HALLOWEEN

Sorry, I know this is a little late, but I wanted to get some pics put on the blog. We love Halloween around our house. We host an annual family costume/pumpkin carving contest. However, it's gotten so big, that we've had to divide it between two different nights. We usually try to have some sort of theme with our costumes, and the kids are good to go along with what we want to do (even though they may not really like it). The only requirement to come to our party is that you have to have a costume. This year we were all Dr. Seuss characters. I was the Grinch, Kristen was the Cat in the Hat, Katelyn was Cindy Lou Who, Caleb was Yertle the Turtle, and Kaden was JoJo (from Horton hears a Who). Everyone else in the family was, well, you can see for yourself. We appreciate everyone humoring us and coming dressed up. We don't know if anyone else enjoys it as much as we do, but we sure have fun.

Cartwheels

Before Katelyn was 3 years old she taught herself to do cartwheels. She got so good at them that I tried to teach her how to do a handstand. Well, once she started doing handstands, for some strange reason, she couldn't do cartwheels anymore. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't do a cartwheel. We finally decided to put her in a little gymnastics class. The teacher told us that you're supposed to start with handstands and then cartwheels, or it messes them up. Now, how was I supposed to know that!?! Anyway, they got her straightened out so she could do both again. They decided to move her up to the older girl gymnastics class because the other girls in her class were just barely learning to do somersaults. It's fun to watch her because she gets so excited when she's doing her gymnastics. She really enjoys it. Everywhere we go, whether it's in a store, in a parking lot, or a restaurant, if you give her a few feet she'll start doing cartwheels. I can't get her to stop! :)

I didn't want to leave her out of the video action, so here's a clip of her practicing her cartwheels in her pajamas.

Touchdowns and Baskets

This is Caleb's second year playing flag football. He has done a great job, and he really enjoys playing. With all the great plays that he's done, we finally caught one on video. (Ignore the little boy that is laying right in front of the camera, and look in the background as the play begins. )

This is also Kaden's first time playing basketball. I am one of the coaches, and it has been fun to watch them improve with each game. After Caleb's football game, we ran to Kaden's basketball game, and got a little video footage as well.

CELEBRATE

The other night we had two reasons to celebrate. First, Caleb's and Kaden's soccer teams both played in the championship game of their soccer season. To make it a little crazy, they both happened to be playing at the same time. Fortunately, they were playing on fields right next to each other. So we just sat in between the two fields and tried to watch both. And wouldn't you know it, but they both went into overtime. It was getting way too intense trying to keep track of what was going on in each game. And as luck would have it, they were both still tied at the end of overtime, and both games went into a shootout. Now, would it be too much to ask for one game to wait while one shootout happened, and then do the second one after? Of course it would! So both shootouts started at the same time, but at opposite sides of the field. You should have seen us running back and forth between the two. Kaden got picked to be goalie, so his was a little more intense for us. Unfortunately, after all that craziness and excitement, they both ended up losing their shootout. But we were so proud of them, how hard they both played, and the very fact that they made it to the championship. That alone was worth celebrating.

The other thing we celebrated that night was Kristen's birthday. So after the game we stopped and got pizzas, rootbeer and icecream to make rootbeer freezes, and we went home to celebrate a fantastic day.

I just wanted to make a few comments about some of the things I love and appreciate in Kristen:

--Her selflessness

--Her soft voice as she sings lullabies to our children

--She lets me do the family blog

--Keeping me up at night as she tells me about her day

--She's older than me :)

--Her support of me and my activities

--She always lets me choose the radio station in the car (and she humors me when I want to play "name that tune")

--When she talks to me in Spanish

--She NEVER leaves a house without having helped them clean up

--Her amazing gift of making others feel loved

And the list could go on. I'll suffice to say that I'm a very lucky man!

Princess

Katelyn was invited to a birthday party by one of her friends in our neighborhood. It was a princess theme, and each of the girls had to go dressed up as a princess. Along with other princess-type activities, they rode on a carriage around the neighborhood. It was adorable.

LAKE POWELL

Ok, so I'm a little late on this one, but I just HAD to post some pics from our Labor Day trip to Lake Powell. We went with three other families from our neighborhood, and we had a fantastic weekend. The water was over 80 degrees. The weather, for the most part, was great. Our second night there we had the craziest wind storm come in that we thought was going to blow our tent, with us in it, into the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that the top of the tent was flat down on top of us. It seemed as if 10 people were surrounding our tent, shaking it as hard as they possible could. It was pretty crazy! Somehow, we survived. Between tubing, swimming out to a little island near our camp spot, searching for lizards and frogs, sand in everything, mud in Caleb's eye (that took us 20 minutes to dig out), and laying around eating lots of junk, we had a wonderful time. Those of you who have been to Powell can relate to what a great place it is. For those of you who haven't been, you better plan a trip.

The boys patiently waiting their turn on the tube

Kaden, James, & Caleb riding the waves

Us dads now waiting for our turn

Yes, that would be me, on the bottom, and the first to get a face full of H2O

Hangin' out at camp

Kristen enjoying the boat rides

Kaden had a great time playing in the mud

Kaden & Caleb


O Captain, my Captain

Caleb back at camp


Katelyn and her future prince

the kids had a great time searching the rocks for lizards

Kaden finally caught one

Our good friends, the Meilsoes, brought their sailboat. Does this look like a postcard or what? The backdrop at Lake Powell is breathtaking.

Pics of Alaska

Somewhere over Alaska

A small house where we slept and set up clinic in Manakotak

The hallway where I set up (see previous pic)

My first time on a bush plane--scary!

A gold-mining town established by Wyatt Earp

The local villagers parked outside our lodge--waiting to get their eyes checked



A fishing vessel docked (and stuck) in the river until the tide comes back in

A sunrise out my bedroom window in Togiak