November

Jonah raking leaves...

...and Janae too!

I love snow!

Christmas Photo outtake

We had a great Thanksgiving with Grandpa Larry, Grandma Bev, 

Nana, Papa, and Grandpa & Grandma Cobb!

What a bunch of goofballs!

Rocktober Baby!

Ken, Amy, Mike & Tom (Amy's dad & uncle) went to a Rockies playoff game where the Rockies successfully swept the Phillies. . 

It was the most fun I've ever had at a baseball game..

...even when the lights went out.

Rockies baseball, Princess Leia & Darth Vader.

May the force be with you.

August & September 2007

The first day of school (August 20, 2007)

Janae's first day of third grade!

Jonah after his first day of Kindergarten!

Jonah got to sit in a real fire truck at our church picnic!

Janae got her face painted there too!

Jonah doing his favorite thing - playing in his room with Legos!

My awesome husband built me this sweet desk - which I love!

Alaska...

Ken was working in Anchorage, Alaska in August, so I went up without the kids and joined him for a couple days.

We got to see some beautiful scenery and the weather was perfect!

We stayed for a night in Anchorage, then spent the other three nights in Girdwood (a town about 45 minutes south of Anchorage.

We visited the Kenai Peninsula, and drove to Seward and took a 6-hour Kenai Fjords cruise.

We saw lots of wildlife: dall porpoises, sea lions, seals, puffins and many other birds, sea stars, and a huge pod of orcas.

We also saw some glaciers. They have a bluish tint to them. On the boat, we drove up to within a quarter mile of one.

You could hear it creaking and see small pieces fall off into the sea. There was a large hunk that looked about as big as a small house just sitting there looking like it should fall off (calve), but it didn't while we were there.

The next day we took a hike to see a glacier that was mostly gone, but the runoff was nice, and there was lots of fireweed growing around it, so we got a nice picture. The fireweed is the pinkish/purple flowers. They make fireweed syrup and jelly by boiling the flowers and adding sugar. It's pretty tasty.

We drove to a small town that you can get to through a train tunnel, and got to see the Prince William Sound (or part of it). It was beautiful, and we enjoyed a fantastic salmon burger while watching the fisherman (and birds).

Girdwood is actually a ski resort, and we were there in the off season. We rode a tram to the top of the mountain and had dinner at a fancy restaurant and enjoyed the view of the Turnagin Arm.

It is the wierdest body of water - more like a river, but it has extreme tides, so there are never any boats or people on it. Boats would get stranded in low tide, and people get stuck in the mud bogs. Some not-so-smart teenagers had to be rescued while we were there.

After dinner we took a hike starting around 8:15 p.m. about a mile to a hand tram - and pulled ourselves across a ravine and back. It was fun, and we got back to our car around 10:00 p.m. and it was still daylight. I don't think there are many other places in the world you can say that about.This last picture is a view of downtown Anchorage against the Chugach mountains - super!

Circus Camp

At the end of July, the kids attended Circus Camp at church. At the end of the week, they put on a show to let us see what they learned. Their instructors were in the real B&B circus. Aren't they great!

Janae walked on real stilts...

Jonah had to walk on stilts too, since his sister did.

Here's Janae on the trapeeze - she is a pro at skin-the-cat.

Jonah learned to juggle a bit - pretty good for a 5-year-old.

A day at the lake...

In July, we spent a nice day at Boyd Lake skiing, swimming, tubing & hanging out. Here's the kids with Nana swimming around the boat.

Here's Janae and Ken ready to go tubing, but after the boat got started and Janae went over the wake she started screaming and we had to stop. We thought it was funny, but she didn't.

A Musical comparison

Here's a picture of the kids with their younger cousin making some music...


It reminded me of another picture with another cousin almost 4 years ago...

South Dakota Part 5 (The Final Chapter)

On our last day (Saturday), we packed up and drove south through Custer State Park. We saw herds of buffalo. They were all over, and blocked the road several times. We even saw some wild burros who stuck their heads in people's cars looking for food.



We headed a little further south to Windcave National Park and enjoyed a picnic lunch before our 1 1/2 hour tour of the cave.



Windcave is the fourth largest cave in the world, and the only natural opening is about as big as a manhold. The main formation is boxwork which is basically very fragile eroded limestone. It's like a brick wall without the bricks - only mortar. It looks really cool (as you can see).



There was also "popcorn" formations in this cave, which are very sparkly and pretty, but fairly small. We also saw some fossils.



The cave was nice and cool, very humid - and nothing lived in it. We were even able to experience absolute darkness - which was a little scary until they turned the lights back on.

After our fun spelunking, we drove back home - it was a super fun time, and the kids actually did really well. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that they had playmates that weren't their siblings.

South Dakota Part 4 (The Badlands)

Our first stop was Wall Drug - a huge drugstore (which is more like a mall) in the middle of nowhere. There are hundreds of signs for this drugstore beginning in Wyoming. We ate a decent dinner, then drove about twenty minutes to Badlands National Park.
There are hill-like formations that look like rock, but are actually just strange dirt - very cool!


The Badlands (and Ethan) to the east right before sunset.


Are we on the moon, or just another planet?


A view to the west as the sun sets.


My favorite - the Badlands by moonlight
(thanks to the bright full summer "Strawberry moon")

South Dakota Part 3 (Pirate Golf)

On day four (Friday) we spent the morning swimming in the hotel pool (and riding the water slide over and over (except Jonah - who wouldn't even get his head wet, but that's another story)). In the afternoon, we walked two blocks to Pirate's Cove Adventure golf.


Here's most of the boys golfing - Jonah only lost his ball once!







After golfing, they gave the kids a bag of piratey stuff - here's pirate Janae!...












...and pirate Jonah - argh!

(We are the pirates who don't do anything, we just stay home and lie around, and if you ask us to do anything, we'll just tell you - we don't do anything! ~VeggieTales).