blair and maisy

November 2, 2014

We're alive and settled in the new frontier!

I'm working my way backwards, and catching everyone up on Alaska!

For now...

My baby is in dance class!

It snowed a couple of weeks ago and the kids are excited! 1st snowman for Claire.

Awesome sledding hill right across the street from my front door

1st sledding casualty

Phantom, kitty cat and Spiderman. 20 degrees outside made for fast trick-or-treating

Happy Halloween! From the three little pumpkins, and the guinea pig too.

Nerf Gun tooth extraction:

November 1, 2014

Visit to see Blair

Blair was shipped off temporarily to fill in for another hospital where they are shorthanded. One Friday he told me he got news of it, and he'd be going the next week. Geez. We had family in town visiting at the time, and he ended up leaving before they did! And to think we were almost settled in up here.

Now fast-forward after being gone for over a month we thought a visit sounded great.

We visited Blair out on the border of Illinois at Scott AFB, so together as a fam we saw nearby St. Louis, museums, Six Flags, Carthage, Nauvoo, and some friends from our Vegas days too.

St Louis arch

Claire going down a 5-story slide at the St. Louis City Museum. This place had so many slides, caves and climb stuff in one place! It is an old shoe factory warehouse that was converted into this cool museum.

climbing

Blair was trying to keep up with Claire. Can you see him? He said that this killed his knees and was not so fun for a grown-up.

Awesome ball pit

This slide was almost straight up and down. We all wen on it a few times- this was Blair going down. Claire scared a few people because she would just jump right down it with no qualms.

more slides

dino slide

Cool architecture, and and aquarium built in there.

daddy-daughter time

We found Voltron at the Natural Science museum. Best part of this museum was that it's free year round for anyone.

Watching the dino roaring

mock tornado

Elementary my dear Watson

Yum, Logan's Roadhouse. I usually don't take pictures when we're eating out, but oh man I miss this place, so it was nice to see it again!

Blair's pad at Scott AFB. Pretty much a full-size house, and all to himself. I loved the colors of fall out there, and the kids loved the squirrels. Funny thing, he called me yesterday and told me that he heard a rustling in his outside garbage, so he went to investigate, and a squirrel flew right out at him and scared him half to death!

We went to Six Flags St. Louis, and were greeted by the most expensive parking I've seen yet!

Halloween decorations everywhere

The only character we saw at the park

There were nasty dressed up scary people walking around. Xander loved it- in fact he wanted me to take a picture of this one because he said he wanted to be it for Halloween. Umm I don't think so. This puppet was sewn onto her costume and gave me the hebee jeebies.

Cute kiddos, excited to wait in lines to go on rides

Will was big enough to go on most everything! It was his first time going on an upside-down roller coaster and he loved it.

Claires favorite ride was the Joker, which is like the Tidal Wave boat. She loved it and went on it 6 times in a row!

Lucky for Claire we ran into an Elsa at Denny's after we left the park.

Carthage jail, church history

Joseph Smith

kiddos at the monument

There's the top window

bullet hole that killed the prophet

The window where he fell when he was martyred

Nauvoo temple

An original sunstone from the Nauvoo temple

Beautiful day with the family

The blacksmith making a horseshoe for the boys- mesmerizing to them!

The kiddos making a rope old-school style

Our friends the Wilfords from medical school! They live in Quincy IL. It was so great to be close enough to see them again!

All of the kiddos. We had dinner and a nice visit and they played and played.

Much of this trip was spent in USO military lounges, as we had some drama on the way out with a medical emergency on the flight after we'd been flying almost an hour. The person had to get to a hospital, so they made a u-turn and took them back to Anchorage where we started. That made for a super long flight, then a missed connection, then a sold out one, and we got in at night to our final destination, though we'd started at 6am.

On the way home it looked so cool to see the snowy white mountains poking through the tops of the clouds here in Alaska.

We got home and the sunrise was happening after they go to school now, after 9am. Those long dark winters are creeping in on us little by little a few minutes more each day. This was Xander on "mustache day" for red ribbon week.

The funnies

Will 12/14 " Mom can you please pour the milk for me because it’s almost full, and there’s a 65% chance that I’ll spill it."

11/14 Me: Why did you dump out all the toys?

Claire: Because I was trying to find something to play with

Me: What did you find?

Claire: The glow in the dark dinosaur

Me: Then why didn’t you put the other toys back?

Claire: Because I had to use the bathroom, so I just runned.

Claire 11/14 "Mom I can’t find any of my jammies, so should I bring you the sew kit so you can sew me some?"

Claire 11/14 "What do these constructions say?"

11/14 Claire: Mom Can I have this?

Me: Sure

Claire: Yes!!! Mom, thanks for asking me!

Claire 11/14 "Oh my Geez"

Claire 11/14 "I had a great dream last night. I got to see Dixie, and eat shrimp!"

Claire 11/14 "Our scarecrow fell over, but we’ll still be able to find our house because you know the numbers!"

Will 11/14 "The only good thing that happened to me today, was that Kord gave me a penny. But then I lost it."

Claire 9/13 "I love polka-dot butterflies."

Claire 9/13 " This pencil needs to get sharpt. Can I sharpt this pencil in myself?"

Claire 9/13 after pulling a piece of tape off of something successfully, "I am a great job."

Claire 8/13 "One time a dog pooped on the grass."

Me, "Why are you telling me that?"

Claire, "Because it was weally gross, PU!"

Claire 8/13 I walked in and exclaimed what a mess it was. "I didn't got that out," said Claire pointing at one little thing.

Claire 10/12 "Ehhhhh he he, ehhh he he."

Gaurd at the Airforce gate, "That sounds like a fake cry."

Me, "Yep."

Claire, "Ehhh he he, ehhh he he. It NOT a fake cwy."

Will 10/12 "Mom, could I miss school on Wednesday, because they're going to learn something really hard like minus?"

Me, "Well what would you do the next day when they were still learning more about that?"

Will, "No mom, we don't have to make up the homework when we miss."

Claire 10/12 "You not funny Will."

Claire 10/12 (almost in tears with the saddest little voice because she wanted all of the toys) "Mommy, brothers not sharing a me."

Claire 10/12 chasing her brothers around slowly with her arms outstretched says, "Bwains, bwains, bwains!" just like a real zombie.

Will 10/12 "Xander is white, and I'm white, and mom's white and Claire is white and dad's a little white."

Will 3/12 "Dad and I are getting gooder at disc golf."

Xander 3/12 seeing frozen peas in his drink that had spilled into the icebox, "Mom, there are green cotton balls in my drink."

Will 12/11 "I know something that's not a word: spit-buggar."

Claire 12/11 "Ha ha, fuh-ee (funny)"

Will 12/11 after he broke a plastic fork, "I would like to put it in recycling because that saves the world."

Will 11/11 as he rubs the carpet, "I like this house because it's hairier than the other one."

Will 9/11 "Mom, could you call my nickname 'shark' please?"

Will 9/11 in a prayer while Blair was away for a month, "Bless that we would ever see dad again, and if we drive there it wouldn't be too long."

Will 3/11 after I asked him how primary was, he said, "I was the 1st kid in class. I thought I was going to have to taught myself."

Will 3/11 "Mom, is today fast Sunday."

Me "What is fast Sunday Will?"

Will, "When we eat really fast."

Will 3/11 "Xander is saying mean things, like that I'm not the leader."

Blair told Will to go to the bathroom with him while we were out somewhere and he was doing the potty dance 3/11, "Hey I had to go to the bathroom too!"