Learning new skills...

Both our kids are in the process of learning new skills this spring.  Just last week we got out Samantha's bike, which she is almost too big for, and she has decided to learn.  Last summer we worked on her riding for a while, but she wasn't quite ready.  She didn't make the commitment in her mind to figure it out, so we waited until the snow melted just enough last Saturday.  She is really coming along!  Day before yesterday she rode (with me jogging behind her, of course) up to the post office (about 1/4 mile) and back again.  She sure felt good being able to go longer and longer distances and figuring out how to stop with a foot down.  I'm looking forward to riding along side soon, rather than running.  I got a bit tired...  (Kudos to Connor for taking such nice pictures for me... :)

The other fun activity we've discovered this year is four-wheeling.  Connor is now driving one (sometimes with a passenger, sometimes without)!  He's getting a lot more comfortable after about 5 short trips around different parts of town.  It's great to see him have a little apprehension when going through a tricky spot and then have a huge smile after successfully menuvering the terrain.  Here are a few shots I have taken this week...

This one is just down the street from our house by the Jack River.  Rob had Connor practice going up the hill without pushing on the trottle too hard and just letting the machine "tractor" up the hill.  He did really well!





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This one I took today of Reindeer Hill over the Jack River.  It was a beautiful afternoon.



Snowmachining, Sledding and the Missing Dog

Last Sunday afternoon we had a fun adventure with a sad, and then happy, ending...

We were invited out on our snowmachine to go to a great sledding hill aptly named "Hospital Hill" because of its storied history. As Will Chesley put it, "It's a really fast hill." So we packed hotdogs to roast for lunch, piled the kids on top of some sleeping bags in our "Otter" sled, hooked it up to the snowmachine, and Cinder our dog followed us out of the driveway. We got stuck a few times on the way out, which is not abnormal, were careful near a moose (captured below) that was hanging around the trail, but Cinder wouldn't stay in the sled with the kids and couldn't keep up with us while sinking into pretty "punchy" snow on the trail. We decided she'd either find us at our destination or turn around and make her way home.We all had a great time at the hill. The kids whooped and hollered as they enjoyed the rush of sledding. They walked up part of the hill and sled down from there most of the time, and learned how to drag their feet behind if they needed to slow down.After a warm fire and enjoyable lunch, we all rode up to near the half-way point on our machines, and Rob, the kids and myself sled down to the bottom. Will and Joanna Chesley helped by driving our machine back down the hill. :) The ride back was beautiful and warm. Here is a shot of the trail through the trees...At the end of the day we were all tuckered out. This is Samantha sprawled out in her and Connor's pretty plush ride on the inflatable sled and sleeping bags! So now I have to tell you The Rest of the Story:
Cinder was not at home waiting for us as we were hoping, and she did not return home that night either, or the next day. To be honest, we thought she had met her demise either by getting injured, or being attacked, or (you get the picture)... Tuesday morning I was very glad to recieve a phone call from a friend of ours asking if Cinder was missing. She saw a dog that resembled her on their property and had fed her that morning. (She was very hungry!) The punchline is that they live about 4 miles north of town, about 6 miles from where we had been and across the Jack River, which was still frozen over in parts. Needless to say, we rushed over and picked her up, thanking God for keeping her safe. We can only guess what kind of adventure she had.

Spring Fever

This week we got a bit of Spring Fever! With temperatures in the 20s, 30s, and even 40 degrees, our family decided it was time to break out the four-wheeler and take it for a spin around the yard a little. Connor practiced driving with Samantha behind him as well. He is a cautious one, but getting more comfortable on it every time.Then on Thursday, Jayne Hempstead invited me to go for a ride out the Denali Hwy with her and the dogs! It was very enjoyable and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day; nice temperatures, beautiful sunshine, no wind, and dogs that were excited to pull the sleds. We passed a few other teams heading the opposite direction just after we got started.

This is me standing on the sled behind the dogs. We stopped for a few minutes on Gas Lake to let the dogs cool down a bit.

We had to unhitch the dogs and put them back in their boxes on the trailer before driving the 2 miles back to town. What a fun experience!

February Family Projects

We have had some fun projects for our family over the last week and a half. The first was a new experiment for us: during our trip into town, we bought the materials needed to make candles. We melted wax, set the wicks in clear glass containers, dyed some of it, and poured it. The kids enjoyed the process and Samantha specifically requested this pink, 3-wick, heart candle. Then, Connor and I got out the recipe and ingredients he received from Grandma Albers for her "Foolproof Dark Chocolate Fudge". He made the batch of fudge with only a little oversight by me; Very Tasty!

Then, we made a fort/tunnel inside a huge snow pile. We started work on it one evening from 8-10 pm and the kids had a blast. Rob and I had fun, too, of course, but our shoulders hurt after a while! It is a work in progress as we continue to lengthen it, but it is already big enough for three of us to be inside. Connor and Samantha have been studying biology this year, and we just finished a unit on insects. One thing we learned about last week is the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis. We made each stage of a butterfly undergoing complete metamorphosis: egg, larvae (catepillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult (butterfly).

Cross-country Ski

I had a really fun afternoon today with a couple of ladies from church. I was invited to join them on a cross-country ski. Carol, Cynthia and I, along with Cinder and Cougar (the dogs), skiied for about 2 1/2 hours from Old Cantwell to Cantwell Creek, up Pass Creek, and looped around back to Old Cantwell. It was a beautiful day (10-20 degrees), no wind to speak of, and the sun was peaking through the clouds most of the time. The Alaska Railroad train passed us just as we headed out, and I was able to snap this picture of the passenger train. It runs north from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Saturdays and south from Fairbanks to Anchorage on Sundays during the winter months, and the tracks run right through Cantwell.

We saw some beautiful scenery as we made our way along Cantwell Creek.Cougar (Carol's dog) discovered a small beaver lodge. If you look closely, you can see the air/breathing hole to the right of the sticks where warm air has melted the snow.

Carol pointed out this otter trail to me, just beyond the beaver lodge.

We came to a steep hill and I went up the whole way without taking off my skiis! I was very proud of myself.

This was taken from the top of the hill, to give some perspective to how long and steep it really was!

Then we had quite a long slope down before completing our loop. I got going a lot faster than I anticipated and felt like I was downhill skiing like I had when I was in high school!

It was a huge workout, but a great time!

Winter Camping in Cantwell

About a week and a half ago the kids were interested in camping in a tent outside in our backyard, in the snow. The temperature had risen to about 20 degrees, so of course we thought that night would be the time to do it! We purchased some military issue sleeping bags last summer that are rated to negative 40 degrees that we wanted to try out, so preparations began... Rob and Connor worked on setting up the small tent in the garage, and then Rob and I moved it out to the yard. We found a flat, protected area on the walkway from the house to the shop, and then both kids prepared to bring their gear outside. They had great fun for a while and then called us (we loaned them my cell phone to have with them outside) at about 10:30 to let us know that they couldn't fall asleep. The wind was blowing, making noises on the side of the tent and Cinder, our dog who was out with them, was having trouble settling down. :)

So we decided to try it again the next night as a family in our bigger tent. Again, it was 20 degrees so we felt pretty confident that things would go well. The kids and I set up the tent outside that afternoon, and got all of our gear inside. That evening, we enjoyed a campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

Then we snuggled into our sleeping bags, I read a chapter in the Sugar Creek Gang book we were half-way through and then tried to fall asleep. Once again, Cinder wanted to stick her nose into our sleeping bags to find our faces. Rob couldn't fall asleep, so he went to work in his office at about 11:00. I ended up bringing Cinder in to the house at about 11:30 because she was being such a pain. The wind started to pick up and it made quite a racket on the tent. Then Samantha woke up at about midnight and told me she was cold and wanting to go inside. I sent her in and she promptly fell asleep in her cozy, warm bed. I stayed outside because Connor was still asleep in his bag. Rob came back outside, feeling bad that we were still "sticking it out". Then at about 3:00 am Connor woke up and said his face was cold and I was just waiting for an excuse to get back in the house. The air was getting quite chilly, and I learned in the morning that it was back down to -10 degrees!

The next morning we had strong winds, cold temperatures and blowing snow to contend with as we dismantled "camp" and put away our gear. It wasn't quite the adventure we were hoping for, but it was a learning and memorable experience!

A Wintery Week

This past week has been very wintery. One phenomenon that is characteristic of the winter in Cantwell is the hand-off between cold temperatures and wind. We've been "enjoying" -30 and colder temperatures rather regularly, but when it starts to rise, it's because the wind has started to blow. A -10 degree day isn't too bad to partake in some outdoor activity, but with the wind howling, it makes it much less inviting. Yesterday and today, however, we seem to be getting a dose of both: -30 degrees with a crazy amount of wind. Rob figured out that at -30 degrees and a 30 mph wind, it actually feels like -67 degrees with the windchill factor. That can give someone frostbite in a matter of minutes without the right gear! So, we've been having a quiet, (the kids would say "boring") few days.

I got online today a viewed some pictures of the amazing Aurora Borealis show in the sky on Tuesday. We had cloud-cover that night here, but there was a beautiful display in quite a few locations. Here is a link to the weather channel article and photos/video:
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/solar-radiation-storm-ignites-aurora_2012-01-25

Last week I took a few pictures of the mountains just south of our home. A the top of Mt. McKinley you can see quite a bit of snow kicking up in the wind (looks like a cloud).










Doubt you can read it, but Rob got real romantic on me a couple nights ago when we were dishing up some ice cream. He made the following inscription with a knife in the top: Rob + Erin

Instead of playing "catch-up"

So, I've been thinking about trying to update this blog since I haven't published a post on it since our dip-netting fishing trip in July. That is a very dauting task, and I've come up with what I believe to be a pretty decent solution.

Since we started homeschooling Connor and Samantha this fall, one of their weekly assignments has been to keep up a blog of their own. They each post a paragraph or so every week (approximately); usually with a few pictures. This is to teach them to verbalize and write about things that they are experiencing and how they feel about those things. We focus on their thoughts as well as language skills. Also, Connor gets some typing practice in as he types most of his entries. (Samantha is learning to type, but is not far enough along to know all the letters or be fast enough to type more than a sentence or two in 10 minutes. She dictates her thoughts to me, instead.)

All of this is to say that I've decided to link this to their blogs, because they have really touched on a lot of the highlights that our family has experienced from the end of August until now. I am hoping to add a new post once a week myself from now on, so that you all can continue to see what God is doing in our lives with some of the sights and memories that we are having.

Here are the URLs for the kiddos' blogs:
www.rcahomeschoolblog.blogspot.com (Connor's)
www.scahomeschoolblog.blogspot.com (Samantha's)