Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Church Work

Dad took Thursday off of his regular work to take us all out for a workday at the church's property. We were up at 6:30 am and left the jobsite at 7:45 pm. It was a long day, but we accomplished a lot and had some fun doing it. Scott has appointed himself picnic shelter housekeeper. At one point in the day, he was informing Abigail that she needed to sweep again because she had not gotten ALL the dirt off the floor. This is what Mom gets for checking his sweeping work at home.
Chad hauling rebar from where the delivery truck dropped it to where it needed to be. Scott and Abby helped with this job, too.
Dad with Bill and Jared Wood, taking a minute to mug for the camera from the trusses of the picnic shelter. It was a good work day, and if you'd like to see more photos, check out the church's blog.

Fun in Anchorage

Our week - as it turned out, because Dad got stuck in St. George a couple extra days - with the Dietzes, was fun. We rode bikes, played in the dirt, watched planes and jets, and went to church. Oh, and we celebrated Nathan's birthday, and terrorized the dog. And don't get us started on how fun it got once we started the pranks - soap on toothbrushes, camo face paint on mirrors, perfume on the boys - it was a blast.

One of the things we did was go to the community center on base. We climbed a rock wall, which was pretty cool. Here are Abby and Nathan climbing.

And here is Scott climbing. He made it to the top - after many tries. And since they were clamped to a pulley system at the top, it was impossible for them to fall, s-o-o-o-
Scott also tried his Spiderman moves. Here, he looks a little panicked because he flipped upside down a little faster than he expected to. But he was in no real danger, grandmas, and this was actually his favorite part of the climbing.

The Infamous St. George

As many of you know, dad had another trip to St. George last week. So, here is our post about St. George.

St. George is one of the Pribilof Islands. The Pribilofs are a group of five islands in the Bering Sea. If you look at a map of Alaska, find the Aleutian chain and head north of Unimak Island - the second to furthest west of the chain, you will come across the Pribilofs. Only two of those islands ar inhabited by humans, St. Paul being the largest, and St. George.

St. George's population is roughly 170.
The first photo is of the town of St. George. Daddy could tell you which building is which. The building near the center with the green onion-shaped tower is the Russian Orthodox church.

This second photo is of a St. George sunset. St. George is a bird and sea lion sanctuary. The cliffs in the distance are very high and house thousands of birds.






The third photo is of much of the island. The guy in the photo is a bird watcher. In the distance, you can see the town. Even when it's sunny like in this photo, it is cold and windy. Rarely does the wind not blow in St. George. So, there it is. Our report on St. George. Hope you enjoyed.

Last Year

We have some new photos to post, but Mom hasn't got them ready yet, so here are a couple we hope we didn't post last year after vacation. Both are on Grandpa's farm. The first is of Chad and Calvin swinging in the front yard.

The second is of all the kids on Duke, Aunt Denise's oldest horse. We have a photo of them on the same horse back when Scott was a baby and he's starting to cry. As you can see, he is not quite so afraid of it anymore.