Memorial Day visit to Grandma

This year we had the honor of taking flowers to Grandma Peggy's grave site on Memorial Day. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we decided that Jade should wear a truly "girly" summer outfit in honor of her grandmother, who only had boys to dress up. Wade often talks about her and how delighted she would have been with grandchildren, especially a little girl (whose arrival would have darn-near been a 60th birthday present). So here is Jade and her dad walking back to the car after having a chat with grandma.

Chena River Mud

In her hurry to reach the river she over balanced and hit the dirt - literally! Some people would pay serious money for a mud facial and she already knows the best way to apply one :) I hope to spend the whole summer loading smiley, muddy, cheerful children into my car.

So here is the baby girl rocking out with the best toy ever! We have not purchased a single toy for this kid, who likes to amuse herself with cups, flashlights, and anything that has been recently touched by her brother.

Swingin'

On a beautiful (slightly smoky) day, we built a swing set! We are also planning a treeless treehouse with a slide and a sandbox in the near future. It is so great to be teachers and spend summer days outside.
Just had to make sure that his sister's swing was in working order. Hammin' it up for the camera.
Even with 3 teeth coming in she couldn't stop smiling.
Naturally after so much work on a new swing set the kids loved the monster load of wood chips better than anything *sigh* (The story behind Slater's eye - he was "flying" his airplane around the house and walked into the table, after that a bug bit him in the same spot. Poor little guy looks like someone poked him in the eye with a stick)
Why do I find this view of them so cute? Just love seeing them hang out together.
Always excited to help where the four-wheeler is concerned and always so well behaved since he just loves riding around on it.

Jade makes a new friend

While we were in Cantwell Jade was adored by everyone! She took it in stride and gave a lot of love back. Reid was probably her biggest fan, he was so good with her and called her "a little cutie-pie", wanted to sit with her and gave her "little baby hugs". Here they are just hanging out on the lawn.

What to do while Dad is gone?? - Keep busy!!

Dad had to go to Craig for a week and we tried to keep super busy while he was gone.
Day 1: Hung out with the Powells shoveling compost and topsoil - nothing better than dirt to keep a boy happy. (see the Powell work party post for photo)
Day 2: Built a catapult at Lowe's. Slater put in all the nails and even did some pounding himself! Didn't like the rubber band attachment - so the catapult is not really functional, but Slater is proud of it anyway. Then went to the Large Animal Research facility, took a hayride, viewed musk-ox, reindeer and caribou babies, then headed home to finish loading up for a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in Cantwell.




Day 3: Baby Jade is up and walking!! Taking as many as 7 steps between objects! Enjoying the moment to much for photos (oops) - I am sure that Dad will get some good video footage to post in the next day or two.

Day 4: Putting the plane on floats with G and G. We were instrumental in the whole process. Mt. McKinley was out in all of her glory and we topped off the whole experience with Slater's first flight in the Super Cub - again no picture because I accidentally left G-ma with a full memory stick :( That afternoon we hung-out with the Williams family and meet their new additions - Rosa and Babe - 40 pounds of pork.







Day 5: Walking, throwing rocks, waving at trains, a late birthday pizza party for Uncle Dan, and heading home to Fairbanks.

Day 6: Getting everything cleaned up and anxiously awaiting the afternoon arrival of Dad's plane. Lots of screaming, clapping, hugging, hopping and laughter for the rest of the evening ;)

The Powell work party :)

This is what the kids did while Peggy and I drank lemonade! They didn't really get much out of the back of the truck, but they had a fantastic time doing it.

Standing craze ...

For the last couple of weeks Jade has been pulling to stand, standing without holding on to anything, stumbling about behind things that she can push and starting to cruise along furniture. She is still not making much progress in the crawling department and I think she may just skip over that milestone.
Here she is hanging out with grandma on the lawn. This little push car is one of the most popular toys in the yard.
This one may be a bit blurry, but it shows her attempts at forward motion in the semi-standard crawl position. Boo looks like she is attempting to stand on her head. She makes us laugh all day.