One of THOSE Days

I can't even begin to describe the day I've had so far today. But for those of you who know Jordan, you can imagine how bad it must have been for me to do this to her.

Jackson Lloyd Matthew

I just wanted to drop a quick note to say congratulations to our wonderful friends, Patrick and Lucy Matthew. Their 2nd child was born this morning at 8:59am (just a few minutes after a 4.08 earthquake). Everyone was especially excited about this birth because they didn't know the baby's gender until after he was born. Hurray for a baby boy! Now they have one of each.

I watched their daughter, Kate for a while this morning while baby was being born. She had fun playing in the yard with all my monkies. She's too young to realize that her life just changed in a big way. I'm heading to the hospital this evening with all the girls so we can hear all the gory details of labor and delivery.

Ten Years!

This weekend my darling hubby and I celebrated ten years of wedded bliss. I must admit that my husband is rockin' awesome. I couldn't be any luckier. You know you've got it good when your only complaint is that he HATES the bed being made. Incidently that works out great for me because I hate making it.

For the past three or four years we have celebrated our anniversary out in the Alaska wilderness getting muddy on some four-wheeling adventures. This year was no different except that for the first time, it was rainy and cold the entire weekend. Because of the weather, I didn't take as many pictures as usual. My gloves were soaked through and I was having a hard time getting them on and off to work the camera.

Naturally the experience is all about the mud and the getting stuck in said mud.

Some friends and such.

They'll be coming 'round the mountain when they come..."


And...stuck.

This is way better than a mud treatment at a spa.

I love my stud muffin!

Back at camp...we had a gazillion kids staying with us in the RV (RORY). Heather and I 'bout lost our freakin' minds when the rain poured down and kids all piled in and started whining and fighting and taking up every spare inch of room. I was actually reduced to tears at one point. Not my finest hour (and by hour I mean THREE).

But when the sun was out, we were SO HAPPY!

We rigged this giant blue tarp between Rory and the other trailer. It served as the Powers' Anniversary Pavillion and it really saved the whole weekend. We had a couple dozen people with us and only two small campers to keep everyone dry. So we partied under the PAP.

Even with a chocolate face, she's the cutest little bug around.

Doobie loved exploring the jungle...among other things.

They were playing Hide and Seek.

Jakey was all business. Hauling and digging and exploring. I don't think I saw him more than twice all weekend. He liked sleeping in the tent with Daddy and his friend Aiden and his daddy. Boy time.

Doobie having a snack.

A wide shot of the PAP. Doesn't it look cozy? It was dry. That's all that matters.

In spite of the rain, we had a wonderful weekend and celebrated our anniversary with a lot of great friends who we adore. Actually, we sort of forgot it was our anniversary until the date came up in conversation and Darrin and I looked at each other and shouted, "Happy Anniversary" at each other at the same time. Well, actually, Darrin said it a little faster. So he's the winner.

Our fourwheeler ride was actually the most fun I've had on a ride maybe ever. Definitely top two. I did some new and exciting things on this trip. I accidentally got completely airborne at one point and later on I hit a rock with my left front tire that sent me up in the air and while I was up there I tipped sideways to my right. I thought for sure I was flipping over but the Lord spared me a major accident and helped me execute a perfect landing. It was enough to slow me down a bit though. Darrin told me later that he was very impressed with me being so brave and adventurous. Even so, if I'm going to try to ride like the boys, I might invest in a helmet.

Another Photo Shoot

Here are a couple shots from the photo shoot I did with my kids the other day.

I also wanted to say Happy Birthday to Grandma Diana (who's birthday was yesterday) AND Happy Anniversary to Uncle Rusty and Aunt Raychel who celebrated three years yesterday.

And Happy Anniversary to ME and my DARLING HUBBY who are celebrating 10 years tomorrow!

Supermodels

Just a couple of days ago I was asked to take some photos of a friend for her sixteenth birthday. So we piled into a truck with a bunch of her friends and went to a local elementary school for a fun photo shoot. This school is now my go-to place for outdoor shoots. I took over 500 pictures of these girls. They were a riot!

After this shoot I could hardly wait to get my kids to this location. So of course we went a couple days later. My friend Tracy and I both took some great pictures of our kids. As soon as I'm done editing them, I'll post a couple of them as well.

The Alaska Zoo

Admittedly, the Alaska zoo is not all that exciting. But it is something to do on a beautiful day when you are tired of riding your bikes in a circle over and over again.

So last week, we grabbed some lunch and some friends and some expired bug spray and hit the newly remodled Alaska Zoo.

Here we are looking at the Muskox. Very smelly.


This is Aphun (APOONE). He's a Polar Bear. His name is a native word that means snow or something along those lines. He used to live with a brown bear named Oreo. They grew up from cub-hood together but a few years ago they started fighting and had to be separated. Now Aphun lives with another Polar Bear.


I have never had the luck of seeing the Polar Bears awake in the few times I've been to the zoo. I was always lucky if I saw a paw sticking out from behind a rock. But today, Aphun went swimming!


Peekaboo Aphun!

Jake was excited, but not nearly as excited as I was. Cross this off the bucket list!

Midway through the day we stopped for an ice cream break. Doobie just painted himself with it.

These are Jake's little friends, Grace and Kayla. They will all be starting kindergarten together this fall. The class of 2022!

Doobie had lots of fun at the zoo.

He worked really hard strollering my purse around.

This is a brown bear. It may or may not be Oreo. This bear watched as Joshy's little friend Landon took off his Lightening McQueen sandal and dropped it down between the viewing deck and the bear fence. The bear couldn't take his eyes off the bright red shoe. Fortunately, a brave landscaper rescued the shoe and saved the day.

Jaycob and Jordan, leading the way.

This a black bear. And a Jordy Bug.

I can't recall what fascinating animal we were looking at here. Probably a raven. Because we don't see enough of those every Wednesday morning tipping over our trash can.

The rear view of all the kids that came with us to the zoo. We got a lot of this view.

Camping Saturday

Just so you know...it's really hard from children to sleep all night long when it's daylight ALL NIGHT LONG. There only so many ways to black out an RV and none of them work. So after about six hours of sleep, we dragged (drug?) Jake along on an exhilerating adventure into the Alaskan back country. Dust and mud. Tastes like dirt.


Standing on the edge of the world.

I love this picture of my boys having guy talk and admiring the view.

Riding through rivers is a great way to wash the road dust off.

But I was so covered in dust, there was no hope for me. I rode at the back of the pack on a hot and dry day. The trails were so dusty nobody could see anything. We had to spread way out.

Jakey loved river riding. It was his favorite part of the trip.

Sometimes somebody would get stuck in the mud.

Sometimes EVERYBODY got stuck in the mud.

We are going again next weekend for our anniversary.

Camping Friday

On Friday morning we packed up Rory the RV and drove about three hours North-ish to our friend's property just outside of Glennallen, Alaska. They have a parking lot on a lake with access to unending miles of muddy trails for the avid 4-wheeler enthusiasts. We spent the first day just playing in the lake, roasting marshmallows and shooting guns.


The Peanut Gallery. The kids sat safely on the machines while other people shot guns at cans on sticks in the lake.

This was my first time EVER shooting a gun. If you think I look terrified, I am. But I checked it off the bucket list.

Grandma Diana came along and shot some too.

Darrin is serious about his can shooting.

Doobie was very protective of this 4-wheeler. He threw a screaming tantrum anytime somebody came near him. So he ended up banished from the machines after some hand-to-backside attention.

Dinner in the RV. Barbecued chicken, mandarin oranges and noodle salad. Jake apparently does not care for noodle salad. This was made abundantly clear when I forced him to eat a bite and he threw up.

Earlier in the day we played in the lake. I mean swamp.

Doobie is finally big enough to done the waders and wade through the muck. Leaches don't stick to waders.

Daddy was looking for a safe way across to the other bank. He never found one.

Jake did though. He just walked straight across while we hoped and prayed he didn't fall over and force one of us (and by that I mean Daddy) to go swimming after him.

Jordy loves splashing around in her mud stompin' boots.

There goes Jake again.

This kid LIVES for stressing me out.

But he made it back and forth safely several times. I guess he's a big boy and they like doing big boy things like that.