First day of school

As we got to Alaska, we had so much to do before school started. When we arrived here school started in five days. We had so much to do. The night before school started we had to take my Mom back to the airport and we did not get home until late. We had been unpacking our things for the last four days trying to make the house livable. As many of you know Shandeigh has diabetes and also celiacs so I cannot really just take her to school and drop her off. I was tired and told the kids that we were not going to go to school on the first day. They were so disappointed. When we woke up in the morning they were begging and begging so I said get ready and we will go see what we can figure out. When we got to the school we had a big discussion with the nurse and the teacher. Shandeigh is now in 5th grade and pretty much taking care of her very own diabetes this year. I am very proud of her. She still needs some guidance sometimes, but does very well for the most part. She is growing up so fast. Shandeigh also is starting band this year and she is going to start playing the trombone. She brought it home on the first day and could blow that thing. I was surprised at how good she good do it. She says that she is the only trombone player in her band. I told her that she needed to practice alot so she could be the best. She is pretty excited about it. I on the other hand am not so sure about this loud thing playing in my house..lol Just kidding. It will be a good experience for her. Her teachers name is Mr. Johnson and he seems to be a good teacher so far. We will see as the year goes on how it goes.

Jonathan started 1st grade and goes to school all day now. He is doing well so far and is really liking it. He gets to ride the school bus this year and thinks that is pretty awesome stuff. He really acts older then a first grader to me. He is pretty mature for his age and is turning into a little man. He gets a cold lunch every day and he told me the other day that I needed to pack him more then three things because he is always still hungry. GEEZ! It makes me wonder where all that food goes that he eats because he is nothing but skin and bones. His teachers name is Mrs. Mock and she also seems to be a pretty good teacher. She is all about homework though and Jonathan is not very happy about that..lol He just wants to play all the time and hates to do his homework. He will get use to it eventually.

The school in Fort Greely has alot of Russians in it. That is what happens when you only live 75 miles from Russia. I think it is very interesting because Eric served his mission in Russia. I guess they have alot of parents who dont speak much English and need interpreters. It just might give Eric a chance to freshen up on his russian..lol
These pictures are actually the second day of school. We were in such a hurry that we did not get any pictures on the first day. This is a little shelter that they go in to wait for the bus. It gets really cold in the winter so its nice to have this for them while they are waiting for the bus.

The adventure to ALASKA!

The first day we drove to Seattle, Washington and spent the day there with my brother and his new wife and also met up with one of our good friends. We went down to pikes market and saw all the cool stuff people make. There is alot of talent at that market. We even scored on a gluten free bakery for Shandeigh. She was super excited about that. I totally forgot my camera that day also. ugh! They also had the fish market where all these fish are on ice that you can buy, as we were standing there they had this fish that came out and scared you if you were standing by it. We were right there and Quinn literally tried jumping out of his stroller. We had to leave because he was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was quite entertaining. We had lots of fun in Seattle and the next day was the journey to the longest drive ever. We drove to the border of Canada and they would not let my hubby take his pistol into Canada, so he had to go find a place in Washington that would take guns for you until you could figure out a way to get it to you. The funny thing is that he had a rifle also and they did not even care about that. Yeah was not very happy. It took us like half the day to get that mess worked out. It all worked out though and the gun is still in Washington. Our good friend picked it up for us and now we just have to figure out how to get it to Alaska. The whole trip was pretty much mountains and lakes the whole way. There would be a small little town about every 300-400 miles. It took us about a week to get there. I only got like four big huge rock chips and a crack at the bottom of my windshield. Lets just say that Canada roads do not have many road signs saying when there is gravel on the road and there was alot of it. Thank goodness for insurance so that my windshield can be replaced. We figured out that it cost us over 4.00 a gallon for gas also in Canada. My mom and I had fun trying to figure out all the conversions on money and miles and speed limits. We found a cool little conversion thing on her cell phone, so that came in handy. All I can say is I am proud to be an American and I hope we will always continue to be a free country.

One of the many beautiful lakes.

This was just a whole bunch of signs that they nailed to posts. It was kind of cool.

Check out the mountains. Yes it was like this all through Canada

Yep its another lake.

Look we finally made it to Alaska. My kids were dang excited!

It is late and I can't figure out how to space the last three pictures so I will just tell you what they are. The first is the front of our house that we are living in. The second is the side of our house. The third is our backyard. It like living in a forest here.
Shandeigh said that she saw a moose the other day at the school here on base on her way to school off base. She said that the moose looked like it was going to school. She got a kick out of it. I have not got to see a moose on the base yet, but am looking forward to seeing one. Everyone talks about how you see moose all the time. Well its late and I have more pictures from when we went to North Pole and saw Santa and his reindeer. I will do another post about that some other time. Enjoy the short video I also put on here of the pretty lake.