Cool stuff we saw at Earthquake Park (claire's here part 6)

So Nate looks up and sees this Bald Eagle up in the tree. We were totally trying to be quiet so he wouldn't fly away, but he stayed there for quite a while even with lots of noise (aka: brad). It was quite a sight to see so close up. We see bald eagles all the time, but not so close usually. Something to check off on Claire's list of Alaskan things to see :)


Here's a closer up :)


And this was just INCREDIBLE to see- Claire got this awesome picture just milliseconds before her camera battery died - isn't that just how it goes!! But it was so neat!


Then we got to see this huge boat taking off out of the harbor there downtown. Kinda cool! I love these huge ships and that we can see them from our little walks.


We did stop to watch the planes but it was so cloudy- we could barely see them for a few seconds before they were covered with cloud. Kinda cool still :) fun picture anyway- thanks again Claire!

Church Pictures and Earthquake Park (claire's here part 5)

another in the hall at church picture :) what a cutie!


pretty girls :)


We took Claire on the walk through Earth Quake Park and up to our plane watching spot. Here's Charity at Earth quake park.


Here's Claire in front of the backdrop :)


What a handsome bunch of boys! Is there room for one more :)

Alaska Wildberry Products (claire's here part 4)

AWWWW!


the kids were doing the stoneman pose, and Kelly couldn't figure out where to put her jacket while she held her arms out- so she just put it on her head :) I thought that was funny.

yay


I like this one of me and my girls- this was at church in the hall. We never did get the whole family for a real picture in sunday clothes- sorry Claire.


love it!

Thunderbird Falls Hike (claire's here part 3)

This is one of our cool picture taking spots. We have a few right here :) None with coats though :)


or boots :)


this is another one of our spots.


Charity's riding her horsey


And yet another picture of me- for all those of you who think I don't put enough of me on my blog. I like this one :)

Thunderbird Falls Hike (claire's here part 2)

Love it!


This picture would have been perfect if he hadn't had a mouth-load of chocolate oozing down his chin.


another cool one- claire you should really blow these up!


Here's Kelly looking at the waterfall.


Here's a close up of the waterfall- it looked so weird with the ice around the sides and stuff- looks man made or something, but we decided it was probably the glacial silt.

CLAIRE'S HERE!!! (Part 1)

Claire made it to Alaska safely and arrived on Friday afternoon. Kelly made her a cute little welcome sign- don't they both just look SO ADORABLE :)


Then we went to the ULU Factory- that was Claire's first gift shop :) We got lots of pictures of us while Claire was here- thank you for that Claire!


This was from our hike up to Thunderbird Falls. It was really neat to see so many leaves on the ground- we missed Fall last year- it was raining so much, but this hike was SO BEAUTIFUL with all the yellow leaves!


I just think this is a cool picture- Claire! HOpe I'm not infringing on the copyright by putting it on my blog :) I lvoe it!


This is a real keeper- check out luke :) Well, 5 out of 6 is not too bad I guess :)

Kelly the Preschooler

Kelly has me take her picture everytime she goes to Preschool (I guess cuz we did it on her first day- she thinks it's just what ya do :) I thought she looked super cute in this one, and she was wondering why her pictures weren't on the blog :) So here it is.

Happy Birthday to Brad again!

It was fun to get one more present in the mail! He thought it was his birthday all over again- kept calling himself the "birhday boy" after he opened his "biderman baby". Thanks Grandma!

Happy Birthday to Bradley (part 2)

Bradley shared his cool candles with his sisters and they all got into the cake :)

Such a cutie :) I can't believe he's 3 already! I keep telling him to stop growing and he says "nope, I gwowing BIG BOY!"

This was the second session of conference- I LOVED it :)

Playing with the new toys :)

This is just Bradley opening his "yoyo cookies". He loves oreos :) so he got his own bag for his birthday. He's clearly still waking up :)

Bradley also got some snow for his birthday this year. It was only a little, and it melted in the afternoon (thank goodness- I'm not ready for snow yet), but the kids were pretty excited to see it.

Happy Birthday to Bradley!!!

Bradley's birthday was on Conference Sunday this year, so we had a really nice and relaxing birthday party for him at home. We played with balloons first thing-

Then Bradley opened his presents (he was barely coherent :)

"I got so much stuff!!"

Blowing out the candles

His cake this year was inspired by the "Construction Equipment" candles that Nana gave us a few years ago- we sure took it easy this year on the cake :) nothing too spectacular :) But Bradley liked it and that's all that matters! I'm really going to miss these years where they are so easy to please :)

Such a nice day! Won't be having too many more of these!

I just thought this was a nice view with the sun hitting the tops of the trees, and the snow on the mountains. It's so funny to me that in the summer the sun doesn't get this low until like 10 or 11:00. And the other night, Nate and I got to see something really special-- THE STARS!!!! We actually got to see the stars! It was dark, and not cloudy for the first time in a very long time! It was really neat. Oh the things we take for granted!





apparently this is what Charity "works on" at recess, getting on top of the bars.







When Nate got home from work a little early, we just had to take a little walk. We ended up at Charity's school. It got a little chilly and we had some grumpy kids on the way home, but it sure was nice to get out and not be getting wet. Gotta enjoy it while it lasts! The sun is turning into just a decoration again.


This is her thing I guess :) She's getting so grown up now that she spends the whole day away from home!



Kelly's learning :)

Kelly playing dress-up