Maybe Not :)

Sooo...about spring. It may not be coming as soon as I thought. :) Because I woke up to this this morning. But, I do LOVE the snow! So, as much as I am ready for warm weather, camping trips, fishing, hiking, barbeque's, and Matt to be home....I do love to see fresh snow on the ground. It is just so perfect and clean and beautiful. Just like we are in God's sight when we accept the grace of Jesus Christ! 

Spring is Springing

Even my car has noticed that spring is coming. My car is a great winter car. It has lots of really nice features that make winter driving so much better. But, I have found that even though she was made to be great in cold, she really she likes the warm weather better. In the winter she was only getting about 22 miles per gallon. But already with the temperatures being in the high 30's and low 40's she is now getting 26 miles per gallon. I am sure she will continue to improve her miles per gallon average as the temps continue to get warmer :)

Congratulations!

I have two sisters-in-law expecting baby's this fall!

Zach and Kara are expecting another little addition to their family in late August. As well as they are adopting a baby from Africa in May! So they are expanding by two again this summer :)

And then, John and Deb (Matt's brother and his wife) are expecting their first baby in October! 

Congrats to both families!

Indoor Luau in Alaska :)

 Sarah and Averi

 Hailey and Cadence lounging on the beach chair :)

 Amber, Andrew and Tami

 Amanda and Sarah

 Brent and Liz

 Ryan and Devin

 Hailey and Jen

 Brian and Averi

 Amber and Tami learning to hula dance

 Cameronn watching while Amanda and Sarah laugh at themselves attempting to hula.

 Hillary, Shiloh and Levi

 Ginna, Amanda Ninette, Jen, Cameronn, Me and Sarah

 Ginna, Tyler, and little baby Van Zandt!! :)

 Devin and Sarah

 The Cook family

 Me and Liz

Cole and Averi

Willow/Fairbanks

This last weekend Gini, Shelley, Sarah, Devin and I drove to Fairbanks and back. This first night we drove to Willow and stayed at a public use cabin there. It was right on the edge of a frozen lake and we could see the mountains off in the distance. We saw a moose out on the lake and got to go sledding. Then the next day we packed up and drove 5 more hours to Fairbanks. There we stayed in a public use cabin about 30 miles south of Fairbanks. It was right on the edge of a frozen river. The second cabin was REALLY small. It was actually only supposed to sleep 3 people...but we all just piled in. :) While we were there we also went to the Chena Hot Springs. It was very cool to be in a natural hot springs pool with snow all around the edges of the pool. While there we also visited North Pole. There were still lots of things Christmas around. We took some pictures by the ice sculptures and ate at the Elf's Den (not the best food in the world). We had such a great time just seeing lots of moose, snowshoeing, sitting by the fire and playing card games (and doing lots of driving!!). We all got to know one another a little too really well :) 

 Devin and Sarah

 Sledding!!

 We ate at Glacier Brewhouse. Yummmm!

 Gini wearing Matthew's ginormous ski gloves.

 The Elf's Den

Shelley, Gini, me, Devin and Sarah sitting in an ice sculpture of Santa's sleigh.

Cross Country Skiing/Shelley's 19th Birthday

Gini and Shelley are here visiting for 9 days! It's great to have them here! the day after they got here was Shelley's 19th birthday. So, we took her cross country skiing for her first time. It ended up being really icy...which makes it kind of tough to learn to ski. Both Gini and Shelley have downhill skied all their lives...but cross country skiing is an entirely different thing! Sarah Rafeedie went with us...and even though it was icy and we all had lots of falls, but had a GREAT time :)

By about 20 minutes into the ski everyone was shedding their coats...

so I got to be the pack horse and carry them :)

I love Shelley's smile in this one. She looks a lot like Tyler in this one. I don't think I've ever thought before that she looked like him...but I see it in this picture.

A little mayhem on the trail :)