Merry Christmas!

It was a miracle!  This was the first year Maddie wanted to see Santa!  No tears, she really wanted to talk to him and tell him all about the princess drum (that doesn't exist) she desperately wants that sings "let it go let it go" when you drum on it.  (Santa searched high and low and did miraculously find a frozen drum- although no singing.....this girl should be in product development because it appears to be the only frozen item not made.)  Chloe asked for an easy bake oven, and was most concerned about asking Santa what his favorite color was (red) , and what his favorite flower was (alaskan bluebell).  The girls both made adorable cards - which massive mom fail- I forgot to capture on film before they gave them to him.  They are so so so excited for Christmas this year, and that makes it all the more fun for us.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Afternoon at the dog park

This is what Alaska looks like right now.  Gorgeous!!  We decided to take Powell out to Conners Bog  dog park after school.  It was quite an adventure for the girls and Poweel ran around like crazy!  Win Win!  Such a great afternoon.

Oregon wrap up

Oh how I miss you sunny weather!  We had so much fun with Tomoko and her adorable girls!  We went to the park, picked blueberries, traveled around Oregon and had an overall awesome time.  The vacation was over far too fast!  We miss Grandma and Grandpa time too!  

 Mom and Kaon

 Saiyaka

 Kaon

 Chloe :)

 First merry-go round!

 Shopping with mini-carts.  How do we not have these in Alaska?!!  I would shop here all the time!

 Believe it or not the kids found the cany isle on their own!

 Next up the most awesome blueberry picking ever.  It was all you could eat and the girls tested that theory thuroughly!  We managed to fill several buckets too :)

 We ended up with about 35 pounds of blueberries!  So amazing!  

 On our trip to Eaglecrest in Eastern Oregon we stopped by Detroit Dam so the girls could check it out and stretch their legs.

 It was hot so we had quite a few ice-cream breaks on the two day whirlwind trip.  

 Even with the ice cream it was lights out as soon as I started the drive back to Salem.  They played and swam hard on our vacation!

 We were lucky enough to stop in and see Brian and Natalie and their two wonderfully adorable and sweet kids on our Portland leg of the trip.  

 Waterfall park in downtown Portland

We even made it back in time for Bennies b-day Party.  It was pretty amazing! 

 To my glee we also made it to the art fair in Salem.  It is my favorite event of the summer and it was just dumb luck that we happened to be there for it.  This is Maddie squirrel watching :)

 We did a little sky diving.  Never to early to start right ;)

Phew that is it for the Oregon photos.  I have so many more great ones but my goal is to get back into the swing of blogging what is currently going on in our crazy fun and hectic lives.  

Day at the beach

Again it is fall here, so I am taking time to remember the sunshine!  One beautiful day we took off to the coast and enjoyed all sorts of fun.  There was a dory days parade with a giant shopping cart car (crazy awesome), and of course candy to collect which the kids took very seriously.  Next we went to lunch and spent the afternoon on the beach.  So nice!!

Memories of sunshine!

So it has been a busy fun summer, and now that the leaves are changing to yellow I figured it is time to update the blog a bit!  Yikes!  Here are some photos from our Orgeon trip.  It was the best trip down yet, with hot weather and friends I haven't seen in ages.... 15 years kind of ages!!  It was so hot we ordered a pool!  

 Fountains at the waterfront park.  Super fun.

Face Painting at Ambers house.  I started off the face painting but then the girls wanted to do it themselves so this is what we ended up with!  Not bad!

 All the girls: Amber's girls, my girls and Tomoko's  girls!  Even though Saiya and Kaon could not speak English and our girls couldn't speak Japanese, they got along wonderfully and had no trouble playing together at all!  It was so awesome!

 I am desperately missing the sunshine, and heat and friends and family, but thanks to the internet I can still feel connected....if only I could feel the heat....