Spring Break 2011: Joint-Ops

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........

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

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

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??? 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

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 :)