Happy 2020!

Randy and I enjoyed an early celebration for the new year with bed early - ha!  We had a good Christmas season with numerous celebrations ending with the Kinast exchange and 29 being in attendance.  Randy is back to traveling and preparing for his new class sessions by writing materials.  I am volunteering at Vermillion, Central Christian and then once a month at Emily's classroom.  It is always a joy to be with the grandchildren!  We also visited Mary, Kurtis, and Aurora in January.  We got lots of playtime with Aurora!  The end of January I started my sign language class again.  Last week, we were doing health signs.  It is very interesting but my there are a lot of signs to remember!
I have also been making birthday cakes.  They are always fun to make. We also enjoyed my Christmas cactuses which bloomed in November and are going to bloom again this month.  Here are some activities in pictures.

Dec. 24, 2019 - A few extra pieces appeared in Charles and Nate's nativity.  

Dec. 25, 2019 Christmas Dinner

Sibling Christmas Dec. 28, 2019

Train fun with Grandpa!

Ava, Kinley, and Emily enjoying the dollhouse.

Dec. 29, 2019 Kinast Family exchange.  

We went to the New York Children's Museum of Art - January 25, 2020.  They had neat rocking chairs. 

Grandpa used his train skills and built a big track for Aurora.

Kinetic Sand Fun

Christmas Cactus

Olivia's ice skating cake.

Kinley's ice cream cone cake

Emily's snowflake cake for Frozen II.  

The Last Frontier (other than space) Alaska

Hello Family!

2019 will be known for me as the year I moved to Alaska. I finished up my Americorps service in January and by the end of February I was a resident of the capital of the largest state Juneau, Alaska. I began here as a Fish Tech working in the DIPAC Salmon Hatchery! Two months of moving baby fish around and releasing them into the wild ocean! I moved over 130 million (130,000,000 its more impressive with all the zeroes!) Coho, King, and Chum salmon!

In April I began my new position at the hatchery as a Lead Guide for the DIPAC visitor center. Going into this job I was not a public speaker, a teacher, or a connoisseur of Southeast Alaska ocean life. But after a summer of speaking to tens of thousands of folks from all over the world I can officially say I am all of those things. If anyone has salmon or salmon hatchery questions I am the one to call.


I’ve been working at the Eaglecrest Ski resort for a little while now after the tourism season ended, but it just so happens that on the day I wrote this I’ve been offered a full time position at DIPAC as the supervisor of the Visitor Center. So back into the fray I go!




Outside work I’ve made new friends, and gone on many adventures with my girlfriend Jessica. You may remember my Sea Semester program in 2017 when I sailed from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to St Georges, Grenada. I met her aboard that ship and somehow we ended up together here in Alaska. You could say I moved up here for her. It was a great choice! We’ve climbed mountains, hiked amazing trails, and swam in frozen lakes (a strange Alaska holiday tradition).





And to end my post I will also mention that I have made another friend up here named Nellie. She is a Giant Pacific Octopus who lives at DIPAC and loves wrapping her tentacles around

my hands and arms and playing tug of war with fish heads. They are amazingly intelligent creatures and now with my permanent position I’ll be able to see her every day. Hopefully my pictures will do this place some justice. Until next we meet, I love you all my Kansas family!

October - December 2019

It feels like we just posted, but we had a few more things happen since October! 

Ava was a Mom for Wannabe Day at school. 

For Halloween, the kids were Woody, Little Bo Peep, and her 3 sheep - Billy, Goat & Gruff from Toy Story 4. It reminded me of Halloween 2013!

Sadly, we said goodbye to Bella. She had lymphoma and was not doing well. We had a great 11 years with her! 

Now, when half day Kindergarten wears Ava out, she has some napping buddies. Even if she doesn't sleep, she still cuddles them every afternoon - and they stay willingly!  

 We all had fun at the Parade of Stars!

I joined MOPS this year! I love it! We made these for Mom's Night Out. Drilling, sanding, staining, painting, staple gun, the whole bit! 

Dave and I left the kids to go to Charles and Nate's wedding in Florida. I hadn't flown since we went to Italy in 2009, but we made it! Dave and I also went a day early so we could explore on our own. We went to Busch Gardens and rode every roller coaster, some several times, it was 70*, we had no kids, and we were out of there in 2 hours and went to have sushi! 

Ollie just reminds me of a cuddly snowman in this picture. We have lots of leaves at our new house, and a yard that's big enough to collect lots of snow! 

The 5 of us went with Sarah, Olivia and Kinley to go see Frozen 2! 

Sundae is doing great and brings us so much joy! She's getting quite the underbite! :) 

We brought out Rock Band recently. The kids love it! And Ava is really accurate on the drums! 

Dave made a digital calendar for me! It's so handy! Then I added a little corkboard beside it to complete the command center. 

Adelynn had her Winter Showcase for dance on Sunday. She's so graceful.

Ava and Kinley danced both on and off the dance floor at Charles and Nate's reception. 

Christmas decor with Ollie... he found this ornament, stuck it on his crane and told me it was a wrecking ball! :) 

Pam and Randy gave us their artificial tree this year, so the kids got an upgrade to their tree! Pam also made a tree skirt for them. The kids think it's pretty special to have this setup from Grandma & Grandpa!

Merry Christmas!