Not So Far Removed

hawaii or bust

2012-01-21T13:12:00.000-09:00

Yes, I know you may be feeling a little jealous, but you know we had horrible weather, rained everyday, never went outside...

Am I making you feel any better? No...
Well, I tried.

My sister, Kelsy, Sydney, and myself, were able to take a little vacation. When we planned this whole thing, we were thinking, "oh, we'll go in January and get away from the snow and cold a little bit." Actually the day we left, there was no snow on the ground, it wasn't too cold, so we were thinking, "this isn't too bad, why are we going?" Don't worry, we only thought that for a about a half a second.

The trip was absolutely amazing. The weather was gorgeous the whole time, one cloudy day and that was the day we left. It was so nice to get a little color back into the cheeks, let my skin soak in a little humidity (I love humidity, call me crazy), and get some much needed rest as Sydney decided to sleep through the night while we were there (um, she hasn't been since about, well, Oct. 2nd, ironic). It was so fun to take this trip with my sister, probably one of the only times this will happen, but I really hope not, we're such great traveling partners.

Here are a few pictures of our time (don't hate me)...

The USS Missouri- we didn't have much time, but I think I would like to go back, maybe with the hubby someday, I think he'd like it.

Our 1st beautiful sunset

The Honolulu Zoo

Auntie Kelsy and Sydney sharing a mango pit

She looks content, don't you think? Maybe we need spend more time in warm places

We completed the worlds largest maze in 40 mins. Impressive! umm, well, we had a map, but still pretty impressive to be able to read the map

North Shore waves (bummer, no surfing due to the rough waters)

Luau, yes, dead, cooked pig there

Sydney made through the whole show even though it was way past her bedtime

Enjoyed picking up a grain of sand and putting in the bucket, hours of entertainment

oh, and walking down to the water and playing in it, she loved the ocean

Kelsy's vice, yogurtland, yes an every night routine

climbing up Diamond Head (love the new Ergo Carrier, definitely recommend it)

At the top

Apparently the way down was a bit boring

Fun picture with the sky

the view from the condo

we walked past this coffee shop everyday and the smell of delicious coffee wafted from the windows, on our final day we just had to go, and as luck would have it, we got a seat by those windows

our final night out

Sydney's 1st successful self-feed

2012-01-06T12:24:00.000-09:00

Pictures from the big day

2011-12-23T11:14:00.000-09:00

Sydney and her friend Ruby

The Dinner Table

Yum, I think I like pizza!

The Cake

I am not wearing this hat!

Pizza and Cake in one Day! This is awesome!

Mommy and cake monster

And the gifts

A Year in Numbers

2011-12-22T20:41:00.000-09:00

10 tiny toes

10 tiny fingers

1 button nose

50 hairs

27 inches

17 pounds

0 teeth

7 countries

30 states

10, 000 miles

1 Extraordinary Year

Milestones

2011-12-09T10:19:00.001-09:00

I think God helps us parents who have a hard time with our children's milestones. (I almost cried when Sydney turned 1 month old.)

And then when Sydney was just about to start crawling, the few days before she was getting so frustrated with herself that she really wasn't that pleasant to be around. Finally, it was like, "just crawl all ready!" John and I were getting down and trying to show her. When she did start to become mobile, she settled down again and all was well.

About a month ago, she started to show signs of teething. And I thought, "no, I love her gummy smile, she can't get teeth." Well, then she proceeded to get about every symptom possible:

fussiness
fever
diarrhea
chewing

... and even an ear infection.

So I guess I see all this as God preparing me and encouraging me to want her to have teeth, because now that this has gone on for a month, I just want those dang teeth to come in so we can all get a good night sleep!

11 Months

2011-11-10T11:01:00.001-09:00

So I just don't get it, I'm ll months now and I still don't have any teeth! But I am on the move more and more. One of my favorite things is to climb the stairs. Except sometimes, mom puts up the baby gate and doesn't let me, darn. I love staying with my Aunt Kelsy too. She plays with me whenever she's not working and then mom can have a little break. We also joined the gym here, so I've gotten to go to the pool and play with friends at the playcare. But I kind of have a runny nose and I think one of them shared it with me. I had my 9 month dr appt a few weeks ago (I know we were a little late), but I weighed 16 lbs. Mom thought I was going to weigh more, but the dr said I was doing very well. Only one thing, apparently my head is in the 75 percentile, while my weight is in the 10th, so much for being proportionate. Here are some pics from the past month

Check out those pretty fall colors

Mommy thought I was so cute in this little school girl outfit, playing with an apple

I love this book

Not sure how I got here

Picking pumpkins

I want those stairs

Halloween Pumpkin

Hanging with my friends

I'm so helpful these days

Help me grandpa!

So cozy

The rest of the story...

2011-11-10T08:39:00.001-09:00

No, our travels did not stop in Norfolk. After saying goodbye to John, realizing that I forget my wallet in the terminal after trying to buy some gas, going back and saying good-bye once more, we set out for Fairmont, WV to visit Aunt Katy, Uncle Eli, and Xander. We had to go through DC and never having been there, I thought it would be a shame to just drive through. So we took the exit for the Memorial Park. Sydney and I walked through and saw the Washington Monument, White House, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, WWII Memorial, the Capitol, and we even had time to hit the Holocaust Museum (which I would like to go back and spend more time in).

After that little break, we went onto Fairmont. By the way, it took me a good 45 min. to figure out how to get out of DC and get back on the freeway. I kept missing my turns, but thank goodness for the iphone and the maps app. Otherwise, I would probably still be there. We got to Katy's at about 7:30 that night. It was quite a long day.

Our time with Katy was filled with lots of playing. Sydney and Xander had a very good time together, playing and mimicking each other. We made it to the WV zoo, which is literally in someones back yard. However, they did have an impressive selection of animals. Sydney got her first bee sting there and I'm happy to announce that she's not allergic to bees. I think the bee landed right on her nose and she swatted at it, thus getting a bee sting.

It was sad to leave them after only a few days, but the beautiful fall colors were a nice pick-me-up on our drive to Chicago. Once there, we took in the Chicago Marathon, which I'm proud to say, my uncle completed. What an accomplishment for all those people. We also went up to a pumpkin farm and did a corn maze, went on a tractor ride, and picked some pumpkins out, of course. My dad flew in the last day in Chicago to drive the rest of the way with me.

Onto Cedar Falls, IA to meet the Great-Grandparents...

We spent a few days in Cedar Falls, mostly relaxing and playing with Great- Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma Betty couldn't take her eyes off Sydney and it was fun to see them all interacting.

After leaving there, we were pretty much headed straight home. We stopped in Moville, IA to see my Uncle (dad's brother), I realized that I hadn't seen him since I my senior year in high school. I guess I've changed a little since then. :) We made it to Chamberlain, SD that night. The next day, we stayed in Sheridan, WY with a stop through Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument. The following day we drove a short (relatively that is) distance to my good friend and pretty much sister, Julie and her family. She was kind enough to house us for a night. And the next day we made it to Coeur d'Alene. Ahhh, what a sigh, when we parked the car and knew that we would be here for a while. It was a wonderful trip. I think we made the most of it as a family. Sydney was awesome the whole time. The only downfall was that John couldn't finish the trip with us, but we would have never done the trip if he hadn't been deploying. I appreciate my dad for taking the time to drive back with me. Sydney is such a good traveller, that I think we could have done it ourselves, but it was sure a comfort to know that we if we got a flat tire, or something else unexpected happened, that there was someone there to help. Plus it was some good quality time with my dad that I haven't had in a very long time.

p.s. after being in Coeur d'Alene for 2 days, we hit the road again and headed to Tacoma. You know, just can't stay in one place for too long. Well, Sydney did have to go for a dr. appt. and we had to pick up some of our stuff there, and of course see the westside grandparents.

A welcome to DC surprise

Washington Monument

White Huse

Vietnam Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Unfortunately the reflecting pool was under construction

It seemed interesting to be taking this picture the same day that John deployed, good reminder

Okay, so I actually did a drive by past the Capitol building, I was a little tired of walking

Playing with cousin Xander

Xander decided he needed help walking too

And I think he wanted to be a baby again

feeding the goats

Kind of a happy camper after the bee sting

Siberian Tiger

Just chilling

Xander was really enjoying the chocolate cake

Sisters

Fall colors in Pennsylvania

Go Uncle John

The crazy Kenyans leading the pack

Hanging with cousin Mary Faith

There he goes (green shirt)

Looking pretty good for running 26 miles

Corn Maze

Great-Grandma Betty

having a snack together

Mt. Rushmore

Crazy Horse, they still have a long way to go

Grandpa Dave, with Julie's kiddos

Breakfast time

Group Pic

back from the hiatus

2011-11-01T20:45:00.000-08:00

If you've been wondering, "where in the world is the Robbins' Family."

We've been everywhere...

Or at least that's what it feels like. I believe we left off in Altus, OK. On Sept. 17th, almost exactly a month from when we got to Altus, we rolled out of town, heading south east toward Hulbert Field on the panhandle of Florida. John had his final training for the deployment there for a week. We had some beach time, some visiting old AK friends time, and some date time (the first real one since we've had our little monster) (pictures to follow).

After finishing up at "Hurby," our next "had to be at" destination was Norfolk, VA on Oct 2nd. So we took our time heading up the East Coast. Our first night on the road, we were intending to get to Savannah, GA, but due to a torrential rain storm we decided to call in quits for the night and ended up finding a delightful little island off the coast of Georgia called Jekyll Island. Keep in mind that we got there in the pitch dark of night during a rain storm, so it was pretty neat getting up the next morning and figuring out where we were. Apparently this is the island where all the hoity toity people from back in the day came to vacation, such as JD Rockefeller. And before that there was a large plantation inhabiting the island. The island is also home to Georgia Sea Turtle Center where they rehabilitate and/or house injured sea turtles.

Moving along, we did make it to Savannah the next day, which was only a two hour drive. Savannah was a charming southern town. We were able to tour one of the old historic homes, the museum and take a walk along the riverwalk.

The next day we headed to Charleston, SC. This was about a 4 hour drive. We started off with meeting some more old Alaska friends for lunch. Sydney got to meet a new friend and see an old one too! After that we went to the Boone Hall Plantation which was just on the out skirts of town. It is very interesting to see some of that part of our nations history. For dinner we headed downtown to Hymans, had some good southern cooking(complete with hush puppies and gritsa) and then walked around for a while (great downtown area). The next day we took a tour of Ft. Sumter, which was a strategic location for the Confederates during the Civil War.

Next we headed to North Carolina and the outer banks. We had a plan for staying as far east as we could, which meant taking a few ferries between islands on the outer banks. Well, we found out from a lovely lady at a gift shop we just so happened to stop at, that one of the ferries was closed due to hurricane Irene. So that changed our plans a bit, but we were still able to see most of what we wanted. We stopped in this quant little town called New Bern, NC. It has some really neat old churches and buildings and is the home of Tryon Palace. Next stop is Kitty Hawk, NC.

We made it to Kitty Hawk pretty late in the night. In the morning we got up and headed to the Wright's Brother Memorial. John had never been, so it was pretty neat for him to see where the first flight had taken place at. It was funny to think that something these two guys did so long ago, would effect our lives so directly. Next we headed to Currituck Lighthouse. We climbed all the way to the top and I have to admit, I was a bit scared once there. The wind was blowing pretty hard and we could kind of feel the lighthouse moving with it. The adventure continued as we set out in search for wild horses. Yes, there are a few islands on the east coast that are still home to wild horses. But to get there we had to drive on the beach and through the island which only had sand roads, no gravel, no pavement. We were a little nervous, as we really could not afford to get stuck out on this beach somewhere. Well, come to find out it really wasn't too big of deal and this island is very much inhabited by humans and not just horses. It kind of reminded me of spotting moose in people yards in Anchorage. After we found our "wild" horses, we took some time to soak in some sun and some beach. No sooner did we get everything out, everyone in their swimsuits, then a massive rain cloud rolled in and down poured. Luckily it only lasted a few minutes and we were able to enjoy the beach one last time.

On to Norfolk, we rolled in late in the night again. That seemed to be the pattern of this trip, we couldn't get into our hotel before 10pm to save our lives. As we drove closer and closer to Norfolk, I think both John and I were starting to feel the weight of it all settle in. But we tried to put that behind us as much as possible and enjoy the time we had. The next day we spent some time in the parking lot organizing and repacking car once more. We took the afternoon and went to Williamsburg. We actually got there later that we intended and only had a few minutes to check out Old Williamsburg. However, as short as it was Sydney still managed to make more friends and get into a little trouble. We had a lovely dinner and then headed back to the hotel for some sleep and to prepare for an early departure.

While in FL we were able to be there for our friend Jessie's (right) surprise 30th birthday party

Beach time

And for our first date, we wanted to do something we couldn't do with Sydney, since usually we can pretty much bring her anywhere, so we decided to go parasailing

All the way up, 500 ft.

View from up top

the rain storm

Jekyll Island Club, pretty posh, wouldn't you say?
Notice the couple playing croquet

My dorky hubby

the sea turtle

and our little turtle

this style of bridge was very popular, we saw it a couple times, makes some pretty neat pictures

checking out our new digs

playing dress up at the Savannah Museum

beautiful rainbow during sunset

Friends from AK, Emma(right) was born a few months before Sydney and Avery(middle) was born a few months after

drive up to Boone Hall Plantation, interesting trees

the house, this was not the first house however, this one was built in 1936.

slave homes

this was an interesting sign in downtown Charleston, just thought it was kind of funny

Ft. Sumter

Church in New Bern

Tyron Palace

Wright Brothers

the memorial, Sydney's really excited

Currituck Lighthouse

driving on the beach

our first horse spotting

a few more

cleaning the naked baby

we saw these ones on our way out, kind of neat

repacking, where's Sydney

I know you've seen this one before, but it's too funny

we had some trouble too

the crowd that gathered around Sydney while we were getting our picture taken, how funny

family photo

last supper with dad

Ten Months

2011-10-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

This has been a big month in my little life. Actually, it seems like I've had a lot of big months lately. I started out in Altus, OK and I've ended up in Cedar Falls, IA. My mom will post on all that once we get back to WA, someday.

Like I said, I started out in Altus. But we did not just drive straight up to Iowa. No, we drove to Hurlburt Field, FL and stayed there for a week while my daddy had some training. Then we had to get to Norfolk, VA but we went the long way and drove through Savannah, GA, Charleston, SC, Kitty Hawk, NC, and then finally to Norfolk.

But don't be fooled, even though I've been spending a lot of time in the car seat, I'm still learning all about crawling and standing up. Boy, am I on the move now. Watch out mom! I'm cruising all over the place. I can stand up and walk around, if I'm holding on to something. I still don't have any teeth, but I'm starting to eat a few new things. One favorite is the mac n' cheese at Panera. I'm also still pretty bald and I think mom is starting to get frustrated when people call me a boy, but I don't really care yet.

What? This standing ain't no thing!

I really like my car seat, when I don't have to sit in it

Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico

This is how I spend most of the time in the car

I saw some sea turtles and I even got to bring one home!

Do you think I can fit in here?

This is probably the calmest I'll ever be in a candy shop

I got to meet a new friend and see and old friend while we were in Charleston, SC

What's better than one Sydney?
Two Sydney's!

Dad, I don't want to ride this thing!

Climbing everywhere

oooh, this stuff kind of feels weird

What a nice fellow

I got into some trouble in Williamsburg, VA

See ya later dad:(

I also got to see my cousin Xander, Aunt Katy and Uncle Eli, go to a zoo, and meet my Great Grandpa and Grandma. But my mom can't get the pictures off the camera, so you'll have to wait a few weeks to see those pictures.

That's all for now, I'll see you next month!

Nine Months

2011-09-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

These months just keep slipping by too quickly. Yes, Miss Sydney is 3/4 of a year already. Still no sign of any teeth, but fully crawling now. She is on the move and I'm getting a little worried about her being able to walk. She's already trying to run when we hold her hands and help her. For her 9 month birthday today she tried to pull herself up on the couch, thankfully everything in our little apartment is a little too tall for her to be able to really do that. She is also really starting to babble. She's usually a very quiet baby and content to just watch and explore things without making a noise, but now she's really starting to find her voice, which is fun to hear. We love waking up to her little squeals. We are starting to see some stubborn behaviors, instead of spitting food out that she doesn't want to eat, she simply won't open her mouth and will kind of ignore you until you give up. Sneaky little girl! Well, mom's got her own tricks too.

I got to hang out with my Auntie Sara

Meeting new friends at mama's Girl's Weekend with her college friends

Yum, I sure do love peas!

Dad and I went to watch the long-horn bulls run through the base at Altus AFB, can't you just see the excitement on our faces

Watch out, here I come

Who is that baby, she's pretty cute

Lovin' the Johnny Jump Up

Umm, I got in here, but can you help me get out?

Mom, you're so crazy

Grandma B got me this new floaty, it's pretty fun

Mama Bear's Projects

2011-09-12T07:29:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of the projects I've been working on

Durango + Robin's Egg Crochet Hat
This one is my favorite, I found it at this website,
I have to admit I'm pretty proud of myself on this one

Olivia's Butterfly
I found this one at this website, it's suppose to be a for a little girl, and this one probably is, but the one below was my first attempt and it's actually too big for me

This maybe be for Kelsy, she's got a pretty good sized noggin, love you Kels!

Here is a close up of the butterfly stitching

Missing words and extra endings

2011-09-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

So, did anyone else notice that I've botched the titles of my last two posts??? "Finally Europe Tour Post," should have said, "Final Europe Tour Post." And the last one "What one would in Altus, OK to keep busy," should have been "What one would DO in Altus, OK to keep busy." Apparently, I only proof the text and not the title, sometimes I don't even do that. One of my most common editing mistakes is leaving out words, as you all probably know! When I was in high school, this used to drive my mother nuts when she was proofing a paper for me. Maybe I could make it more like a game. Find the missing words!!

Well, I just wanted to call myself out on, since none of you were, y'all are so sweet. The mistakes are now corrected.

Hope you good evening! :)

What one would do in Altus, OK to keep busy...

2011-09-06T10:24:00.006-08:00

Go to the Altus Rodeo parade, which consists of about 3 trucks pulling trailers with signs on them, 2 4-H groups on horse-back, and 1 herd of long horn cattle struttin' through downtown.

Go to the Rodeo

Go swimming because it is literally 109 degrees outside

Crochet a new hat

Read the baby books about feeding your child solids 3 months after you've already started

Watch your sweet little baby slumber

Final Europe Tour Post

2011-08-26T17:29:00.006-08:00

27June2011: Monday

Early that morning, we got up and headed back to the train station. This time, we actually got on the train! We had to switch trains a few times, but made it to Ramstein. Once we got to the passenger terminal in Ramstein, we saw the scores of people that were also trying to head back to the states. We had a plan though, there was a flight heading to Travis AFB, CA later that day.

Do you remember the couple that we helped back in Dover? We drove them to McGuire so they could get back to Ramstein. Well, they live there. So we called them up and told them we were in town. Tom, the husband, came and picked us up and took us to his house so we could get a shower, do a load of laundry and maybe even have time for a nap, before we had to get back to the terminal for the flight to Travis.

So we did all that and Tom came back (he had to go back to work) and took us back to the terminal, where we learned that they were only allowing duty passengers on the flight (which means John could get on the flight but, Sydney and I couldn't). Plan B: the next flights that were going out were early in the morning from another base about 2 hours away. The only problem is... how are we going to get there?

Tom took us back to his house to problem solve. Long story short, we ended up going out to dinner with Tom and Evelyn (had our schnitzel), then hit the road in their daughters car, drove up to Spangdalhem. They would come down and pick up their car in a few days.

When got to Spangdalhem, after waiting around for a about five hours, we boarded a plane heading for Ft. Lewis, WA, with a stop in Dover (not Dover again). As you can guess, the plane broke in Dover and there was going to be another 20 hour delay. At this point, we really didn't have 20 hours to lose. So we made friends with a family on the plane, who gave us a ride to the Baltimore Airport. Once we got our tickets and realized we had some time before our plane left, we took the train into town and got some lunch, saw the USS Constellation (which was an anti-slave ship back in the day) and then headed back to the airport.

At 8:00 pm est, we boarded our plane. At 11:30 pst, we landed at Seatac Airport. And our trip was complete.

On the train to Germany

all tuckered out

Ramstein Passenger Terminal

Eight Months

2011-08-22T19:21:00.004-08:00

As each month passes, it's hard to believe that Sydney is getting closer and closer to being a year old.

8 Month Tidbits:

* Still not crawling but very close. Her activity level is really ramping up and I'm getting a little scared for the day when she does figure out the crawling

* Still no teeth, fine with me

* She's eating all sorts of food and is really starting to bulk up

* She is still proving to be quite the trooper, as our life has yet to settle down. The latest was a trip to Oklahoma where we are now. She did a great job on that 3 day trek down here.

* Sleeping has been good and bad this month. We had a great schedule going at G & G Robbins, but since we've been in OK, we're trying to get back on the schedule.

* Her little personality brings us such joy, she is so fun to have around and we're so blessed to get to hang out with her so much!

Hiking Mt. Si with mom, dad, and friends

Meeting my Great-Aunts and Great Uncle John, he's taking the picture

I can be serious, too

Sleepy baby

I still love bath time, especially now that I can sit up and splash around

Having fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

Paris

2011-08-10T15:50:00.017-08:00

25June2011: Saturday

When we woke up on the train we were travelling through the French countryside, as I said before. At about 11am we arrived in Paris. Our first order of business was to find a hotel so we could drop our bags. We hopped on the Metro and headed for the St. Germain area (someone had told us there were a lot of places to stay there). Apparently, there was some big to do shopping thing going on that weekend and all the hotels were booked up. Finally we found hotel that was full, but the lady working there was willing to help us find a place and eventually we did.

So we got to the hotel, dropped the bags and headed for the Eiffel Tower. We knew our time in Paris was short, and there were just a few things we wanted to see, like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre. That afternoon and evening, we made it to the Eiffel Tower, Arc d' Triumph and Notre Dame, mostly on foot. We were a little exhausted after that.

26June2011: Sunday

The plan for the day was to hit the Louvre for a few hours then head to the train station to catch a train to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Well, the first part of the plan worked out okay. We got into the Louvre, saw Mona and the other various pieces. Sydney spent some time dipping her feet in the fountain outside the Louvre.

Then we headed for the train station, the only problem was that the train we were intending to take, was sold out, as well as the other one that was going out that evening (our back-up plan). So I sat in the train station with Sydney, while John tried to find some internet so that we could figure out our next step. Well, we ended up staying in Paris another night, at a dive of a hostel, but they had internet which was a must at this point. Sadly, we did not really get to enjoy much more time in Paris, as we were madly trying to figure out how we were going to get back to the states.

However, everyone has to eat at some point. So we eventually went in search for some dinner. John and I had gotten in the habit of picking a number and that would be the restaurant we would eat at. So it just so happened that we chose a restaurant that had live music, it was quite good, but a little loud for Sydney. The only thing was that Sydney kept getting hit on by this old, drunk, man. We still have no idea what he was saying!

We went back to the hostel and tried to get some sleep, although the only one who really did was Sydney (which was good).

French countryside

we travel in style

I don't like to brag

waiting for the metro

the tower

Sydney's getting ready to order in French

le Arc d' Triumph

She's just not that impressed

the most romantic bridge in Paris

Notre Dame

The Louvre

Winged Victory

Mona's crowd

the woman herself

Mona & Sydney

the halls of the Louvre

Venus de Milo

Diana of Versailles

the pyramids

playing in the fountain

Rome

2011-08-10T13:49:00.005-08:00

24June2011: Friday

About this time, we were realizing that we needed to start getting to a place that we thought we could get a hop home. Germany was probably our best bet. So we took a train up to Rome and were planning to take the night train from Rome to Paris. Which left us about 5 hours to explore the city of Rome. John’s joke was that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it wasn’t seen in a day either. With the time we had, we thought the best way to see the most stuff would be to get on one of the sightseeing bus tours that you can hop on and off of at any stop. So we got on one of those and it took us through the main places of Rome, past the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, etc. We chose to get off at the Vatican City, however with the line being an 1 hour and 45 min. wait, we really didn’t have enough time to get in and see anything. So we walked the perimeter and planned what we'll do the next time we come to Rome.

Eventually we got back on the bus and headed for the train station. We stopped for some pizza where Sydney had a mishap with the cheese and burned her poor little finger, she was not a happy camper. After we got her settled down and she fell asleep in my arms, we headed for the train. I think the night train was a highlight for John. We both enjoyed the relaxation and travelling through Tuscany at dusk and then waking up to the Swiss and French countryside. I guess the only thing we were missing was a bottle of wine to make the evening truly romantic.

yeah, a train ride!

Roman Forum (not a great picture, sorry)

The Colosseum

A special blessing at the Vatican

The Vatican

The bus

Don't worry, she's not dead, just sleeping

Night train from Rome to Paris

Arrivederci Italia

Our Cabin

Sunset in Tuscany

Sunrise in the French countryside

Naples: Pompei & Capri

2011-08-01T14:23:00.006-08:00

22June2011: Wednesday

We’re off to Pompeii! From Will and Sally’s house, we drove down to the ruins of Pompeii, quite amazing. Just to think that we were walking in and through structures that were built even before Jesus was born.

Because we are a bit cheap, we didn’t get the audio tour. About halfway through our own tour, we ran into a family that was reading about Pompeii from a Rick Steves book. Great idea, why didn’t we think of this! So we kind of tagged along with them. They were from Portland, so we figured, we’re really neighbors! Getting the commentary, made the time a lot more meaningful.

Mt. Vesuvius behind us

We had lunch at a pizza place in the square, near the entrance of Pompeii. I think I could eat their pizza all day long!

After that, we headed to the culprit of the Pompeii ruins, Mt Vesuvius. We thought that we could drive all the way to the top, but when we were just about there, we got to a parking lot, where we had to pay to park. Then we learned that it was still another hike to the top, and by the way, they charged you $12 to do it. Since it was the middle of the afternoon and blazing hot, we decided that we didn’t not need to pay $12 to hike to the crater (we also talked with some other people who said it wasn’t really worth, unless you’re into geology, which we are not). So we headed back to Will and Sally’s.

Top of Mt. Vesuvius

23June2011: Thursday

Although Will had just had his surgery the day before, he insisted that he join us. So we took a ferry to the island of Capri (I think this was my favorite day). I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but Will and Sally have two little boys, one 2 and one 4 months. We the three little ones, we decided that the best way to see the island was to rent a boat. This really turned out to be a wise decision. So we all hopped in the boat and started heading around the island. It was and absolutely gorgeous day!

One of the main attractions of Capri is the Blue Groto, which is this little cave off the coast of the island. The opening is barely big enough to fit a canoe through it. But once you are inside, it opens up to this large dome. The entire cave is covered in limestone, so when the sun shines through the water, it reflects off the limestone and creates its this crystal blue water that looks like it’s from a Disney movie.

So now that I’ve talked it up, I’ll tell our story of the Blue Groto. We were starting to run low on time, since we only rented the boat for 2 hours. The outside of this place is just covered with little cruise boats and of course, we’re just a boat of 4 people and the guys with the canoes don’t want to serve us because, he might miss out on a bigger boat. Well, eventually we snag a guy that will take, although he continually comments about a tip since he just took John, Sydney and myself (they usually take 4 people). So we get in the boat and this guy starts taking us in, and if you’ve ever been to Italy, you know that you should not be in close proximity and in small spaces with an Italian man. Whew! Did he need some deodorant! We tried to enjoy the experience as best we could. He took us in, went around in a circle and then back out again. The kicker was when he complained that John’s tip of 6 euros (roughly $10, we already had to buy tickets to go in, mind you) was too small and he could even buy a cheap bottle wine with it. John thought it was plenty to buy himself a stick of deodorant!

If you ever happen to be on the island of Capri, you must see the Blue Groto, because, you just have to since you’re there. Just remeremember that it’s a little over-rated and over-priced, and you might want a facemask too!

Yummy pizza, with the whole gang

The Pilots gone Skipper

Sally and Aiden(sleeping)

Armon

Once again, Sydney's the life of the party

If you look carefully at this strange rock formation, there is a house(or something) on top that looks like it's literally unsupported

Our lovely Blue Groto guide

The crystal blue waters

Another interesting cave that we wish we had time to explore

Sydney making friends again

Leaving Rota

2011-08-01T14:19:00.004-08:00

20June2011: Monday

This day was a “Health Day.” We were so exhausted by all the driving from the last 2 days, that we just needed to take it easy for a day. So we had a lazy morning, ran some errands, then went back to Rowena’s house and spent the evening at the beach.

21June2011: Tuesday

Early in the morning, we got a call from one of John’s friends from pilot training (he’s stationed in Naples, Italy). A buddy of his from is squadron is flying from Rota to Naples in 2 hours and we could hop on the flight if we wanted to. So, we quick get out of bed, get ready, get Sydney ready, get packed up and we’re out the door. Return the rental car and by 11:00 we’re on the plane, bound for Italia. The only glitch in this plan is that John’s friend, Will, broke his collar bone a few days earlier and is in surgery that day.

If this looks like a small plane, that's because it is, you couldn't even stand up straight in it!

Once we get to Naples, Will’s friend, who flew us to Naples, helped us get a rental car and then caravanned with us to Will’s house. This took up the rest of the afternoon and in the evening, Will’s wife, Sally, came and we had dinner and went to bed.

Break,

2011-08-01T14:03:00.003-08:00

Okay, here's the situation...

Many of you know, we have left Alaska, but we have not found a place to land yet. We are in a holding pattern. That holding pattern has us in an apartment with an other couple that are friends of ours that are also in a holding pattern. We are currently in Olympia, WA. Our apartment doesn't have internet, but the little clubhouse across the street does. So in my attempt to get a lot of blogging done I brought the car seat (so Sydney could take a nap), a towel (for Sydney to play on), the moose toy, her new squeaky giraffe named Sofie, water, phone, and laptop.

That may explain the sudden burst of blogging.

More to come on the craziness of our life!

Granada

2011-07-31T17:22:00.006-08:00

19June2011: Sunday

After leaving Sevilla, we drove all the way to Granada, we didn't get there until about 1:30am.

That morning we got up and headed to the Alhambra, which an old 14 century fortress built up on this hill in Granada. We spent most of the day there, although, we could only handle a few hours, it was pretty hot. After leaving there, were headed back to Rota along the coast of Spain, stopping to swim and see the rock of Gibraltar.

The Alhambra

Sydney's really enjoying it

Ornate

view of Granada

Staircase

a surprise air show

Driving through downtown Granada

Spanish countryside

Gibraltar

Sunset at Gibraltar

Part Two (finally)

2011-07-31T16:26:00.010-08:00

16June2011: Thursday

We arrived in Rota, Spain somewhere in the morning, I think. On our decent, John and I were discussing where we were going to stay (hmm, good thing to think about). One of the ladies (Rowena) we had met on the flight asked us the same question, and we said, "not sure." Her response was, "You can stay with me, we have plenty of room." So, we did. Rowena, was a huge blessing. She housed us for several days, helped us get a rental car and gave us a lot of ideas on where to go during our time in southern Spain.

I'm not really sure what all happened on this day, I know we got to Rota, we ate dinner at Rowena's, we went for a walk on the beach (which was three blocks from her house), and that's all I remember. So I'm not really sure how the time went from morning to evening with doing so little. Maybe we didn't actually land in Rota in the morning, maybe it was morning like the afternoon. That would make more sense.

17June2011: Friday

The day started out with a walk to the ferry terminal from Rowena's house. We took the ferry to the island of Cadez, which claims that it is the oldest city in Europe (not sure if that's true or not). While there, we visited the cathedral; we went down to the catacombs and up to the tower. We really just did a lot of walking around. We went out to this fort, but it was all closed down for construction, I think. We spent a little time on the beach, not much because it was pretty hot and not a lot of shade for our little Alaskan baby.

The Cathedral

The Catacombs

View from the tower

Out to the old fort

Streets of Cadez

The ferry on the way back

I think one of the funniest parts of this day, was having a little snack outside this restaurant where several other people were sitting. There was a man there that was really trying to interact with Sydney, although, none of us had any clue what he was saying. And it wasn't because of our Spanish, it was more due to the fact that this man had no teeth. So I though, oh, really he and Sydney have a lot in common!

18June2011: Saturday

This was the day that we rented a car in Spain. And not only was it just a car, but it was a brand new car! Crazy!

So the plan was to head to Sevilla and spend the day there, then drive on to Granada, spend the night, and have Sunday there. Great plan, although we under estimated how long it would take to get to Granada. Oh well!

We arrived in Sevilla, near the Plaza de Espana, where we left the car for the day. We walked down to the cathedral, toured that. Then toured the palace. We then walked on to the bullring, where Sydney and I took the tour, while John hung out with the Spanish senioritis (he has been to the bullring before and didn't have a need to tour it again). After the bullring tour, we found ourselves some delicious paella and then walked back to the car.

The Plaza de Espana

A small chapel we ducked into (John's favorite)

View from the main Cathedral

Another view

The Cathedral

Lovely Spanish Senioritis

The Palace

Outside the palace

We're not sure what it was we ran into, but was saw several bridal parties that day, all getting photos taken. There were two different brides that we saw at the place and then we saw a few more later in the day.

The bullring

Back at the Plaza de Espana

(if you look closely in this picture, you can see three different brides)

Let's start at the beginning...

2011-07-18T12:49:00.002-08:00

As many of you know, the Robbins' family took a trip to Europe. They were bound to do it the frugal way, using military hops to get there. And so the adventure began...

Day 1: 11June2011

After waiting a few days and a few flights getting cancelled, we got on a flight from McChord AFB (Tacoma) to Dover AFB (Delaware). Our thought was that we would have better success getting a flight from Dover to Europe than we would McChord to Europe. Oh, were we wrong.

We arrived in Dover at round 11pm (est), just in time to miss the roll call for a flight heading to Ramstein, Germany. Ok, no big deal, we'll get a hotel for the night and then try again tomorrow.

Problem 1: No Hotel, the Miss Delaware pageant was taking place that night and every

hotel within a 45 min. radius of Dover was completely booked.

Problem 2: No flights to Europe the next day, until around 9pm

So we made the most of it. They had a children's room in the passenger terminal where Sydney spent the night in a crib they provided. John and I took turns trying to sleep in the chairs that all had arm rests, no hope of lying down (except on the floors, where we were told there were flees or something of the sort).

Day 2: 12June2011

In our sleep deprived state, we were able to come up with a plan to see Katy, Eli, and Xander. That morning, we called Katy to see if they might be able to meet us half way from West Virginia. We waited around until 10, when the car rental place opened up, caught a shuttle, rented the car and were on our way.

We meet in Mt. Airy, Maryland where we enjoyed a quick 3 hour visit over pizza. It was pretty great to have the cousins finally meet, as they are the only true cousins either of them have!

During this little visit, we kept calling the passenger terminal to confirm that the flight that night was still a go, and they kept saying it was.

After about 3 hours, it was time for us to hop in the car again, get back to Dover, return the car and get to the passenger terminal to catch the flight. Well, by the time we got there, the flight had been cancelled (hmm, starting to see a pattern). But at least we were able to get into the base lodging that night. We got a good night of sleep, did a load of laundry, and were back to the passenger terminal the next morning.

Day 3: 13June2011

Only, there weren't any flights for that day. However, nearby McGuire AFB (New Jersey) did have a flight leaving for Ramstein. So back to Enterprise, for another rental car. We paired up with another couple (Tom and Evelyn, our allies) who were also trying to get back to Ramstein. They are stationed there and the leave was running out.

We all hopped in the car together and headed up to McGuire. Lucky for them, they made it on the flight. We, however, did not make it on the flight. Our names were too far down the list.

Lesson 1: Sign up at any passenger terminal that you think you might go to the day you

start your leave. All flights are first come, first serve.

Again we made the most of it and went out to the coast to stay that night.

Day 4: 14June2011

The next morning we went to the beach. It was a bit cold, so we decided to get in the car and head back to Dover. That night there was a flight to Rota, Spain (which is a good location). Finally, a flight that did not get cancelled. That evening, we were called to the ticket counter, checked our bags, and given a boarding pass. A few minutes later, they called us all to go through security. Not 30 seconds passed, and they postponed the flight to the following morning due to a maintenance issue. So we all got our bags back, and were told the show time would be at 0730. We headed to a hotel for the night.

Day 5: 15June2011

At 0700, we call and find out that the flight has been delayed once again. I guess I should tell you, the plane is a C-5, a giant of a plane with a million little systems that quite frequently have problems. The C-5 is known for it's unreliability.

Making the best of it, we rented a car again and headed to the beach. We spent a little time there and Sydney had her first touch of the ocean. She cried. It was a little too cold.

As evening rolled around, we headed back to the passenger terminal.

These five days were a bit of a time warp for some reason and the night of the 15th was no exception. When we got to the passenger terminal, everyone was there again. Ready with bags and boarding passes. They checked our bags once again, called us to get through security and this time we made it.

Day 6: 16June2011

We waited in the room for the bus to come and take us to the plane. I think it was about 0200.

We hopped on the bus, went up the stairs to board the plane, got comfortable. We heard the engines start up and we heard the engines shut down. Yes, another maintenance problem. Okay, back on the bus, back to the little room where they held us until the plane was fixed. What was suppose to be 45 mins., turned into an 1 hour, then another. But eventually, we all got back on the bus, taken out the plane, boarded the plane, heard engines come on and stay on. We took off at about 0600. Finally on our way to Europe!

Random Tidbits About Our 7 Month Old

2011-07-14T09:58:00.002-08:00

* She is a world traveler (more on that, I promise), we are very proud of our little trooper, she made so many friends and only had a couple of rough nights

* Sleep is still going well, although we are trying to get back into a routine after all our travels and our still unsettled life (living in a hotel), last night she slept a good 10 1/2 hours, and today we are trying to get some good naps in, or at least try to figure out how much she wants to be napping these days.

* She is rolling over from belly to back and back to belly, trying to sit up on her own, but not quite there yet, her fine motor skills are quite refined as she loves to play with necklaces, earrings, and watches (expensive tastes, oh no)

* She loves her toes, they taste pretty good

*She is a big smiler, as you can see from the last post, she's learning what the camera is and that she gets a good reaction whenever she smiles and that thing is out. I believe she is also learning that she's quite a little cutie, she sure does play it up whenever a stranger comes up and oohs and ahhs at her (we're going to have to watch that one).

* No teeth yet, but she sure likes gumming things, especially the pacifier

* She still needs a good swaddle when she sleeps, but we're working on breaking that, so far, we've got a half an arm out of the swaddle (any tips for this would be appreciated)

*Yesterday she started walking while holding onto my hands of course, uh oh, I think we need to slow that down a bit, I'm not ready for a walker :)

* She is now a solid food eater, we pretty much started when we got back from our trip (I didn't really want to deal with the food thing while travelling). She's really only eating fruits and veggies, she loves her sweet potatoes and bananas. I'm really pushing the avocados (good fats), but she's not too sure about them, mixing them with apples seems to help.

Seven Months

2011-07-13T19:30:00.005-08:00

Well, a little late, but here are the seven months pictures. Today we just went for the 6 month well-baby check, and the stats:

weight: 13 lbs. 2 oz. (10%)

length: 25.5 inches (50%)

Sunshine

Guess what I just did to my Diaper?

Grandma B

Spain

Overnight train from Rome to Paris.

I thought it would be taller.

Water?

Aunt Kelsy has excellent tastes in hats.

Great Grandpa.... you have a nice hair cut.

Mona & Sydney

Breakfast with scruffy dad.

Spain

2011-06-20T03:58:00.001-08:00

We finally made it across the big pond, to Rota, Spain. We arrived Thursday evening after a series of cancelled and delayed flights. Sorry I have no pictures right now, I'll get caught up on that later I guess.

Friday we took a ferry over to Cadiz and spent to day touring cathedrals, walking the streets and a little time on the beach.

Saturday we rented a car and heading to Sevilla. We toured the main cathedral there, toured the palace and took a look at the bull-fighting stadium (no bull fight though). In the evening we headed to Granada where we stayed the night (well actually the morning).

Sunday we toured the great fortress of Alhambra. Quite an amazing sight, you could probably spend an entire day there and still not see it all. After that we headed towards the coast to get back to Rota. We rolled in at about 1 am and crashed at a hotel.

Today we are having a much needed health day at the beach. Tomorrow we are planning to catch a flight to Naples where
John has a friend that is stationed there. From there we will try and hit Rome and maybe take a train to the Cinque Terra.

Sydney is being quite the trooper, aside from being sleep deprived, the only thing that seems to bother her is the heat. But can you blame her, she was born in Alaska!

six months

2011-06-14T09:34:00.001-08:00

I'm a couple days late here, I know. Sydney spent her six month birthday meeting her auntie Katy, uncle Eli and cousin Xander. You may be wondering how this could happen. Well we took a hop to Dover AFB last Saturday, and we've been stuck here ever since. So on Sunday we called Katy up and met them halfway, had some lunch and played in the park, then headed back to Dover. We're trying again to get out today, pray that there is space.

Update

2011-06-08T19:15:00.002-08:00

Just wanted to send a quick line and let you all know that we are in WA now. We made it south on the ferry. It was a very restful and uneventful trip. Now we are with John's parents and hoping to get out to Europe on a flight, leaving Friday, we'll see. We tried today but there were no seats on the plane.

Hope our next update will come from somewhere in Europe!

Radio Silence

2011-05-19T08:28:00.002-08:00

We have big news on the home front...

We sold our house. Yes, it happened fast and it's been a whirlwind since. Last Wednesday a couple came by with a Realtor, took a look at the house and that night, they made us an offer. We spent the next two days in negotiations and by Friday, we reached an agreement. By Saturday, the home inspector came. And now all that's left is the appraisal and signing all the final paper work. Next Wednesday and Thursday, we have movers coming. By the 31st, we could be sailing away from Alaska. :(

I say "could be," because that part is still up in the air. Technically we are not allowed to leave until June 1st. Which is great, except that the next ferry leaves on June 6th, which is the exact day that John is suppose to be taking a final for grad school. So either the AF allows an exception and we leave on the 31st, or his professor lets him take his test a couple days early, or we have to leave later. The leaving later is not the end of the world, however, it would greatly cut into our plans to spend 3 weeks in Europe.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing we've been planning. We are hoping to catch a military flight to Germany, rent a car and drive down to Italy and spend a few weeks there, then get back to Germany, to fly out and be back to WA by June 30th, when John has to report to the squadron there. Whew!

Sometimes I feel we may be a bit crazy. I don't know, what do you think?

So, all that said, I may be entering into a time of radio silence. Not sure how long it will last. Possibly until life slows down, which will be never, so this may be my last post...

Just kidding, I'll be back...

Eventually...

5 Months

2011-05-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is a day late

2011-05-10T12:27:00.002-08:00

The sun in shining

Little green buds cover the trees

There is a faint sound of a lawn mower in the distance

Could spring be here at last?

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T18:40:00.002-08:00

“Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends – but only one mother in the whole world.”
Happy Mother's Day, Mom
Kristen

2011-05-06T16:01:00.003-08:00

She has suppose to be practicing sitting up...

But she decided to throw in some gymnastics practice too...

Lesson Learned

2011-05-04T19:55:00.002-08:00

So the lesson is this:

Don't drive on the highway with a flat tire

Yes, you'd think I would have learned this one quite a while ago, since I have been driving for almost 12 years now. However, that is not the case. Last Saturday was "change the tires day" (we get to keep them on extra long up here). That evening I had an event to go to, and although John said he was unable put air in the tires, I just went on my way without even considering filling up the tires on the way.

Now, in my defense, it wasn't all four tires, it was just one and the back right one, no less. So in order for me to notice this, I would have had to deliberately walk around the car and take a look at the tires. Did I think to do this? No...

So I went to my event and afterward decided to drive and fill the tire up. Well, the tire may or may not have already been flat by the time I was able to get air in it. Needless to say, the damage was done. I filled up the tire and proceeded to drive home.

In case you are getting worried, I did make it home. It wasn't until the next day that John noticed a bulge in the side wall of the tire. So he made and appointment to get it fixed (Tuesday).

Side note: we bought this car on Craigslist from a Russian man. He had a thing for fancy tires. So when John called to make and appt. to get the tire fixed, they assured us that they carried this certain tire.

So Tuesday rolls around and we go to get the tire fixed. Well, the guys at the shop start to put a different tire on the car (2nd lesson learned: you can't put a different brand of tire on the same axle). John quickly stopped them and asked what they were doing. Apparently, they did not actually have the brand of tire we needed.

Plan B: call around town and find out who carries this brand. Hmmm. No luck, no one had even heard of this brand before.

Plan C: look online to see how much it would cost to buy the tire and get it shipped up here. Hmmm. $255, ouch.

Plan D: take car to another tire shop and get both tires on the axle replaced. Finally a solution, but an expensive one.

Final Lesson Learned: take the 2 minutes it takes to stop and get air put in the tire before you drive 10 miles on a highway; in the long run, it will save you a lot of money.

Easter

2011-04-27T19:40:00.003-08:00

All dressed up for Easter

We had a great little visit from our friend Allie, all the way from Colorado Springs. Allie was on the team with me the last time I went to Sierra Leone. It was so great to see her and catch up a little bit!

And you know she looks like such a little angel, but underneath, she is one tough cookie...

Fairbanks Part II

2011-04-16T10:11:00.002-08:00

Here are the rest of the pictures from our Fairbanks weekend...

unfortunately my eyes are closed in this one

another cool sculpture

we really do live in an igloo

just making a call

oil pipeline,

hmm, makes me wonder why our gas is $4.13

Mystery Giver

2011-04-12T10:50:00.004-08:00

Would the giver of this gift please step forward?

Yesterday I received this awesome baby sling in the mail, but I have no idea who sent it! Well, whoever you are, thank you very much, I love it and it's quite a bit more comfortable than the other one I have, especially for Sydney.

House for Sale

2011-04-12T10:24:00.003-08:00

Our home is officially up for sale now, which means this whole moving thing is becoming a reality. We are attempting to do For Sale by Owner and our house is listed on a couple websites, including craigslist. We've had it listed for a couple weeks now, and were feeling a bit discouraged that we hadn't heard anything. Last Tuesday we finally got it listed on craigslist (I was little reluctant to post it until John got home), and on Wednesday we got a call from a prospective buyer. On Saturday they come to take a look, and low and behold, they are very interested. They also brought a Realtor with them, and he made several comments on how well our house showed and that we made a very good presentation. So even if this couple doesn't end up buying the house, it was nice to hear that encouragement.

When I first moved in, I had intended to post pictures, for those of you who wouldn't make it up here to see for yourself, and well, time just got away from me. So now that we're moving out, here are some pics. Oh, and if you know of anyone who is moving to Anchorage, you can pass on this info!

Four Months

2011-04-12T09:47:00.002-08:00

As you can see, it has been a busy month full of traveling. We hit some pretty good milestones, like sleeping 8 hours at night, holding our head up, rolling from tummy to back, etc. We are excited to see what comes of the next month, but hate to see her growing up so quickly.

Fairbanks

2011-03-31T08:48:00.003-08:00

The first weekend in March (yes, I know is the last day of March, better late than never), we headed up to Fairbanks; a trip we have been intending to take since we've lived here. During this time of year they always have an ice festival going on. It is also great place to view the Northern Lights (usually), and they have some hot springs that are good for warming the bones after a cold winter. So that was the plan, and we were successful on two of the three. It was really a fun weekend, there were 5 families that went (minus a couple husbands). All I can say, is that we have definitely made the effort to see the Northern Lights, and if we leave here without seeing them, I'm not going to feel bad, because I've really tried!

Here are some pics to recap the weekend.

Back side of Denali

Start of the Iditarod

(Sydney was not happy)

I realized after I started this post that most of the pictures from that weekend are on John's camera, which is in his possession right now! I guess you'll have to wait for Part II.

This Just In...

2011-03-30T22:03:00.003-08:00

I know I have a lot of updating to do, but I had to get this posted!

I'm so proud of her!

Three Months

2011-03-12T13:01:00.001-09:00

Since I am away from the computer that has all the pictures, one pic will have to do until I'm back.

Okay, maybe I found a few extras!

San Fran

2011-03-02T09:03:00.006-09:00

We decided to take a little mini vacation to San Francisco. John had some training he had to do at a base close by so Sydney and I went along. Here are some pics:

Sydney's Bed

The Jelly Belly Factory

The Golden Gate Bridge @ Night

Alcatraz

Family Photo

Riding the Cable Car

Chinatown

Bye Golden Gate

Winter Camping

2011-03-01T14:02:00.004-09:00

In case you were wondering, we did not get trapped out there in the wilderness of Alaska. We survived our over night stay in the cabin. We had a great time with friends and enjoyed some awesome chili to keep us warm. Sydney did really good, although I was paranoid the whole time that she was too cold. She actually did the best she's ever done with sleeping through the night. She almost did it, which I was very appreciative that I didn't have to nurse her in that cold weather (our cabin did have a wood stove, but for some reason it just wasn't kicking out the heat). John got to check snow machining of his list and we did a little x-country skiing in the morning, but we were both pretty cold and didn't got far.

all bundled up

our little cabin

the beautiful camp fire

but we all ended up inside anyway!

A New Device

2011-03-01T09:35:00.001-09:00

After fighting it off for as long as I could, I am now part of the iPhone family. But at $50 you really can't beat that. Have you seen the phone I was using before? Let just say this is a bit of an upgrade.
So I downloaded an app that I can blog from, which is what I'm doing right now. Maybe this will help me keep up with my blogging. We'll see!

Let's give it a try

2011-02-18T22:24:00.002-09:00

Tomorrow we are off for a night in a cabin out on the Army base. It's our first practice round of travelling with Sydney. I'm expecting to not sleep much (which I usually don't anyway) and hoping we don't give up at 4:00 in the morning and just head home. We'll be out there with three other families and will do some snow machining (snowmobiling in AK language) and some x-country skiing. Hope it goes well and I'll have some fun pictures to post.

Two Months

2011-02-12T17:45:00.001-09:00

Visit from my awesome sis!

2011-02-09T09:56:00.006-09:00

My sister, Kelsy, is visiting right now! It's so wonderful to have her. She is probably one of my favorite guests, because it's so easy to have her. I don't have to worry about entertaining her (Sydney solves that problem), making some elaborate dinner for her, even cleaning the house (although I did because it was a good excuse to get that done). She's just so easy. We are on day three and all mornings have been spent with a cup of coffee and pajamas until about noon (don't tell anyone)! Today, we have to get going though! She is going to go skiing and Sydney and I are going to hang out in the lodge.

She was trying to avoid having this picture taken of her and look how beautiful she is!

What Happens Late at Night

2011-02-07T16:45:00.002-09:00

This is what happens late at night when Dad's in charge.

John was in charge of feeding and changing and burping for a night. In the morning when I got up to feed Sydney, I found that her onesie had been turned into a muscle tee. Apparently, John got a little frustrated with the sleeves and instead of fighting to get her arms through them, he just cut them off. Later he added the graphic.

...but look at the guns on that girl!

Blogger's Block

2011-01-27T16:47:00.003-09:00

As most of you know, I've never been very good at blogging. I thought, "well, what is so interesting about my life that it's worth writing about, maybe when I have a kid I'll have more interesting things to write about." Now look, here I am, six weeks and all I can manage to post is a few pictures here and there (granted, they are darn cute pictures). However, I realize that this problem all goes back to a conversation I had with my mom when I was around 4th grade...

I was laying in bed one night, listening to my mom and older sister having a real heart to heart. After they were done, she came in and said good night one more time and I expressed to her my concern that her and I never share our "thoughts and feelings." My next words will forever haunt me... "then I realized I don't have any thoughts or feelings to tell you."

So there you have it, I have no thoughts or feelings, therefore, I have a very hard time blogging. Actually, I have founds that I do have some thoughts and feelings (although my mom will never let me forget those words), but I still have a hard time expressing them.

In closing, I do have a few ideas that I hope to post as long as I get some time. But if you have any other ideas for me, I would love to hear them. Sometimes I just need a little direction.

On a side note: my sister is awesome at blogging and she had a great post the other day that you can read here.

And just because she's a sweet little angel, here's another picture:

One Month Old

2011-01-12T09:31:00.001-09:00

It's hard to believe that an entire month has gone by already! Since birth, Sydney has gained 1 lb. 8 oz. and grown 2 inches! Here are some highlights of the first month.

More Pictures

2011-01-05T11:09:00.003-09:00

Not a fan of the car seat

"Not another picture!"

Sleepy time, again

We are just too cool!

All dressed up for New Year's Eve, but a little tired

Then came you...

2011-01-01T18:17:00.002-09:00

Last Sunday (Dec. 12th), we had the surprise arrival of our daughter, Sydney Marie. She joined our world exactly 4 weeks early. It's a pretty remarkable story and I'll let John start it out...

Since October I have been in Oklahoma for my next flying upgrade. During the training, my grandmother passed away and so I flew back to Seattle for her memorial service with only 1 flight remaining to complete the training. Grandma will definitely be missed but she passed knowing Christ, having lived a full life with family at her side. So the day after the funeral I was packed and ready to return to training... sitting in the Sea-Tac airport when Kristen called...

I (Kristen) had been a little concerned for our little one. She was usually pretty active in the womb and the past few days she had hardly made 10 movements in all. John convinced me to go to the hospital to have it all checked out instead of going church. When I got there, they hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor. I was so relieved to hear that little heart beat. I thought, “great, I can hear her, she’s doing fine, let’s go home, maybe I’ll be able to make the 11:30 service.” Now, I had not gone into labor and was not having real contractions, just the minor Braxton Hicks contraction. The problems started when they took my blood pressure and checked my heart rate. I had high blood pressure and a low heart rate, which is not a good combination and normally not seen in 27 year women. Eventually, they decided to transfer me from the Base Hospital to the local Providence Hospital where they could monitor my heart a little more closely. At some point in all of this the doctor called John back for me...

So the flight was delayed and I(John) was sitting at the gate, 45 min from takeoff when I finally heard back. Somewhere in the conversation I heard, "... you have no business going back to Oklahoma, you need to get back up here...." This is one of those freeze frames of my life. Me, my carry-on with 2days worth of clothes and study materials, Sea-Tac airport, full run straight to Alaska Airlines ticket counter. I think I muttered "baby on the way" as I cut to the front of every line between Kristen and Me. Credit card, miles number, "Next flight..... please," an extremely long 3 hr flight. A buddy from my squadron was out side the airport car running. Straight to the hospital...

During those long hours before John made it back, I saw three different doctors, had an EKG, a heart ultra sound, and a baby ultra sound. No one could quite figure me out. With the monitors set up to watch the baby and my contractions, they were seeing a pattern where every time I had a minor contraction (just a tightening up of my stomach), the baby's heart rate would drop. She was not in distress, however, the fear was that if I had a true contraction, she quickly would be. The OB doctor laid out the options for me... We could induce, which could take a couple days before I would deliver since I was not dilated and no signs of labor were on the horizon. Or they could do a c-section, which would be the safer option for the baby. They did allow us to wait until John arrived to make the decision.

I walked in the room and everyone politely excused themselves. There she was… my beautiful wife all wired up; a dozen monitors for mom and baby. I hadn’t been home in about 2 months. Lets just say I wasn’t expecting to see her when I woke up that morning, and defiantly not like that. But it still was wonderful to give her the hospital bed hug. That hug where you can’t quite make a good connection on the back because the tilt of the bed, all the wires and that gown that swallows one and only one hand. A couple minutes later the doctor walked in and laid out the options.... C-section now or 95% chance of an Emergency C-section later.

(John) can we have an hour to talk and pray about this?

(Doc) ummmmmmmm (aka - no) ..... how about 1/2 hr?

(John) deal. see you in half an hour.

At 7:30pm on Dec. 12, 2010, they took me down to the operating room and started prepping me for surgery. John was put into scrubs and allowed in the room once I was all ready. At 8:31 Sydney Marie joined our world with eyes wide open.

To the doctors frustration Sydney seemed more interested in who everyone was and what they were doing than crying. After harassing her for a couple minutes the baby doctors stopped trying to get her to cry, weighed, measured and swaddled her up. Then they put this 5 lb peanut of all eyes in my arms and called me Dad. Mom was watching an arms length away. We stepped over and said hello to Mom. After a few kisses hello the two of us got packed up and we started for the nursery so Mom could get stitched up.

I know my SA was low as a result of working on less than 8 hrs of sleep for the previous 48 hrs but I was aware and excited when the nurse didn’t turn us into the NICU. Instead we stopped into the normal baby nursery. They took a few more measurements and made me eat some soup. Then when mom was back in our room they took us back to Kristen.

We were able to stay together as a family for the next 36 hours, but by 3:00 the next afternoon they had decided to send me (Kristen) to the Progressive Care Unit so they monitor my heart more closely and John and Sydney were sent to the Mother- Baby unit (later dubbed the Father-Baby unit). We were separated for 24 hours, the longest 24 hours of my life. My brilliant husband had the idea to set up Skype in both our rooms so I could watch our sweet little baby from a few floors up. We were also able to convince some the nurses from the Mother-Baby unit to accompany John and Sydney up to see me so I could nurse and spend some time with them.

Finally at 3:00 the next day, they released me to go to the Mother-Baby unit. We spent a few more days there recovering and making sure Sydney was okay to go home. On Dec. 16^th they released us both, and John and I took our new addition home.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, as there are still some issues going on with my heart. We praise God the improvement I’ve made already and are continuing to pray for a speedy recovery.

32 Weeks

2010-11-19T19:01:00.004-09:00

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 32 Weeks and 5 day

Size of baby: 3.75 lbs. 16.7 inches from crown to heal, and she weighs about as much as a jicama

Total weight gain: well, we're up to 35 lbs.

Maternity clothes: Yup, all maternity nowadays

Gender: still a girl

Food Cravings: Still no cravings, just starting to get hungrier again as the baby grows

What I miss: Not waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom

Sleep: Some nights are better than others, read above comment

Symptoms: varicose veins, yikes! Funny story though: the dr. gave me some support hose to wear to help keep them at bay. The first day I wore them, as soon as I was at school, they had slid down to my knees, where they stayed for the rest of the day (they were only the thigh-high kind). Needless to say, I did not wear them the next day.

Best moment of the week: Dr. appt. on Tuesday-- finding out once again that everything looks great(always good to hear) and a baby shower on Wednesday, put on by my school. I will be sad to leave them!

ps I promise I don't wear the same thing everyday, although it's starting to feel that way. This way you can really compare the last 2 pictures:)

It's going fast

2010-11-08T07:26:00.003-09:00

The time really is going fast. I can hardly believe that we're down to 9 weeks. At the beginning of this, 30 weeks felt so far away and now here we are.

This week, we start interviewing for my position at school. We have 2 1/2 weeks to Thanksgiving and then only 3 weeks after that. I will hopefully have 3 weeks of rest and relaxation before this little girl joins our world. So when you break it down like that, it's no time at all.

We are both looking forward to meeting her though. She's quite a little active thing in my stomach and I'm anxious to see if she will be out of my stomach too.

10 To Go

2010-11-02T19:17:00.002-08:00

* Sorry about the self-portrait, that will have to do for a while

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 30 Weeks and 1 day

Size of baby: 3 lbs. 15.7 inches from crown to heal

Total weight gain: ok, I'll fess-up, 30 lbs.

Maternity clothes: All Maternity pants and then I've found that a size medium shirt still fits fine and tends to be cuter than the maternity shirts

Gender: still a girl, named Maude (per Kelsy's request)

Food Cravings: Still no cravings, just starting to get hungrier again as the baby grows

What I miss: My old jeans

Sleep: Waking up most every night for one reason or another

Symptoms: the heart burn got pretty bad there for a while, but seems to have subsided, "thank you Lord for that blessing."

Best moment of the week: watching an elbow or knee, poke out from the top of my belly and slide down to the other side, just crazy to see

What I'm looking forward to: Still very excited about seeing her. But trying to take in these moments, because once she's here, life will never be the same.

Side Note

2010-10-17T21:26:00.002-08:00

Yesterday we went to a friends house for breakfast and on the way we saw a bull moose, a mama moose, and the baby. We've never seen the whole family together. Usually you just see the mamas and the babies together, but not the dad's too!

Unfortunately, we did not have a camera with us and we were driving 60 mph by them, so you're going to have to use your imagination.

Welcome 3rd Trimester!

2010-10-17T20:58:00.006-08:00

Yes, it's here. Two-thirds down, one to go!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 28 weeks, exactly

Size of baby: 2 1/4 lbs. about the weight of a Chinese cabbage

Total weight gain: Not really sure, I don't trust the scale at home anymore!

Maternity clothes: Mostly all maternity clothes now. I'm beginning to get a little tired of them, but I know I have a little more time of wearing them ahead of me.

Gender: girl

Food Cravings: Not really any, thankfully. I think I've had a pretty even keeled pregnancy so far.

What I miss: my range of motion

Sleep: I still need more, some nights are better than other. I've never been one to wake up in the middle of the night, but know a do sometimes. I judge a good night of sleep on whether or not I woke up in the middle of it.

Symptoms: oohhh... heart burn at night, but I just take a tums and that seems to help stabilize things

Best moment of the week: more and more movement all the time, she's getting pretty strong these days

What I'm looking forward to: Seeing her beautiful face. A friend of ours just had her baby girl a couple weeks ago and seeing her has gotten me really excited about seeing our own little one.

Additional information: She has eye lashes now, but I'm sure they are see-through like mine and she's opening and closing her eyes. We started a child birth class a couple weeks ago. So now this whole labor thing is on the brain. This week we have our 28 week appt. Pray that I don't have gestational diabetes.

24 Weeks

2010-09-20T20:22:00.003-08:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 24 weeks, exactly

Size of baby: 1 ft. long and just over a 1 lb, about the weight of a mango, the length of an ear of corn, and the size of a spaghetti squash

Total weight gain: 18 lbs. per my dr. visit last week, however, I may be taking this off the highlights. I don't really view this as a highlight anymore!

Maternity clothes: I wear some, but they're so big! I've resorted to wearing medium sizes and then when they get to small I'll wear the true maternity clothes.

Gender: Girly girl

Food Cravings: none right now! Except I've been over indulging in candy corn like I alway do at this time of year

What I miss: still coffee, and many of you ask why I just don't drink decaf, but there's actually a lot of other bad things in coffee then just caffeine. So I'm just going to stay away for now.

Sleep: it's never enough it seems. I wake up a lot more for random things. The other night I woke up because there were finger nail clippers digging into my back. I don't know how finger nail clippers got in our bed.

Symptoms: it's getting a little harder to bend over these days, big butt sydrome, and tired, tired, tired!

Best moment of the week: Lots and lots of movement now! Yesterday we bought a glider and today we bought a crib and dresser, now we just need a baby to put in it! And guess what, we got them on Craigslist!

What I'm looking forward to: I'm too tired to think about what I'm looking forward to, I'm just trying to get to the next minute.

Open House

2010-09-20T20:08:00.002-08:00

Last week we had Open House at school. I don't really think I like Open House. It's like having all these people come into your home and snoop around and judge everything you have and do. I know my classroom isn't my home, but sometimes it feels like it.

And then there are the parents that want to have a full on conference with you while all the other parents are milling around you. Very awkward. This one parent wanted to discuss the fact that her son seemed to be doodling on all his papers. I wanted to tell her that was the least of her worries. I have had a little trouble with this boy and so I wanted to be honest with her about his behavior. She confided that she sees the same behavior at home and she just "doesn't know what to do anymore." This is not the first time I've heard this from a parent. Speaking of their 6 or 7 year old child, I have had numerous parents say this to me, like I have some miracle answer for them. First of all, I am not the parent of their child. Second of all, I'm not even a parent. Why should I be giving them advise. More over, why are they asking me anyway! And if you didn't notice, you can't give up on parenting them now, you still have 11 years to go!

While reading this post to make sure I spelled everything right, I'm realizing this may sound a little negative, but I don't have a negative tone. It's more of a matter-a-fact tone.

And the winner is...

2010-08-29T16:17:00.005-08:00

Girl!

Yes we are having a girl, well, as far was we know we are.

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 21 weeks exactly

Size of Baby: 10 1/2 inches, 12 oz.

Total Weight Gain: 15 lbs. I'm a little embarrassed about this, but then people keep telling me I'm not even showing, so I must be really good at hiding it all!

Maternity Clothes: A couple of things, but I'm in the in between stage where my normal clothes are getting pretty uncomfortable, but the maternity clothes are still too big.

Gender: GIRL

Food Cravings: I guess I'm just weird because I'm really not craving anything, except for chocolate maybe, but that's pretty normal for me!

What I miss: coffee! especially now that school has started. Coffee has been a part of my morning routine since I was a freshman in high school! But it's okay, it's a small sacrifice.

Sleep: lots of sleep is good. I still don't get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I'm not sure this is a good thing, but no bladder infections so far.

Symptoms: I'm pretty tired still, mostly with school starting. My back and hips ache sometimes, I think the shifting and separating has begun. Random hiccups, lots of them, is this normal?? It's kind of embarrassing at times.

Best Moment of the Week: Of course finding out what we're having. Seeing the heart in the ultra-sound. It's pretty amazing when you think that is probably the only good look at our babies heart anyone will ever have, unless she'll ever have to have an EKG or something. And John finally got to feel her kicking around! She's been a real mover and a shaker the past few days

What I'm Looking Forward to: right now I'm just trying to live in the moment, knowing that life is going to continue to change in the next few months and beyond!

Her little profile

And my not so little profile (I know this isn't a very good picture but John wasn't home to take it, so it was the best I could do)!

18 Weeks

2010-08-14T12:21:00.003-08:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 18 weeks and 5 days

Size of Baby: 5 1/2 in. crown to rump, about 7 oz.

Total Weight Gain: 10 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Some, I've worn a couple shirts but am still fitting into my pants, as long as I unbutton the top button.

Gender: Unknown, but we find out on Aug. 27th

Food Cravings: No real cravings at this time!

What I miss: being able to move as quickly as I used to, it's kind of hard to bend over and get up now

Sleep: Still sleeping good, but I no longer can sleep on my stomach or back, I'm glad it seemed to be an easy transition since I'm very much a stomach sleeper

Symptoms: Not eating as much as I was, but I'm still pretty tired and my back and hips are starting to ache!

Best Moment of the Week: Finally feeling this little bugger inside me! Can't wait till John will be able to feel him/her too!

What I'm Looking Forward to: Finding out the sex

And here is the first picture!

When tragedy strikes

2010-08-04T15:02:00.003-08:00

As many of you have heard, our squadron lost a C-17 this past week and all four crew members that were on board. This past week has been the longest and hardest emotional roller coaster I have been on and John for that matter. First there are the feelings of gratefulness when you come to the realization that it wasn't your husband that was on that plane, and then there is the overwhelming loss you feel when you realize it's your friend's husband who was. And as the calls come in asking, "Is everything alright?" your so thankful to say, "John's okay, he's flying tomorrow," yet you know that someone else does not get to say that, and you realize how easily that someone else could have been you. Through all this, I have learned that the Air Force truly does take care of it's people. And it's not the Air Force as an institution, but the people of the Air Force who take care of it's people.

As we move on from this tragic event, feeling a little more fragile and a little less invincible, we remember that our hope is not in the pilots, who like us are only human; our hope is not in the plane, which up until last Wednesday has never crashed; but our hope is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Please keep the families of Capt. Jeffery Hill, Maj. Aaron Malone, Maj. Mike Freyholtz, and Sen. Master Sgt. Tom Cicardo in your prayers. All were husbands, all were fathers, and all served this country with strength and dignity. We are all proud of the legacy they leave behind.

Propel is my best friend

2010-07-23T15:38:00.003-08:00

I've decided that I really don't like the taste of water anymore. I'm not really sure how that happens because, does water really have a taste? Hmm. Good question. But I've had a hard time wanting to drink water, which is bad because I'm suppose to drink even more water than usual. Plus, I've never really been that good at drinking water anyway.

But I have found a solution to my problem, Propel packets! I just put a half of a packet in my water bottle and drink up! They have vitamins and electrolytes and the best part, no aspartame!

Oh, and my favorite kind is Raspberry Lemonade!

Zumba

2010-07-23T13:59:00.002-08:00

Today I went to a new exercise class. It's called Zumba. It's kind of like a dance class but it's exercise. I don't think the pregnant body will be able to keep up with this class through the whole thing, but at least for the next month or so. It was quite a blast. Below I found a pretty good you tube clip to show you what it's like!

15 Weeks

2010-07-19T09:18:00.003-08:00

So I have to be honest and tell you all that I got this cute idea for tracking my pregnancy from a friend of a friend's blog. If you ever read this "friend," thank you for the idea!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 15 weeks

Size of Baby: 4 in. crown to rump, 2.5 oz. about the size of an apple

Total Weight Gain: 6 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Not yet, but I'm no longer able to button my pants, this belly band thing is great to cover up the unbuttoned pants, but I can't keep the back of my pants from sliding down! Does anyone have any tricks?

Gender: Unknown

Food Cravings: Top Ramen of all things! I try to curb this one since Top Ramen really isn't that healthy. Also cheese

What I miss: Not sure about this one, sometimes I miss bodily functions working normally

Sleep: pretty good so far, but starting to have a hard time getting comfortable at night!

Symptoms: I think I skated through the morning sickness with relative ease. I just get winded easily and I'm hungry, A LOT!

Best Moment of the Week: My belly started pouching, and not just because I was bloated.

What I'm Looking Forward to: The baby getting bigger and being able to feel him/her.

The Time Has Come

2010-07-15T12:07:00.002-08:00

The time has come to let the blogging world know the big news from our little corner of the world. We are expecting little Baby Robbins somewhere around Jan. 10th. This is a picture from the first ultrasound on June 7th, so he/she has grown quite a bit since then(about the size of a lemon now). The next ultrasound is scheduled for July 29th, so soon I will have a more up to date picture to share.

Clamming!

2010-06-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

Here's the crew!

Sarah going after the kill!

John and Donny surveying the land

The happy clammer

Our catch

It's hard to see, but there were about 23 bald eagles perched on this cliff waiting for the fish guts to be dropped off by fishermen (hint: look for any speck of white).

Beautiful Mt. Redoubt

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

On Memorial Day Weekend, we went to our neighbor, Mike's cabin. And for those of you who have heard of him, yes this is famous Mike. The one who plows our drive-way in the winter, the one who brings us loads of dirt for the backyard and then actually takes the time to transport the dirt to the backyard when John was gone, the one who will really do anything for you! Yes, it's that Mike!

Here we are taking the boat out to his cabin which is on an island in the middle of a pretty big lake! And that's Mike with the yellow rain hat on, he's quite a character!

Coming to shore...

Relaxing in the hammock

Enjoying a lovely BBQ with the other "islanders!" That's Mike sitting next to me.

And of course, beautiful Alaska!

after much silence...

2010-06-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

I have dedicated these next few days to getting caught up on the blogging.

So here is a picture of my class on the one of the last days of school. I think it turned out pretty good, when your trying to get 23 faces to all look the same direction and smile at the same time!

Of course we had to do a silly one too!

A Monumental Day

2010-04-24T16:41:00.000-08:00

Today is a monumental day. The sun has been shining since I woke up at 7:00 this morning and it has continued to shine without a hint of clouds. The snow tires are finally coming off. And you don't need a coat when you go outside! The irises are poking through the ground and the lilac bushes are beginning to bud. Yes, a very special day indeed!

April?? Are you sure?

2010-04-14T19:47:00.001-08:00

Because, really, when you look outside and see THIS, you really just can't believe that it's April. Yes, I woke up this morning to 3 inches of fresh snow, not to mention the 2 feet of snow that was doing a pretty good job of melting until today! And then the falling snow preceded to continue through this afternoon and has finally stopped at about 7:30 pm! I don't really think it's the long dark days of Alaska that are depressing, it's the fact that sometimes you really feel like you live in Forever Winter.

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-22T20:04:00.001-08:00

Is it bad when one of your students is wearing the same shirt as you? What it's one of your little boys?

Yes, this did happen last week! Back in February I bought a shirt to wear for St. Patrick's Day. And yes, it may or may not have been in the boys section. So on Wednesday, one of my little boys comes walking in with the same shirt!

Hope you can get a little laugh out of this!

thanksgiving.break

2009-11-27T12:29:00.000-09:00

sleeping in...

peppermint mocha coffee...

bible study...

flowers on the table...

pjs till noon...

winter wonderland outside...

cuddling on the couch...

leftovers in the fridge...

christmas music, finally...

exactly what i needed

Catch-Up

2009-09-27T10:52:00.000-08:00

I realized I had a bit of catch-up to do on the blog! Here are a couple of slide shows from things we did this month!

Last weekend was the Spouse's Appreciation Flight. There were two planes and they actually got it cleared to open the cargo door that they do all their air drop stuff out of, during the flight! We lucked out on our plane, the Load Masters kept it open almost the entire time! What an amazing way to view the beauty of Alaska!

Labor Day weekend was a big weekend for us! On Friday night, we decided that we would hike Crow's Pass on Sunday and Monday. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but Crow's Pass is a 26 mile hike! But before Sunday came, we decided to throw in a car purchase in our weekend too! The hike was amazing though, and we had the best weather! We hiked 19 miles the first day, camped out, and then hiked the additional 7 on Monday, which got us home by noon, so I could still get some school work done!

First Week Activities

2009-08-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

Our first week ended well! Wednesday and Thursday were a little rough with following directions and learning the routines, but Friday I think we turned a little corner. Here are some pics of what we did: art project, exploring our math manipulatives, and on Friday we were suppose to have a field trip to the park to have lunch and play some games, as you can see we got rained out but luckily the gym was open and we still got to play some of our team building games!

The Final Product!

2009-08-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here is what my classroom looked like today on my first day of school!

So, the first day of school, well, we all survived. The kids all lived, I lived, and I think we all had smiles on our faces at the end of the day. It was a busy day full of practice! Practice walking in the hall, practice going to the bathroom, practice going to lunch, practice lining up from lunch, practice coming to school, practice leaving school, practice, practice, practice.

Tomorrow, we're going to attempt to throw in some fire drill practice and earthquake drill practice!!! Wish us luck!

2009-08-18T21:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I couldn't get the before pictures to post first, so they are below on the next post and these are...

Here are some during pictures...

And the final pictures will come next week on the first day of school!

My classroom

2009-08-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some before Pictures of the classroom...

Sunrise, Sunrise

2009-08-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

looks like morning in your eyes...

Just a beautiful sunrise this morning. The first I've seen in a while! (oh does this mean winter is coming)

On our way to work yesterday...

2009-08-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

Space Available

2009-07-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

The military has this nice little perk called "Space Available. " Essentially, what it means is if there is space available on flights, they will take passengers. So this last Tuesday John left for three weeks in Hawaii. On Wednesday, a flight came up for Oahu, Hawaii. So I jumped on it and flew down to spend a few days with him. He's pretty busy with work, but I got to spend Saturday (possibly his only day off for the next few weeks) with him. We partook of a hike to a very dry waterfall, some Dole Whip(pineapple ice cream), a drive around half the island, another hike to a lighthouse, and then rounded the day out with a nice dinner at Assaggio(Italian). Yesterday I jumped back on a flight to Elmendorf AFB.

I have an Announcement!

2009-06-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not pregnant!

But God is SO good and SO faithful! This past week I was feeling pretty down about the whole job hunting fiasco. After five interviews, still no takers. I had had an interview at a school that I've subbed a lot at and also sacrificed a lot for(for example, not going with John to WA because I had a job there). I thought, of all schools this would be the one that would hire me. But I didn't get the job.

But God is faithful...

Back in April John had asked me what my first choice would be for a job. I told him Scenic Park(right by our house) would probably be my first choice, Ursa Major(on the base) would be my second choice and then Baxter(the school stated above). And I've always thought that first or second grade would be my ideal grade to teach.

Yesterday I got a call from the district office offering me a First Grade position at Scenic Park!

I still can't believe it! God has always been so faithful in this area, I don't know why I doubted Him. When I didn't get a job right out of college, I didn't know why or what He was doing, but then that led me to Sierra Leone. And once again He has proved me wrong, thank goodness!

My Nephew

2009-06-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

Here is my little nephew Daniel Alexander or Xander.

The World Beard and Mustache Championships

2009-06-01T08:09:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's true, it really does extist. And this year Anchorage was the lucky host!

When John first found out that he would be stationed in Anchorage, back in the spring of 2007, he found out that the World Beard and Mustache Championships would be held in Anchorage, May 2009.

Here are some of our pictures!

And the man that started it all!

Jack Passion, above, was the First Place winner in the natural beard category

I believe this guy came all the way from Austria

He won First Place in the Freestyle category, and he's local!

I'm an Auntie

2009-05-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

Yep! My sister Katy had delivered a beautiful baby boy. His name is Daniel Alexander, 7 lbs. 11 oz. perfect and healthy. Hopefully pictures to follow once I get them!

2009-05-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

Online Auction

2009-05-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

My friend and former housemate in Sierra Leone is taking a team of teachers down to Sierra Leone this summer. To help raise funds, they are doing an online auction from now until Sunday, May 10th. Please check it out!

Spring had finally Sprung!

2009-05-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

Spring is finally here! This weekend it was 70 degrees and yesterday the trees seems to bloom over night! It's strange to think that with the coming of spring, school is almost out. Yes, just two more weeks, which is really one for me -- something tells me it's not a good idea to sub the last week of school.

This past month has been a busy one for us. It seems that as soon as we think it is going to slow down, it doesn't! Or as soon as John thinks he'll be home for a while, he's not! Since February, he has been home a few weeks, gone a few weeks, and I suppose that is becoming our norm. While he's gone, I try and stay busy with jobs and work on little projects at home. Currently, I'm working on a quilt that I had planned to do last year.

Apparently, I've missed a few months of blogging, sorry! But to catch you up...

March was full of visitors and volcanoes! Kelsy(sister) came to visit me during her spring break, which worked out to be a time when John was gone, so it was nice to have the company! We had a great time of catching up, snow shoeing, exploring and car breakdowns! I was very sad to see her go! When John got home, Kelsy left and his sisters, Sara and Ally, flew in! And in the midst of their visit, Mt. Redoubt finally blew! And blew and blew. It went on for a few days or months, because we are on watch again. We still did some hiking and a whale-watching tour! But sadly, the volcano did keep my dear friend Sarah from coming. She was the last visitor in the line, but hopefully she'll be able to make it up at a better time, once the volcano has gone back to sleep for another 10 years!

April has been busy with work and interviews! Since the second week of April, I've almost been working everyday! Which has been good, since summer is coming. I've also had three interviews. One was just the screening interview for the district, but the other two were for specific schools that I would love to get into! So we'll see. Now is just the waiting game.

I'm going to have to post pictures later since I'm currently at work, I promise I'm doing my job!

Reindeer Run

2009-03-01T17:25:00.000-09:00

This weekend was the big celebration leading up to the start of the Ididirod. One of the activities is the Reindeer Run. It's kind of the same idea as the Run of the Bulls in Spain, only with reindeer and not as deadly! Basically, everyone get all dressed up with crazy outfits and some not so crazy outfits(we leaned on this side) and they lead a group of reindeer down the middle of the group of people and then let them go and we all run together for about two blocks! John and I ran with the squardon group, which was very small as you can see below!

We got the shirts, we got the pictures, and think next year we'll pass!

2009-02-14T13:09:00.000-09:00

The guy in this video is John Squadron Commander, well,

was, they just had a change of command yesterday.

Anyway, this is a little bit of what is going on up here!

Not So Far Removed

*hawaii or bust*

Sydney's 1st successful self-feed

Pictures from the big day

A Year in Numbers

Milestones

11 Months

The rest of the story...

back from the hiatus

Ten Months

Nine Months

Mama Bear's Projects

Missing words and extra endings

What one would do in Altus, OK to keep busy...

Final Europe Tour Post

Eight Months

Paris

Rome

Naples: Pompei & Capri

Leaving Rota

Break,

Granada

Part Two (finally)

Let's start at the beginning...

Random Tidbits About Our 7 Month Old

Seven Months

Spain

six months

Update

Radio Silence

5 Months

Happy Mother's Day

Lesson Learned

Easter

Fairbanks Part II

Mystery Giver

House for Sale

Four Months

Fairbanks

This Just In...

Three Months

San Fran

Winter Camping

A New Device

Let's give it a try

Two Months

Visit from my awesome sis!

What Happens Late at Night

Blogger's Block

One Month Old

More Pictures

Then came you...

32 Weeks

It's going fast

10 To Go

Side Note

Welcome 3rd Trimester!

24 Weeks

Open House

And the winner is...

18 Weeks

When tragedy strikes

Propel is my best friend

Zumba

15 Weeks

The Time Has Come

Clamming!

Memorial Day Weekend

after much silence...

A Monumental Day

April?? Are you sure?

St. Patrick's Day

thanksgiving.break

Catch-Up

First Week Activities

The Final Product!

My classroom

Sunrise, Sunrise

On our way to work yesterday...

Space Available

hawaii or bust