Life is Good!

Oh my gosh, its been so long.....

I'm soooooo sorry that it has been so long! It's been busy around here! After this very LARGE post I am going to do my best to keep up on this better. :)

I'm going to start with the most recent and work backwards. Grandma Carol & Grandpa Jerry came up for a week and we had a great visit. We went on a train ride to Denali. 

 Love this picture!!

We went to Fairbanks over Memorial weekend for Riley's baseball tournament. He is on 2 teams this year. This was for his competitive traveling baseball team. 

This kid is getting too big!! He looks so grown!

This picture cracks me up. :)

 

On to birthdays, both kids had their parties early before they got out of school since it hard to get a hold of people after school gets out. So first was Kenzie, she wanted to go roller skating.

Riley decided he just wanted a few friends over and have a BBQ and play games so that is what we did. Andy set them up the fire pit and they made Smores too. 

Mackenzie did track at her school this year. It was a 2 week thing. She did really well for never doing something like that before.

She ran the 400m

 She also ran the relay

Mackenzie and her best friend Tana

 I went on a field trip with Mackenzie to a glacier

 

Andy and I had our 20th wedding Anniversary. We went on a over night trip to Seward and went on a Grey Whale watching trip. It was early in the season so we only saw a few but we had a great time. :) Here are a few pics from our whale cruise.

 

You can see the whale blowing in this picture. We saw quite a few doing this.

 

 We took a trip home to Oregon & to Disneyworld.

Yummy disney desert


This tree was amazing!! It is in the Animal Kingdom Park. It is massive!!

While we were in Florida we went to our first NFL game. We went and saw Marcus Mariota (Former Oregon Duck player) play. We got about 10 rows up from the bench. Pretty cool!

 Riley had one of many band concerts

Riley doing a solo

This is Riley's band teacher Mr.Zelinsky. He is amazing! He is also a professional sax player himself. He was his 6th grade regular band teacher and now is his Jazz teacher. I take Riley to school at 7:00am, 1 hour before school starts for advanced jazz everyday. So proud of this kid! :)

 Christmas 2015

 For Halloween Riley was Robin Hood and Mackenzie was Princess Elsa!

Go Jaguars!!!  Riley did football it was 6 days a week and slowed down to 4 days a week at the end but his team made it to the playoffs and won the Championship!! GO JAGS!!!! Undefeated!!!

 We squeezed in a camping trip over Labor Day. Here is Aunt Heather freezing but Riley thinking its still warm out....Its NOT!!!! lol Crazy Kid!!

S mores! Yummy!!

Feeding the birds

Took the kids down to the Russian/Kenai River to go fishing. This was Mackenzie's first trip down. We had a blast! 

Back to school! Riley started 7th grade this year. Crazy that he's in Jr. High already!

Mackenzie started 3rd grade!

 

Both kiddos played baseball this past summer

Riley spent the whole season playing catcher. 





He got to do some pitching too. :)

Riley got picked to be on a all star team on top of his regular team. Fancy foot work huh?

Riley graduated 6th grade!! 

Yes we are still alive........

First let me say sorry to the grandparents for it being so long since I was on here. Sorry!! And to give height updates.....Ri is now 5ft 1in and Kenzie is 4ft 2in  They both are growing like weeds!

I'll start with the most recent and work back....

Ri had his last concert as a 6th grader the other night. All the 6th graders of Anchorage played together. 50 schools and over 2,400 students played together. It was pretty cool. 

This is only one section. Riley is right below the blue sign. :)

We ran to the zoo last weekend..

This guy was my favorite! We watched him walk over there and lay down like that! So funny!

Easter....

Auntie Heather and Mackenzie played some dress up (Roxi too)....

 

We took a trip home to Oregon for a week and then flew to Disneyland for 3 days. I'll post more Disney pics later. :)

This guy was laying in our neighborhood this winter. :) So awesome!

 Both kids had a Xmas program at school...

 Halloween.....

 Riley was a Zombie Doctor

Mackenzie was a Monster High Girl


Roxi even wanted some candy that night. LOL

Having some hot chocolate after trick r treating in the cold.

Mackenzie and all her loot from the night. We actually had some houses handing out whole candy bars. Crazy!!

Riley's loot

Crazy sock day at school

Well I think that catches us up for now. :)  We have baseball starting in the next few weeks, so they will be keeping us busy. Mackenzie is still doing gymnastics every week and loving that! And after baseball is over Riley is going to try playing Pop Warner football this year. It's his first time so it should be interesting. :)

I think that catches us up for now. :) I'll try to be back on sooner!!

 

Andy's work trip...

A few months ago Andy had a work trip to fix a remote radio site and was gone for 2 weeks. A helicopter took him and three other guys to a peak called Alsek Mountain by Yakutat. They slept in tents and packed all freeze dried food. A few pictures down is a solar frame that had blown over. They had to fix it and install a bunch of new radio and comm equipment. Here's a few pics from the trip.

Here you can see the frame that blew over.  The helicopter had to sling load all of their tools, parts, and gear.  It took 13 trips and all of the first day.  They had a sling loading day at the end of the trip hauling everything back down. 

If you look close, you can see the helicopter with a sling load.  The guys split up, two on the mountain unhooking, and two down at the truck rigging.

The ropes around camp are a bear fence.

Since the site had been offline for a couple years, they replaced all of the solar panels, RF and electrical boxes, cables, antennas, and radio equipment in the shelter. They also made a bunch of changes to the structure and foundations to make sure it doesn't get blown over again.

Can you say.....no thank you!! LOL You couldn't pay me to get up that high and work. They had some really bad weather too that tore up a couple of their tents. Crazy!

The last two pics were taken after all the loads were slung off and once he was picked up and on the way back to Yakutat.

So here is Andy and the 3 other guys that went while waiting for their pilot on the last day. Pretty crazy pictures he brought home. It also was his first ride in a helicopter. He's used them on a couple other trips since.

I'll be back with Halloween pictures soon.  Good Night!

 

 

Birthdays, Baseball and More.... *Large Update*

So I'll go back to June for both of the kids birthday's. First was Riley's, he turned 11. He wanted a Oregon Duck football colored cake. That's also why he has green hair. LOL He didn't want a big party this year, he just wanted his friend Jeremiah to come stay the night and play games.

Mackenzie had to get in on the green hair too!

Mackenzie turned 7 this year and she wanted to have her birthday at the Bouncy House Place. She choose Monster High this year.

Mackenzie & Aaliyah

Mackenzie had a blast!

On to baseball....

Riley got asked to be on 2 different All Star teams this year. This was the first tournament.

This picture cracks me up how all stretched out he is.  LOL 

Here is Ri's last league game...

 Riley got to play catcher too this year. He had fun doing that!

This is Jared, he played opposite pitcher/catcher of Riley. He is a couple years younger than Riley but he has been playing for a few years and does really well. The boys became quite good friends and Riley would pitch the best when Jared was catching and same with Jared when Riley was catching. It was quite funny. 

Pizza and drinks after the last game! It was a fun season. 

 

Over Labor Day we tried to go camping again! The mosquito's were RIDICULOUS!!!! I'm not even kidding!! We only stayed 2 nights and came home a day early because we ended up hanging out in our tents more than not. I did snap a few pictures. :)

Getting some firewood!

Boys are chillin!

Awwww! :)

Riley and Jared got picked for a All Star tournament at the very end of the season. They had a solid week of everyday practices, then a 2 day tournament. 

Riley got to do some catching on that team too. They played the Fairbanks team and Riley ended up seeing a few kids he knew from when we lived up there. They all had fun trash talking each other. In a fun way!! LOL

Riley also learned how to bunt this year. He picked it up pretty fast, and did really well doing it.

Resting in between games

Pep talk after the game. That's Ri on the far right sitting on the ground looking at me.

Riley & Jared

Ok, Back To School......

 Riley is in 6th Grade and Mackenzie is in 2nd this year.

School is going great for both of them so far. We have teacher conferences in 2 weeks so we will get to find out the scoop from their teachers.

A few weekends ago we ran down to the Wildlife Conservation Center. It's about 40 min away. 

This guy was pretty cool. He started to bugle and Andy caught him doing it. 

This guy was my favorite!!

This guy was laying so funny!!

They had a few new baby moose.

After that we ran down the road and walked a little trail.

That's a glacier coming down behind us.

Ok, so that's what we have been up to. Sorry it's been so long since I have updated. I will be back soon to post some more. :) Andy went on a work trip for 2 weeks and took some cool pics, so I'll post those next time. Talk to everyone soon.  :) Bye!!

So Much To Catch Up On... Part 1

So let me back up to Memorial Weekend. We went camping for the long weekend and had a blast. We went about a 3 hour drive away. It was a little chilly at night but all in all we had a great time. So here are a few pics from that. We were able to get 2 campsites next to each other and gather in the middle.

And only in Alaska do you have to first rake your campsite to get rid of all the moose poop before you can set up your tent!! No kidding!! LOL 

Uncle Jeremy was helping Riley on his pitching form. :)

Roxi stole Mackenzie's chair. Which was fine since that girl hardly sat down all weekend.

Kenzie blew bubbles

She also would disappear into the tent to read her books.

Aunt Heather & Uncle Jeremy brought the game Ladder ball. Which was a huge hit. :)

Just Hanging Out

Mackenzie was going all around the campsite picking up all the big rocks and getting them out of there.

The boys getting us a fire going to cook dinner.

 

We took a hike.

Played some more games.

Mackenzie was racing Jeremy on his bike. She thought she won but I'm pretty sure Uncle Jer was letting her win! ;)

Can't go camping without having smores!!

On the way home I turned around to see this. I think we wore her out!! We all had a great time. Can't wait to go again.

Well I have a bunch more to post but its going to have to wait, its getting late. I'll be back with birthdays and baseball! Have a good day!! :)  Bye!

Mother's Day, Gymnastics, Baseball & More.....

On Mother's Day we took a drive down the Turnagain Arm and stopped at a few places and took pictures and hiked out on some rocks. Here are a few pictures from that.

We got Riley to take our picture. :)

I had a great day. We had beautiful weather and a nice relaxing day. :) Who can't love the beautiful scenery of Alaska???

On to gymnastics.  Mackenzie has been going once a week to class. She had her final show last monday.

She had a lot of fun. There is a few week break for the holiday and then she can decide whether she wants to go back and go up to the next level.

The other day I went with Mackenzie to the zoo for a field trip. I volunteered to drive and I had 4 very giggly girls!! CRAZY!!!  Here is just a few from that.

You can kind of see Mrs. Rose buried under the kids. :) They love her!

Mackenzie also had a music concert the other night. She got to be a speaker in it. I was a little nervous for her having to read a big part in front of everyone but she did great!!

 

 

On to Baseball.... Riley started this week and we had a game today. They asked him if he wanted to try pitching. He did and the little stinker was pretty good. 

He also hit the ball everytime he was up to bat!

 

We only have 4 more days of school left!! Crazy school is over already!! Seems like things are getting crazy around here now that the weather is nice and we can get out. We are all heading camping for the big weekend so stay tuned for pictures after we get back.  Hope everyone has a great week and I'll post more after we get back. Bye!!!

 

Easter.....

We found a GREAT place that had a egg hunt this year. It was really the first time the kids had to look for eggs. Usually there has been so much snow still the eggs are just laying on the snow and they just pick them up. This year they got to to go look in the woods a little.

Mackenzie ran into one of her friends from class Aaliyah.



The girls checking out what they got in thier eggs.

Riley ran into one of the girls in his class too. They both made out pretty good.

After the hunt they had cupcakes and juice for the kids. (I Love this picture)

 

Then we colored eggs that night.....

So that was our Easter. Last night we went and signed Riley up for Baseball and in 2 more weeks Mackenzie has her final "show" they call it in gymnastics so I'll be able to get pictures of that too.  We are also loving our warmer weather we are having right now! It's in the low 60's this week! Hope everyone is good!! :) Have a great day!!!!!

Layouts......

I've  been squeezing in some scrapping time when I can.  Here is what I've done lately.

 

Besides that nothing too exciting around here.  I'll try to post again soon Grandmaa's!!!! :) 

April Already????

Wow!! I can't believe it's April already! Kids will be out of school for the summer next month!! Crazy!!  Not too much going on around here. We have had snow on the ground up until 2 weeks ago when it's been in the 40's and finally melting this white crap!! I'm READY for it to go away now!!! LOL

Last month the kids had a walk a thon for school. They could choose to walk in snow shoes, ice skate or ski laps around their playground. They both did snowshoeing. Here is Mackenzie. She went first.

Here she is getting her tag punched. Every lap they would stop and one of the older kids would punch it for them.

I Love this picture of her!! She is just so cute! :)

Next up was Riley....

Every lap they could grab graham crackers, oranges, and water.

Riley getting his lap punched.

Then the kids had crazy hair/mustache day at school.....

And when there is still snow on the ground and not much to do, Mackenzie talks Auntie Heather into playing dress up!! :)

My favorite one.....

 

I guess that catches us up for now. Hope everyone is having a good one.  Have a good day! Bye!! 

 

Ice Fishing & Chuck E. Cheese....

The boys went Ice Fishing last weekend while I took Mackenzie to a friends birthday party at Chucky E. Cheese. They were doing so well that they ended up not coming home until 10:00 that night. Here are a few pictures they took.

Here is Mackenzie and her friend Felicity. They are in the same class. The last time Kenzie was at Chucky E. Cheese she was 2. She was VERY excited to be there.

Here she was after winning all these tickets on this one machine. She was excited. :)

Tomorrow night we are taking Mackenzie to try out gymnastics. So we will see how that goes. Riley is waiting to sign up for football next month.  So I guess that is it around here. Have a good week!