Spring time fun!

Marathon
Yesterday our family was part of the two teams that Coffman Cove put together for the annual Prince of Wales Marathon. We enjoyed the exercise and sunshine even if we weren't the least bit competitive. I never plan on being able to run a marathon, but we definitely plan on participating again next year. I'd kind of like to walk/jog the whole thing. We'll have to see what I think by next spring. Here's a picture of most of the people on our 2 8-person teams.


Geo caching
I know geo caching has been around for a while but I never understood it until a couple weeks ago. I love it. We've only done 4 caches so far, but the kids and I are looking forward to doing more on the island and when we come to Utah this summer. It's a great game to get us all outside doing something and exploring new places. The kids love posing for pictures so here's a couple fun ones we got while on the hunt for a cache. This first one is at the base of a big tree. It just had this big hollow rotted out spot in it - perfect for posing kids.

This one is Josh with a moss wig. He found this big clump of moss and decided it would make a good wig. The girls both tried it on too. We had to wash everyone's hair when we got home.Bird feeder
We put a couple of bird feeders outside the kitchen window a couple months ago. We get a whole bunch of little finches or something, but we also get a couple of these beautiful blue jays. They don't sing nearly as nice as the little birds, but they sure are pretty.Other wildlife
Today on the way to church we saw our first newborn black tail deer. They will probably become a common site in the next couple weeks. They are probably only a little more than a foot tall - so tiny!! We also saw a bear. Not the first, or even the first one of the year, but it was the biggest we've seen by far. And the closest I've been to one. I enjoy seeing them, but I'm glad we don't see them all the time, then I'd probably worry about them more.

Moving

Big announcement! We're moving!!! OK so it's not that big of deal to most of my readers that we're moving from one small town on an island to another smaller town on the same island. But we're excited. The town we're moving to is called Kasaan (the "aa" sounds like the a in sand). We'd thought about Kasaan before, but thought that the school would be closing due to a lack of students next year. But the Superintendent stopped in to visit last week and asked us to think about moving there. To his credit, he did not push us or try to make it sound like a wonderful idea. He also did not play the card of needing us to "save" the school by adding our 4 children to the 8 already there in order to make the minimum 10 students to keep the school open. He simply laid out the facts and told us to think about what would be best for our family. We knew what we wanted to do, but put off a decision long enough for me to make a trip over to see the town in person and of course pray about it. But both of those just reinforced the feeling that it would be a good move for us. So at some point this summer when we get all the details worked out we'll be moving to Kasaan. It is a Haida village (Alaskan Indians). It's 60-70 residents are about 50/50 native and nonnative. The school actually doesn't have any Haida or even Tlingit (the other local tribe) students, but it will have three Yupik high school students (from a village somewhat close to Chevak.) We've already met a lot of the people and everyone seems very excited to get a new family in town. This will be a small move in some ways - we get to stay in the same branch for church (the drive to church will even be a very similar length) and we also stay in the same district so all of Stewart's supervisor type people will remain the same (which is good - we like them). But moving to a new home and community is always a big deal. Totem poles are a big part of the local culture. They have a great collection of totem poles and Kasaan is also home to the only remaining Haida clan house in the U.S. We're excited to get more involved in the local culture there and will share pictures soon.

Back track to October

I was dumping pictures from my daughters camera onto the computer today and realized that I had borrowed her camera to go to my brothers wedding in October. I don't have a single picture of the happy couple but I have at least a dozen of this adorable group of cousins.
This is 7 of my parents 10 grand kids (my mom hand made all five of the girls dresses). The only kids missing are my older three kids. Sammie is my only one that got to go on the trip with me - she's the third from the left. Aren't they adorable!! With kids this cute around who wants pictures of a bride and groom?

My other favorite pic from our trip. My kids have been given airline stickers in the past. They usually say things like "FRAGILE - handle with care" or "COOL" - meaning refrigerate. But when the woman in the Ketchikan airport opened her drawer to get Sammie a sticker- Sammie spotted the one with orange writing (her favorite color) and insisted on having that one. The poor lady was obviously torn between pleasing a stubborn 3 year old and facing the consequences of labeling a child in such a way- but she eventually gave in and gave her the Sticker she wanted.

Pinewood Derby

This week we got to participate in the Pinewood derby! For any of my readers that don't have a clue what that is, let me give a brief explanation. Cub scouts (boys 8-10) are given a chunk of wood and some wheels and they get to turn it into a car and then everyone gets together to watch them race. Our branch also had an open competition where other family members could enter cars as well as the scouts. So Caleb designed and made his car. Liz and Stewart worked together on what ended up being called Liz's car even though it was mostly Stewart's idea's and work.

Here is Caleb with his car.
Here is Liz with her car.
Here's a great snapshot of the event.
Caleb took third place out of the scouts. He was awarded a nice little medal that said pinewood derby with a picture of a car. But he chose to give it to one of the boys who's car didn't do so well. As his mom, I have to say I'm much prouder of that than of him doing well in the race.

And this last pic is Tori enjoying the snacks and socializing at the races. I've been meaning to get a good picture of her to put on my blog since she's become our honorary family member. But it hasn't happened yet, so this one will have to do for now. Lucky for me, I don't think she reads my blog yet. So don't tell her I used a picture of her eating.

Community Pictures

Tori recently had a school assignment that included taking pictures of the community. She used our camera to do it, and I really liked some of the pictures she got, so I wanted to share. Coffman Cove is still primarily a logging community even though environmental issues are making it a nearly impossible way to make a living. Tori's step-dad is a logger and so she was able to get some up close and personal pictures.

This one shows the claw (run by Tori's step-dad) putting the logs onto the truck.



This guy is branding the logs so that when they get dumped at the mill, his crew will get credit for them.
I just thought this was a cool picture to show how comfortable these guys are with a chainsaw. This isn't how we carry Stewart's new chainsaw. But don't confuse comfort with carelessness. These guys know exactly how dangerous a chainsaw is.
And this is the part of logging that I've actually seen personally. It's a little scary to come around a corner on a nearly deserted road and come face to face with one of these trucks. The center of this picture is the ferry terminal. It was only used for a short time before it was decided that it wasn't worth the effort to have a northern island ferry AND a southern island ferry. Ours was the northern. It got canceled. But we have a really nice dock and building ready and waiting if they ever decide to change their mind.
This is a distance shot of our new school. This is the first full school year that it's been used. It's a very nice school for less than 20 students. Our house is also visible in this picture but unless you know exactly where to look it's really hard to see.

This one shows most of the community. The water at the right of the picture is the beach area where you can watch the big cruise ships go past. The water on the other side of the peninsula is the cove. Thanks for the Pics Tori!

Josh's missing tooth

Josh's front teeth have been due to fall out for awhile now. Then he got hit in the mouth with a hockey puck during PE and one of them finally decided it was time. Although it still took a couple more days to actually fall out. I love the way kids look with missing teeth, so I asked him to pose for a picture. This first picture is what I was thinking, the next two are what Josh thinks of as posing for a picture.


It wasn't long before all the kids realized I had the camera out and we had a good time posing for pictures for a while.

fun outside

We continue to enjoy warmer than average winter temperatures. Toward the end of February the kids all gathered on the baseball field on a sunny day after school on Friday. They build a couple tee-pees out of sticks, weeds, and grass. They played until the stars came out and it was time for dinner. Then they met back on the field at 10 the next morning and played until dark for a second day. The tee-pees didn't last long before we got a good wind storm in, but they sure enjoyed making them.

Yesterday we celebrated our 11th anniversary. Stewart took Caleb, Liz, and Tori (our honorary family member) in to Craig for a service project/fundraiser for a youth temple trip. While I stayed home and worked on Census stuff. Then in the evening Tori's mom took the rest of us into Craig for Tori's baptism. That was followed by a branch potluck. Not the typical anniversary celebration, but it was a great day! Then it was time for us to drive home, and it snowed the whole way. We had to drive very slowly and the snow in the headlights was enough to make us dizzy, but we got home safely. By the time we got up this morning, most of the snow was gone but the kids couldn't resist going to play in it. We haven't had much this year.