Emma Swam the length of the pool

Emma swam the whole length of the pool yesterday. Thats a whole 25 yards. It was so cute. She was so proud of herself and so were we. She's really been working on her swimming and is making alot of progress. Its really nice, since Nathan is a little fearless at the pool. Emma can tread water and make it to an edge if she needed to.

Nathan thought he was swimming with her and concentrated really hard on kicking the whole way across the pool just like Emma. His concentration was hilarious...I wish I had a camera then.

WAY TO GO EMMA!

Emma's Party

WARNING: You may be tired after just reading this post....

I had to start with this picture. We started the morning by decorating and blowing up a ton of balloons. Nate popped one about every 5 minutes and cried for about 2 minutes after every pop. I guess we haven't had a lot of balloons around him lately. His sad little face was so cute. I kept stapling balloons to the fence and Nate kept coming behind and pulling them off. He is the biggest little helper.

When everyone got here we decorated loot bags inside and made balloon animals. (Note to self..always buy 3 times as many balloons for the animals, because every kid will pop his multiple times). Then we headed outside for a lunch of hot dogs watermelon, chips and lemonade.

Finally is was time for the carnival to begin. Here the kids are at the duck pond.

I guess I missed the kissing booth. You had to guess how many Hershey kisses were in a jar and the winner got the jar. Then there was the fortune telling booth where you got a fortune cookie that told your future.

Here is Madison getting her face painted. I loved it when one of the little boys asked me to paint Spiderman on his face and a Spiderman hat on his head. I'm good, but it is just face paint...so no hats.

This is the booth that inspired the whole party. Emma wanted a fish pond at her party. Later she clarified that she had wanted one with paper fish with paper clips on them that you fish with a magnet, but once she saw the prizes for this she said this would work instead.

Here is Jason helping with the bean bag toss.

One of the biggest hits was the balloon shaving. The kids loved squishing the shaving cream all around before they shaved the balloons.

The birthday girl hard at play!

They best part about shaving cream is that it is a clean mess.

Which leads to the most important part of an outdoor Texas party. The sprinkler! We had a small one running the whole time so kids could run through it if they were hot and use it to get clean it.

After we shaved the balloons we turned the area into a dart area...the kids loved popping the balloons.

Yup, it was a lot of fun for all ages1

That wasn't the end...we closed up all the booths and opened up the last one...The Pie Toss! Here is Jake waiting for the first one.

I love his face in this one!

At least the whip cream tasted good. Emma later told me she thought I was going to make real pies for it and not just cool whip. Seriously? I'm not really Martha Stewart.

Kyla scoring a big hit!

The end result. The kids had a blast doing it. I think it was probably the highlight of the party. Especially when Jenny took a turn and all the kids were chanting for her to get him!

While Jake scraped off some of the layers of cool whip we had a water balloon tossing contest.

Then it was time for cake! The top was a red velvet and the bottom was a rainbow chip.

At this point most of the face paint had been washed off by the sprinklers...but I love Nate's expression in this one. He was so excited about the candles. We had cake with sherbet floats, plus cute colored straws that matched the rainbow sherbet.

Then it was time for the water balloon fight! We blew up about 300 balloons.

Even the little tiny guys loved the water balloons and Nate kept asking for more last night.

Then while we dried out Emma opened presents. Then we ended with goody bags with popcorn, circus animal crackers and clown noses.

It was a great day and Emma loved it. Thanks to everyone that helped out.

Playing in Alaska

Nate sitting on a blow up toy

Sorting our beach treasures or playing scientist as Emma calls it.

Chillin' on the trampoline.

Trampoline probably has some best views of any trampoline in the world.

If you can gauge how much fun you have by how dirty you get...well then Nate had more fun than anyone in the world.

4 Wheeling

One of our favorite things in Kodiak was 4-wheeling. Emma apparently has a need for speed and loved flying on them. Her dad was looking pretty scared the first time she went flying across the field.

Here we are out checking the cows on the ranch and looking the see if the bear had been near.

Jake riding around the ranch

Nathan figured out pretty quick that he liked going on "bikes" and loved wearing the helmet. He looked a little like a bobble head with it on.

Nate ready to ride Uncle Craig's quad.

Emma and Jake out in the field.

Emma on one of her first rides.

Nate riding in the ranger.

Touch tanks

Behold! The mighty Kodiak king crab! Nathan loved crabs after this trip. Probably as much as his sister loves eating them.

Emma holding a sea sponge

Nathan touching a baby crab - he loved them!

A bunch of the family.

Emma and Daddy at the touch tanks. Emma loved closing up the anemones.

The sea cucumbers grossed Emma out. It is like holding a handful of jello. She finally was talked into touching it.

Nate liked throwing the sea stars back in the water. Not shocking if you know Nathan.

A sun star and a star fish.

Nathan holding his starfish

And yes, one more crab for Nathan.

Kodiak

We finally made it. The day before we left Nathan had the stomach flu. 24 hours of him hurling all over the house and I was so excited to get on a plane with him. I had the great idea to fly up a week before Jake. It went fine, but I've decided that this is the last time I travel really far alone with the kids, because when three gets here I don't think I'll be able to do it.

Nate did really well. It was a little crazy going through security with two carry-ons for me, Emma had a backpack and DVD player and then a giant double stroller. In Denver we had to pick up all our checked bags and car seats and re-check them into Alaska Airlines (Southwest really needs to work on that). That was a little crazy and I'm sure we looked like a circus as Emma pushed a loaded luggage cart and a prego lady pushed a giant stroller loaded with luggage. Good thing we had a long lay over.

We got to Anchorage at 1 am and that is when the double stroller paid off. Both sleeping kids could sit in it as we walked through the airport to the hotel shuttle. Nate had been fine the whole flight, but as soon as we got checked into the hotel he started throwing up again. It was lovely when in the night he puked all over me. At least we were at a hotel (thanks mom and dad) and not at the airport as I had originally planned.

The last flight to Kodiak only had 19 seats on it. We had to walk out to the plane, so this was the first flight that Nate realized he was on a plane. Until then I don't think he had quite figured out that when we walked down the hallway and sat in the seats that we were on a plane. As we landed in Kodiak he kept saying, "I flew, I flew."

Emma was great the whole time. She's a seasoned little traveler, but she didn't like how southwest made you stand in line and then sit where ever you want. I think her mom agrees with her.

She was so excited to get to Alaska and see all her cousins.

This might be the story of Emma's life...waiting for her brother to catch up.

Nate was ready to fish. The kid is crazy about fishing. He loves to stand and cast. We just never were able to convince him that part of fishing was reeling in. I guess his sister can give him lessons. She seems to be quite the pro.