Superbowl: Football, food, fellowship

I'm really late with this post, but still wanted to share the pix. After church last sunday, we gathered at Mark Walkers house for some Superbowl fun. We had a blast! All three Walker brothers and families were there, plus Sniders and us and two other couples that I don't know well,,,a total of (I think) 32 people! The food was AMAZING and enough for twice as many people! For those that just didn't get the fascination with football :-) there was a game group in the dining room. We played Apples to Apples and Trivial Pursuit. Playing Trivial Pursuit with Alisa and Pam is pretty much pointless for everyone else, but we still had fun. Deb has two litters of Dachshund puppies that were about 4 weeks old at that point and they were quite popular as well!

Michael Walker, Pam Walker, Kaitlin Miller and Brian Walker invade the food line!

Steve, Pam and Kaitlin
Steve and Mark Walker itching for the game to start

Dr. Enlow and Pat WalkerOur best buds, Jerry and Danyielle Snider

Alyssa and her best friend, Mikayla Walker (Mark and Deb's youngest daughter)

Pam Walker,, this is Jonathan's girlfriend (Steve's brother) Yes, she is just as sweet as she looks and then some! :-D

Stevo making a VERY serious food decision

Part of the football fans..

...and part of the games crowd

Me and the biggest puppy,, he is a whopper! lol

Stephen and Sage loving a puppyAwwww!!Nothin' better than puppy kisses! :-)

When North Pole freezes over...

Well after all my laughing at and making fun of others on myholiness.com, here I am sitting at home with all my kids, because its TOO COLD to go out anywhere today!! Schools were still in session, believe it or not, but to me,, to go ANYwhere when its 46 below, ice fog and drizzle, is INSANE. I would also love to know,, how do you get DRIZZLE when its 78 degrees below freezing??? It should be illegal to live here. ,,and for all of you who are running to comment right now,, no, I did NOT choose to live here, so I dont' want to hear it! :-D Home is where the Army sends us, I had nothing to do with it! I was quite happy in sunny California where its probably about 65 or 70 right now.

Flashback Friday: Halibut fishing in Prince William Sound

We have so many great memories and pictures from this past year, so I have decided to dedicate each Friday to going back and highlighting a special time from 2007. We'll start out with Steve's 1st halibut fishing trip. For the uninitiated, halibut is mild, firm-fleshed, DELICIOUS saltwater fish. It is a really weird looking fish, which lies flat on the ocean floor with both eyes on one side of its head. They range in size from "chickens" weighing up to 3o or 40 lbs and giants that can be 300 and 400 lbs. On this trip, the guys didn't catch in big ones,, but they did get enough to freeze and enjoy throughout the winter.

On the way down, they stopped at a freshwater lake and threw a few lines in. It was still May so there was a little snow and ice left laying around in some areas.

Dave Tate, Jerry Snider and Steve on the charter boat:

A very small halibut, but still great eating!!Steve's trophy lingcod, which had to be thrown back because it was out of season! This was really disappointing as it was a BIG lingcod and just as good to eat as halibut.

On the way home, the boys stopped for a little snow fun. Steve gets ready for the big run:

...and an undignified finish... ;-)

Mommaw

For everyone who has asked about my mom,, she's doing great and seems to be very happy and content to be here with us. She loves the summers here as much as she hates the winters! She's been with us for (I think) 6 years now, and we are very blessed and priviliged to have her. She is a joy!

Here's a couple of recent pix:

Snow fun and a big booboo

We've had warmer than normal temperatures the past week,, even up in the 20s! Thats quite balmy for North Pole in January, so the kids took advantage of it with some fun in the snow. Matthew and Dad shoveled a track on the back deck for our little Nascar driver, and he made his rounds, most of the time picking his car up and carrying it, since the track was a wee bit too narrow. :-) Another day we went sledding over on the Chena Lakes Flood dike, a popular sledding and snowmachining spot. Steve, Matthew and Stephen had a blast with Danielle and her three girls,, but Lys,, not so much! For her first (and only) run she decided the regular slope wasn't quite steep enough and went off the side of the dike. It's almost straight up and down and she found some nice sharp rocks at the bottom to cushion her fall! We are very fortunate that she wasn't hurt alot worse, but regardless, I don't think she considered the stitches in her knee anything to be thankful for. :-) She has an almost 2 inch cut on her left knee, which went thru all the skin and tissues, all the way down to the muscle! After our adventure last month with her broken foot (she dropped a tv on it) we are really learning our way around the new hospital on Fort Wainwright! The medics there are great and really kind and patient with the kids. This is pretty amazing considering many of them just returned from months in Iraq, dealing with much more than we can even imagine. Here are a few pix from the back deck, sledding and the ER.

Danyielle and Sage

Steve and Stephen
Matthew and Haley
Alyssa's knee,, gross, huh? :-)
Five big ones,,,count 'em
Lys's favorite medic...he kept us in stitches!! hahaha,,,sorry :-)
Lys's ER trip from last month,, broken bone in her foot..

Here's more pix from Stephen's birthday

Thanks Nanna!!

Thanks Mommaw!





Dad does need practice... ;-)

Wonder what he's thinking...

There's more fish in the sea, guys...

The caboose baby's 4th birthday!

Our little guy turned 4 last Sunday. We had a little party at home for him, complete with ice cream cake and balloons. He loved being the star of the show! Being our baby, its very hard not to let the gift thing get out of hand, so I think he is slightly spoiled, but within reason! :-) Having Christmas and then a birthday just a few days later rather goes to one's head, I think. I'm not sure how he is going to handle returning to normal life,, but with all the toys I think he'll manage. He LOVES the golf set, and putts like a pro. The swing is a little wild at times,, especially for in the house. The cats have learned to clear the room when he heads for his clubs!

He loves all the playmobil too. Ok, fine,,,, Steve and I love the playmobil,, the kids are just a convenient excuse to buy more! I will say though, its beginning to affect my emotional health: I have "issues" with not losing parts to toy sets,, and when you consider some of this stuff is the size of a fingernail,, well,, I'm going to have to relax at some point here and realize that if the 2 inch doll is missing its flipflops, the world WILL in fact continue to turn on its axis, and its even possible that our household will still function normally.

(If they aren't found by tomorrow though, nobody eats. I'll fix supper as soon as I see little blue flipflops!!!)