2008 has been another year full of blessings. I decided to try to give a short photo recap of our year. I tried my very best to keep it simple. Hope you enjoy it.

January--We traveled to Oregon for my sister's wedding. Sharon and Eric T were married on January 5th. Carly was a flower girl and I was the matron of honor. Carly is giving her aunt a goodbye eskimo kiss before they drove off.February--I turned 30 this year. In this picture Shawn and I were out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. It was also the first time we'd left the kids with a baby-sitter since Isaac had been born. Thanks to Sarah H!
March--Shawn had a three week training class in Anchorage, so Carly, Isaac and I went up for a week to visit him and give ourselves a break from not having our daddy around. Shawn didn't have much time off, but we spent a lot of time with his sister and BIL, Victoria and Jesse. On one of his free afternoons we all went to the zoo. I think I like going to the zoo more than the kids do.
April-- Carly turned 3. We had a Curious George party for her. Notice the snow in our backyard in mid April.
Juneau also became victims of an avalanche that took out the town's main supply of electricity. Our reasonably priced hydro power was quickly replaced by diesel generators. With a 500% increase to our power bill looming, our family quickly cut our certain luxuries like clothes dryers. Fortunately, the problem was solved a few weeks later.
May--Isaac's first time going to Bible class by himself.Mother's DayJune--Lots of opportunities to play in the backyard.
We said goodbye to our AIM team, Natalie and Erin (front row, right and back row second from right) We really enjoyed having these girls here. They made a big impact on the lives of many people here.
July--We made a trip down to Oregon and Shawn's brother's family made a trip up from Oklahoma. That meant the cousins all got to be together! We did a lot together. This picture is from the Portland Zoo. Plus with most of my family in Portland, we did a lot of visiting.
August--Waited all summer to see our first bear. This one was out at the glacier. We did see one other a few weeks later. Last summer Carly and I saw 8!
Lee came up for a visit and was hooked on Alaska. I think hooking a 300 lb halibut may have had something to do with it.VBS kept me very busy, but I actually enjoyed coordinating the week.
Family hike
September--Shawn was gone for a little over a week on a big moose hunt. Daddy and Carly, just after he returned, posing with the antlers from Mark's moose.
October--Isaac turned 1. Our little baby is growing so fast.
Carly started swimming lessons and loved it.
We had a BUNCH of trees cut down in our yard.
Halloween...following the yellow brick road to the church harvest party.
November--Lee was sworn in as a police officer in Juneau. He moved up here a few weeks before that.
Thanksgiving...my parents joined us in Juneau.
December--lots of Christmas fun. Who doesn't love matching Christmas jammies?
Hope you all had a blessed 2008. And we hope you enjoyed our year in pictures recap.
Best wishes for 2009.

Our adventure yesterday has become a new entry into my list of top 10 reasons to live in Juneau, Alaska. We drove out to the glacier and hiked across the frozen lake all the way to the face of the glacier. We brought the sleds to pull the kids in and they loved it. Now before you "lower 48-ers" start freaking out that we pulled our babies across a thin sheet of ice that was breaking up and exposing the frigid lake below with every step, let me remind you that we do live in Alaska. Since we haven't had a temperature above 30 in about a month now--usually in the teens or 20's--and we had about 8 inches of snow just after Christmas, the conditions for a hike across the lake were perfect. It's hard to tell from our pictures but there were actually a lot of people out there doing the exact same thing we were. And even though we've lived here for three years now, this is the first year we've made it all the way. We did try two years ago when Carly was a little older than Isaac, but it was very windy that day and the wind was flying down the face of the glacier right onto our faces. Carly did not appreciate it, so after a few hundred yards of screaming, we turned back. It was probably a negative temperature with the windchill that day. The temperature was much better yesterday--somewhere around 18.
We estimated that the hike was about a mile across the lake to the glacier and then of course a mile back. It was great to get out and get some exercise. Especially since we've been a little cooped up lately preparing for Christmas.
We recently got a new sled for Isaac. It has a little seat molded into it complete with a strap and buckle. With Carly and her red sled we found out that the seatbelt feature is very nice. One little bump of snow and a top heavy toddler goes right into the snow face first. Plus with Isaac being so active, we knew he'd try to jump out of the sled unless "restrained". So this new little blue sled is perfect for him. I hope we get lots of use out of it this winter. It'll be great for all kinds of winter walks.


On the walk back, Isaac feel asleep. Actually, he was sitting up in his little blue sled and feel asleep in a sitting position. We eventually switched him and Carly so he could lay on his back on Carly's sled. Carly then sat up in his sled. We also put the purple buff/neck warmer I was using on him after we got going. Being a boy, he doesn't usually wear purple, so I thought I'd explain. It was a bit cold and we were afraid he was too cold. So it was a matter of survival. He didn't seem to mind.

Carly and Isaac were both blessed with new flannel pajamas from their Grandma Hinds for Christmas. They look great and the kids are very warm. Grandma Phelps also made the kids new hooded bath towels. Carly's is pink and Isaac's is blue. It will be great to have more towels for bath time. (By the way, Shawn's mom's pattern was the inspiration for the hooded bath towels that I make.)
Anway, on Christmas night I tried to get pictures of the kids in their jammies, together, smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. Not an easy feat. Maybe I needed photoshop for Christmas. Here's a look at some of the best shots that I got.



Yes, Grandma also made pajamas for Carly's doll. Carly actually requested this when my parents were here for Thanksgiving. She tried to convince me to buy some flannel for her at JoAnn's because she said "It's a good price." She was right, but I didn't need another project. But of course Grandma jumped at the chance to do something fun for Carly. Carly wanted Grandma to finish the doll jammies while they were here, but Grandma wasn't that crazy. She convinced her to wait until she could make them at home with her own machine. Carly finally agreed even though she tried to offer my machine for Grandma to use. What a silly girl.At least they are together and you can see the jammies pretty well in this one.

We had a good but quick Christmas morning. We had to fit in our present opening around Shawn's work/sleep schedule. So we had about two hours after he got home from work until he couldn't take it anymore and had to get some sleep. But even though our morning was quick, we had a good time. While Shawn was sleeping Carly was hardly off in her room or the family room trying out all her new things. Isaac was pretty much at my feet all day (until naptime) or trying to destroy things. And in case you're wondering, Isaac lost interest pretty quickly during our gift opening. I think his 2nd or 3rd gift was a book, and after that he just walked over to our church bag and sat down to read all the books in it. He did come back into the action and try to destroy things after he got tired of the books--5 or 6 minutes later.