Moving Monday and Tuesday

The kids are having way too much fun with this move. They left for school yesterday morning with a house full of furniture, and returned home to find their lives packed away in lots of lovely boxes. But, being the Air Force kids that they are, they adjust quickly. Jess hooked up the laptop on the kitchen bar and entertained herself (and us) with an impersonation of a Russian fellow. Not really sure where that came from. She made herself a mustache and goatee and the accent just seemed to follow naturally. Anything you asked her was answered with accent and attitude. You can't see it in this picture, but she also had a home made sticker on her shirt with the words "having too much fun with tape" on it.

Brandon hooked up the HUGE 13" TV to the cable box, and was good to go. When you sit this close, it's wide screen. At one point, he turned to us and said "I kind of like not having any furniture." Kids. They like the idea of camping out in the house as long as we have the basics like Internet and TV. Not much else is required.

The Harley took off today in a small truck all by itself. It will be boxed at the warehouse and added to our shipment. Hopefully. We are keeping our fingers crossed. The movers are finishing up the packing today and will load everything into the big truck. Then it's happy camping until we head off to TLF. I'm sure after a couple of weeks of sleeping on blow up mattresses, it will seem like a high dollar vacation on the Riviera!

Birthdays And Young Love

Today was a very important day in our household. It is Jessica's 15th birthday, and Russ'... well, after a CERTAIN AGE I am told that it's not polite to count any more. Anyway, it was a day of great celebration for us. What kind of cake does one get to mark such an important age? One might think you would get something sophisticated and elegant. A twisted parent would probably go and get a "Dora the Explorer" cake. Guess which cake came home for the party? After all was said and done (and a LOT was said, trust me!), any cake is a delicious one, and the family gobbled it up. I promised Brandon a "Phineas and Ferb" one for his next birthday. The excitement never ends around here.

I bet you thought the "young love" part would involve Jess, too. Well, that's another story that I am forbidden to write about ("You are NOT putting this on the blog!" were her exact words.) This love story involves Tink. I caught her looking longingly out the back window today. I wondered what had caught her attention, and went to check it out.

These tracks came from the fence up to our back door. It would seem that she has had a visitor. A suitor, if you like. A young man has come a callin' on our young Tink. Yes, he is not exactly what we had in mind for our young lady, but love is blind. It knows no boundaries. It will conquer all...

He is a dashing young fellow. If he keeps coming back, I will have to corner him and ask him what his intentions are toward Ms. Tinkerbell. It's the innocent looking ones that you have to watch!

School in Alaska

The weather is back in the 20's now, but not much snow to speak of. We got about 1/4 inch the other day, but that was about it. Today I am sharing some pictures of the kids from this past year at school. They have really done some interesting things here. Jess learned how to shoot a bow, and was very good at it. They taught the kids how to shoot at the indoor range here on Elmendorf, and then they took them to the outdoor range for a bow competition and picnic. They really had a great time. (And discovered some new talents!) Jess did even better with a rifle. She took a hunter safety course at school, and part of the course was a field trip to the shooting range south of Anchorage. Jess definitely takes after her father, and is a fantastic shot. The teachers were calling her "Sniper" by the end of the day. Not to be outdone, Brandon was chosen to represent his school in an art show at the Anchorage Museum downtown. It was really cool to see his art on the wall of a real museum.

He had some fun field trips, as well. His class had a visit from REI, and they taught them how to use snowshoes. Trust me, it's a lot harder than it looks.
The kids had a blast running relays and taking part in other competitions while wearing the snowshoes. He got to participate in an egg relay, hurdle jumping, and kick ball.

I think it's great that Jessica (our artist) found her inner outdoors woman, and Brandon (our outdoors man) found his inner artist.