Jedi Battle

Today the kids were battling an invisible creature that had 4 robot arms and 4 light sabers! It was a tough and victorious fight. I am sure that Grace's tutu was the secret weapon!

Grandma Linda calls and reads bed time stories to the kids most nights, they love it! Well tonight I went to check on the kids while they were getting their stories. Grace was out like a light. Mom said that after she finished the first story Grace said, good night and that she loved grandma. Then Mom said she thought she was asleep because she did not hear another word from Grace.

Snow can be anything!

Yesterday morning we woke up to snow! I should not complain, at least it is not cold. I am just ready for sunshine and warm weather.

Kids have such an amazing imagination! When the kids first went out to play in the new snow yesterday, Cort started yelling. I asked what was wrong? He was telling me how the snow was lava! In the top picture he is throwing his dump truck out of the lava. They then got their little hand diggers and they were trying to dig all of the snow out of Cort's hide-out. They were having so much fun.

The next thing I knew Cort was getting his frogmen (divers) from the house. I asked if they would get hurt in the lava? Cort then said that the snow was not lava anymore, now it was the ocean! The Frogmen were looking for the giant squid. Then of course they were going to need reinforcements, the Army guys! So Cort got a few rock to make islands for the army troops. Grace was following orders well, they were working great together! I do not remember being so creative when I was little. When do we lose that?

It's Offical, we no longer live in Fairbanks, AK

This is what our house looked like before we moved in. The back yard was so over grown I remember how much work it was to mow it for the first time. Then cleaning up all the trees in the back yard! We, I mean I, worked hard at getting all of the gravel out of the front yard and planting all the grass. My dad did such a great job with the fence, and the windows in the kids room and all the nice red pavers for a walk way in front of the house. Thanks Dad! When you look at the before and after pictures is is amazing how much the house changed. The new coat of oil on the house last summer made a huge difference in the house. I am going to miss our home in Fairbanks and all the friends that made it such a happy home. I hope the new owners enjoy the place as much as we did!

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny found just what Cort wanted Star Wars Legos! Cort spent all morning playing with them. It is so wonderful that he can put them all together by himself!

Of course the Easter Bunny found clip on ear rings, necklace, two bracelets, Hello Kitty pen, paints, and lots of candy. The plastic jewelry set for $1 was her favorite, as you can tell that is what she is showing off in both pictures! Lucy even made an appearance in the bottom picture.

Sorry It has been a few days with no blogging, the weather has be horrible! Lots of rain and wind, about 40 miles per hour. It is hard to get motivated to do anything with weather like that. The sun came out today and we all spent the afternoon outside. I got lots of weeding and pruning done, there is still a lot to do. I figured I would save some for the next sunny day:)

Army Boy

I shaved Cort's head yesterday. What was I thinking? I have to look twice when I see him, I don't think he looks like Cort. Good thing that his hair grows fast. He likes it, he looks like an army guy! It was a quick easy cut and it didn't look like his mom did it. Cort is standing by some dirftwood I made frank bring home. I have decided that that is my new thing, getting a big dirftwood when we go to the beach. It might make for in interesting front yard.

Helping Spring

I though that I would try this growing trick with the kids, it really works. The second grade teacher at Hunter does bean seeds this way with her class. You put the seeds on a paper towel then put a little bit of water in the zip-lock bag, then take the air out. I have 5 little roots coming out of the seeds. If you have small children in your house in the spring, this is so exciting!

Last Beach With Mom & Grandma

Well Mom, Grandma and Natalie are all gone and back at their homes. My home is so quiet and there are no card games being played. We will have to wait till we are home in July. It was a good thing that this picture was not up close on our faces, because none of us could really open our eyes. The sun was so bright, I love spring when the sun is shinning!

This starfish was just interesting, he needed his picture taken. I really liked that you could see the little red dots on its back. I wish it did not have the slime on the one side, but I was not going to wipe it off with my fingers!

Crabby Beach at low tide

Today was another minus tide. We went to Crabby Beach, we found lots of crabs there the first time we went to this beach. Grandma found a whole Abalone shell, the natives use abalone in most of their art. This was the best abalone shell I have found, I am still looking for a bigger one. Frank thought he would rather stay home and sleep in a quiet house instead of going to the beach.

As we were leaving the beach I spotted a Gumboot Chiton on the sand. I took a picture before Cort got over to it. Then Cort was so excited about this critter. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen. We saw about 20 starfish, 1 very Mean Kelp Crab, and lots of shells! We actually found two of the Gumboot Chitons. Mom found one that was still in the water, it was more red than this one. This one did have sand on the top of it, so it might have been red also. They move about as fast as a starfish, strange animal.

Grandma Linda and the kids made Easter Turtles. These are the easiest things to make: a small pretzel with a rolo candy on top. Then put them in the oven at 200 for about 4 min. Then press a half of pecan onto the top of the rolo. The kids did it almost all by themselves. You have to love those types of projects. They loved them!

Really Low Tide

This morning There was a -1.8 tide. For those of you that do not know, that means the low tide was 1 foot 8 inches lower that average. We like to find minus tides that way you can find lots of critters. We found a lot of starfishes, crabs & annemone. There were 3 different kinds of starfish we found today: Purple, Orange(same type just different colors), Vermillion & Mottled. In the top picture you can see the back of one orange starfish mixed in with all of the purples. There are 6 starfishes in the top picture.

Cort said that it looked like the Purple starfish was a ballerina. So, this is the ballerina picture. These two stars are technically the same, they just come in two different colors.

Grandma Moles, Cort and I were putting all of our shells in the truck when Frank had to go and carry Grace back. She was slowing down quickly, so she got a ride back to the truck.

When we got back to the truck Grandma Moles noticed a bold eagle in the tree above the truck. That guy was looking for breakfast. He was so high up in the tree that even zoomed in a best as I could he was still not as clear of a picture as I wish it was.

Natalie's Good-bye

Before Nat left we got our 4 generation picture. Grace was ready to go and be somewhere else, that is why she looks so disappointed.

Aunt Natalie got some last little bit of Grace time before we took off to the ferry.

Nat looked so good it this picture that it had to be on the good-bye page.

This is the Lytuya, the ferry that goes back and forth from Ketchikan and Metlakatla.

Baking & Going to the Beach

First things first, the risk game came to an end at about 1:00 a.m. Mom and Frank were the only two left battling for world domination. The game ended with a peace agreement, we all agreed we were to tired to keep fighting. Sorry it took me so long to get the results, the internet was down on Thursday, and Nat and I went to Ketchikan on Friday.

Grandma Linda and Grace started out Thursday morning baking "Spud Nuts". They are like like donuts.

Before dinner there was one last beach that Natalie had to see before she left, so we went to Davison Pt. Natalie and I had to look cute climbing the army turret. Then we went and found a ton of starfish and sea cucumbers. It was pretty windy, but we had about 30 min. before it started to rain on us.

Dinner and a Game

Tonight the kids dinner, pizza and soda, Cort's favorite. They were so excited to do a dinner they really liked. After dinner we broke out the game of "Risk". One of Frank's Favorite games, I would tell you who the big winner was but they are still playing. We started the game at about 7:30, I was out by 8:10. I got the picture and thought I would get the blog done, that way Uncle Allan would be able to read it with his coffee in the morning. The time is 9:30 now and they are all still pretty equal on the board. Looks like it is going to be a long night, I will give the winner in the morning.

Last night when Frank got home from work we grabbed a clam bucked and a couple of clam rakes and went to the beach. We went to Moss point, which is on the southern part of the island. We had a lot of fun watching for the clams to spit water up and then digging like crazy. Natalie and Frank were the best diggers. We filled the 5 gal. bucket about three quarters of the way full. We also found a bunch of purple starfish. My pictures were blurry, sorry.

Natalie and Mom were the last ones to leave the beach. They kept finding things to look at and take pictures of. Finally we had no choice, we had to leave. So we went home with the head lights on.

Crabby Beach

Aunt Natalie, Grandma Linda and Grace taking a break from the tide pools
and shells on the beach. Purple mountain and Metlakatla are in the background.

Grace and Grandma Linda find another shell to add to the explorer bag. The bag was over flowing by the time they caught up with everyone.

We did get a crab, but it was a surprise! When we got home, we found it hiding in one of the shells. It was really, really tiny. We brought some sea water for the snails and limpets, so it had a happy home climbing on the big barnacle.

3 generation Dominoes

Mom and Grandma had a good time playing Dominoes with the kids this afternoon. The rain kept us away from the beach. Maybe tomorrow we can hit the beach.

Beach Exploring!

Well, it stopped raining and the wind was not blowing to hard today.  That meant that it was a great day to go to the beach.  We found lots of shells and a couple of Anemones.  You know that it was a good day when the kids do not want to leave.  In the picture above Cort is not in that picture.  He was busy trying to get the snail to come out of its shell.  He kept yelling, "I don't want my picture taken".  I told him not to worry I was taking everyone else's pictures.  If you look at the big rock in the picture you can see the water line on it.  There are a bunch of barnacles and snail shells where the rock is under the water during high tide.  Then the rock is clean on top of it.  
Grace found a rock to stand on so that meant that she wanted her picture taken.  Grandma was lucky enough to be the one to help her up on the rock.  So, lucky Grandma got to be in the picture too.  The mountain behind them is Purple Mountain, I think.

We found a clear colored anemone when we were on the beach.  This is the first time I have seen one this color, then later Grace and I found another one that looked just like this one.  We have the before being messed with and after being messed with pictures of the anemone.  

Cort was checking out the tide pool on the way back to the truck.  Cort and Grace did not want to go.  They would never leave if it were up to them.