Happy Birthday Sis!

Here was a conversation on Kalin's birthday:
Mom, "Hi Sis, Happy Birthday! How old are you today?"
Sis, "Good."
Mom, "No Sis, HOW OLD ARE YOU?""
Sis, "GOOD."
Ahhh, we practiced all day and the best we got was, "ONE." She's cute, but quite stubborn!

My baby is two, how did this happen? How time flies... we celebrated the birthday girls big day with an Elmo theme. Elmo cake and decorations. Kalin loves Elmo, but I think I love to hear her say "Elmo" more. It is the cutest, especially with that tongue hanging out! We kept it low key. Her favorite dinner "sgetti", lots of balloons, and Elmo. Of course aunties, uncles, and cousins had to come over too. What a fun day. I think she got that everyone was there for her by the time we were singing happy birthday :).

New England Aquarium

What an adventure the aquarium was! Both girls got such a kick out of the penguins, sharks, jelly fish, and the funny looking fish. Kiley's favorite part of the day was the "giant turtle." I loved it too. We finally got to see our friend Brendan, who couldn't meet us at the children's museum due to his flooding basement.

The two days couldn't have been more different! We went to the "big city" on Monday in torrential rain, and on Wednesday it was gorgeous and in the mid-60's. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Brendan did a great job showing us the sites, the knowledge he has about his city is amazing! Boston and MA in general is just about over whelming. We definitely need to go back and spend some more time since we just scratched the surface.

We went to the aquarium on St. Patrick's day and couldn't get over the intoxicated people at 3:00 in the afternoon! It was crazy, but fun.

Boston's Children's Museum

We decided to go to the Children's museum on a very rainy day. A very cold, wet, wet day. Our poor friend Brendan was going to meet us with his son but his house was flooding. Literally the basement was flooded and he had to stay up until 4:30 am pumping the water out. So when I say it was raining, I really mean it was raining. Like the most rain MA had seen in 50 years, 3 months combined of rain in three days.

One good decision was made and that was to take the Alewife train into Boston and then walk to the museum. I was happy we didn't have to hear people honking or yelling at us because we didn't know where to go.

So it was raining sideways, windy and cccold on our jaunt to the museum. But we toughed it out, we are Alaskans after all, and come to find out it was well worth our trouble.

This is what we saw when we first walked in, Kiley could have spent all day in it.

The water table was a huge hit

Look at her climb! She had to go back to the rock wall a few times.

Hello there Monkey George. One monkey to another.....

On the way out we decided to buy two umbrellas so we wouldn't get quite so soaked. It was a good idea. But the storm we were facing thought it was pretty funny. As soon as we opened those suckers up they literally collapsed, useless. It was all worth it. The girls must have played for about 4 hours pretty much non stop.

Next stop; Boston Aquarium

Bahston Baby- The Beginning

We made it to the east coast and back again! Phew, lots of hours traveling (round trip about 18 air hours!) but it was so worth it. We decided in October that we would make the trip to Boston to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday. A great opportunity to see her and for her to finally meet Kiley and Kalin. I am so glad we went, it was an amazing trip.

The Clouses did as much as humanly possible with an almost two year old and a five year old in Boston. They were amazing in the airplane and in the car. I was really worried that Kalin would not do so well traveling in the car, and afraid of her screams in the airplane, but she did amazingly well. Kiley is now a seasoned traveller as a five year old- the DS comes out or the DVD player and she is as good as gold.

I am going to break this up a bit and do a few different posts to share all the pictures we took.
First stop, Boston's Children's Museum in the Torrential Rain. More about that later.....

Slushies in all kinds of weather

We suck down slushies, summer, fall, winter or spring. If you aren't sure what a slushie is, I'll tell you. Basically they are crushed up ice with super sweet flavorings poured on top. Kids love them, my kids love them.

In these particular sets of pictures, taken by my dear friend Robyn, it was about -20 outside. Cold, very, very cold. They are used to the cold, it doesn't seem to bother them that much. But my girls wanted slushies.

We love them, "we" meaning Kiley and Kalin.

Especially Kalin. I think her tongue grew an extra five inches just to suck up the last remaining drops of this blue "slush."

Precious, isn't she?

Kiley Racing at Beaver Round-Up

Here she is sporting her new helmet and racing during Beaver Round Up. She did pretty well and we are so proud of her!

Just a glimpse at Sis....

Well it has been crazy around here and I need to sit down and do a few posts. We just finished up a week of Beaver Round-Up, the local spring festival here in Dillingham. Kiley raced her snow-machine in the kid drag races, Jon caught it on video. I was in Anchorage for the Alaska Library Conference where the Iditarod took place. It was my first time seeing the ceremonial start, quite the experience. So it has been busy around the Clouse House.

Jon put together this compilation of Sis video clips. She is quite the character this one! You can see her jumping off the couch, torturing the cat, and wearing her big sister's helmet.

The New 120....

Breathe GB, BREATHE!

She does not have a helmet on, we realize that. We will be fixing that shortly.

But the excitement was too great to be contained.

Kiley finally got her "very own snow-go", and it is just about the coolest thing ever. I think she would sleep with it if she could. Every second of the day is consumed with "riding."

Unfortunately, Aunt Stephanie, it is not the 4-legged grass loving variety but the gas powered snow loving type. A Polaris 120, to be exact.

Here she is, most likely making her debut at the 2010 Dillingham Beaver Round Up Snow-machine races!