Brady's Plant

Brady planted a Zinnia(I think), for Mother's Day. It didn't do much in the house but it took off outside. It's the pink one, he is so proud of it and goes to check on it daily, it is getting "babies", as he likes to call the new buds. He even has to water it himself too. There are about 5 new buds on there. I am amazed that it is doing so well, it looked sickly when I planted it outside but wow has it taken off. Brady has a green thumb.

Smoke in the Air

This was taken one day last week. We have had some forest fires in the area and when the wind blows from the south, we are the recipients of the smoke and ash. It looks like fog but it the smoke from the fires. This is on a good day. Some days the sky looked brown, it looked like something from a sci-fi movie. Last night it got so dark from the smoke that the street lights went on at 6:30 pm, and normally the sun is up until about 11:30 pm. This is the first summer we have experienced the forest fires and hope it is the last, seeing that we have one more summer here.

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th with a few fire works out at a transfer site in Salcha, so as not to burn the forests down, it has been really dry up here. It is hard to see the fireworks because of the daylight, but we still try to make it fun for the boys, they still like doing that even in the daylight. They were waiting paitently all day for the ngihts activities and then it rained and we thought we wouldn't be able to do it, but it stopped and dried up enough to light them off. One more summer in Alaska and then it will be fireworks in the dark. We will get a butt load then and have a "blast".

Denali

We decided to do something fun this summer with Bryan going off for 6 mths towards the end of summer. We decided to take a tour of Denali National Park. It is about a two hour drive from base. We had a fun time, we stayed at the Princess Wilderness Lodge. We had a cabing looking hotle, the room was small but for what we used it for it work. They had a mini village in where we stayed, so we got to walk around and shop, eat and relax. We took the tour on the second day of our stay, we took a Tundra Wilderness tour which took us into the park for about a 5 hour ride. We got to see Caribou, Grizzlies, Dall Sheep and Brady's favorite the Snowshoe Hare. One of the tourists saw a wolf too, but it blended into the scenery and the boys didn't see it.We saw alot of beautiful scenery, even a glimpse of a glacier too. We didn't get to see the full view of Mt. Mckinley, but we have seen it enough times to know what it looks like and we flew over it on our way here too. We got a lot of great pictures, wish I could post them all on here, but can't. It is truly a sight to see. It is such a peaceful place to get lost in. It was a great tour, and the boys behaved great on the long ride.We went to eat at the Lynx Creek Pizza after, boy was that some good pizza, and for dessert we got some soft serve ice cream, it's been a long time since we had soft serve, seeing as though we don't have a DQ up here. We all had a good time but were happy to get home too. Next summer we want to take a trip down to Valdez and Seward, hopefully to see some glaciers and so that Bryan can check out his King Salmon fishing pole. Should be a good time. We are saving the biggest trip for our last summer here. In the one picture Brett is holding a set of antlers they have on display. The one is of our hotel room.

Arctic Circle

We decided to brave the Dalton Highway(The Haul Road), again to go up to the Arctic Circle. Despite having a car sick child(Brady), we finally made it up there this year, WOOOHOOOO!!! The boys didn't want to go out there, because they new how bad the road was from our firsat trip up there 2 years ago. It was so bumpy and crappy we turned around the first trip. This year the road was much nicer, it seemed to be more paved then dirt. We had a few dips that took us airborne, which got us all to laugh, until Brady threw up in the truck, mostly on the car mat. We got to the Yukon River Camp, had lunch, Brady felt better so he could eat, and we made it up to the Circle to cross it. We were disappointed, we thought it would have been better than what it was, it was just a sign as shown in the picture.We figured, not too many people actually can say they drove 200 miles to cross the Arctic Circle. It was a long trip and despite Brady getting sick we actually had a fun time.

Lunch Time visitor

We had a lunch time visitor today. I called the boys in for lunch and Bradynoticed a moose in the park behind our house. It has been hanging out in the wood on the otherside of the dyke.Today it ventured out from the woods and was playing with the park toys, it was kind of cute. It was rubbing it's head on one of the bouncy animals, and must of got scared when it bounced, because it looked like it was ready to high tail it and stomp on it. Then it made it's way into our front yard. The boys left their toys out and the garage door opened, because they were going out after lunch. I had Brett go close the door quick and we took our chances with the toys. It went to eat the birch tree in the front and then took an interest in the baseball that was on the grass and our flagsa that we have hanging. It even stopped to smell the flowers that I have planted. And just like she showed up she took off down the street, until the next time she meets up with us again. Brett was freaking out in the house and Brady was trying to scare it off. He was all brave and such until he opened the front door and it stopped chewing on the branches to give him a dirty look.

Class Pioneer Park

Brett's teacher decided to have a class picnic at Pioneer Park, in Fairbanks. We were suppose tohave a pool party, but the pool is closed for repairs. It was a very chilly and windy day at the park. We were the first ones there. The boys had fun playing on the swings, and slides despite the cold. Finally Mrs. Bell and her husband showed up and then a few more of Brett's class. We left after abut an hour or so, we were so chilly, we had to have the heat jacked up in the truck on the ride home. Too bad the wind and chilly temps put a damper on the fun.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Happy Easter, the boys woke up at about 6:00. I was mean and made them wait until after I showered and they changed and ate breakfast to go on the hunt for whatever the Easter Bunny hid.They were ok with it, which surprised me. Brett told Brady that they had to change and eat and brush teeth first, and Brady even agrred, WOW! They had a fun time running around the house, looking for Easter stuff. The Easter Bunny put stuff in shoes, the cupboards, the oven, lunchboxes, and closets. I think Brady found more baskets and Brett found more eggs, so it evened out.

Egg Coloring

We colored eggs Friday, so that Bryan could join in on the fun. He went to Missouri on Saturday morning, so he missed Easter with us. They had fun coloring eggs, the boys are pretty good at it. They could hardly wait to have the Easter Bunny hide them and then they could find them. Brett is especially proud of the one egg he is holding up in the one picture. He dyed it 3 colors and was upset when he couldn't find it right away this morning. The Easte rBunny was kind and wrote down all the places he hid the eggs, one year we couldn't find one, so ever since he has been keeping a list of where they are, so they don't stink up the house.

Our Sleeping Beauty

Brady can fall asleep anywhere, as is evident in these pictures. The one of him on the rocking chair is right after 5:00 p.m.. Bryan just got home from work and I thought brady was being funny. pretending to be asleep but the joke was on me, he actually did fall asleep. He must have been tuckered out from school. The one of him in our bed was about 7:00 one night. They like to go up in our room to watch TV if they don't like what we have on, and he fell asleep shortlly after crawling in bed.

Brett's Dinsosaur

Brett has a really cool teacher this year, Mrs. Bell. He really likes her and she understands him, so they work well together. Her husband comes in and helsp with classroom activities. They make the classroom feel like a home. Anywho, Brett made a triceratops with the help of Mr. Bell. That is Brett's favorite dinosaur. I think it turned out rather nice. I remember reading all kinds of books on dinosaurs that Brett would bring home from the library, and thinking man, you need to bring something else home, it was hard trying to sound out some of the names, but I did it the best I could, and now I kind of miss reading those books, he brings home Star Wars now. Guess it is true what they say about if you wish for somehting it may come true.

Squadron Easter Party

We had the Squadron Easter Party yesterday. I helped plan it with 2 other spouses. We had a fun time getting the eggs stuffed with candy, and hid. We had about 500 eggs,we wanted to make sure we had enough for all the kids. Well, little did we know that there would only be 11 kids there. We were a little disappointed with the turn out but it was their loss. The kids had a ball running around the hallways looking for eggs. The boys had their baskets full to the brim, we had to carry some of them. We also had them playing Bunny Bingo, which is always a fun time. I think we had a prize so each child got something, which turned out good.Brady had so much fun he fell asleep on the couch with his Patrick pillow. We had a fun time, regardless of the turn out, seeing the kids enjoy themselves was all worth the planning.

On a side note, I took Brett to the ER after I got home from the party. He had slepped on the ice and fell and hit his head. He seemed ok , but was rather quiet and not hungry, nothing like he normally is, so I got concerned and thought about Natasha Richardson and decided to take him right away.We waited there for about 4 hours, and in that time he started acting like his old self. He got checked out, and was declared OK. We were hungry and decided to go to McDonald's in North Pole to have supper, at 9:00pm.I told him thia was like a dte or something, and he got all embarassed and told me to be quiet. The only thing that sucked for him was that he missed a friends birthday party. They were going to go glow putt golfing. I said I would have you checked out and be othing then for you to have an issue at the party and he agreed. Maybe he got some snse knocked into him from the fall.

And the Winner is.......

Brett! He cleaned up at Pinewood Derby today. He took First Place for his Den, then he took Third Place overall for the Pack.He then went on to win Best in Show. He got a trophy for each finish and a wooden plaque for his best in show, where he can put his prize winning car on. He used the same car he used last year, because he came in third that time. Besides the plaque and trophies he got a deck chair, a meal kit for camping, and a camel back that holds water. He was very proud of winning. He was excited when he came in with all his winnings.

Brett vs Brady

The boys killed time before Scout's one night wrestling. I don't know who had more fun, them or us watching. I laughed so hard trying to get pictures. Brady was yelling that he is going to Irish Whip Brett, and Brett was yelling I am going to put the Figure Four Leg Lock on you, and Bradys was like whatever, just don't do the Walls of Jehrico on me, it hurts. It was like having a real live match in the kitchen.It was so funny to watch, is sounds so mean to say that, but they were having a fun time with it. Brady ended up being the winner, he pinned Brett for the 1,2,3!

Us

Bryan didn't make it for promotion to senior, hopefully next go around. He has been busy taking classes for his Bachelor's Degree. He is finally in his last class and will be done in early May!! He will be going to Missouri soon, for 2 weeks for a class. Then in late summer he will be going for 3 weeks of training and then on to a 6mth rotation in the dessert.
I am still at school working 3 hours. I will be doing a RAV training class in 2 weeks. I will be checking on the spouses of the unit's deployed members. If they need anyhting I get them the help they need or in touch with the people that can help. I am waiting for school to be out, I am so ready for summer. We got a good dumping of snow on us last week and I can safely say that I hate winter and can't wait to leave here. I hope we get a warm weather base the next go around.