Turning Six

Ashlyn turned six today. In keeping with family tradition, we gave her the choice of where to eat out tonight. She had a very difficult time deciding between McDonalds and Brick Oven. Thankfully she opted for Brick Oven. Staying true to herself, she informed everyone that they would need to dress up for dinner, and then proceeded to pick out outfits for everyone in the family. In the end, only Caleb was willing to amend his wardrobe to Ashlyn's specifications.

I keep thinking that as she gets older, all her questions will slowly die away. If you estimate that she asks approximately one question per minute over the space of 3 years, how many more questions can she possibly have? My neighbors are not immune to her questions either. They enjoy relating the latest Ashlyn inquiries. Here is one of her latest-and I may add others at a later time:

Ashlyn to my next door neighbor, Sharleen, "I see your husband at home at lot during the day. Why is he home? It's daytime, he should be at work."

Sharleen- "Well, he lost his job and isn't working right now. He's trying to find another job."

Ashlyn-"Oh, well he can come work at our house. We have leaves he could rake or he could pull weeds."

(Of course this whole conversation was overheard by the husband)

Scouting

I can't give highlights of the year without mentioning scouting. Grandpa is a huge scouter and so it is necessary to follow tradition and work towards the ultimate goal of Eagle for the boys. This year both boys were able to attend Maple Dell Scout Camp together. Caleb wasn't quite old enough to sleep over, so we taxied him back and forth each day. This was Nate's second scout camp for the year. He attended Timberline Camp the month prior. In addition to that we of course had two sessions of Powwow and between all of these events Caleb received his Webelos and Arrow of Light. (as pictured)

Alaska

Steve spent two weeks in Alaska floating down the Kanetok River. He took hundreds of pictures for the group of all the fish, landscape, and wildlife. At the end of the trip his group charted a boat to take them halibut fishing, and he lost the camera (with all the other memory cards and the camcorder as well). He came home from his trip with a black cloud hanging over his head (imagine coming home from two weeks in Alaska depressed). Luckily for us, the owner of the charter "found" our camera bag after we filed a report with the Seward police department. Here are just a couple pictures from his trip. I believe his smile was at least this big when he heard that his camera bag had been found with everything intact.

Making a Costume

Years ago I learned that it is usually cheaper to buy Halloween costumes than make them. Every since then I have bought most of the kids costumes...that is until I forget and need a lesson to remind me. This year Lauren asked to be a forest fairy. I found a $5 costume at a local store and was excited that I would be able to outfit her without spending an outrageous amount. As soon as she tried it on, I realized that we had a problem. The netting for the skirt was too sheer and showed more than it should. My next solution was to buy a nude unitard for $20 from an auction site to go under the fairy costume-thereby eliminating any chance of undergarments showing. At this point I was still confident that I was still getting a good deal, and knew that I had hit upon the best solution to keep Lauren warm and modestly covered. As soon as the package arrived, I had Lauren immediately try it on with the costume...and discovered that even though it covered everything it should, it was very form fitting and that skirt was still too sheer. My next solution was to go to the fabric store for more netting to add to the skirt. $25 later we had our fabric, but little did I know the time that it would take to make the pattern, then sew and attach the extra skirts. In the end the costume was a success (even if some people mistook her for Mother Earth), and I've once again learned my lesson.

It's in the Genes.

I keep trying to convince Steve that it is possible to have geography genes. He doesn't think my argument is sound-you be the judge. Isn't is possible to pass down the genes to do math, science, art or even language from a parent to a child? Of course, some would argue the point of nurture versus nature. I think both play a large part in a child's development, and therefore I believe that if we say that certain traits can be inherited, why can't geography be one of them? Unfortunately for me, I don't have much of the geography gene in me. I can't even name all the cities in our county-much less name all the counties in our State. Luckily for our children, Steve is a geography whiz and it seems he passed this unique gene down to Nate. He just won the National Geographic Geography Bee for his school. Now, he must take a test to qualify for the State Geography Bee. Nate isn't exactly happy about winning the Bee, since he knows that means more studying and an extra test in his near future.

Diving

Our diving destination this year was Curacao. We found a great beach resort called Habitat where we did two boat dives and then later Steve ventured out for a shore dive. (towing two novices along with him) We borrowed our friend's camera with it's water case, and Steve had a lot of fun taking pictures during the dives. This picture was taken around 55 feet below the surface...note Steve's holding his breath while I try to figure out how to take the picture. I think at this point he was almost out of air.