TJ's Soldotna Tournament

Beautiful but not so helpful pictures of Mt. Redoubt...

The volcano erupts every day, several times a day. The sky is always cloudy, and you can't se much of the volcano. But it's there in the background, behind the tree on the right. The cloud floats up and off to the left.

I agree the volcano isn't excited. But the pictures are pretty, and worth a look.

No volcano in this one just a pretty picture.

Do you want some Pickle Juice?

My sweet kiddo's sharing the pickle juice. Odd, but adorable!

Mt. Redoubt erupted last night and this morning...

Just an update on Mt. Redoubt, it actually erupted 5 times overnight. So I guess that answers the question of when it's going to erupt.

We're all alive and well. The ash thankfully is blowing in the opposite direction for now. There was a really strong wind all day, no sign of ash ...or the Volcano. It was overcast and we couldn't see the mountain. It would be cool to get some good pictures -we'll see how it goes.

I'm attaching a link to an article about the eruption if you're interested in more news. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-alaska-volcano24-2009mar24,1,1232559.story

Tonight I'm counting my blessings and praying that the ash will continue to blow in a safe direction.

Wondering if Mt. Redoubt will blow...

Last Sunday our friends the Young's called and said the alert on our Mt. Redoubt had been elevated and to get down the beach to check it out!

When we got down there, it was really smoking, and putting off ash. We haven't been able to see much up to this point, because it's been too cloudy.

We've had some earthquakes and some rumblings from the volcano, but so far not much action. The Volcano is across the inlet from our house, so we're at a safe distance.

This is the most I've seen it do so far. Brent really wants it to blow and put on a show. I think the ash would be annoying, but I think it would look cool...so I'm on the fence.

I love this picture of my kiddos experiencing nature. It's humbling to view Heavenly Father's creations.

My poor baby Faith was already in her PJ's. She was so cold!

OK, I know this is really sad. It was pretty cold and the wind was blowing. She wanted to go back to the van. I told her to give me her best princess smile.

She tried really hard to smile, but it was far too cold.

So Brent gave me his best princess smile instead. No one can do it like Faith. But sometimes we like to try.

Our friend Leaca got some beautiful pictures of our family. It was fun to hang out on the beach with them.

Thanks for the pictures Leaca!

This is another picture she took of Brent. He was the only one who didn't have to run back to the car to get warm. Check out the huge wave crashing in front of him.

Happy Birthday to Gracie!

I can't believe my sweet little Gracie is 4 years old! She got a gift from Grandma Wilson in the mail. She waited and waited for her birthday to come so she could open it.
Grandma made her this cute little apron that transforms into a bonnet. She also made this little blanky for Gracie's doll and gave her this little Tinkerbell.
Gracie was so excited and she especially loved it. She can't wait to put it on and help me in the kitchen. She's such a sweet heart.

We got Gracie this little bike. She was really excited and rode it up and down the hall all day long. We can't wait till the snow melts!

We made these cute little princes crowns out of pipe cleaners, and put fingernail stickers on the girls thumbs. Of course they loved that.

TJ is wearing a "rook crown" . He definitely didn't want to be a prince. But he's been learning to play chess and said he would have a rook crown.

Gracie was really excited about all of her cute little "girl toys".

But the biggest surprise was the jar of pickles she got from her friend Jubilee. (I think it's because she ate the entire bowl of pickles all by herself, when she was at Jubilee's party.) This might have been her favorite birthday gift.

Gracie loved her Tinderbell Birthday cake (that she helped make)...I thought it turned out cute, and I didn't even drop it on the floor! :)

Our First Wrestling Tournament....

This day was all about TJ, but I have to praise Brent for a minute. He got home from work at 7:00 A.M. Changed his clothes got in the car and drove us out to Homer for TJ's wrestling tournament.
I really thought that Brent would stay home and I would take TJ myself, but he wanted to be there for TJ no matter what. He's such a good Dad!
The boys were excited to be at their very first wrestling tournament!
TJ didn't have his wrestling shoe's yet, and our friend Gabe didn't have his head gear. So we shared and everything turned out just fine.

At weigh-ins TJ tipped the scale at a whopping 33lb. He and this little guy from Anchorage were the only one's that small. Unfortunately they made a separate weight class just for them, so TJ only got to wrestle once.

He did pretty good during warm-ups against the 40lb wrestlers on our team.

He doesn't look happy to be pinned does he?

Brent and the coach worked with the little guys and they had a lot of fun.

Although TJ did great in practice...he lost his match. TJ didn't seem to mind -or realize that he lost. :) It was a fun first try, and we're looking forward to his next match in Soldotna on the 28th!

Even though the boys lost, we took them out to celebrate with Pizza. They did a really good job and we had a great time.