Learning to Love Alaska

I can not believe that June is almost over!! Holy cow!! Last year at this time I was in Utah visiting my mom and family! I can't believe it has really been a year since I saw my mom!! Man I miss that woman! I would love to fly my mommies up to visit me! The next few months are going to be too busy though with all of our preparation for the Fair and work and just life! Maybe after the Fair...Here's hoping!

This past week was a little harder than I anticipated with my Dad's birthday and Father's day, it made me miss him so much and I so just wanted to hug him! I was thinking about the last time I talked to him and it was on my birthday five years ago. He usually had one of the moms call and talk to us and they relayed his message for him but that year I was weeks away from delivering Lillie and laboring a lot so we had decided to skip his birthday bbq the week before and not travel to Salt Lake. Well HE called me the morning of my birthday to tell me and I quote, "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down!" He thought that was so funny, what with my current wobbling condition and all. He told me he loved me and wished me a Happy birthday and for the rest of my life it will be my favorite birthday call! A week later he passed away and for me these two weeks between the Father's day and the 4th of July are always bittersweet. Add to that the fact that Phil had to work grave shift and you have a pretty mellow holiday. It seemed to be in the air because so many of my siblings were missing him too.

Onto Summer, my garden is growing and with a little help from above I will have fresh veggies in a few weeks! There are even blossoms on my tomato plants already!! Yay!! I can't wait for garden fresh tomatoes! They are my favorite thing!!

I took some shots of the kids this week while we were in the kitchen together and I even put up all of my framed photos around the house!! About time since we have been here since February! In the process of finding them all I found that some of my boxes of pictures were getting damp in the tent so the girls and I brought them in and spent several afternoons last week walking down memory lane!! What a fun time that was, I can't believe how big my kids are getting and how young Phil and I were when we started this journey! Seems like a lifetime ago and yesterday all at the same time, I found myself laughing out loud at so many of the pictures and missing old friends and family. I love pictures, I love black and white pictures even more! They create a feeling of nostalgia all their own!! Here are a few recent pictures of my (not so) little ones!!