm weather (20s) and lots of new snow. The skiing was so awesome, I didn't take a single picture :) Seriously! And we were so proud of Kara and Clay who immediately rode the tram to the top of the mountain and skied down blue runs all day long. Myself, I have bruises on my shins and the most sore calves in the history of these legs! I am, obviously, a horrible skier because I have sore calves.. everyone else says their quads get sore. NOT ME! I think it's from keeping a mini-snowplow going 90% of the time.. skiing with 2 kids is an adventure, for sure. I go in front, Clayton comes down behind and makes sure the mountain is Johnson-free before we get back on the lifts. We were thankful for safe skiing once again. Clayton even managed to get in some "hard core" runs w/Motor.. Good times!

We also managed to get in some swimming and dining with our friends.. the kids had a blast and so did we!! Monday we had planned to ski all day but we woke up to a blizzard. Literally. The mountain was closed except for a few runs so we decided to hang onto our lift tickets and just get home... I say this all the time.. But we are so thankful for our friends in Alaska. We've always had good friends in the places we've lived.. But for some reason, it seems like our friendships in Alaska have been extra special in that they all just happened right as we moved. They are obviously a gifts from God to us and I am so thankful.

Clay in front of a random sculpture in the hotel lobby.

Ainsley, Kara and Ariel in the hotel pool...

Clay and Hunter (aka the Jedi Master to Clay-Clay.. he absolutely adores Hunter and Hunter is so sweet to Clay and the other little guys even though he is almost 10!)

Clay-Clay and I waiting for Clayton to bring the car around..

Kara and Mommy (who is in need of some anti-wrinkle eye cream, apparently)

So this is what was taking so long.. Clayton said there was about 16" of new snow.. and he had to dig the car out.. at least that's his story and he's sticking to it!

Kara and Clay heading home... No, Clay didn't have a jacket. It was almost 40 which is a regular heat wave. Seriously.

Last, but certainly not least, a picture of April and Mustache March.. Yep, Clayton's giving in to the peer pressure of mustache March yet again. It is his idea to take pictures periodically to monitor the progression. Posting them on the blog is my idea. Revenge can indeed be sweet.

Hello, March! Have you seen February?

2010-03-04T13:50:00.002-09:00

So I'm noticing that my blogging record is poor, at best!, so far this year.. I guess that means I haven't had a lot of drama to report? Maybe,?? Maybe not!! Take this morning, for instance. It started out relatively well (unless you count Clayton NOT shutting the bathroom door when he took his shower at 6:00. That light can be a killer.. I am very particular about dark bedrooms while it's still a possibility these days. I digress..). The kids and I were all dressed and ready to go with 15 minutes to spare, no small feat. I was debating putting on some water for tea-on-the-go when my phone rang. I answered and it was someone from Clayton's work.. hmm, what shall I call him that I won't be embarrassed for one of my Grandmothers to read??? (thinking to self: "hmmm, no that one won't work... um, oh, not that one either... for SURE not that one..") So I'll just go with "Moose Poop for Brains" or MPB, if you don't mind... So, it's MPB. At 8:30 AM. Looking for Clayton. Who has been gone to work for nearly 2 hours. MPB asks for Fokker (naturally). I manage to keep ALL TRACES OF IRRITATION out of my voice when I say, oh-so-pleasantly, "He's SOF this morning. He should be in the SOF tower"... all the while thinking "I know this because I saw the schedule.. You're a pilot, you have the same schedule.. LOOK AT IT!". SOOOO, MPB tells me "Well, I've tried him on his cell and he didn't answer (try telling me something I don't already know). And he's not at the SOF desk". So, I say to him in a less kindly voice "So are you telling me that Clayton didn't show up for work this morning?" And MPB says "No. He hasn't been to work yet." SO I SAY "Well, MPB, you have more ways for getting hold of him than I do. What do you suggest I do?" (meanwhile, I do believe I've adopted my more panicked-yet-trying-to-remain-calm voice.. which has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on dear MPB). Not surprisingly, he has nothing to say for himself so I hang up.... I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. .. We all know that Clayton NEVER answers his cell phone (not even sure why he has one) and I do not have any numbers for him at work.. (you don't have to believe that, but it doesn't make it any less true) The weather wasn't horrible but it was starting to snow so I'm picturing the car in a ditch... And as the seconds tick by, the scenarios in my brain get wilder. So what did I do? I'll tell you:

First, I called Kamdon who tried to assure me that if he was dead, the DPS would have already called. And that someone would have surely called if he hadn't shown up for his SOF tour. I wasn't feeling that rational so I went on to plan B.

What's that, you ask? I drove the highway to the base to see if his car had gone off the road.

(It hadn't)

Next step, done while driving, I called my super awesome cousin Monty, who happens to be an airfield manager at Elmendorf... He was taking a rank test so he couldn't answer right away.. but when he got my message he tracked Clayton down... in the SOF tower. Not only that, he confirmed that he had indeed been there all morning, took the AM brief on time. Amazing what can happen when one knows one's hind-quarters from a hole in the ground! (THANK YOU MONTY!)

Meanwhile, I'm late for my Bible study because I'm looking for cars in the ditch all the way in Anchorage.. But thankfully Clayton was alive and well, ON TIME AND PRESENT in the SOF tower unaware of all the drama (however, you can be sure that he's going to get an earful when he comes home tonight). It reminded me to be thankful for save travels...once again!

What is the moral of this story? Caller ID is there for a reason. Don't answer the phone in the morning, when you're on your way out the door, unless it's Kamdon saying she can't pick up the coffees before Bible Study. MPB can continue to spin his wheels looking for the needle in the haystack just like I always do. The other moral of the story is that I have got to relax! SERIOUSLY! I'm still not sure what exactly triggered the panic.. but it pretty much sucked :(

On an entirely different note, Kara's spring break starts tomorrow. We've got a quick overnighter planned to Girdwood. Should get some good skiing in. I may even take another lesson if I'm feeling daring enough. Other than that, there's nothing really on the menu for her week off. If anything really interesting happens, I'll be sure to post.

We're (the kids and I) really missing the AZ cousins!! Kara and Clay have both asked when they'll see their cousins again... anyone up for a last minute trip to AK for Spring Break?

Anatomy of a Homecoming

2010-02-22T18:04:00.006-09:00

So Clayton actually came home yesterday... as scheduled, no delays. In fact, he was 15 minutes early!? I do believe we've used up all our good luck on this one TDY return, but we'll take it. I'm still smarting from my spar with the volcano last year :) Obviously, this month-ish TDY was broken up nicely by our time in AZ, but it is always nice to have Daddy home. We actually got to meet him at the jet yesterday afternoon (after thinking we were going to miss it since they were ahead of schedule). I had my camera but, naturally, the batteries were nearly kaput and I only got this one picture:

However, it's better than nothing and the kids were stoked to be right next to the jet while Clayton was shutting it down and unloading.

You may be wondering (well, I'm sure you aren't.. but you know I'm going to tell you anyway) how we get ready on the homefront end for a Daddy Return?! Well, this time was pretty typical. The last days are always the slowest so we scramble for things to keep us busy. I try to get the house clean (fruitless) and keep it clean (pointless). We had a full weekend leading up to The Return. On Friday night, Kamdon and the kids came over to watch movies and play. Just minutes before they arrived, I was putting some garbage in the garbage can and I sliced one of my fingers WIDE OPEN on a green chili can lid (at least chilies are acidic, therefore naturally antibiotic). I swear to you I saw the fascia underneath my skin. I couldn't get Jackie or Karen (my personal oncall surgeons) so I had to call Kamdon to stop at Walmart for some Liquid Stitch. OUCH! The cut is right above my knuckle so I knew there weren't going to be any stitches. Karen called later and confirmed my care plan. All's well that ends well :) Saturday was cleaning day and that night, Kamdon and I met a friend at the movie tavern. GOOD TIMES! Sunday, the longest day of all, we ended up spending some QT at McDonald's. We were the only loser moms there on a Sunday morning so I have no interesting observations for you :) We got the kids home in time for a short rest before jetting off to Elmendorf to find Daddy. I don't know why the last 2 days are the longest but they are!!! When you're on vacation, it's the opposite, the last 2 days FLY BY! Anyway, the blessings of safe flying and another safe homecoming are not lost on us and we thank God for the grace of safe returns once again.

I'll close with an action shot of Clay at his ice skating lessons.. He is thoroughly enjoying himself although I'm not sure how much actual progress is being made. He does seem to be spending less time on his hiney so I'll call that progress for now.

(that's Clay, in the upper left hand corner, on his hiney...)

We're currently taking reservations for the summer. Act now!!

To Arizona and Back...

2010-02-15T06:34:00.003-09:00

Since we last chatted here on the family blog, we've been to Arizona and are back in the great state of Alaska once again. The kids and I met Clayton in Arizona for another fast and fabulous visit with the family. As my kids get bigger, they enjoy their cousins, aunts/uncles and grandparents more and more! This visit was no exception. My kids revel in their time with their cousins. That is no exaggeration. It doesn't matter if we're at PPP, the park or jumping on a trampoline, they're in hog heaven. Believe it or not, there is very little bickering. In fact, it's a regular love-fest most of the time. I love watching Kara with her cousins. She's a little bit of a celebrity with them and instead of capitalizing on it, she tries to find things that each cousin enjoys while spending a little one-on-one with them. It's really quite amazing to me as a mom.

Here are some bullet point highlights from this trip:

*Hiking South Mountain with the group. Clayton and I got engaged on South Mountain and we used to hike it all the time when we lived in AZ pre-AF days. It was fun to be back in that element with our own kids plus the cousins.

*Valentine's Day party. It is fun to watch the kids be creative and make messes. What I REALLY love is watching them gift one another. I think they kind of get how it's actually fun to give and receive.

*Visiting the Great Grandmothers in Duncan. Both of my grandmothers are still living and are in good health. My kids LOVE going to visit. They have their own Duncan Expectations like I did growing up... they want quarters from Great Grandma Jeanette at Gi'Mee's and they want pancakes from Gram Boyd.

*Sleepovers at the Filleman and Johnson cousin's casas. There was not an overabundance of sleep happening, early rising but good times (on my kids' end, at least..... may have to break out the kid Ambien for the next time).

*For Mommy: happy hours, Bachelor watching, Super Mario Bros. playing, shopping, almond tequila margarita drinking, ice cream eating, sitting-round-the-table-talking, and the Paisley Violin top the charts.

*For Daddy: seeing Mommy (ha ha, not really), bromances with his brother and brothers-in-law, gun shooting and eating decent Mexican food. (These are conjectures, but I'm pretty sure I'm spot-on here)

Naturally, I forgot my camera and I wasn't very diligent using my dad's this time. With all the Arizona highs, there are the "saying good-bye lows". This gets exponentially harder every time as well. It is especially hard for Kara. She was WAILING when she said good-bye to her aunts, uncles and cousins on Saturday night. It was heartbreaking, really. She and Eli were two sad little messes and it got the rest of us tearing up as well. SO HARD! But very sweet to see how much they love eachother.

Big thanks going out to the Arizona contingent. You guys put your lives on hold for us when we visit and I know it isn't always easy or convenient. Needless to say, it's not lost on us! We know how much work and time you put in pre-, during, and post-visit. Thank you!!! Thank you for loving on us and the kids. To our friends that we missed (once again) while in AZ, I continue to ask for forgiveness. I swear to you, our time in AZ is over before it begins, especially when it's for a week-long visit.

Our trip home was blissfully uneventful. The kids did great. The only glitch was me not thinking to medicate Kara before the flight.. her ears were REALLY hurting on both descents. Our flights were on time. Kamdon and the kids picked us up at the airport and we hit up Moose's Tooth for lunch. Two of our favorite Alaska things within an hour of being home! Can't do much better than that :)

And So It Goes...

2010-01-28T15:31:00.003-09:00

How weird is it that January is almost over?? I can hardly believe it myself. And I've only blogged three times so far this month...

First item of business for this blog, I'd like to wish Davis Filleman, my nephew, a happy 5th birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Davis! We sure love you, buddy, and we can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you when we see you next. Kara and Clay love you bunches and we miss seeing you (and the rest of the cousins) on your birthdays. XOXOXOXO!

Next item of business is to wish my friend Susan Miller a happy birthday as well. HBD, Susan! I met Susan while we were living in Enid. Together, Susan and I figured out what being married to a pilot in the USAF looked like.. we had some good times in Enid, read a lot of books together, shopped the state of OK, philosophized about military leadership, and ate some decent Mexican food on Friday nights together. Cheers to good friends and their birthdays. ((hugs))

I guess that about covers the birthday wishes. If I missed yours, HBD to you :) The kids and I are in full TDY mode around here.. what is that, you ask? Well, I have no idea what TDY actually stands for but it means that Daddy is gone for a while. He's at Red Flag in Las Vegas for 2 weeks then he goes to some training in Florida before he comes back to AK. How does that translate out for the Johnsons?? Well, here's a bullet list of ways life changes for us when it's 3 of us instead of 4.

* We eat a lot of cereal. For breakfast and dinner. Clay eats an unusual amount of peanut butter waffles as well (I think PB on an eggo makes an excellent meal substitute, any time of day for Clay). I basically stop cooking regular meals when we're in TDY mode.. Don't ask me why.. it's mostly laziness, I think. And some rebellion.

* My Mountain Of Clean Laundry grows to biblical proportions. I don't mind doing laundry, I just mind folding it. So what do I do? I do the laundry and throw it into a huge pile at the end of my bed. When Clayton is home, I get a little bit of guilt going on when the hill reaches about arm pit height. However, when Clayton is gone, it doesn't bother me a bit. As I type, I hear my dryer signaling me it's time to make another deposit to the clothes landfill at the end of my bed. Laziness and rebellion again.. uh oh, I'm seeing a theme.

* I find myself watching super stupid shows on TV.. For instance, "Locked Up Abroad" on NatGeo. I mean, how many different ways are there to get caught smuggling drugs overseas? Not many. But I think there are many different levels of prison squalor overseas so that's why the show doesn't get old with me.. I also watch a fair amount of HGTV and Food Network. Why? I'm clearly not cooking or improving my domicile.. but whatever.

* Something good is that the kids and I read a lot more books together and play more games when Clayton is gone.. We just bought Jinga and Clay and I are going to become Jinga masters before you know it. Normally our evenings are centered around Clayton coming home, having dinner and family time. When he's not home, dinner is cereal, family time needs to get interesting fast or we have issues.

* I end up reading through the "Links" section on facebook and I invariably get into facebook arguments with my liberal friends. I DON'T KNOW WHY I DO THAT!!! Today's mini-war was in regards to repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. I couldn't keep my mouth shut, I had to point out that this friend has never served in the military so he doesn't know what he's talking about (the TRUTH!)... fortunately, another friend of mine who went to the AF Academy took over the conversation and made the first friend look like a fool before I made a fool of myself. I should say that I'm not always rescued.. and I'm always reminded of what my mom used to say to me as a kid "Fools names and fools faces always appear in public places". Yet another reason to take down that FB profile....

So, that's about it here. You can see that our ever exciting life in AK marches on whether or not Clayton's around to participate. If you'd like to come visit us while Clayton's on TDY, please be sure that I will actually cook and I'll close my bedroom door so you don't have to look at the Mountain Of Laundry.

Reflections on a McDonald's Lunch

2010-01-20T13:54:00.005-09:00

I'm going to blame my lack of blogging on the short, dark days we're having here in AK.. actually, I shouldn't complain because we're getting something like 5 minutes of sunlight every day. This will continue until June 21, at which point I'll be whining about no nighttime. Oh well, it's part of the charm of Alaska.

We had a surprisingly lovely MLK long weekend. We hung out as a family, with friends and we skied twice: once at Hillberg on base and once at Alyeska. Some friends from the squadron were also at Alyeska so Clayton had someone to go down the really scary runs with him and I was able to sit by the fire and drink hot chocolate with friends while the kids were in ski lessons and Clayton was skiing with Doctor. It was a really good day, the end of a great weekend. It was especially nice because Clayton's going to be out of state for a month starting this week.. ugh. So far, however, the volcanoes are not acting up so we're anticipating a firm return, nothing "indefinite"... however, as I type, I realize that while I don't believe in jinxing myself, I might just have done it anyway. Ah, the air force.

So, on the heels of a really fabulous weekend, it was Tradeoff Tuesday. What is that, you ask? Well, it's a day that two friends(Suzanne and Kamdon) and I trade off watching each others kids so that 2 moms have a whole day to do stuff (get hair done, work, grocery shop, eat bonbons whilst sitting on the couch..screeeeaaaaacccchhh!) done with free child care. It was my day to have the kiddies. I started out all motivated to do fun activities with them but my back was really hurting (stupid back, hurt it last year pulling kids on a sled for exercise..) so I thought if I could work out with Bob on The Biggest Loser yoga DVD, it might feel better. I ended up telling the kids if they'd cooperate (i.e., not break anything major or hurt one another, nothing too exceptional), I'd take them to The Place... McDonald's. The kids were agreeable and I actually cranked out the DVD without having to pause once (this does NOT mean that I didn't have company throughout the workout, however). Sooo, conveniently, it was about 11:00, a perfect time to hit the Eagle River Mc Donald's. Poor little Abbie was the only kid who was dressed in her day-clothes so while I was helping Chase get dressed, I sent Clay upstairs to put his clothes on... this is what he chose:

Nice. Obviously we are proponents of "clothes over the jammies", but this was too much. Much to Clay's chagrin, we had to change....then we were on our way!! Hallelujah.

Here's a shot of the mountains we get to see on our way to the ER McD's. BEAUTIFUL!

This is the Tradeoff Tuesday crew (Clay, Chase and Abbie). Abbie affectionately calls the boys "my boys". They mostly do what she tells them, too, which I try to abuse whenever possible.

So, we get food and the kids eat at McDonald's and I'm torn between watching the kids play, people watching, and reading a book... It has long been a dream of mine to be the mom reading a book while her kids play at the McD/museum/park.

Which did I choose?? I went with people watching. Seriously, there is material for a master's thesis or a dissertation in McD playland. Not even just here, but anywhere... It attracts all types. Let me explain:

First, there are the Moms Who Pretend That This Is Their Only McD Visit This Century: There were two of these moms at McD yesterday. I have to laugh because they come in looking around to make sure none of their friends are there.. they'd be embarrassed to say they feed their kids food made by a clown... These moms were having a loud conversation about how they NEVER come to McDs, how they NEVER let their kids have fried foods (guess their mc nuggets were baked.. and the fries, too)... how their kids don't even really like McD (BTW, their kids totally sold them out by running straight to the secret hiding places in the play area in addition to asking for specific McD flavors of dip). Have some pride, people.. It's Alaska in the winter. We have no other indoor playground options in ER.

Next, there is the Overprotective Dad Who Must Tell His Daughter He Loves Her Ever Time She Comes Down The Slide...Loudly. This poor guy. I'm pretty sure he also had some hand sanitizer in his pocket that he made Princess use every 4 minutes. (I'm all for sanitation, but I'm also one for promoting a healthy immune system. So, for me, I think making Clay wear his shoes to the bathroom and washing his hands before eating is sufficient.) He also hand fed his daughter when it was convenient for her. If it wasn't so weird, it would have been sweet to see a Dad-Daughter date in the afternoon. I think Clay and Chase wanted to hit the guy up for a shake, he seemed so nice...

Then there's the Angry Mom Who Doesn't Watch Her Kids Because She's Texting The Entire Time.. but she tries to fake the rest of us out that she's paying attention by randomly screaming at her kids every few minutes "COME EAT YOUR HAMBURGER, TEDDY"... "WE'RE LEAVING IN 15 MINUTES" (which she repeats every 2 minutes for 30 minutes) "WATCH OUT FOR THE LITTLE KIDS".. oh, because I forgot to mention that her kid is 12.. and it's Tuesday at 11:00. Hmmm.

Finally, there's the I Have No Shame Mom. That'd be me. I own the fact that McD food isn't that nutritious.. but it's not that bad (I'm a nutrition professional people, I can and will rationalize pretty much anything related to food so don't even try to go there about the horrible-ness of McD food or I'll take you to task on your juices and fruit snacks). I am not ashamed of taking my kids to McD so I can have an adult conversation with a friend (Kamdon, if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me). I'll spring for a happy meal or a $0.50 vanilla cone simply so my kids can burn some energy running around a filthy dirty playground. I'm over trying to put on airs that I'm a better mom than the one who abuses the McD playground!!

... on second thought, I should have read the book and not bored everyone to tears. Thanks anyway for reading. While I'm on the subject, however.. if anyone feels burdened to open a different restaurant with an indoor play area in the Eagle River area, let me know.. I bet I can get the capital from my mom friends :)

Happy New Year!!! (9 days in)

2010-01-10T10:44:00.006-09:00

SO, I had good intentions of blogging often through Christmas but it didn't work out that way... We had a great Christmas here in AK! The weather was lovely, no new snow (both good and bad) but we got out skiing and snowshoeing and tubing while the Grandparents and Karen were here. The first ski trip to Alyeska on the 23rd was the most interesting.. I thought we had skied Griswold-style before but I was wrong. This trip took the cake. To start, it was raining at the ski mountain. Yes, folks, raining. And in case you were under the impression that ski jackets, gloves and pants are waterproof, you were wrong. I definitely thought they were. However, everytime we went inside, we were able to wring puddles of water out of our hats, gloves and pants. Fortunately, it was in the 40s that day so we weren't freezing. However, it didn't make for the most ideal ski conditions. Add to that Clayton's snowboard binding shattering 1/4 way down the mountain (he had to hike back up to the tram in heavy snow.. yes, it was snowing up top, raining at the bottom) and Michael's snowmachine tour cancellation, you can see how tempers might have been running a little thin by the end of the day :) :) :) Nonetheless, it was a really fun day. Christmas Eve found us snowshoeing at home, getting Karen from the airport and enjoying a yummy dinner together before we did the Christmas Eve tradition of the Christmas Story complete with puppet theatre courtesy of Kara and Clay. Christmas morning was really nice, lots of gifts, yummy breakfast. About the time the afternoon rolled in, though, Kara was running a 104+ fever. (insert screeching brake noise) Had to cancel the Sutterfields coming over 3 nights in a row because Kara stayed sick through New Year's Eve (she had a major infection in her mouth while cutting 3 of her 6yr molars. I highly recommend avoiding this illness at all costs). Still, we had a fun New Year's playing the Wii with the Sutterfields and Karen. Good times. We had a great 2009 with far more blessings than we deserve: health, good friends, job(s), safe landings of fast gray airplanes, safe landings of 2-wheel drive Tahoes, and on and on. Blessings on you, dear reader(s) for 2010. I will try to be more blog-entertaining this year...

Making gingerbread houses with Ainsley and Chase...

Clay enjoying his Reeses' tree off the roof... good call! Those are delicious.

Opening gifts from eachother.. coincidentally, they gave each other the exact same gifts. A guaranteed way to avoid arguing!!!!!!

Before skiing in the rain at Alyeska on the 23rd...

Everyone's happy......

Clayton coming in after hiking up and down the mountain.. then walking 1 mile in the rain from the resort to the day lodge. He was soooo happy, in case you can't tell.

Christmas morning.

Bunkbeds for the American Girls made by Granddad Buzz, quilts by Amy.

Karen and April on Christmas morning.. FYI this picture was taken about 10:00AM, yes it was still that dark outside.

Christmas aftermath...

Hooking up the Wii to the downstairs TV.. another cause for happiness from Clayton. Not.

Stirber Christmas Vacay: The First Third

2009-12-22T10:26:00.006-09:00

Greetings from Alaska! It's warming right up so the snow is kind of melting, making all kinds of nice slick spots. We like to keep it interesting for our visitors anyway, so what the heck!!! We're having a really great time with the grandparents. We've gone all kinds of places, had all kinds of adventures. Let the photo documentation begin...

Clay had a Christmas performance at his little preschool church on Sunday... here's a short clip

We have also had a lot of snow (that is melting today... UGH! I hate melting snow.. it makes ice and ice makes driving difficult). Clayton made the kids some snow caves, a little talent he picked up last year at Arctic Survival. They loved them!!

Grandma and Grandpa are being very sporting about Alaska in the winter. We went skiing on Sunday. Grandpa had a tough time but Grandma picked it right back up. The kids were LOVING having her on the slopes. As for Grandpa, well, it didn't go so well. He even had a lesson which also didn't go well. Actually, it went poorly. He got fired from the lesson by an old-time ski instructor. Sad. Embarrassing. Not entirely surprising... He was a good sport about it (ultimately) and when Sports Authority refunded 100% of his ski rental fee for the week, he got over it.

Now, as for Michael. For those of you who don't know, he had been growing his hair out since his retirement from the Guard. He didn't cut it but once in over a year. It was getting a little out of hand... in fact, his kids were sort of giving him a hard time about it (just a little). SO, Michael and I had a little trip to the salon. He ended up getting a really professional looking hair cut but retained some of the length in the front. It looks better.. but I think he's going to forget to get it cut in a few weeks.

Before.

During.

After. So dapper, so professional!

So, needless to say, we're having a great time with the Stirbers. Today has been a baking day. Tomorrow we're headed to Girdwood for a day of skiing (all of us but you-know-who). Will take the camera and post pictures later :) Oh, and Miss Karen is coming for Christmas (did I already say that??) and comes tomorrow night. Good times at the Johnson compound!

CrAzY MoMmY!!!!

2009-12-17T11:41:00.004-09:00

I thought I'd drop in and do a quick post before life gets even more crazy around here. We had a really busy week last week.. a really snowy week so far this week. And tonight, Grandma and Grandpa come for the next 12 days!! I am not quite ready but I have until 7:00 tonight :) I do better under pressure (at least that's what I keep telling myself). Yesterday, if you will allow me to vent (but it's my blog, I can vent if I want to!), was one of those days. We've probably had a good 2 feet of snow over the last 48 hours in Eagle River. If you're like me (prior to living here), you think "Get a grip, April. It's Alaska! What do you expect?" Well, actually, it's Alaska, you are correct on that point. However, we generally don't get dumped on like that so the city and the snowplowers can't keep up with the snow when it comes in buckets. That means driving conditions, even for here, are poor at best. I got stuck yesterday taking Clay to school. I knew enough to know that I wasn't going to get myself out so Clay and I ended up walking the last .5 mile (uphill, in the dark, while snowing) to his school. We were both a mess when we got there. Fortunately, the pastor and another dad took it upon themselves to extricate the Tahoe without calling the tow truck (my idea). I was thankful God provided them. It saved me some $$ for sure. But my pride took a nice beating in the process :) Once I finally got home, I stayed home! Oh, and before you ask, NO! OUR TAHOE IS NOT 4WD! We bought it in Texas before AK was even a blip on the radar. And, NO! We're not buying another car right now. We are enjoying not having car payments.. I now have a tow strap and chains in the car so I'm pretty much ready for the next time. And YES! I know how to put the chains on. OH! One more thing, AT&T cell customers (of which I am one) had no cell service in the state of AK yesterday, to answer any lingering questions you might have had :)

I actually feel better after the rant. If I learned one thing, it's that God is indeed faithful in the small details and that he provides in His own way (my idea was for him to pick my car up and plop it at the top of the hill in a miraculous fashion..) and it met and exceeded my needs for yesterday, like always. BUT, if you are feeling sorry for me, remember it when you see a mom out by herself who needs an extra hand.. at the airport, the grocery store (shoveling snow for the 6th time in 48 hours..)! Even if her husband is in the state, if he's not there and she needs help, give it! I have had so much help from people the last few days with this weather and Clayton being away.

I digress... We are really looking forward to Anne and Mike being here this Christmas. My good friend Karen from Denver will also be with us on Christmas and we're happy to provide a White Christmas for the visitors. My kids have been counting down days since December 1. They are excited for an audience while skiing and sledding. I'm excited for some extra hands as I have done very little wrapping of gifts and no baking :) This is not my Christmas letter post so I'll shut up for now.

Here's a photo journal of what we've been up to the last week or so :)

Us before the first of 2 Christmas parties..

Kara and I going to a tea at church on Saturday morning. Clay was clearly going to enjoy his lounging morning at home with Dad (they went skiing later).

Clay and Kara watching Christmas movies. A rare moment of close-quartered seating without hitting, kicking, whining and tattling.

Our backyard after big snow #1.

Our back deck 8 hours later, the next morning.

The Johnsons (Griswolds) Go Skiing

2009-12-07T09:33:00.006-09:00

So we went skiing for the first time this season yesterday afternoon. We love, and by we, I mean Clayton, to go skiing at Hillberg (on Emlendorf AFB) after 4:00pm because it's half price. Seemed like a good call for our first go of the season.. our kids did really well last season but I was kind of expecting some backsliding this year so if it was half-price (even though it's pitch black outside at 4:00pm), we could get over it if it was a complete FAIL. I should have known things weren't going to go smoothly simply based on the fact that it took me an hour to get the kids' season rental skis at Sports Authority. That should take about 20 minutes..and no one else was in line. Hmmm. BUT, I didn't let that daunt me. NO WAY! I'm an Alaska MOM! We're going skiing! Second road block: Kara left her snow pants at home. The ONE thing she was responsible for. OK, I'm cool (well, if a raging lunatic is cool, I'm cool). I run into the BX to buy another snow suit (multiples are a good thing). Guess what?? The stupid BX is OUT of snow suits and pants. Figures. What to do?? By now, it's darn near 4:00, dark and cold. Clayton is working (on Sunday, yes) and meeting us at the hill at 4:00. He NEVER answers his cell phone.. What to do? Go to Target, off base, and buy said snowsuit. So, Alaska Mom that I am, I drive off base, go to Target and find a snow suit in record time . Yay me! I drive BACK ON the base and trek out to Elmendorf. By now, It's about 4:30.. Not only are we meeting Clayton, we're meeting our neighbors. We're late. OH, and did I mention?? Driving on base while talking on cell phones is frowned upon mightily. I did not make or receive any calls while driving (Why? Because not only am I an Alaska Mom, I follow rules like any good firstborn!). FINALLY, we get to Hillberg and on the lift by 4:40. Kids do well getting on the lift and, not only that, they make it down the hill without any trouble. JOY! BLISS! All the drama was worth it!! (insert screeching brake noise HERE) Not so fast... after a few runs, our friends leave to go home so we decide it is a good time for a potty break. And maybe a snack because I, naturally, forgot to bring any snacks with me (still Alaska Mom). I order some food, the Claytons get a table but where is Kara?? Clayton goes looking for her and he hears her in the bathroom. She's screaming. Hysterically. Saying "APRIL! APRIL JOHNSON!". What does Clayton do? Well, he does what Dads do.. he got me. I go into the bathroom and find poor Kara has had an "accident". She didn't quite make it to the potty, poor sugar. And she is a disaster! Granted, everything from her snowsuit to her ski boots are soaking wet.. we did the best we could but, suffice it to say, her skiing was over for the day. That's when I started to get the hint that maybe skiing wasn't the best plan for Kara.. I had the "signs" but I chose to ignore them. Oh well, not the first and certainly not the last time that will happen (well, at least we hope it's the last time Kara has that kind of accident).

Nonetheless, we had a grand time skiing (except for the obvious). The kids did AWESOME! Clay was "yee-haw'ing" all the way down the hill.. in between his famous "Winner, winner, chicken dinner" calls :) I got to try out my brand new skis and they were awesome, too. I have learned to love the snow and I love that our kids are growing up skiing. You would love it, too, if you came to visit :)

That little blob in the middle of the photo is Clay coming down his last run of the day.

Here he is a little closer.

Thanksgiving Recap

2009-12-01T10:18:00.004-09:00

We had a lovely Thanksgiving here in Eagle River, Alaska. There were 19 at our house for the meal! No one no-showed and no one straggled in. Success!! There was too much food and lots of fun. If I may say, this was my best turkey EVER! Same darn recipe since 2000 and I finally mastered it (of course, will have to change completely next year because simply saying this, I have jinxed myself). Turkey is the one thing we came close to running out of. The kids LOVED having big kids around to play hide-n-seek and other games.

Amy stayed until late last night. I managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done, but only sent a few things back to AZ with her.. that means I get to brave the post office multiple times yet again this year..JOY!!!! We got some tubing in on Saturday night as well. It has been snowing a lot..until last night when the rain came. Rain + Snow = SUCKAGE! The roads are like ice skating rinks now.. and the snow is no good for skiing. BOO!!!

Oh well, it means that I must begin decorating for Christmas, I guess. Here's hoping everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for despite any errant circumstances. Our pastor at church on Sunday mentioned 2 Corinthians 4:17 where Paul writes about our light and momentary troubles.. It challenged me to look at all my "issues" in a different way, that's for sure. SO, I will resume my chorus of "this is the day that the Lord has made.. I will rejoice and be glad in it!"... (even if occasionally with gritted teeth)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T16:28:00.002-09:00

Happy Thanksgiving from the North Pole!! We have so much to be thankful for at the Johnson Casa.. My sister is flying up tonight to spend Thanksgiving with us.. we have a friend from Bethel, AK, in town as well. Tomorrow is Linner (lunch-dinner) with the Sutterfields, the Finchers and the Lands (Finchers are Jim and Carol, Anne Stirber's (Clayton's mom) first cousins. The Lands are the Fincher's good friends, he did our landscaping this summer). I am praying that it is a great afternoon/evening. I think the food is going to be yummy and plentiful.

Things I am thankful for:

* God's provision and grace to us this last year

* Safe flights for Clayton

* Healthy kids

* A beautiful home, food in the fridge, lights turned "on"

* Fabulous friends in AK (an unexpected blessing with this move)

* Healthy family members outside AK

* many, many more....

If you are reading this blog, I am thankful for you!!!! We're going to miss our AZ family and the annual celebration and the Woods' house as well as the mega-family gathering in Duncan. We love you guys in AZ and we're with you in our thoughts tomorrow (and all the other days as well). Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

A Presidential Visit, A Sledding Misadventure and Other Randomness

2009-11-16T16:04:00.003-09:00

Sorry to say that this post will be without pictures (insert big sigh here). Clayton took the camera to work last week and he went to Vegas this morning for this week and I still don't know where my camera is.. He took it to work last week to get a picture of Air Force One on the tarmac at Elmendorf. Yep, you guessed who our mystery guest was last week in AK. Mr Prez himself. It was his first trip to Alaska and he got off AFO during a refueling stop to "rally the troops". A two hour stop apparently constitutes a visit to a state even though those Facebook quizzes say you can't count a state as visited if you just were in the airport for a layover... anyway, I guess when you're the president, you get to make your own rules.. Anyway, there was much pomp and circumstance at EAFB concerning this visit, you can imagine. It turns out, they actually used the 525 (Clayton's flying squadron) hangar for the staging for the speech. Maybe you all didn't know, Clayton flies F22's so the 525 hanger actually stores F22 jets (weird, I know).. which the President's advisors promptly had removed (insert sound of a record being scratched and brakes being applied squeakily). Oh, and the president also wouldn't sign anything that had an F22 logo on it. So all those pictures, t-shirts, hats that had F22s on them, right, his aides informed the pilots he wouldn't sign them. Oh, and the F22s that they made the maintainers move from the hangar, they replaced with an F15 that is headed to the bone yard. And let me also add that Clayton's butt was in the alert shack (F22s on 24 hour alert to keep the Russians in check).. and there were 2 F22s flying air-support during Barack's (I'm going to call him by his first name, we're all equals here in AK) visit.. BUT, by all means, make sure the man isn't photographed with one. WHAT?!?! I digress.. He said some nice words about military families and blew other assorted smoke up people's hind-ends. I think people enjoyed lining up for his kool-aid. I mean, it was a historical event and I'm sure my kids would have appreciated the opportunity to see a real live president had I not had other plans that day. (I guess the logic for the advisors, let's lay blame where it is due (snicker, snicker), is that one of Barack's first acts as president was to effectively kill the F22 program. Forget about the billions already spent on the program that he wasted signing off on the bill...again, I digress. I guess he wouldn't want to appear hypocritical being photographed with or around an F22).

UGH!! I thought I'd feel better after the rant but I don't. Now I'm going to post a picture of us as a family.. we're not ashamed to be photographed with an F22.

And here's another one of Clayton who is not ashamed to FLY and F22 let alone be photographed in one.

(please don't let my irritation offend those of you who are big fans of his.. really, I respect the office and all that.. I do. I was just (and am obviously still) VERY ANNOYED by the behavior of his advisors..who speak for him)

********onwards and upwards*********

So we've got some snow.. and we're sledding. Clayton took the kids one evening last week and they had a great time. So good, in fact, that Kara's dinner prayer went something like this: "Dear God, thank you for this wonderful day. Thank you for my friends and my good day at school. Thank you for our food. Oh! And thank you for my awesome crash. Amen." I guess when Clayton was "launching" Kara down the hill, he ended up launching her off the sidewalk and she ended up sailing off a 6 foot "cliff"/retaining wall onto our street. Sweet! NOT!! We're thankful she wasn't hurt and we've spent much time reviewing how that is not awesome... My sweet little adrenaline junky.

Clay-Clay is good, too.. he's a hoot. He found out his friend Ryan's mom is pregnant and asked us how you get pregnant. I told him that God gives you babies. Fortunately, it satisfied him (for now). UGH!!!!

The kids and I are on our own this week, as mentioned above. Sadly, it's been below zero and is predicted to remain that way for the week. I'm sorry, but just like 115 is hot, anything below zero is cold. We've got the proper cold-weather gear but it just doesn't cut it when it's that cold. I went for a walk this morning and I forgot how unforgiving frost on the upper-lip can be.. in other words, I will be waxing my lip tonight or I will never live it down once Clayton gets home. Ah, the joys of arctic living. Wish you were here :)

Snow!!!!

2009-11-09T14:56:00.003-09:00

We had our first "measurable" snow last night.. it was a winter wonderland (or horrorland, depending on the person/driver) this morning. I was patting myself on the back having gotten all the appropriate snow gear together for the kids. Sadly, however, I didn't bother to see if Clay-Clay's snowboots still fit. They don't. Not even close. Ooops. At least he had his snowsuit, jacket, gloves and hat. I'll find some boots before Wednesday (unless there's been a run on size 12 kids snowboots..which there probably has been).

Here are some pics of this morning.

Clay getting carried into school..no snowboots.

Kara on her way into the school.. see how dark it still is at 9:00??

IDK.. I think we got like 6"?

My personal sidewalk-shoveler. Thankfully he was going to work later today and shoveled for me.

See... I told you!!!

2009-11-06T22:01:00.006-09:00

Visual proof that Kara got an award at school. My neighbor, who is a tuned-in, good mother, took the picture because she noted that I was, in fact, absent :)

Mother of the Year.. It's locked in.

2009-11-06T15:40:00.003-09:00

I know all of you out there who thought you had a good shot at mother-of-the-year are going to be severely disappointed to hear that it's officially mine. Yep, that's right. You all lose and I win! Why? you ask.. well, for starters, we arrived at Clay's school this morning, on time, only to find everyone wearing their pajamas. WHAT!? How did I miss that memo?? Oh, it was in a note in the backpack that I kept forgetting in the back of Kamdon's car. Easy mistake to make. So, I'm looking at Clay who is losing his composure by the second.. I can see that my suggestion of "Who cares! You can just wear your regular clothes" was the wrong thing to say.. So, I say the next best thing "I'll go to Walmart and buy you a pair. I'll be right back". Also the wrong thing to say. Clay is MELTING DOWN, his teacher is looking at me like I'm, in fact, mother-of-the-year already.. so I grab him.. we run to our friendly neighborhood Walmart and promptly buy the first over-priced pair of Spiderman PJs we see. We changed his clothes in the car in record time and got him to circle-time just in the nick of time... disaster averted?! (but judgement NOT averted as several mothers asked me how I could have forgotten (I didn't have it in me to tell them it's impossible to forget something you NEVER KNEW!!!!) the PJs).

NOT SO FAST! So I go pick Kara up at school.. she comes running out of the building waving around an 8x11 piece of paper that looks suspiciously like an award certificate with a big smile on her face. "What have you got, Kara?", I ask. Says Kara "Remember that award ceremony I wanted to you to come to?? I got the award for Art in first grade". WTH? I remember her saying something about an award ceremony but there was nothing from her teacher or the school on this one... but seriously, feeling like a giant jackass nonetheless. Again, wondering how it is possible to forget something I was never actually informed of. Oh, and yes, there were other parents there.. just not me (and CERTAINLY not Clayton).

Considering we have 2 squadron functions this weekend and Clay having his first sleepover with Ryan tonight, I fear that I have more than ample opportunities remaining to cement in my award for the year, if not mother-of-the-DECADE, the rate things are going.

Needless to say, I am very proud of Kara for her art award and I am sufficiently repentant for making Clay forget (his words.. how I can make him forget something is beyond me) his PJ day at PRESCHOOL! Any chance I'll be able to just escape to a spa tomorrow? NONE!

Trick or Treating Fun!!

2009-11-01T13:06:00.006-09:00

(What Halloween night looked like when we headed out trick-or-treating.. COLD!!)

We've had a fun and busy Halloween weekend up north. First and foremost, there is no snow (yet)! Some of my more faithful readers may recall my "slip" on the ice last year. At least I didn't have to worry about that whilst trick-or-treating with the kiddies. However, it was still COLD! We did our street and 2 others before we called it off. This year we had a neighborhood party at our house. Lots of families on our street have kids our age so it was fun to hang out, have chili and drink yummy fall sangria. I think fun was had by all (except for the resident grinch, Fokker.. he says no more parties.. I've heard that before).

On Friday night, we went to the ubiquitous "Fall Festival" at Clay-Clay's school (i.e., Peace Lutheran). Peace is a small little church with billion dollar views of Anchorage, the inlet and the Alaska Range. The pastor and his wife are so sweet and their little church puts on a really fun night of games, candy and hotdogs. They had been building it up all week at school so Clay was primed to go. We brought Ainsley, Chase and Ryan along for good measure. Lots of fun. Both Friday and Saturday nights make us thankful for the good friends we have in Alaska.

Candy, games and face-painting galore on Friday night.

Kara and Ainsley... Ainsley came as Ariel, Kara as a movie star (fancy).

For this party, Clay came as Jeff Gordon. He didn't enjoy the homemade mac-n-cheese. It's powdered cheese all the way for this discriminating palate.

Our spooky music and black cat deco. (Clayton made me change the channel from Sounds of the Season because he thought the pictures of skeletons were too scary.)

Monster eyeballs. Actually, they didn't turn out like the pictures I originally saw but they were tasty.

Mummy dogs. YUM!

Most of the kids who partied at our house on Saturday.

The movie star and the pirate. Clay HATED his "fake boots". I thought he looked so cute. And Kara, of course, was fancy.

Post trick-or-treating coloring and sorting of candy.

Clay-Clay just observing the rest of the kids.. he was tired and his hands were still cold from trick-or-treating. He swore he wouldn't want his gloves. He was wrong.

Thankful

2009-10-19T16:58:00.003-08:00

I have been thinking a lot about thankfulness lately. Without a doubt, I (we, my family) have much to be thankful for. Really, as much as I gripe, I realize my life is a walk in the park compared to lots of families out there. This last weekend, a friend of mine in Italy (they're stationed at Aviano) had a friend die right after she gave birth to her baby boy. She was healthy. Her baby is healthy. But she still died. Her husband now has a 1 year old son and a newborn son to raise on his own. I can't get this family out of my mind!! My friend Laurie always talks about how giving birth is dangerous business even though American MDs are good at heading off most catastrophes (I said most, I realize someone out there has a horror story to share). But I never for one second imagined any other outcome after my kids were born other than the one I had: some pain and sleepless nights. I can't get it out of my head how this family's life changed in the blink of an eye. I get that we're not guaranteed tomorrow. I do get that. I just have been thinking about how fragile life is. I have had a husband go into combat 3 separate times. I know what it's like to watch the news and hold your breath when they talk about plane crashes; how it feels to feel lightheaded when the doorbell rings at odd times during the day/evening. By the grace of God, there haven't been any catastrophes for us and, for that, I am grateful. At any rate, I'm going to link you guys over to a blog by a dad (also AF) who recently lost his wife after a battle with breast cancer. His blog is amazing. Even more amazing is the post he posted about the family in Italy. I guess I'd ask you to join with the many praying for these military families. Maybe you'll feel more thankful with me. http://bandssullivan.blogspot.com