A Little Escape

Turn on the Christmas music.... no really, go do it, right now....... OK, do you have "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas" on? Now get yourself some hot chocolate, come on, quit making me have to beg..... go get yourself some hot chocolate.... hurry up. Now, make sure there is no noise in your house, except the Christmas music, and watch this little clip.

Cara, you'll have to get your kids to see this, since they rarely get to see it snowing! :)

Now, go take a Valium, we've got to get to church in this slippery stuff!!

Melanie,
I put the larger pictures of the bear and the bear skull at the bottom of the post so you can see them better. Vonnie

A few random pictures

Drew outside playing soccer in the snow with a "muscle" shirt on. We don't have too much snow, really, just an inch or so, and the temps aren't very bad, somewhere around 30... but I still got tickled at Drew outside playing without a coat on. He has always been very hot-natured. :)
While Andrew was home this past weekend, he went and picked up the bear skull he had a taxidermist friend "do" for him. It is the skull of the bear I had pictured at the bottom of this blog for a long time. I don't have it down there now, but it is a HUGE bear!! The twins were really intrigued.
He also picked up Drew's buffalo skin which you can see here. This is just the back half of the skin because they are doing a head mount, so you can see how big this animal is.
Tyler wanted to help me shape the rolls for Sunday dinner... my hair is wet, that's why it looks like that.
Aurora had another litter of puppies a few days ago. We have three puppies left who seem to be doing well.

Andrew left this morning to go back to St. Mary's. Hopefully he will be able to return in about 10 days. He will have to fly his airplane back and that is really dependant on good weather, so pray that the weather is good so he can get back here in good time and not get stuck somewhere between here and there.

The house is finished.

Andrew got in from St. Mary's last night. Drew was finishing up his house that I talked about in an earlier blog. So we pitched in and helped fill in the mud in between each log in the house. It was due today, so we should find out this evening how he did as far as his grade is concerned. I am really proud of Drew. The whole project was his brainchild and he carried it out with the help of Grant and then right at the end, Andrew, me, Heidi and Katie. I thought he did an awesome job!

P.S. He came in second! I'm so proud of him!

Happy Birthday, Heidi

I wanted to post this yesterday..... it was her birthday, yesterday.... but I had computer problems, so I'll post today! My Heidi girl turned seventeen. It is incredible to me that I have a 17 yr. old. I so remember that blonde, curly hair that had everybody stopping me and commenting everywhere I went. Heidi has been a joy, Andrew and I are so proud of her. She loves Jesus with all her heart. She studies hard in school and makes good grades. She is trying to decide what college to go to and is asking God to guide her. She has the best sense of humor and has quick, smart-aleck come backs when someone is teasing her. (that's my girl)

This weekend the kids are all down in Wasilla for the soccer tournament, so we had a little birthday party for her Tuesday evening. (they left Wednesday) That picture above is funny because you can see Aurora looking in the door window, wishing she was included in the celebration.

The House that Drew and Grant built

Drew has a project he's doing for History. They are supposed to make a home just like the settlers would have done back when the "New World" was being populated. They can only use raw materials or materials that they could have obtained back in colonial times (like nails). So he enlisted help from his little brother. They collected twigs and downed tree limbs and now you can see what they've done so far. The wheelbarrow is full of mud they are using to keep the house wind and water proof. He didn't ask for any help, so he may have problems with the waterproof part, but I am really proud of what he has gotten done so far.

Weekend getaway

Well I went to see my dear husband this past weekend. He is winding down the job in St. Mary's and isn't going to get to come home until the work is done.... that is somewhere in the first week of October. It was unacceptable to both of us, so I made arrangements for a sitter (thanks Katie R.) to stay with the kids for the weekend and I took off Thursday night and spent the night in the Anchorage airport.... UGH!!! Don't try this folks. I didn't get in to Anchorage until 11:30 p.m. Thursday... I had to catch the 6:30 a.m. flight Friday to St. Mary's which means being at the airport at 5:30, which means waking up at 4:30... so, why pay for a hotel for 4 and 1/2 hours sleep? It's not worth it, or so I thought.... I froze to death, besides being uncomfortable laying on benches with about 10 other people sleeping all around me.

But I am so glad I went. Andrew and I had a great time! Here are some pictures of what we did over the last few days.

Some of the work they have done in the school - "cubbies" for everyone.

One of the classrooms

I think both of these building have been refurbished by 66 North. (Andrew's and Gale's company)

This is Tanya, Gale's wife. She is the one who planned the menus and ordered/orders the food.. and she prepares the food, with a little help from.....

Alicia

Samantha

and Ginny (Alicia and Ginny are both pregnant.. that's why I took this picture like this)

Here are all four of the cooks, Lauren left a few weeks before this, there were five of them. Here is Sam's little boy, Logan, he is so cute.... ...but if he doesn't want you to look at him, he screams, just like this... (hahahaha)

Then we went flying in Andrew's Super Cub Straight ahead is the runway we used, it looks like a road, we were crossing the "big" runway.Looking back at the airport where we just took off Ain't that purty? We dropped and came in low over the dock so Darryl Q. could get a video on his camera Here I was trying to get a picture of Darryl, but the picture took too late. Still, I wanted you to see just how low we were to the water. (cringe) Beautiful fall colors along the Andreafsky River Thoroughly enjoyed the flying... can't wait to do it again! Love you, babe!!