Mixed Emotions!

Its funny how emotions play out in the life of a seven year old...or at least my seven year old.  Today was the open house at Micah's school.  Micah will be returning to Trinity Lutheran after spending a year at the Catholic school(Holy Angels.)  He seems both nervous, excited and even a little emotional about the start of the new year.  I am confident that he will have a great year this year, but he seems a little unsure of the fact that he will be leaving the friends that he made last year.  Today his emotions about starting school came out in cute and funny ways.  I told him that he would need to wear some of his nicer clothes to the open house tonight.  He immediately selected one of his short sleeve button down shirts.  He looked very nice.  He decided to mask his nervousness...literally.  Here is a photo of how Micah chose to show up to his open house.  It gave his new teacher a good look into what she would be getting herself into this year with Micah man in her class.

Micah enjoyed picking out his desk for the year and he even received a special pencil to use on his first day of school.

       I look forward to hearing all about Micah's first day in first grade, but it is emotional for me as well.  I pray that he will have a fun year and that he will grow closer to his Lord and Savior Jesus as he attends the Lutheran school...but it has been a fun summer, and I will miss having him home all the time with me.  So, we both have mixed emotions about the beginning of the 2011/2012 school year.

Busy Days!!

I have been struggling with this blog post.  I have sat down numerous times lately to write, and have been unable to decide what exactly to focus on.  The last four days have been full of memorable moments.  Friday we enjoyed Micah's birthday.  It is difficult to believe that my oldest child is a 7 year old!  I look at the day he was born with very fond memories! What an incredible experience.  Micah has brought such a wonderful joy to our lives and we are so proud of him!  He is so loving.  

     The morning of Micah's birthday began with a trip to Pirates Cove with a few of Micah's buddies.  They played putt- putt and enjoyed some ice cream together.  While we were at Pirates Cove we learned that my grandpa had to be admitted into the hospital due to some Heart trouble.  We were very concerned and later learned that he had a heart attack.  We were so thankful that he was at the hospital so that the doctors could figure out how to help him heal.  We would miss having him at the party that evening, but we knew he would be in good hands with the doctors at the hospital.     

     Micah loves anything that is "from the old times" so, this year he requested an "Old Time" birthday party.  I didn't have much time to find decorations that would fit this theme, so the closest I managed to find were 50’s rock and roll.  So, we ended up having a 50’s Rock and Roll Party.  It was fun!  We had about 20 family members at our house!  Micah received many fun gifts We decided to give him his first guitar.  He is very excited to begin learning how to play it.

     On Saturday, we visited Grandpa up at the hospital, and then enjoyed a fun evening at my Aunt Mimi and Uncle Jim’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration and my Uncle's Retirement party.  It was great to catch up with family that I don't see often.

     On Sunday we went to church and then spent time visiting with our family again.  Elijah and I and Madeline visited Grandpa Lewis while Micah had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Aunt Mimi, Uncle Jim, Cousin Sue and her fiancée Mike. 

     On Monday, we joined our family for an early breakfast at Cracker Barrel before they would be catching their flight back to Seattle.  After breakfast we visited Grandpa Lewis again and learned that they would be putting Stints in his heart to help prevent future issues.  We then traveled to the doctor to have them look at a scrape on Micah’s leg from our trip to Alaska that seemed to be getting increasingly worse.  The doctor gave us an antibiotic to help heal the wound.  We then met up with Jason to play at the park, go to pirates cove and  “enjoy” the sunset sail on the Manitou.  It was certainly an activity packed night. 

     Tuesday we were thrilled to learn that Grandpa would be going home from the hospital!  We were not expecting him to be ready to go home until Wednesday!  What a great surprise!!  Tuesday evening we enjoyed catching up with the Deik family at a restaurant called Giovani’s, a park and then to Bud’s for an ice cream treat.  We are really attempting to cram the last few days of summer full of great summer activities before school begins on Tuesday! 

Who won?

I spent most of the day preparing the house and food for Micah's birthday party tomorrow.  I enjoyed spending time with the children at the house.  I feel like it has been a while since they have had the opportunity to just play at their house with their toys.  We have been on the go so much lately.  It appeared that they appreciated the down time as well.  I enjoyed listening as Micah and Elijah played nicely together in the basement building all sorts of fun things out of legos.  We also enjoyed spending some time with Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Louie.  They came to help assemble shish-ka-bobs.  It is amazing how much more enjoyable a monotonous job like putting food on a stick becomes when you have the company of loved ones or friends.

     Later in the evening we joined the Birch, Barley, Brand and Krause families at a Beach Bums game. Throughout the school year many of our children had spent time reading and earned free tickets to the game.  This game was the last opportunity of the season to make use of the free tickets, so we all decided to go together.  We had a fantastic time!!  We chose to sit in lawn seats and the children were able to play at the play ground and in the grass.  The children had a blast playing together and so did the grown ups!  I realized after we arrived home that I had such a fun time chatting with everyone that I never did hear for sure who won the game!  I guess that is the true sign of a fun night.

On our last day in Alaska, Adelaide insisted that we needed to see Pioneer park as well as the North Pole and Santa's House.  Pioneer park was really fun, we walked through some historical buildings including an old train as well as an old river boat.  We also had the opportunity to see a bunch of dioramas that depicted the early days of life in Fairbanks.  The kids enjoyed meeting Santa's Reindeer at the North Pole and we also found a cute nativity Set to add to our Christmas decorations.  Our final stop in Alaska was the Silver Gulch Brewery where we enjoyed dinner with Aaron, Sarah, Adelaide and Aliza one final time before our flight home to Traverse City.

 

    

     We boarded our plane for Minneapolis at 9:20 and traveled through the night.  Jason managed to stay awake and witnessed a spectacular show of the Northern Lights.  I was disappointed to hear that I missed it.  We had a four hour layover in Minneapolis.  Micah, Madeline and I played in the play area while Jason and Elijah napped.  We hopped on our final flight at 10:00am and arrived home around 12:30.  Thoroughly exhausted and thoroughly jet lagged.  

      We had a fantastic time seeing the beautiful sights in Alaska, but the highlight of our trip was having the opportunity to visit Aaron and Sarah and getting to know our Nieces better.  They are so sweet!  We will miss them!

The adventure continues!! (August20-21)

Yesterday we arrived in Anchorage.  The rain continued to follow us in our travels.  We decided to return the RV and take a more scenic route back to Fairbanks.  Jason called ahead to reserve a two room sweet for Aaron, Sarah, Adelaide, Aliza, Jason, Micah, Elijah, Madeline and I at the the Caribou Inn in Glennallen.   Living in an RV with 9 people can be a little tight.  We enjoyed our time in the RV, but we were all ready to have a little more room to work with especially while getting 5 children to bed.  Our drive towards Glennallen was beautiful.  We even took time to stop and walk up to a Glacier.  It was a very cool experience.  The boys even learned that Glacial silt mixed with mud and water make a type of quick sand, and you therefore have to be extremely careful when walking around a glacier.  

     We were all exhausted as we pulled in to Glennallen.  We were also relieved that we had reserved a room when we noticed that their sign read "No Vacancy."  Jason went in to get our room key while we waited in the car with the children.  When Jason returned from getting the key I could tell that something wasn't right.  Jason explained that a new worker had been working when he called and the hotel lost our reservation.  The good news was that there was one cabin available, it was a small dry cabin, (which means, no running water.)    We checked it out, and this is what we found.

 It was a very cute little cabin, but was really intended to house about 2 people.  It had the room you see in the above pictures as well as a loft with barely enough room to house two twin matresses.  We all decided that we were too exhausted to continue on, so Aaron and Sarah and their family took the main level with the pull out bed, and we took the upstairs.  It was incredibly tight.  Getting children to bed was even worse than trying to get children to bed in the RV.  But we all laughed about it.  And will never forget our SHORT night in the dry cabin.
     The boys enjoyed our stop in Glennallen due to the fact that our small cabin was directly accross a small dirt road from two young boys who had a tree house.  They invited Micah and Elijah to come and play.  Due to the fact that we could see them the whole time and they had just finished sitting for a very long time we agreed to let them go play.

The other exciting part about this particular cabin was the fact that it had an electric toilet.  An electric toilet that actually burns everything that is flushed into it.  Disgusting!  

Adventures in Alaska (August 17-19)

We enjoyed our time at Denali National Park.  We were hoping to beat the rain and clouds and have the opportunity to see Denali (Mt McKinley.)  We did manage to see the edge of the mountain when the clouds cleared enough.  It was beautiful.  The entire park was gorgeous and we especially enjoyed having the opportunity to see a mama moose and her baby. 

     After we were finished at Denali, we ventured on toward Anchorage.  In Anchorage we picked up a new RV which was much cheaper, and much nicer, than the one we left in Fairbanks.  We then journeyed on to Whittier.  Whittier is a small town that can only be accessed through a 2.5 mile one lane tunnel through the side of a mountain.  Micah and Elijah were thrilled to drive in the dark with the rock walls surrounding us. When we arrived in Whittier, it was raining we decided to grab some lunch and decide what we wanted to do next.  We all agreed that it would be fun to go on a cruise to view the portage glacier.  The Glacier was amazing, It was neat to see Blue ice! 

     Following our glacier cruise we said our goodbyes to Nana, Papa, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Naomi and Uncle Nunky.  We then continued our travels to Seward.  Seward was a beautiful area where we were hoping to go on a marine life cruise to see seals, whales and Puffins.  When we awoke in the morning it was pouring, so we opted for seeing Alaska’s animals in a more controlled environment through Alaska’s Sea life Center.  The kids loved it and even had the opportunity to touch many ocean creatures including starfish, sea anemones, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. 

     Due to the rain, we then decided to begin our journey back to Anchorage.  On our way back we stopped at a possible campsite for the night and had the unique opportunity of seeing a black bear.  We finished our drive to anchorage where we will camp tonight and will continue on towards Fairbanks in the morning. 

"Adventures" in Alaska (August 15-17)

Our “Adventure” in Alaska began with an email Sunday afternoon.  We were scheduled to leave on Monday evening for Fairbanks, Alaska.  We had everything set and we were excited.  Sunday afternoon we received an email reminding us about our flight the following day.  Included in the email were our seat assignments.  Seat 44A 44B 44C and 44D.  Receiving an email such as this the day before traveling is always a comforting thing.  It assures you that you did indeed make the reservation for the day you had planned to leave, and that you also had confirmed seats on the airplane.  We went to bed Sunday evening with this peace of mind. 

     Monday we spent the day finishing our packing, and preparing the house for any showings that might occur while we were away.  When we arrived at the airport Monday evening we were shocked to discover that somehow between Sunday evening and Monday evening, we no longer had confirmed seat assignments on the most integral part part our trip.  The leg of our flight that would take us from Minneapolis,MN to Fairbanks,AK.  The man who was working at the Traverse City airport attempted to call around to give us confirmed seat numbers, but was unable to get in touch with the proper people.  He informed us that we would need to get our seats assigned in Minneapolis.  He marked our tickets as confirmed…and yet we had no seat assignments.  We were a little concerned, but decided that there was nothing more we could do until we reached Minneapolis.  Our flight from Traverse City to Minneapolis was slightly delayed coming in due to Airforce One being present at the airport earlier in the day.  As soon as our flight landed we ran through the airport to our gate to assure that we would have time to talk with a gate attendant about our seating situation.  When we arrived at gate F7 the woman working there informed us that the flight was overbooked.  They were asking for people to give up their seats in return for a $400 travel voucher to be used at another time.  We were placed on a list of others who were hoping to get on the flight to Alaska.

        In no time at all they began boarding the flight.  We waited anxiously by the gate hoping that we would still make it to Fairbanks that evening.  After the last person boarded the plane the lady working at the gate informed us that they had 3 available seats for us.  The problem was…we needed four!  They suggested that I take the children and travel to Alaska without Jason.  They would put him up in Minneapolis and send him out first class on the same flight the following day.  This made no sense to me because Jason’s family was waiting anxiously to see him in Alaska.  We came up with a new plan.  I would stay in Minneapolis with Madeline while Jason took the three available seats with Micah and Elijah.  It wasn’t ideal, but it made the most sense.  I began pulling all of the items I had packed to help keep the boys entertained on the plane out of my bag and stuffing them into Jason’s so that he would have a way to keep the boys busy on the 5 hour and 45 minute flight to Alaska.  Just as we were finishing up swapping items they upped the voucher price for anyone willing to give up their seat to $600.  A nice woman stepped forward and gave up her seat.  We were so thankful!  We quickly climbed aboard the plane.  Our seats were all over the plane so we asked a stewardess to help us find a way to have all our children seated with us on the plane.  She worked it out.  I sat with the kids and Jason sat a few rows behind us.  When Madeline was sick of sitting with me, she went and snuggled with Daddy and fell asleep.  We were officially on our way to Alaska!

     Our flight arrived in Fairbanks at 8:45(Which to our bodies felt like 12:45).  We were met at the airport by Jason’s family as well as the company that we would be renting our RV from in Fairbanks (“Adventures” in Alaska.)   We were all exhausted and ready for some sleep.  The lady from the RV rental place drove us to our campground where we first set eyes on our RV.  The first thing that Jason and Rudy noticed was that the tires of the RV were completely bald.  A little rain and we would certainly be having an “Adventure” in Alaska.  But the Adventure continued as we climbed inside of this RV that was well past its prime.  It smelled funny and looked like it had been used by many many many other families.  As we climbed inside the drivers seat we read that it already had 130,000 miles on it.  We were very concerned about the type of “Adventure” we would encounter if we decided to take it to Anchorage and Seward.  Micah, Elijah and Madeline were exhausted and we knew we couldn’t take them running around to find a new place to stay.  They needed to sleep. We made the decision to stay in the RV for one night and deal with the situation in the morning.

      In the morning I worked on making sure we had our stuff packed up and Jason went to talk with the owner of the company about the safety of their vehicle.  The owner was shocked.  She suggested that Jason could take the RV and have the front tires changed If he wanted.  Just what everyone dreams of doing on a vacation!!  She gave Jason a really hard time,  for some she reason mellowed out a little when I joined Jason in the conversation.  She refused to refund our money because the contract says “No Refunds.”  We finally convinced her to give back half our money and our deposit and we decided to cut our losses and walk away.  She did tell us that if she is able to rent the unit out in the next few days that she will return the rest of our money, I doubt that will happen.  Rudy came with his rental car and took us to the airport and was able to get us a fantastic deal on renting a minivan for our trip.  We were ready to have some GOOD “Adventures in Alaska!” 

     We started by meeting our beautiful new niece Aliza and seeing our other beautiful Alaskan niece Adelaide.  We made sandwiches and ate lunch at Aaron and Sarah’s house and than we began our trip to Denali National Park.  In Denali National Park, we had the amazing opportunity to watch a dog sledding presentation and even got to pet some of the dogs.  We then ventured on to our cabins for the evening at the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort.  We enjoyed pizza and exploring the area.  Things are definitely looking up!  

Maddie on the move!

Today was a very fun day!  We had our church picnic at Redeemer which is always  fantastic  We had a great turn out, and it seemed like everyone had a great time.
    Madeline discovered today that she does have what it takes to walk.  She was so proud of herself that she would giggle as she walked.  She has not completely made the switch from crawling to walking, but she has definitely started  to see the benefits of walking.  She generally is able to take anywhere from 4-8 steps before tumbling down.  It is so fun to watch her reach these major mile markers in her life.  I only had the opportunity to take video today, so I will post a picture as soon as I get the chance.

Picture Problem

I have attempted to post this blog numerous times in the past few days, but have been having picture problems.  I blaming the blogger for not cooperating with me...but I am relatively certain that it has more to do with me and my lack of technological knowledge than it has to do with the blogspot.  So...I am going to give it one more shot.

Two nights ago after we finished everything that we needed to do for the day, we looked at the weather and realized that it was a perfect evening to hang out at the beach.  We loaded up and drove to Empire where we grabbed pizza and campfire/smore materials, and then set off for the beach.  We decided to go to Otter Creek because there is a small creek that winds its way along the beach to lake Michigan.  It is alway a very shallow creek which is perfect for Madeline to play in, and the older kids love it to.

                       



Part way through the evening I walked with Elijah to the parking area so that he would have the chance to use the restroom.  As I walked up the hill to our car I recognized the car pulling into the parking lot.   Micah's buddy Isaac and his family had the same idea for the evening.  Micah,Isaac and Elijah played until the sunset and then we loaded up for our next stop of the evening

 After we were finished at the beach we headed to the Cherry Bowl drive in to watch a movie together!  What a fun night.

Holy Cow!!!

Today the kids spent most of the day at Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Lewi's.  I had a bunch of errands that I needed to accomplish before we leave for Alaska on Monday and Jason was trying to catch up on school work while also getting caught up on church work.  As soon as I finished my errands and Jason found a good stopping point in his work we met for a much needed dinner out together.  It was quick, but fun!  When we picked the kids up we surprised them with a trip to Moomer's the yummy ice cream shop in town.  Little did they know we had one more surprise in store.....

When we arrived we ordered the "Holy Cow."  It was huge (10 scoops of ice cream plus fudge, brownies, carmel, bananas, whip cream and cherries.)  We thought it would be funny to see how the kids would respond to such a large concoction.  They were thrilled.  We never imagined that between the five of us we would ever be able to finish this massive ice cream.  There was some ice cream left in the bowl at the end, but the majority of it was gone.  Impressive!!  Even more impressive was the fact that after all that sugar, the children still went to bed with no problem.

Don't let go!

  Little Miss Maddie is our little sweet heart!  But she is also a little goofball.    She has been practicing her walking skills for a couple months now.  I believe that she has mastered them  She is strong enough to stand up completely on her own, but she refuses to let go of any hand that is willing to help her walk.  She absolutely loves to walk, but she does not believe that she can do it without assistance.  All it takes is one little word,"Up" and she can usually convince whoever is closest to her to hold out a hand to assist her.

     Jason and I often sit across from one another and attempt to coax her to walk in between us.  She thinks it is so funny that we are sitting across from each other calling her name that she starts giggling so much that she can't stand up.

      I'm sure that soon enough she will realize that she is fully capable of walking on her own.  When she does, I am sure she will take off!  There will be no slowing her down.  Until that happens, I am completely content watching her giggle as we coax her to walk and awaiting her request for "Up" knowing that she will be walking with me.

Today was fair day!  We started the day by meeting our cousins Ella and Oliver along with Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma Shirley and Great Grandpa Lewie at the fair to look at the animals and enjoy some yummy fair food.  We had a great time and saw many beautiful animals!  Micah could hardly wait to show everyone the 4-H craft projects that he worked so hard on. He made a money bank, a decorated glass plate, a night light. and a bird feeder 

After enjoying the afternoon at the fair, I took the boys home for swim lessons, and then insisted that they take a nap  To my surprise, they both agreed and very willingly fell asleep.  I am so glad they did!  We ended up meeting up with the Burch family for a fun filled night at the fair.  We saw animals, we rode rides, and we had more yummy junk food!

The Gift giver

Today we celebrated Grandma Shoemakers birthday.  We spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpas house.  We helped Grandpa put together a meal for Grandma.  The one rule was that she was not aloud to help.  It was her day off from cooking and doing dishes.  Grandpa did a fantastic job, and we enjoyed a meal complete with Filet Mignon, Sweet Corn, Sweet Potatoes, Salads and of course cake and ice cream.  It was a fun afternoon.




Micah and Elijah were a little restless but Uncle Thomas and Aunt Annie came to the rescue!  They sat on the deck with the boys and helped them to create a sailboat out of twigs,string and tissue paper!  Ella arrived just in time to see the amazing creation and requested that she have help making a kitty cat.

 

This is the creation that Micah made for Grandma, he was very proud of all of the different items he used to complete it.

It seems that Micah has discovered the joy of not only receiving gifts, but giving them as well.  As we were eating and enjoying our afternoon, Micah was secretly working on the perfect creation to give Grandma for her birthday.    

Are we there yet!!?

As soon as you tell a four year old and an almost 7 year old that you are headed somewhere exciting...the first words out of their mouths are sure to be
                                        "Are we there yet!?"  

Now... take the same scenario...but add a five year old and a nine year old to the mix!  Then, make sure the place you are going is Cedar Point.  You will have a car load of children so filled with energy that you could run a small factory off their laughter alone!

Today, Micah and Elijah and Madeline traveled with two of their friends, Rachel and Rebekah, along with Redeemer's Youth group to Toledo Ohio.  This is just a stop along the way to Sandusky Ohio...the home of a fantastic amusement park called Cedar Point.  

After spending the afternoon in the car, all of the children were over joyed to see the swimming pool.  It was a great way to use up some of the extra stored energy after the long drive!

We will drive about an hour in the morning and spend the day at Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio.  The children can hardly wait!!