The Difference between Reindeer and Caribou

What do you do on a cold, 15 degree day in Alaska when you're homeschooling. You take a trip to a reindeer farm! At a farm on the "outside" you feed goats, here we get to feed Santa's transportation. It was fun to learn more about these animals - did you know that the only difference in a reindeer and a caribou is a fence? Oh, and of course reindeer fly! We were quite frozen by the end of it, but had a good time.

Chance fed "Rudolph". They keep him here in disguise with a white nose until Christmas Eve when Santa comes to pick him up!

Zombies, Witches, and Jedi, Oh My!

Yes, it's about time I added the Halloween pictures of the kids. Sorry for the delay - we are STILL unpacking! It was fun, cold, and probably a little too chaotic this Halloween. We will definitely be picking only ONE Halloween event to do next year! We have candy coming out of our ears!!!!

The Million Dollar (or at least Thousands of Dollars) Smile

Even though 9-9-09 was my birthday, in Chance's eyes, there was an even bigger reason to celebrate....He finally, after a year, was able to get his braces taken off. He declared it a National Holiday and celebrated by eating all of the junk that he's been deprived of for the past year. Let's just hope filling a cavity won't be the next thing on our list at the dentist visit in October. He's also very excited to be able to eat the Halloween candy he gets this year without having to pass the majority of it along to his siblings :)

Boat Trip to Seward

We were able to go on a boat tour in Seward Saturday in order to support the boy scouts. We rode out to Fox Island for supper and then toured the edges of the bay looking for wildlife. We were able to see Stellar sea lions, sea otters, puffins, mountain goats, jelly fish, and bald eagles. We missed seeing the whales since they are now migrating south. We'll have to come back earlier next year to take a peek at them. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful this state is!

Chance's Court of Honor

Chance attended his 2nd Court of Honor for scouts last night. He advanced in class, receiving both his Tenderfoot and Second Class ranks. The amazing thing is that he only has one more requirement to meet to get his First Class rank. He also earned 6 merit badges. He's really enjoying scouting and his dad is making sure that he is motivated to reach his Eagle rank.

Colton's 5th Birthday

Yesterday, we celebrated Colton's 5th birthday. We had a party at a place that had a bunch of those blow up trampolines which was a blast! Even the Dads had a good time with the kids playing around. They were also able to get their face painted and have balloon animals/swords as well. It was a really great day. I just can't believe my "Wild Man" is already 5!

Animals and More Glaciers

It's the last full day we get to spend with family, so we drove down to Alaska's Wildlife Conservation Center to see all of the animals they had. It was great. One of the park's workers even had the brown bears doing tricks for us. It was like watching Maximus being trained, complete with the reward of hot dog pieces if they did what they were supposed to. We then drove over to Portage Glacier. The views there were breathtaking and the break up ice in the water was amazing! The beautiful blue color in that glacier ice is just awesome. The kids had a blast throwing rocks into the water. We really enjoyed ourselves. The scenery around here never gets old :)