rollin'

Rollerblades were the summer activity finale for the girls. Both purchased them with their own money and have had a ton of fun with them already. We completely depleted our supply of sidewalk chalk making roads to "drive" on. The roads were named (Minnesota Ridge, Yellowstone Highway, & Friends Freeway) and were complete with stop signs, traffic lights and encouraging notes. Thomas has mastered the pedals on his new trike from Gr'pa Richard & Gr'ma JoAnne and has been riding it with delight!

missing sister

Owen ate supper on a plate one night this week that had the girls' faces on it. Claire was gone for the evening and Owen clearly missed her. He'd point at her face, make a strange little sound and lay his head down on the plate as if to hug her! Precious.

a little girl's garden

Claire picked a bouquet of flowers from her own garden tonight...just makes me smile:) She's on a date with her daddy right now. I can't help but think that one day she'll be going on dates and someone may be bringing HER flowers. Yikes.

harvest

Easter in August

We've celebrated Easter with the Ryan's almost every year since we've lived in Alaska. This year, it didn't happen. So....we had Easter in August, complete with an egg hunt for the kids! (I actually found jellybeans still in the cupboard!) A traditional ham dinner....or pizza iron sandwiches in the gazebo with smores? It was fun to break tradition this year! After all, every day is reason to celebrate that "Jesus is alive!" right?

Grandma & Gramps

Grandma Sheryl & Gramps Tom are here and we're having a great time with them.  Tonight they even went on the zipline after go-karting with the crew.  Fun times!





Ella got to drive her own kart this time....BIG STUFF.  She's been waiting years to do this!  Thomas' smile gives it all away...his very first time in a go-kart was a huge hit.  Leaving the joint was quite the opposite...big tears!

Gird to Bird & back

Tom and I had a biking date last week with a dozen ladies (+Mark) from our church.  They asked the guys to join us as bear protection.  After seeing all the bear scat on the trail, I was so glad they were armed & with us!  We biked from Girdwood to Bird Creek and back....around 20 miles.  What a nice trail & great day.