August in Phoenix

Willem had his first full dental exam and did an awesome job! Tried to play dead for a while but he seemed to enjoying wearing the shades and getting a toy at the end out of one of the dispensers I avoid like the plague at the mall.

Ellie is now big enough to be on the learning tower with Ellie and makes sure she gets full access to whatever activities Mom is doing.

Costco run turned into time on fun rides. Grandma was with us so the cars and trains moved which Willem thought was pretty cool. Usually we just play pretend on them. What a treat!

Willem loves sleeping in his new bed but didn't love the dark, so Grandma gave him a flashlight to sleep with. Everynight we find him in a position like this and sneak in to turn off the light.

Willem: "I love the train park. I missed the train park. I want to be here FOREVER"

Tia Julie's 1st visit to the train park, her life is now complete. Ellie loved riding on the carousel. She enjoyed the music and loved that the horse moved.

1st day of preschool

Willem's 1st day in Primary at Faith North. Willem was ready, Mom was not but a great day was had by all.

He was so ready to get to school, we absolutely tortured him by taking pictures. Grandma has more on her camera we'll add later.

Our happy son in the car afterschool. I asked him what he did today and he said, "I went potty a lot Mommy. A lot." He was in heaven as he was finally not handicapped by my presence and able to go to the boys room. In addition, he could stay in there for much longer than mom's patience usually allows for.

I was worried about the potty situation because the bathrooms are outside of the classroom and he's been potty trained for about 1 month but all was good in his world.

He also declared on the drive home that he no longer wanted to take his lunch and that he wanted to eat the school lunch. Apparently the rest of the class had pizza. Where did my baby go?? The point of preschool is fostering independence and he is more than ready. Now if only Mom can keep up!

Goodbye Alaska

Our time in Alaska was a bit like living in a bubble. Our life was simple, fairly routine and unencumbered from most of our daily responsibilities back home. We were ready to return to Phoenix and yet at the same time we began to realize that an amazing experience was coming to an end.

Willem and Jake bonding over their love of trains.

Our last group trip to Walmart. Every Monday we would head to Walmart with the Ogao's to get the groceries for the week. Those trips were filled with the beginnings of wonderful friendships, tiring moments with the kids, a new appreciation for the food selection in Arizona and somehow a sense of comfort in routine.

Next stop was often Costco on Mondays where we would feed the kids lunch and buy produce or odds and ends we were in need of. It was a nice break from our PB&J lunches and was the perfect restaurant to take kids and not have to worry too much about the chaos of bringing 4 children under 5 out to lunch.

The night before we left, Jason grilled up some salmon for us all to enjoy and we celebrated our last evening in Alaska. Sadly, we were returning without Jason who had 2 weeks left in Alaska but we were excited to be getting back to our home and our family.

Heidi and I were curious how the flights home would go but overall we survived 8 hours of traveling where the kids outnumbered us. They were troopers for having to wake up before 5am and we are now big fans of the Portland airport for having a play area for us to spend our 2 hour layover at.

We were beyond excited to see Grandma, Oom Rik and Tia Julie at the airport upon our arrival and to visit with the Gigi and Paw Paw at the house afterwards. We had a wonderful adventure in Alaska but we were glad to be home. As soon as we hit the house, Willem ran into the living room "my trains, my trains" and we were home.

Dinner with the Wilson's

Dr. Wilson and her family welcomed us into their home one night for dinner and we were able to see how another local family lives. Their house was very warm and filled with fun activities for the kids. They had built this swinging bar for their children and our kids thought it was quite fun.

The tree house was amazing as well.

We all feasted on a food network worthy meal of moose, horseradish mashed potatos and homemade apple pie. It was my first time trying moose and even Willem and Ellie enjoyed it.

The tire swing was a blast though it did cause for an exciting ride home with Willem being sick. All in all, a wonderful evening with friends.

Ellie

Ellie, Ellie, please do tellie, how do you grow so fast!! We cannot believe Ellie is 1 already. We feel immeasurably blessed to have her in our lives. Ellie lights up our home. When Willem and Ellie have been apart, she is the first person he runs to say hello.

Ellie is very loving and loves to cuddle. She curls up into me with her arms straight against my body and her head into my chest, as though she's trying to be as connected as possible. I often wonder if this is how she rested before she was born as she wasn't a big mover before she was born. But she certainly has made up for that ever since. It is hard to get a picture of Ellie and has been since she was a few months old because she is a mover. Most pictures have Ellie as a blur.

Ellie loves to play with any toys her brother enjoys and likes to be involved in all that we do. We are amazed by how good her fine motor skills are. She'll play very delicately with the trains, driving them around the floor.

Ellie also has a thing for chairs. In Alaska she favored her highchair without the tray and a camping chair we had out front. She was so proud after she got herself properly situated in her chairs.

Ellie is determined and very strong. Rarely does she get hurt. This particular day she insisted on crawling a long way down this path and would not let us carry her. This was at her early stage of walking and crawling was the faster mode of transportation. We were worried about her hands but she crawled like a champ for what felt like a quarter of a mile.

Ellie is determined and does not frustrate easily. Already she is very independent. She tries to put on shoes, feed herself and really needs very little entertainment from us.

Ellie's smile melts our whole family. Her spirit has been incredibly happy from day 1. She smiles more than anyone I know and has such a joy for life so far.

Berry Picking with the kids

The weather really grew nice the last week we were in Alaska, so one day we decided to take the kids berry picking at the base of Flat Top Mountain. After a short hike, we were in a large field of berries. The kids had fun, semi-picking berries, mostly running around. But fun was had by all. Heidi and Marley were the most dedicated berry pickers. My picking skills could not keep pace with Ellie's consumption rate so we didn't contribute much to the take.

Wild Date

In Alaska, we didn't need to say, let's spice up our date nights. Mother nature was sure to keep them exciting for us. On this particular day we ventured out to go berry picking at Arctic Valley. We'd heard blueberries were ripe for the picking and the drive there was beautiful. When we were about 5 miles away from our destination, we saw a car stopped on the road up ahead. As we got closer, this is what we saw:

We were in a safe SUV, so we decided to venture closer for better pictures. Luckily Jason let me keep the windows rolled up as I snapped away at the black bear. I can see how tourists can get into trouble because the bear really just looked like a big dog. Very deceiving!!

We were happy to see that the place where we were picking the berries had low vegetation so we would be able to see any bears coming our way.

We are pretty sure these are actually crow berries. They were a bit tart but would be great in a pie.

The bushes were very low lying. After an hour of picking berries we had enough for Ellie to eat for breakfast. No pie from this venture! We now know why blueberries are the price they are at the store:)

A Day with the McCorisons

We met the McCorison family through Jared as Brian McCorison worked with him on a few surgeries. They introduced us to a storytime that took place inside a botanical garden. Not only was it the warmest place we had been in Alaska but the man who ran the storytime was wonderful. The kids had a blast, though they were disappointed they couldn't pick the flowers.

That night they invited us over for dinner and roasting marshamallows. We had been hoping to roast marshmallows at some point but this exceeded our wildest imaginations. Getting to share this experience with another family and be welcomed into their home was wonderful. The kids all got along great and quite a few marshmallows were enjoyed.

Ellie was leading the way in marshmallow consumption. She was a fan! Everytime she ran out she'd say "eh, eh" and lean toward the bag of marshmallows.

The McCorison's live right near a crick and took us down there to see the berries ripe for picking and the area that turns into a great skating rink in the winter. They have a black bear that enjoys their land as well, but luckily we didn't run into him that evening.