Fall 2008

Here are some pictures that my sister took for us. I know there are a lot. But they are going into our family book, so bear with me:) Thanks Tina Bean!

Halloween 08

OK well since Christmas is almost here......I thought I had better get caught up! We had a really fun Halloween this year, Peyton was a "Brave Knight" and little Addison was "Fi-Fi the poodle". The kids loved trick-or-treating, Peyton was more excited about showing everyone his costume than all of the candy.....which was fine with me. Addison was just bound and determined to keep up with Peyton. We took a stroller along figuring she would poop out and want a ride.....NO WAY! She tried her best to keep up with her brother. By the end of the night she would say "Tick-a-Tree" it was so adorable!

Pumpkin carving night! I loved the pumpkin my sister Tracy carved....it cracked me up. But look at my scary husband with the knife, and the light above it.....kind of spooky!

These next few are of a Pumpkin Walk we took the kids to. There are a whole bunch of different scenes. All with pumpkins as the heads. Tim and Peyton checking out Batman!

Tim told me I had to pose by the witches......ha, ha, ha!

This one was my favorite, check out the patient on the table having open heart surgery!

Baby Kelly #3

Max, here you were in moms belly!!

Finally!

Where to start......well we are semi settled in and I feel like the longer I wait to post, the harder it gets. So I am just going to start catching up with everything that has been going on.

First- we did get our business in Alaska sold. We got an offer in June and to be honest I don't think that any of us actually thought that it was going to happen! But at the end of August everything came together for us. I think we all had mixed feelings about it. Mostly Tim (I am still waiting for mine;) it is something we have done for a very long time. I think Tim said it was 13-14 years for him......it gets to be something that even though you are burned out and sick of going back and forth every summer it is familiar and what your are used to doing. So when we actually got down to handing over all of the keys.....and boats......it was EXTREMELY hard to let go! But I did feel a little relief when I turned that 800# over to someone else.......that thing followed me every where I ever went. As a little tribute to ending the Alaska phase in our lives I am going to make a list of all of the things that I will.....and will not MISS!

Will NOT Miss......

1. 4:00 a.m. check-in (o.k. so at least Katy and I sometimes got to go back to bed....the guys had to work all day).


2. Moving back and forth every 6 months (and I swear to myself that this will help me be more organized instead of having boxes here and there and I don't even know where).


3. As I already mentioned the 800# following me and people calling at all hours.


4. Being afraid and carrying bear spray when you get brave enough to go on a walk.


5. Dealing with Never satisfied, Never happy, Never do anything right customers! Not that I really want to remember the bad stuff, but......there was a lady that called to tell me that I should be aware that she saw the guy packing her fish, and that I should know he stole some of her fish. First of all the guy was my brother Tim, one of the most honest people you will ever meet. Second of all she was counting the pieces that he cut up, then counted her bags at the end......he put two pieces in a couple of the bags. My brother tried to call her to tell her to bring it all back so he could cut the bags open to prove to her that he didn't and would never do such a thing......but she never returned our call. We have so many stories about customers that would give us a hard time. We would usually come home and laugh about it over dinner. Oh and their questions.......My favorite was "So, what is the elevation here"? uummmm lets see depending on the waves 2-3 feet;) Gotta love it!

Will ALWAYS Miss.......

1. The absolutely breathtaking view of the Volcanoes across the Inlet. Especially the sunsets when you are out for a walk (sunsets in Alaska last for hours).


2. The fireweed and all of the wildflowers. Because there is so much sunlight and rain, the flowers grow taller than you are. They are beautiful and I loved the way they smelled.


3. All of the friends that we have made up there over the years. We have met some really good people. Some of the best have been the people that worked for us.


4. Being with and spending time with my siblings and parents (although I know at times we all probably got family overload)


5. This one is mostly for Tim, but the long road trip that no matter what is always an adventure with awesome scenery and a lot of wildlife. This last trek home for him was crazy, he decided to have Peyton drive with him. Well just FYI if you are ever traveling alone with a child across US borders you either need a permission slip from the other parent or a death certificate.......I am not kidding. Poor Tim was stuck at the border for hours because I was out of reach and didn't know about that memo. Anyways it is always quite the road trip, mostly dreaded but I think it was something my dad really missed after he stopped driving.


6. OK, last one is when it was a really beautiful day, all boats were out and the water is really calm. The phone rings, they are on their way in and someone got a big one. They get in and there is excitement all around the office. The customers are happy, the guides are even happier thinking "can you believe we get paid for this"? You have an arm full of cameras and people are stopping by from all over town to check out the good catch NSC got. Those were the GOOD days!!

One fun thing that we did as a family before we came home was taking a Kenai Fjord tour. We saw some humpback whales, sea lions, sea otters, puffins, and a really awesome glacier. There was a lot of little islands every where and Peyton wanted to know if they were "treasure islands" and if we were going to be able to stop and check it out. Here are a few picts from that trip.

Here is Peyton on the look out for any whales:) He got a map of where we would be going before we left and studied it the entire time.

Addison of course was more interested in the party going on inside.

Walkin' Walkin' WAL-KIN'!!

In the past few days Little Miss Addison has decided that it is FINALLY time to start walking. She would only ever do it if it was between Tim and I, but never on her own. So here are a few pictures of her taking off by herself and then at the bottom is a little video. She is just so proud of herself! So are we!

MESSY!

Can I just say that I am DONE cleaning up human excretions for a while! Here are the stories.....it might be an "over-share" as we call it in my family, (this has not been approved for all audiences-viewer discretion is advised, consider yourself warned!)
Story #1
The other day I was in a mood to do a little cleaning, Addison was taking a nap and Peyton was at the office helping daddy. I was almost done cleaning under and rearranging the couches, when I heard Addison wake up. She was just talking and playing and so I decided to try to finish up my mess before going to get her.......BAD IDEA!! I finally go in to get her and her room smelled REALLY bad, I turned the light on and went to get her and noticed something brownish all over her face, that's right her FACE! She is just sitting there smiling at me with POOP all over her and all over everything. It took me a minute to actually believe what I was seeing. She had an up the back blowout, then decided to play in it......I think she might have even eaten it, as it was all over her binki. I know the GROSSEST thing you have ever heard right! Well it was all over her clothes, pillow, bedding, even on the bumper. It was pretty much the nastiest thing that has ever happened to me! After getting her cleaned up and ready to go in the tub, there was a knock on the door. Our sweet neighbor had brought us some rhubarb pies. She could see my predicament and naked baby still with some poo on her nose and didn't stay long. However Stella did manage to get in when she left....which I didn't notice. So after getting Addison out of the tub I come back out to find Stella dragging the diaper all over!!! I could have died. Really looking back on this, I don't know how I made it through that! I called the doctor to see if there was anything we needed to worry about, she said more than likely she will be fine, just watch her. WHEW made it through that one!
Story #2
Peyton started complaining of his tummy hurting that morning. He didn't really feel like doing much and just wanted to watch tv. It was the 5th of July and there was a rodeo here in Ninilchik. Tim had been wanting to take him so we all loaded up and were off. He just sat there most of the time. We did convince him to go out to do the calf chase, I think he had fun but was just not feeling good! We get home and he was complaining of his tummy, and at 7:00 told us he just wanted to go to bed......something was definitely wrong. We were all out in the kitchen/living room when he comes out crying and said I Phrew-UP all over! I felt so bad we didn't even hear him get up. He tried to make it to our bathroom, without going into details lets just say it was really disgusting. Tim was there to help me with that one!
Story #3
So a couple of days later I had just got the kids bathed and dressed and was just finishing getting Peyton's pants on. When Addison gave me this weird look, it almost looked like she was choking on something. She started crawling toward me and I said "Peyton will you go grab her cup I think she needs a drink" well being concerned for his sister he comes over to her face and says "oh whats wrong" you can probably guess what happened next......yep more throw up all over all the three of us. I felt so bad for Peyton he started crying because it had just gotten all over his favorite shirt (his USA tie die from B-ginia). He kept saying "mom you should have patted her back better so she doesn't throw up" it's funny that he remembers me doing that like 6 months ago. Anyways I think she got whatever bug Peyton had. It didn't seem to last long. But I think that one was the hardest one for me. A while ago we had to switch Addison from Cows milk to Goat milk because she wasn't doing good on Cows. Anyways I don't know why I am so grossed out at goats milk, she seems to like it. But I can't bring myself to try it, I don't even like the way it smells. So cleaning that one the second time up was really hard for me.

I really hope this was the last time I have to clean up nastiness for a long while. I remember staying at Sharon's house once and all of her kids got sick. I was trying to help her clean them up and help her bathe them. I couldn't do it, I was gagging the whole time. I told her that if my kids ever did this, I really didn't think I could clean it up. She just laughed. But it must be a mothers instinct that kicks in, because somehow you just do what you have to do for your kids.

Summer 08

I love this picture....if you look close you can see the moose in the background. So Alaska!

This is Peytons new toy! Daddy thought it would be fun to surprise us.....I'll just leave it at that;)

This was one of our cook-outs with the dutch ovens, yum yum!

Stella got BUSTED! But it was so cute I had to take their pictures first.

PeeK-A
BOO!
Peyton on a butterfly hunt.....which was a more successful mosquito hunt.
Addison helping mommy at the office.
Oh and this is what we do once in a while up here.....ok it is more like every day sometimes twice a day. FisH, fiSH and more FISH!! WA-HOO (that is a really good catch though)