Lovin' some Grandma

The kids were able to spend some quality time with both set of Grandparents on our vacation. Jackson loves him some grandma! Every time he saw Nettie he would get so excited and start screaming and kick his legs extra fast. They were buds.

Straightening the girl out

Kali loves it when I straighten her hair out. It usually takes about 10 minutes with my super cool QVC magical flat iron that Aaron bought me a couple of Christmases ago.

Tidal Pool

Group picture. What a perfect day at the beach!
Grandpa thought that it would be great to give Jackson his first Twizzler. Needless to say, he loved it.

Caleb found a star fish. We kept telling him that it was dead but he REALLY REALLY wanted to send it back to its home.....

and he thought this was the safest and quickest way back to that home. Hasta la vista dead star fishy.

Kali and Jake checking out a star fish.

Oh I forgot to tell you, Diana Ross came along.

My cousin, Tiffy and her husband, flew in from California to spend the weekend with us. My Aunt Rosie also came but left the morning of this outing. Doesn't it look like she's doing a total karate kid move? Ha Ha.

Cool little sea creatures that we explored and found.

Mads playing in the sand. Wasn't so interested in exploring.

Uncle Jake aka Uncle Boobies (long story behind that name but it has nothing to do with the female anatomy) came. The kids had a blast playing with him and his 7 ft shark kite.

Caleb finding a cute little crab in the tide pools.

Tan Baby!

My Doggie

Madeline fell in love this summer with Eddy, my mom's dog. As soon as we got there she declared that that dog was hers! And Eddy was so good with Maddy. She would carry him by his neck, legs, and whatever body part. We would all try to save the poor little guy but Madeline always managed to get her hands on "my doggie."

I ever thought, "well maybe we should get a dog when we get home" and..... then I woke up. LOL. I think having four kids by myself is enough work.

I love this picture of the kids. I took it out in front of my mom's house. That's before I cut down Jackson's fohawk.

I swear all Aaron and I did was EAT! At one point I was SO FULL from the pervious meal but we had to drive 45 minutes to Eskim Joe's. I asked Aaron, "what do I look like right now? I mean I'm so full and I'm still eating." This face says it all.

And I still finished my plate. I was using my hand to help my jaw move because I was so tired of eating. I look happier in the picture that I'm sure I really looked like because I was two stomach loads beyond full.

Oklahoma Memorial

Here are some of the pictures from when Aaron and I visited the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. This wall is from the building next to the federal building that was bombed. The writing is from one of the search and rescue teams.

Here's Aaron under the survivor tree. Only tree that survived the blast. You can still see damage on the tree.

Here's part of the memorial. The chairs stand for each person who died. They are placed in order by which floor of the building the people were on.

We have been busy lately and I haven't updated in a bit. Here's the last couple of weeks in review. We went to the beach and stayed in a nice condo for a long weekend. My aunt, cousin, and her husband flew up from Cali to spend it with us. We were blessed with warm weather and went to the tide pools which were great! We came at the perfect time, by accident, because the tide was out and we found lots of star fish and other little creatures. We were climbing these huge rocks and were so into it that we didn't realize the tide had come in. I, being the mom, panicked and started screaming to get the kids. We sorts of threw Kali back to sand and then I realized that it was my turn. I had my nice Canon and I just started freaking out screaming, "Someone please catch this camera because Aaron is gonna kill me if I drop it." My camera managed to get to land dry but I didn't.

We found that Bend has a kids water park. My close girlfriend, Aya who is kidless, came and said, "Look at all these kids! You said water park, not water world!" LOL. It's huge and had a water slide and cool water features. The great thing about it is that the deepest area is 3 ft. It gradually slopes down so Maddy can play in all the area and Jackson will sit and play for hours. It's so warm like bath water. So we practically live there. I finally told them we needed a break because I got burned on a burn and have been wearing a shirt over my suit for three days but it's not getting better. We'll probably end up there tomorrow though.

Last weekend we drove to Salem (about a 2 1/2 hr drive over the mountains) for a birthday party of my close friend's daughter. It was fun just hanging out and seeing people that I went to church with when I was little. We then drove to Silverton where I grew up. I thought that it would be so cool to show the kids the street that I grew up on and the house Papa built. Pretty much they could of cared less. I parked in front of the house and just reminisced about old times. It's amazing how things look so different after you grow up. We then drove up to Aaron's parents house and had dinner with them and just spent the evening. I love his parents! I'm so lucky to be related to amazing people who love Caleb and Kali like their own, well they are now. It's fun to watch Aaron's dad, Mike, turn into a kid when the grandkids arrive. LOL. He gets so excited and runs around with them and wrestles. Fun fact: I didn't know this until this trip but Aaron and I grew up 24 miles from each other!!!!! I remember our soccer teams playing each other, which he was the goalie, but we never knew each other. I guess it wasn't our time. Anyways, we spent the evening with Nettie and Mike and said our goodbyes for our long drive home.

I wish that I could post some pictures because we are all super dark, even me- the whitest half Mexican girl you've ever seen, ME! I'll post our vacation pictures later though.

Some things that I've realized on our trip:

1) I used to comfort my loneliness in Alaska by looking forward to this trip. I thought that I was probably just so lonely because I was always by myself and just needed some family around. Wrong. I'm here among my family and still feel unbelievable lonely at times. I realize now just how much I miss my husband. Home can be anywhere in the world as long as we're together. I miss him terribly. He phases next month so we are half way done with pilot school. Hopefully just another year left.

2) I have great friends in Alaska!! I have had several of them checking up on me and my house. Stephanie was even willing to battle a burglar when we thought my house was being broke into. ;) I will forever be in debt to Jeanne for helping me keep our family a family of six ( HA HA THANK YOU!).

3) I'm not as bad of a parent as I think I am. I think sometimes I'm so hard on myself and it's been nice to have my mom lovingly help me realize that my kids are amazing at making me feel guilty for punishing them and I shouldn't. I feel more empowered as a parent.

I need to finish this book by thanking my Father in Heaven. A couple of weeks ago I was searching for a whole day for a ticket for Aaron to come to Portland so we could spent 4th of July weekend together. The kids haven't seen him since December and all of them long for each other. So I started looking. Everything was around $900. I called the airlines and pretty much begged for help. Everything was booked up. I felt so hopeless and just started pleading to my Father for help. After using Orbitz all day I thought that I would go there just one more time to try. I put in the same information and I had and just hoped for a miracle...and one happened. A ticket for fourth of July weekend came up for only $300. I felt confused at first and then realized a prayer was answered and wanted to cry for thanks. I told the kids, "Dad's coming!!!" Maddy was confused and screamed, "DAD!" and ran for the front door and opened it. So he'll be here next Thursday at 8pm and leaves Sunday at 5am. Hey, it's better than nothing. I'm so grateful that we having a loving Father than answers even the smallest of prayers. We'll be spending the 4th with his family and I think we're all excited to spend time with Aaron and make lasting family memories. Nettie reserved us a gazebo at the park right next to the water park. It's going to be great.

Okay, I'll end this book. I have about one hour left and my bestest, yes bestest, girlfriend will be here with her daughter. Meagen and I have been sisters for 15 years now. I can't wait to see her!

Vacation Updates!

So much has happened in the last few weeks. I was finally able to see Aaron! It was so nice! I flew into Oklahoma City late Thursday night. He had reserved us a room in Oklahoma City at the Hilton. It was the nicest hotel that I've ever seen! Friday morning we started driving to Dallas, Texas. On the way we stopped and did a little shopping at the mall and ate at a really good Mexican restaurant. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to Dallas. Once we got there we ate some more and hung out. Saturday morning we got up early and went to Six Flags when they opened. We were there from 10-10. It was a blast! We splurged and spend the extra money to buy the fast passes. It was worth the money. You would reserve your place in line and just walk up to the front of the line and get on. I think the longest we waited for any line was 5 minutes. We actually did the whole park twice and some rides 4 times. I think pilot school ruined some of the thrill for Aaron. I mean, when you fly a jet all day doing acrobatics a roller coaster seems like nothing. But, there was plenty of screaming coming from me for the both of us. Sometimes, actually most of the time, I could hear him laughing while I was screaming my head off. LOL. Sunday we took our time and drove back to Oklahoma city. We met up with a couple that has adopted Aaron as their brother while he's away from us. They had been shopping in Oklahoma City and just waited for us to arrive and eat with us. They were nice and I'm glad that Aaron has them. Monday we got up early and had a list of things that we wanted to do on our last day together. We first HAD to start the day eating at the Awful Waffle a.k.a Waffle House. Then we went to the Oklahoma bombing memorial. We felt that it was appropriate since it was Memorial Day. I took some pictures of it that I'll have to post later. The layout was beautiful and touching. After that we headed to Enid where Vance AFB is. There is literally NOTHING there. I always thought that Aaron was exaggerating but it's true! They had had tornadoes the day before so we were driving out in the middle of no where and all of the sudden on the side of the rode is a whole house, well in parts. The crazy thing was we had no clue where it came from. It just must of been where the tornado dropped it. Aaron showed me around the base, his room, and I met his friends. They all seemed like awesome people and I'm so glad Aaron has them. I also saw how much they depend on his knowledge and leadership. Aaron is rockin in school and it seemed like no matter who we were around they had questions to ask him. We ate dinner at Eskimo Joe's, which was a 45 minutes drive just to eat cheesy fries, and then headed back to our hotel room in Oklahoma city. We watched a movie and just tried to savor every minute that we had left that day. It was extremely hard to say good bye. We had to get up at 4 the next morning and Aaron left by 4:30 and I 5 am. One thing that I realized as Aaron and I held each other and cried Monday night was how much our Heavenly Father loves us that he provided us a way for families to be together for eternity. I always knew it but while I was trying to say goodbye, again, not knowing when we would see each other again I gave a silent prayer of thanks that I would never have to leave this life not knowing when we would see each other again.

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Little pony

We are finally at my mom's house and grandpa bought this talking pony for Mads. She's smitten. She keeps pushing the little button to watch its mouth move. Too funny.



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Me and my honey!

Aaron and I having a good time!



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Getting my priorities straight

I've realized lately that over the years we, as in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have been instructed multiple times to have our families prepared for an emergency and have our food storage in tact. Last week when I was visiting teacher with my bestest companion, Jody, she was telling how Elder M. Russell Ballard was recently at her sister's stake. He was pleading with the members that NOW is the time to get our affairs in order. Get rid of debt and have a food storage. He said that things will get much worse before it gets better and that many will be hurt by our economy's situation. That day I went to Costco and people were FIGHTING over rice! Costco is only letting people buy one bag at a time because of the shortage. The employees were saying that everyday when the doors open people run as fast as they can to get the rice. Unbelievable. My friend, Kelly, and I almost started to panic buy in Costco but decided that we should go home and take inventory first and come up with a plan to prepare. Then that huge cyclone happened in Burma which is a huge rice producer. I came home and felt so troubled that I hadn't prepared our family. I mean food storage isn't only in a time of crisis. Some people lose their jobs and live off of their food storage when money is tight. Then yesterday that huge earthquake happened in China. So many people don't have anything. And even if their house didn't cumble they probably don't have power or running water. So, I'm on a new mission to prepare my family. I found a food calculator on the church's website and for my family of 6 I need 900lbs or wheat, flour, rice to substain us for 6 months. And we as church members are supposed to store water for us to drink, bath, ect. Plus, after Katrina the church made a policy that you store X amount of water for the stake in the case of emergency. Water was the biggest need in Katrina. I started to feel overwhelmed but thought that if I just wrote down a plan that I'd be okay. So first I needed to find a place to store all this stuff. Last night I cleared out the room under the stairs and organized everything in the office closet. I just finished so now I have a 6x3 to store my food and water. Now I'm making a list of everything that I need and on Friday Kelly and I are driving out to the cannery to pick up our supplies. I'm feeling good. I know Aaron can work his butt off and provide an income to take care of our family but this is the one project that I need to do to take care of us. I just keep reminding myself that the Lord said that "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." I know that being faithful in following the prophet's advice will only help our family.

Another Tornado touches down on Tanadak Circle

We have been super busy this weekend. Yesterday I had a Biggest Loser challenge (by the way I lost 2lbs but they round up so it ended up being 1) and came home to have a date at 10 am with my neighbor, Jeanne. We worked all day in our yards and plants tons of flowers. Madeline and the kids just played all day long with the neighborhood kids. I love that about our neighborhood. All the kids just run through everybodies backyards and you just don't worry a lot. Anyways, by night all of them were so dirty. I was getting Maddy in the bath when I noticed she had a circle on her back. I called Nettie to see if I was ringworm. As I'm talking to Nettie and trying to put Jackson down for bed Mads slipped out of the tub and grabbed my eyeshadow and brush. I came back into the bathroom and Mads was so proud of herself. I told Nettie, which as a grandma she thought was hilarious. I went to go get the makeup away from her and she was growling at me, yes growling! So I have come down to this conclusion: 1) Maddy's eyes really stand out with brown camouflage 2) No more watching Shaggy Dog and 3) to laugh with my children.

Caleb's zoo field trip

On Friday of last week Caleb's class went on a field trip to the zoo. Field trips here are done with parent's driving (no school buses) so I volunteered and the whole fam went. We had never been there so I thought it would be fun for all.

Funny story: I was all excited, maybe a little too excited, that the seal was swimming around Madeline and I went to go put my face close to the glass with her and misjudged the depth of the glass. I thought that I was further back than what it was and smack my face HARD into the glass. It made this huge noise and everybody was starring at me. I thought I was going to pass out for a second and was seeing the little stars. LOL. All these people just busted out laughing, including me. Classic.

Do you see how my children are on the railing? The Alaska zoo is filled with animals from Alaska. Meaning, anything that just might roam in our neighborhood at any given time: moose, bears, bald eagles. My friend and I had a laugh about it.

Yep, we were that close to the grizzly bears. I used it as an excellent time to teach my children what to do if a bear comes roaming through the neighborhood when they're playing outside. I know that sounds bad but I guess it's better than the ghetto, right?

Feeling strong

Lately I've been lifting a lot and hadn't realized until yesterday just how strong I'm getting. I take a lifting class twice a week and usually see the same friends in class. Usually during class my friend, Meagen, and I give each other a hard time about how much weight we load onto our bar and try to out do each other. Yesterday after class we decided to see how could squat the most. I couldn't believe it but I did two sets of 5 with 100lbs! I was so stoked! Then I thought I would try a set of lunges with 100 lbs but my form was so off by the time I hit 4. It was just too much weight for my leg. Then we decided to try bench presses and I did two sets of 5 with 70lbs! I was so pumped! I couldn't feel my arms or legs but I felt like the hulk, except I wasn't green or mad.

10 More days till what?

I know that I'm keeping a count down because in 10 more days the kids and I are OUTTA HERE! On the 19th we leave for Oregon and will first stay with Aaron's parents, Nettie and Mike. On the 22nd I'm leaving to go see Aaron for Memorial weekend. I'm super excited because I haven't seen him since December. I came back on the 27th and on the 28th my mom will pick us up to head down to Bend. I can hardly stand it. The only thing that I'll miss about Alaska is the long days. It's light by 5 and totally dark after 11. I loved how last summer we could take bike rides at 11pm because it was still light outside. But I'm excited about just hanging out and visiting old friends for the summer. We'll be back July 10th but Aaron recently informed me that he doesn't think that he's coming home for his one week break in August. Soooo, if he isn't able to I'm going to extend my trip till August and go see him again. The kids don't start school till August 22nd so I have some time to decided. YAHOO!

Bon Appetit

The other day Kali asked if she could feed Jackson and I hesitated at first but the truth was I needed help that morning. So, I let her. She actually did a fairly good job. I mean, it was all over Jackson but at least it wasn't all over the walls. Maddy thought it was the perfect time to play Little People on Jackson's high chair. Which was entertaining for Jackson so he got dinner and a show.

The unwanted house guest

The snow has finally melted and the sun is starting to come out. On Wednesday neighbors gathered together in the middle of the circle to catch up from this winter's hibernation. All of the sudden all the neighborhood children started to run towards us and were screaming bloody murder. I grabbed Jackson tight because I thought for sure a bear or moose had entered the neighborhood.

The parents started to yell, "WHAT'S WRONG?!! WHAT?!!"

The children screamed, "mosquito!!"

That's right, there were all running from the mosquito. (notice it's not plural). I couldn't believe it. Some of the little girls were crying. This time of year Alaska is notorious for it's outragous amount of mosquitoes that come out as soon as the snow melts. They're everywhere! It all started when one of the little girls decided that mosquitoes were prime evil and she was going to tell all the little neighborhood kids mosquitoes will suck out all your blood. So now every single child is deathly afraid of the mosquitoes. It's hilarious to watch them play and one of them spots a mosquito and they take off running and some will be crying. Caleb even refused to use the bathroom for a whole day because he saw a mosquito in there. In my effort to try to put an end to this I got a huge bottle of Off and sprayed them down and put it on the freezer in the garage. Today when Kali came inside it was wreaking of Off. I looked at her shirt and it had huge rings on the front of it where she must of drenched herself.

While this seems quite comical it's also scary because I can be inside and in unison hear 8 kids all scream at the same time. I know it's just a mosquito they've seen but I look out the window anyways because the bears and moose are out.