School Days. . .

First Tooth Lost! (in a chocolate covered rice krispy treat).
Smile Sunshine!

Camille designed a "What I am going to be for Halloween" doll that will be hung in the halls at school. She is going to be a Cowgirl!

The hat cracks me up a bit because it reminds me of the Beverly Hillbillies. Dad helped with that part. She did such a great job.

Okay, so I didn't take a picture of Gabe's first day of preschool. He does have two more years after this. I can just say this was his first day, right? I am taking it now because as we were walking through the playground area after school, I heard some kid say to his friends, "Look at that kid and his backpack. It is so huge!" I felt I should capture this monstrosity. It is rather large. Camille's is even smaller. He can handle it.

Rock-A-Bye Stinky...

We have a new song that Brett sings to the kiddos at bedtime. It has been adapted from Rock-A-Bye Baby. This is actually our second rendition of the original song. Yea, this is getting complicated.
It goes Rock-a-bye (Gabey or child's name) in Daddy's arms. I hate to tell you, you smell like a farm. You are so gross and stinky too, so what I am trying to say is you smell like (animal of choice) poo. The laughs just roll out from Camille and Gabe when Brett sings these sweet lullabies. Classic.

An Alaskan Collage.

What follows are laughter and smiles, happy moments captured, so we can return.

We are setting sail from Seattle on our journey to Alaska.

Mitchell plus splashing equals pure fun.

This one speaks for itself.

Hailey, Gabe, and Camille
Hailey has such a contagious smile (like hey, I totally want you to be contagious, pass it on.)
T.J. made Gabe laugh so hard he almost fell over.

We are at Glacier Bay, but instead of gazing at the glacier he keeps saying "I see you," while looking through the binoculars backwards.

Camille, Dad, Gabe, and a magnificent glacier.


Mom and Dad through Camille's eyes.

Caleb and Gabe on the hike to Mendenhall Glacier Waterfalls. Caleb carried Gabe on his shoulders the entire way plus Gabe got to sport Caleb's hat. He thought that was so cool.
Can it be true? I really liked these photos because of the huge laughs. The polaroid cut off Brett's grin, but you can see it in the jaw.
The skipping begins.

She could stay searching these rocks all day.

My little guy.
Us and the falls.

A series of spaz.


Camille and Braxton are so dang cute!

Yes, we hiked the steep Deer Mountain in Ketchikan. We made it a whole 1/4 of a mile. There is so much more to this though.


Brett loving Sitka with all of its Russian history. Here's to Sitka with a pucker.

Who can resist a chef's hat?

A hybrid VW Bus, need I say more?

Family Pics: by a Professional.

Love this blue sky on our hike around Beaver Pond. We stopped at our picture bench. We started this new tradition of taking family pictures last year, done by yours truly, professional photog extraordinaire. I think it was a success.

I missed the kids completely. Life before kids. Sure didn't look quite this tired and Brett looks a bit dumbfounded by it all. All as in this lovely life.

Gabe is taken aback by our outright enthuisiasm.

Gabe has the same, these people are nuts, look throughout.

Until now. Gabe is finally smiling and Camille's hand blocks him out. This is perfect because in the main picture we took last year, I only captured the top of his head. Sorry Gabe. Now capturing peices of you has become the tradition.

Winthrop, Memorial Weekend 09.

Our annual Memorial Day weekend began with our usual trip to the Farmer's Market and onto our much loved Twisp River park. It all starts with the red door.
My little ones are not so little. Camille starts Kindergarten this Fall. We keep telling them to stop growing. There seems to be a malfunction in that area though.
Waterguns! Thanks Grandpa. The trees at this park are my favorite background for photos. This is the response I am receiving to my plea for some pictures.
What an expression. Love it.
Brett is perfecting his pose.
River rock throwing. The river is too high still, but next time we should be able to cross and swim.


Gabe does not like the COLD! Even though it was 80 or so he still refused to get in the pool. At home the other day, when it was 89, he slipped into his wool hat and winter jacket.

Camille took up frisbee and she is so good. She really likes it.
Dad in action.
The process of filling a hole and creating a dam to make a pool.

Okay, so not so much a pool, but a mud hole. Preferred by far.

Sister and Brother! Love these truly happy moments.
Okay, here I am.The end of the day! Every Memorial Weekend at the Farmer's Market, they have this huge used book sale. We hit the mother load and found our year's supply. Every night we would melt those mallows and chocolate, then the kiddos were off to bed, and we would break out our books and read under the endless starry sky. I would never leave these nights, but morning always comes.