What a Day...Sunday was!!!

Ok, let me first start off by saying, Happy New Year! I can't believe I have been so bad about keeping up on here...one of my resolutions is to be better...especially for Paul to see what's going on back here at home! Sorry sweetie! I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas break with their friends and family and that you are all settled back into the routine of things with work and school...it took me a few days to get used to the alarm again!!! I hate that morning rush of getting the kids' breakfast made & lunches packed! I will post all our holiday pictures soon...there are over 1000 pictures to organize from the month of December...I will get to them :-)!
So, the weather here was pretty darn cold for a few weeks...one week in the -10's and then another week and a half of -20's! Finally, on Sunday we had a "heat wave" and made it up to -5* so I decided I wanted to take a drive down to Seward and take the kids to the Sea Life Center. I am so glad I did! The drive was easy since it has been so cold we haven't had any new snow since Christmas Day which meant the roads were really clear which isn't always the case here in January! The sky was clear and the mountains were BEAUTIFUL so the drive was extremely enjoyable! And not just for me...the kids looked out the window almost the whole 2 & 1/2 hours and made their own comments about how beautiful & cool the mountains were, the frozen ocean, the frozen waterfalls, the trees, etc. So wonderful to hear them say these things instead of complaining or asking, "are we there yet?" (So, glad to say that question was NOT asked one single time on the way there or back ;-)!!!) Then of course it was dark on the return trip & the three older ones played gameboys & read & Sam took a nap. It was a perfect day for me...other than of course wanting to share it with Paul!!
So, here is how our day started...this INCREDIBLE full moon we were blessed with on the way to Religious School! The pictures of course can never capture exactly how incredible it actually was...but, you can get the general idea. It was setting...10 a.m.! It was HUGE! It was pinkish orangish...not a word I know...but, that is the description the kids & I came up with :-)! So, now we have seen 5 full moons without Paul, only 7 more to go! Hopefully, you can click these to enlarge & get a better view...

I picked the kids up from Religious School and we headed out of town! This is the start of the Seward Highway...sun rising over the mountain...about 1:30...for those of you not in Alaska...notice how far down the sun still is?!?!

The kids wanted to stay here for a LONG time and watch these guys climb this rock...I am scared of heights & was NOT enjoying this...I was so scared of them falling! But, I stayed & let the kids enjoy the show for about 20 minutes.

The picture above & below are trying to capture how cool it is that the water freezes in so many different shapes & sizes...the kids were so amazed at the ice chunks. Ben said there were shark fish in the ice & they were going to come eat us...ahhhh!

So here are some favorites from the fun at the Sea Life Center & then there are many more in the smilebox slideshow I made & of course ALL the pictures can be found in the family photo link.

Jakob, thank you for being such a big help to me with Sam!!

We were the only people there!! So, it was great that the kids could be loud & excited about seeing the fish, "Mommy, Mommy come see, come see!" & I didn't have to tell them , "sh, sh." And, they had the touch tank all to themselves so they enjoyed exploring the animals for quite a while.

When we got home though I had to take care of a situation...I had asked Jakob to throw Sam's diaper in the garage before we left Sunday morning. He usually chucks it over toward the garbage cans, sometimes they go in...most of the time we have to pick them up off the floor. Well, he tossed it high...he better not have done this on purpose??...and it landed right in the canoe!!! So, I had to climb up there...remember how I said I am scared of heights? well, I am even scared of being on the ladder!!! So, I climb up & can almost reach it but I don't want to tilt the canoe to bring the diaper over to me because I was scared I would loosen the rope & the canoe would fall right on top of my van...so I grabbed the longest tongs we own & yeah, they did the job! Please don't do that again Jakob!