Spring Break!

Spring Break in the rainforest.

...Just enjoying life in Alaska...

Where else in the world can you have the beach all to yourself on Spring Break? It can't get much better than this.

In Ketchikan, the wise man always builds his sand castle with rocks...

Our "New" Kitchen

We had our counters replaced with new lamenent in January, and we've just lately added the last finishing touches: new paint for the cupboards, new sponging on the top strip above the kitchen and a new curtain. It looks sooo much better now. Wish we had "before and after" shots, but we didn't think to take pictures of our "old" kitchen, so all we have are "after" shots... :)

Dad tore out all the old counters, made new counters and put the lamentant on, Mom did the green stamping/painting strip across the top of the kitchen, scrubbed and sanded all the cupboards, did most of the cupboard painting, and I... um... let's see... I think I kept Sam out of the way for a couple hours one time...

You can tell Carrie was the one that took these pictures... she is always going for the "best" angle, there's no such thing as "just taking a quick picture for the blog" :) :)

Sam turns 2!

Wow! It has already been a year since I posted pictures of Sam's 1st b-day! He has grown up so much this last year! He is such a sweet brother!

opening presents...

here's Sam celebrating over a new shirt

(seriously, that's what he's doing here, he's saying, "yeah!"... who knew that a two-year-old boy could have so much enthusiasm for new clothes?!!) :)

Here's a video of Sam opening presents. The sound on my camera isn't so good, so you may have to turn the volume on the computer up quite a bit to hear. Sorry it's so fuzzy; need a good video camera!

Mom and Sam

in the evening we had a birthday dinner at our grandparent's house

Sam was very excited about the cake! He has a dairy intolerance (we are all hoping he outgrows it!!!) so hasn't been able to have treats like cake and icecream... for his birthday, though, I made him a dairy-free cake and he enjoyed eating it with the rest of us.

We love you, Sam!

Art Class

This past month, Carrie, Paul, Emma and I have taken art classes from a friend who goes to our church. It's been very fun learning to paint with acrylics!

Landscape Painting by Emma

concentrating...

Bowl of Fruit Painting by Paul

Bottle Painting by Joanna

Apple Painting by Carrie

Dad thought it looked so fun he gave it a try...

I would have posted his painting too, but strangely, it's gone missing... hmm...