Our Budding Photographer

There is something about my camera that draws both the Clouse girls like a moth to a flame. We bought Kiley her own toddler camera a few years ago but for some reason it just doesn't float her boat like my camera does. Now Sis is in on it and likes to take pictures, of herself, the floor, dad, mom, Kiley....... the randomness is quite interesting. I think her portraits are really the best so far.

Check them out.

Self Portrait titled "Monster"

Portrait "Daddy Monster"

Portrait "Silly Mommy"

Portrait "Happy Ditder"

Gardner, Mass

Gardner, Mass... home of the massive chair.

Shawn, Shannon, Colleen, Lynn and Aunt Erna

We had an extra bonus going to MA in March, we got to meet my Mom's older sister's family. Technically I have met them before, when I was about Kiley's age. So really we were meeting again for the second time. I got to meet three of my first cousins, which was really cool. We all came to the conclusion that we just live too far away from one another.

Kalin, Mitchell, Meghan, Dakota, Kiley and Damica

We drove to Gardner, MA, which is about 40 minutes outside of Boston to visit for about a day and a half. Jon and I got such a kick out of hearing their accents- they were wicked awesome. We had a great time touring Gardner, visiting and just relaxing. Kiley and Kalin got to meet the second generation of east coast cousins and loved being the centers of attention.

Erna and Rich treated us like royalty which included fresh lobster for lunch.

We found this area in Gardner, right across from where my aunt lives.We thought it was pretty cool to find a "Kiley's Way" spelled the same way in Gardner!

Bottom line- we want to go back again!

Bubbles!

It was a hectic last week of April, and it snowed the first three days of May. But bubbles seemed to make all the stress and sickness melt away.

Dad came home early from his trip to Anchorage (thank goodness) since poor Kalin was sick with a nasty virus and a high fever. Kiley also had her bout of being sick, but some medicine, jammies and a good night sleep seemed to do the trick for her.

Anyway, Jon came home with bubbles. Bubble "juice", a gun, wands.... you name it. The sun was out so we hit the deck to try those suckers out. You can just look at Kiley's face and know she was having a blast. Just about every day now Kalin wants to go out on the deck and do "bubbles."

Grandma's 90th Birthday

The whole reason we went to Boston, Grandma's 90th birthday. My cousin Lisa held a small, intimate party at her house and we all helped to celebrate her big day. My mom and dad made it from Washington the night before her birthday so that made the day extra special. This was such a wonderful trip, our only wish is that we had the means and ability to do it every year!

Northern Exposure

We live in Alaska, you know that. People think we see wildlife every day; wolves, bear, fox, etc. We do happen on these animals every once in a while, but not as often as you would think. But this year alone we have seen moose in our yard three times. I might mention that this is the only time in three years we have seen these large hairy four legged animals in our neck of the woods.

Once in December we were all very excited, to the point we were running outside in -20 degrees to take pictures. Jeanette was disgusted and asked us if we had never seen moose before.

Second time my Mom was home alone with Kalin. The dogs were outside and happened to charge after Oscar and Kami a few times. Kalin talked about this for months, still does. "MOM, moose... num nums...." (Mom the moose were eating food!) Gram told her the moose were eating in the yard. Even tonight Jon was shouting, "Sis, MOOSE!" To which she freaked, turned and ran toward me.

Third time Matthew was home alone and couldn't figure out what the dogs were barking at. He called me at work and I told him to grab the camera and take some pictures. He got some great ones! I'm wondering if this same cow and calves keep frequenting our yard....

Loud!

We have Auntie Babe to thank for this. They practice "quiet" and "loud" at her house. Sis really likes to practice the "loud."

She's found her voice, and its loud!!

Just Dance People

Spring in Alaska

We think spring might be here. And we have the pictures to prove it.

Today, finally, was a gorgeous spring day. It was around 40 degrees, sunny and just plain nice. We geared up, went and stole our LeClair girl and off we went to the bike path.
The big girls got to ride their big girl bikes.

Sis did her own thing with her new trike.
I even got them to pose for a few pictures. Dang, they are cute aren't they?

Did I mention puddles? There are lots of puddles in Dillingham now. Sis loved every single one of them, she even fell face first into one.This one actually. But that was yesterday.

She's pretty happy in this picture. We learned that she needs to hold either Mommy or Daddy's hand, just to be on the safe side.

What a great day. I wish you were here with us, you just can't beat a gorgeous spring day in Dillingham.

Visiting Grandma

So the whole purpose of our Boston trip was to see my Grandma, who I hadn't seen in about 6 years, since she lived in Chicago. Kiley and Kalin had never met her, and since she was turning 90 I thought it was a perfect time for the Clouse girls to meet their Great-Grandma.

I think we wore grandma out a bit with the crazy energy from the five year old and almost 2 year old. It was worth it, we enjoyed every minute of her. I must have sounded like a broken record telling the girls to "use an inside voice" and "remember your manners" and "no running!" ack, I wasn't sure how the other elderly people at Grandma's retirement home would respond to all their energy!

Grandma said now that she knows Kiley and Kalin she just wants to spend more time with them and wished we lived closer. Oh, me too.

We were so lucky to have the opportunity to stay with my cousin Lisa and her family. Kiley enjoyed meeting and playing with Katie and Nicholas, Kalin liked "Weeeba" aka Reba the family dog. Jon and I couldn't get over how hospitable and just plain awesome Lisa and Jeannie were, we both enjoyed getting to know them and spending time with them too. Our only wish with the whole trip was that we wished we lived closer so we could visit more often! I made sure to tell Lisa at least a dozen times that a visit to Alaska is a must for the family!

Bbbbback to Bbbboston

Got a little side tracked with Sis's birthday and Easter. By the way, on Easter I called my grandma and it was 80 degrees in Boston and 10 degrees in Dillingham. Not fair :(.

So while we were at the Aquarium with our friend Brendan we also got the chance to go down town to do a little site seeing. It just happened to be St. Patrick's day and about 65 degrees. All in all, heaven. What an amazing place Boston is! We got to see so much in such a short amount of time, and we still wanted to do so much more.

I seemed to be more in awe of the big city then my kids or Jon, but doesn't that just look cool?

This is not a statue, I repeat NOT a statue. And she really freaked Kiley out! :)

We had some delish food and just enjoyed all there was to see in this area. It was almost impossible not to with the gorgeous weather and company!

See all the green? Showing some Irish pride!

I sadly did not get to go in here, it was too packed on St. Patty's Day. But I heart Irish Pubs!

Oh man, at the end of the day my dogs were tiiiired!

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.....