A Little Catching Up

I've been informed that I am a terrible blogger-keeper-upper. :) ...Life has been so crazy lately... So I've got some catching up to do.

We had a good freeze about a couple weeks ago and spent lots of time out on the ice!

Ward Lake never quite froze completely, but we still skated at Frog Pond.

Carrie got a new camera lens for Christmas. She captured this ice crystal pretty well (and no, she said she didn't edit it either).

I don't have any pictures of the next event I'll mention. :) Sam had surgery last Monday to fix a hernia. Yep, the third kid of the family to get cut open within a year. We are getting well acquainted with our surgeon... :) Sam's recovery was amazing! His surgery was in the morning and by the afternoon he was off the couch, throwing balls and riding his "motorcycle" around the house. The next day as Mom was changing his clothes he was suprised to see a bandage and asked Mom what it was for. She told him it was from the surgery and it upset him as he started to remember. But as soon as he was dressed, he forgot all about it and was just fine. :)

Last Saturday we spent the beauitful afternoon hiking over on Gravina.

We could tell how much we were welcomed by all the friendly signs we came upon along the way.

We were actually looking at a little piece of property that is (kind of, sort of, may be) for sale. :)

Road Trip Part 4!

From warm, sunny Palm Desert we headed north...

Avoiding I5, Dad took us through lots of snowy mountain passes where the "view" was prettier.

While driving through Carson City, NV, we stopped at a children's museum.

Then we headed up to Oregon (yep, I'm really whippin' through this) :) and stayed with a couple different friends that live around the Portland area. Next stop: Seattle, where we stayed with another friend, who had a great little house on the water in the Ballard area. The view from the window at night was wonderful, as you could look out across the water all the lights of the houses on the other side...

We stopped at our cousins house again while in Washington. On our last day of vacation before getting on the ferry, we went skiing on Mount Baker. Emma hadn't been feeling well the night before, so Mom stayed with the little kids while Dad and our uncle took Paul, Carrie and I.

gearing up
the ski lifts up were half the fun! :) :)

It took a while to get used to the skiis, but after a while Paul was going as fast as everyone else. (I was a little more on the cautious side, but of course I had to keep up with him!)

the view from the mountains was amazing!

We got on the ferry the next afternoon and had a good ride back to Ketchikan. Some of the people that worked on the ferry knew Dad from Sea Piloting stuff, so we were very well treated! :)

we all had a great trip... but we were ready to come home...

...goodbye red rock and outdoor pools and farms and cows and amusement parks and big cities and all our friends/relatives that live in the "lower-48"...

Road Trip Part 3

...back on the road again...

Dad took us over to the Hoover Dam, and we drove across it. The water level was very low (as you can see!). We got there about twilight, and the lights of the dam were very pretty!

We didn't drive over this bridge, but it was near the dam, and looked pretty neat.

Palm Desert at last!!

The first thing we did when we got out of the car? Jumped into the pool! The house we stayed in had a "neighborhood" outdoor pool. It was dark by the time we got to Palm Desert, but the pool lights were on and the moon was out. It was a good evening swim. (And the hot tub felt SOOOO good after a long drive!)

We stayed in the desert for a little over a week. One of our favorite things to do was play in the neighborhood tennis court.

...and of course, the pool...

We went on a walk in park area that none of us can remember/agree-on what it was called. Something to do with Thousand Palms or Earthquake Park or Something-Preserve or Something-Oasis. :)

Thanksgiving at our grandparent's house

Dad took us to Knotts Berry Farm in LA (a couple hours from Palm Desert). We've been there once before and we all wanted to go back. It was a little crowded, and Dad strongly dislikes standing in line :) but we had a good time anyway.

Emma and I on a ride called the Sierra Sidewinder.

This was our favorite ride, called the Silver Bullet. Paul and Emma stuck with Carrie and I and went on all the crazy upside down rides with us. :) They were fun to hang out with. There was only one ride they refused to go on, the Extreme Scream, which was a large chair that takes you waaaaaayyy up, drops you, pulls you up again, and drops you again. (Note: I only went on that one once and I won't be doing it again.)

....Leaving Palm Desert.... There were windmills as far as we could see in every direction. I still have a few more pictures (and believe me, I've cut this waaaayy down!) that I'll get to later.