Water Fight!

Paul turned eleven on Friday. He had a friend over for the day, and someone suggested a water-gun fight outside. It had been pouring down rain all day, but we figured since we would be getting wet anyway during the fight, it wouldn't matter much if it was raining. :) You can't really tell by the pictures, but it is raining pretty hard.

Our water-gun fight turned into more of a water-balloon fight (Definitely more exciting - especially when you have Carrie filling the water balloons. I think she got more wet filling them, than during the fight!) In this picture, John is running from a water balloon that just popped at his heels.

The teams: ...boys...

...against girls...

(somehow the boys look more threatening)

In the end we decided that everybody won.

Our water-balloon fight turned into a water-bucket fight. Here, Emma just got hit with a bucket of water. She was a good sport.

The highlight of the fight: When I got Mom with a water balloon while she was standing on the porch taking pictures. :) She was a good sport too.

Happy Birthday Paul!!!

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 First Snow!

...this week we got our first "real" snowfalls...

Sam loves playing in the snow! He's proud of his snowball. :)

Yep, here's our typical winter dress code...no gloves, no hat, no zipped-up coat... We're in style! :)

Paul and the other little kids have been working hard on this "snow fort" all afternoon...

we love the winter...

Autumn...

Watching birds at the edge of our yard.

These Canada geese have been coming into our yard a lot lately...

apple harvest...

This fall, we actually got a couple buckets full of apples from the apple trees at the edge of our yard.

Okay... so they're not exactly top quality, and maybe a little bitter...

But Sam likes them! :) ...Actaully, the apples kept him entertained for about a half an hour. He took them out of the bucket, carryied them into the computer room, and lined them up in a nice row on the computer desk! :)

...And of course, Carrie's amazing photography...

I took this picture, and Carrie used her picture-editing computer program, to make it black-and-white, only she left the apple red! :) It makes for kind of a neat picture. (Don't ask me how she did it!!)

An Alaskan Moment...

The other day, Carrie and I were out on our beach with some friends of ours, and seeing a group of whales surfacing nearby, we walked out to the end of the beach to watch them. There were a couple of large ones, and they were blowing and slapping their tails against the water. Then, one of the largest whales came all the way out of the water and did a magnificent breach!! We were all amazed! Carrie had her camera with her, and was able to snap a few pictures. It was a great Alaskan moment!

the ending splash...

Another Beautiful Day Outdoors!

I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone was doing on this beautiful day, so I got out the camera and wandered around the yard...

I caught Paul off guard with this picture.

He didn't have time to make a silly face or duck out of view! Ha! :)

Mom's doing some more gardening...

Emma's playing with dolls on the porch...

And.... Sam!? Actually, no. I was startled at first too... someone must of taken his coat and hung it in the yard on a stick!! For the past 3 hours, ever time I look out the window I go, "What's Sam doing out in the yard!?" Then I remember its just his coat on a stick. I can think of about 6 somebodies that could have done this... (not counting me, Joanna, or Sam) What's your guess? :)

Dad's doing some house work...

Hmm... it took me a minute to figure this one out. We have a small boat in our yard, and over the months it has gotten filled up with rain water. Right now John is looking for fish. He says he's already caught 3, and is putting them in the jar he's got in his hand.

Look at that concentration!! (He's been sitting there for about an hour now) :) He calls them his "mosquito fish".

Walking Lunch Creek Trail

Sam LOVES the outdoors, even when it's cold.

He didn't cry until we took him out of the stroller to go home.

the creek was pretty neat... mostly frozen over

Beautiful Southeast Alaska...

These were some beauitful scenery photos taken from our boat on our way to Wrangell. Dad needed some work done on the bottom of one of his large 75-foot fishing tenders (the Roedda), so we all went with him and took a family trip. The first day of traveling was beautiful! It took us a day and a night to get to Wrangell from Ketchikan. On the boat ride we worked on our school and played games.