From Twilight to Breaking Dawn...

So I immersed myself in the magical world of vampires, werewolves and mythical creatures this week as I DEVOURED Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Such fun! All told, I read 1,946 pages this week (I had read Twilight the week prior). While I did thoroughly enjoy her books, they were pure candy. Fun, light, and making me feel a little guilty after indulging in it. While I still prefer a steady diet of the classics, an occasional indulgence in candy is quite fun!

So, have you read the Twilight series? I had such mixed feelings about Jacob. He certainly seemed an easier fit then Edward at first (at least she wouldn't have to DIE to be with him!) and when he imprinted on Renesmee I could understand Bella's furious response! Yet, in the end, if it had come to that, he would have been the best care giver for Renesmee.

Bella and Edward, of course, will go down as one of the most romantic couples in literature. And, how wonderful is it that a book so extremely popular promotes the importance of families, chastity, and the self-sacrificing desire to love "more than my own life."

Thank you Stephanie, for a wonderful read!

Shaken - not stirred!

Well, we survived our first earthquake here in Alaska. It really wasn't a big deal, only a 5.4. It struck at 11:28 am. The kids were watching one of the Land Before Time movies while I was unpacking some of our books. All of a sudden things got really wobbly and the wall of the condo wavered a little. I heard this really low growl from deep in the earth, and then it was over. My legs felt wobbly and my head felt a little funny (I think my equilibrium was a bit off for a second), but other than that - no big deal. The kids were all excited to have experienced their first earthquake. No damage, just a little excitement - but not enough to pause the movie.

Saturday I ran in the Mayor's Marathon - the 5.6 mile race, not the full marathon! I ran it in 1:02:02, or 11:02 minutes per mile. It's my fastest per mile race time ever - but it certainly wasn't fast! My soon-to-be brother-in-law is running in the Santa Half-Marathon up in North Pole Alaska in August and he wants me to join him. I love the challenge, but am seriously doubting if I can pull off 13.1 miles in seven weeks. I decided to start training for it, and I really want to do it, but I haven't registered for the race yet. I want to get a couple long runs under my belt before I make that commitment. Oh, but it's so tempting!!

After my race on Saturday, we had a picnic lunch with my sister-in-law Stefani, her soon-to-be husband, Ben, and his three girls; known by my girls as "our new cousins!" Such a GREAT family! We had a blast! I thought I'd share some photos.

This is "Little Suz" in Hatcher's Pass - about an hour's drive from our condo.

The kids by "Little Suz" falls in Hatcher's Pass.

The girls with their "new cousins" - Katherine and Sarah had SO much fun with them!

The drive through the pass up to our picnic spot.

Our view of the top and our picnic spot. We could have hiked up there but it was COLD! Yes, notice the SNOW on the mountain! There is an old gold mine you can tour too. We'll do that next time - when we pack jackets and sweaters. I think we'll just keep extra blankets and jackets in the car for such excursions!

Alaska is gorgeous - I've totally fallen in love with it, as you can probably tell. Of course, it's summer and the weather is around 65-70 F and drops to 40s at night (perfect sleeping weather!). I'm still a bit worried about the winter, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there (in about 4 months).

The Last Frontier!

Oh my gosh, what a difference a few weeks can make! This is the new view from my window - the mountains in Alaska! BTW, this was taken at almost 10 pm!



In mid-May Andy emailed a Human Resources consulting firm in Alaska regarding a job they had posted. One week, two phone interviews and a face-to-face meeting later, and he had the job - and he was to start June 1st!



After consulting with several moving companies, we decided it was more "economically feasible" for us to sell 90% of what we owned and then ship the remaining 10% via a moving truck. The one thing we couldn't/wouldn't sell ... our books. We shipped a total of 48 book boxes (each one was one cubic foot - so these weren't large boxes). We've received the first 8 boxes and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest!



We are currently living just outside of Anchorage, a suburb called Eagle River. The kids and I arrived June 10th, after spending a very exhausting 10 day stretch packing up and getting rid of our belongings. Our NH ward family was amazing! Andy was already in AK, and I was worried about being able to tackle this myself, but I need not have worried. By the time I got to church there were lists going around for meals, babysitting the kids, people to help me pack the house, run stuff to Goodwill or the dump, it was absolutely amazing. When my head was spinning and I couldn't think straight anymore, my wonderful friends made me laugh like little girl again so I could find my strength and keep going. Thank you seems so inept to describe how much I love, and appreciate my sisters in NH. I miss you guys!!



We've been in Alaska for a week now and are getting settled in. We officially got our Internet access going this morning, huge relief as I'm still teaching for University of Phoenix. We are staying at my in-law's condo and it's beautiful! It was so nice to step off the plan and go to a clean, fully furnished place! It has three bedrooms so the girls and the boys no longer share a room - making bed time and nap time much easier.



Alaska is beautiful. The mountains are ... awe inspiring;breath-takingly beautiful. I can't get used to them - and hope I never do. We should never get "comfortable" looking as such magnificent work that Heavenly Father has created. There is an awesome power to the beauty of Alaska. I'll try to capture it with my camera and share it with you.



Through September we'll be staying at the condo. After September we will probably be renting an apartment somewhere. The plan is to build a log cabin type home next summer, provided we sell our house in NH and find a lot here this summer.


Well, it's late and there's a gentle rain now. I need to turn in so I can get up for my run tomorrow. The condo is about 1/2 mile from a nice bike trail that I've already grown fond of running. I have a race this Saturday, only a "5 miler" but I'm hoping I'll be able to meet some other runners to help motivate me this long winter. Oh yes - and my treadmill was one of the 10% of our things we kept!

The Chicks Are Here!

We have added four chicks to the Brown family this spring. We've been bit by the farming bug I'm afraid. Some of our close friends are adding chickens, pigs, and even cows to their families this spring. Andy and I, being "farmer wannabes" decided to try our hand and ordered 4 chickens - and they got here this week. Here they are...

Now, we very carefully explained to the children that these chicks are VERY fragile and needed to stay under the heat lamp for the next week or two before we could really play with them. We can pet them and hold them, but they need to stay in the school room bathroom (a warm room with no outside windows for drafts - and away from our cats!) so the chicks didn't get sick. I got very solemn head nods - even Christian seemed to understand we were not to play with these chicks. So, having everyone in agreement, I walked away. Here's what I found when I returned about five minutes later...

A new member of the road crew...

Some additions to Noah's Ark (the fourth chick was tucked soundly inside the ark)!

My children obey my EVERY word!!

Now, some of you may be wondering what we are actually going to do with these chicks. Well, first and foremost we are using them for a great learning tool. The girls have been doing research on chickens and are now learning the difference between field research and secondary research. We're going to avoid primary research on animals for now. The other reason is we are teaching our kids where food actually comes from. Now, this might sound a bit harsh at first, but I look at is as the ultimate organic food option. We are raising these chicks for meat. They will be slaughtered this fall. The kids will help us take care of the chicks, clean the coop (once we move them outside), and feed them wholesome food. These chickens will be very well cared for and then once they fulfill "the measure of their creation" they will feed us this winter. Next year we'd like to get some hens for eggs and keep them for a few years, but we wanted to learn how to do all this first, before we had to try to keep them warm all winter.

So, that's what's going on in our neck of the woods. We are all well and continue our love of learning. What's new with you?

Happy Birthday Katherine!

Katherine turned 7 last week on the 13th. She is growing up so quickly; we can't call her our "little girl" any more. She got a "grown-up" purse for Christmas and has been known to hook it on her elbow and walk around the house looking quite dignified. She's been going through "grown-up training" and learning how to do grown-up things - emptying the garbage, loading the dishwasher, moping floors, folding clothes and putting them away, etc. She's going to have her own small garden this summer to tend and cultivate. She's also "in charge" while I run on the treadmill each morning. We keep it in our mudroom and when I go in and close the door, I'm able to focus on my run while she's takes care of the children. I'm right there if there is a problem, but she seldom needs me. She's very helpful.

We didn't have a birthday party for Katherine (the trip to Disney was everyone's birthday party this year), but we made her requested dinner - lasagna and green beans. We babysat our friend's kids and then the missionaries brought more friends over, so we ended up having help singing to Katherine and eating the cake, to which I am very grateful!

This year we are focusing on preparing Katherine for baptism (to which she says - "mom, I already know I want to be baptised!"), setting up a savings account for her with her birthday money (she wants to start saving for her mission - and a microscope), and fueling her love for reading and learning to the best of our ability. She reads everything she can get her hands on and her first love is science. When she had an earache last night I gave her my herbal remedy book and had her read the section on ear aches while I rubbed her ear with garlic oil; she was fascinated by the description of what causes an earache and how the garlic oil can help. She just might be a doctor yet! I love Katherine dearly and don't know what I would do without my big girl.

Happy Birthday Katherine!

Our Trip to Disney

We really enjoyed our trip to Florida. We spent the weekend with my family in the Clearwater area. Weather was perfect, mid-60s during the day and sunny. I even got a 6+ mile run/walk in; perfect. It was great spending time with my family and the girls LOVED playing with their cousins, we wished we lived closer.



After spending a long weekend with my family, we headed to Disney World to go camping. Unfortunately we were staying in a tent as central FL had some of the clodest weather they've seen in years. It was down in the 20s-30s our first three nights. Brr!




We did have a blast, despite the cold nights. Because it was January and the weather was chilly, the parks were not busy at all. We had very little waits for rides and were able to see some amazing characters we've never seen before. Being huge Peter Pan fans (the kids' room is decorated in a Peter Pan theme, including a map to Neverland that Andy painted), these two were our favorites which will soon be decorating the kids room.





We also saw all the favorite characters and princess. Here are a few of our favorites...

Even Christian had a blast!




As you can see, we all had fun! I would highly recommend a trip to Disney for anyone looking for a family friendly vacation. We can give you all sorts of tips to make it budget-friendly, just let us know if you want to hear them. We feel so blessed to have been able take this vacation. It wasn't very "easy" camping with the little ones (the 3 am runs to the bathroom when it was 25 degrees outside were not very fun!), I think next time we'll stay in a hotel. :)

1500 miles, 4 children, 1 tired momma!

Well we arrived in Florida! I drove the kids down to Florida to visit my family this week. We had planned on leaving Wednesday, but due to various storm patterns that were approaching the Northeast, we decided to leave on Monday. The plan was to have me take my time driving down to my sister's, have Andy fly down and meet us on Saturday, and then we'll take the kids camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness. It was a good plan, but it was quite a bit harder then I expected.


Monday we got a late start (10 am) and only made it to Delaware before stopping for the night. I planned on making sandwiches for lunch and stopping at a rest stop to let the kids run around and eat a nice healthy lunch. There was only one problem - it's January - so all the rest stops our first day were covered in snow and COLD! Oops, should have thought of that. I also made a second mistake, I decided that due to our late start, I'd drive for a bit after dinner before getting a hotel room. Well, both boys fell asleep in the car after dinner so by the time I stopped and got a room, they had had a nice nap and were now wide awake! It was 11 pm before I finally got all the kids settled and in bed.


Tuesday we made it to the southern part of North Carolina. When we stopped for lunch at a rest stop in Virginia there was no snow (yeah!) so the kids were able to run around for an hour before getting back in the car. I also stopped for dinner and got a hotel at the same exit - wanting to avoid yesterday's mistakes. I forgot, however, to stop in the afternoon to let the kids run around. The result: two VERY active boys who did not want to sit down for dinner and took great delight in not doing anything mommy asked. Halfway through dinner I paid the waitress, stuffed everyone's food in to go boxes, and we finished in our hotel room. Luckily the kids went to bed around 9 pm and I stayed up working on a magazine article about family road trips with children.


Wednesday we stopped in Georgia - only 30 minutes away from Jacksonville, but Christian had decided that he couldn't spend another minute in his car seat and since we weren't in a rush (my sister wasn't expecting us until Friday), I stopped. We had two good rest stop visits - one for lunch and one in the late afternoon. I had the kids running around for about 45 minutes each time and things went quite well. As the kids were all asleep by 8:30 pm I was feeling quite good - until I woke up around midnight with food poisoning. After spending 2+ hours in the hotel bathroom (being oh so thankful that I had chosen decent, clean hotels!), I decided that travelling alone with four young children just isn't for me.

Thursday we didn't leave until noon as I was still feeling a bit under the weather. We crossed the Florida border and I thought about heading to a hotel on the beach so I could relax and let the kids play on the seashore. Then, reality hit - I wouldn't be relaxing on the beach, I'd be running all around making sure one stopped throwing sand, no one was going too deep into the water, etc. What I needed was a family-friendly stop where I could relax and the kids could play. I grabbed my cell phone and called Disney. They had an opening that night in the All Star Movie resort and so I booked it. It was exactly what we needed! The kids were excited to see Mickey everywhere, it didn't matter if they were loud in the food court - because all the other kids were loud, and they spent a ton of time and energy walking all around the hotel and playing in the playground. It was fabulous. Both boys were asleep by 8:30 pm and the girls and I watched Princess Diaries in bed and then fell right to sleep when it was over. Oh, I do so love Disney!

Andy got in fine Saturday - I was so glad to see him! We have spent a wonderful weekend visiting my family and a dear friend from college, Michele (and her mother and almost 6-year-old daughter). I even got a 6 mile run/walk in - my first in two weeks. The weather has been perfect here - in the 60s with lots of sun.

We leave for Ft. Wilderness tomorrow. I'll post next week on how camping with four small children in a tent goes. Well, camping at Disney - how hard could that be?

... to be continued...