Alaska

We went to Alaska in June to visit my sister and her family and had a BLAST! We stayed in Anchorage for 3 days so Jared could do some work visits and we could help Erin with kids while others went to the audiologist. We went on a walk around the lake at our hotel. It was a LOT bigger than we thought. We expected a 15 minute stroll and it turned into a 90 minute walk. It was beautiful outside though.

Jared had a meeting in Palmer so we drove up there, went to a Farmer's Market, then drove up Hatcher's Pass. It was an amazing drive.

Beaver dam in Hatcher Pass

Beautiful scenery. It was like a combination of Houston and Utah, a ton of green trees like Houston and mountains like Utah.

We saw this creepy old inn and with photo editing it looks crazy creepy. I love it!

Then we picked my mom and brother and his family up from the airport and headed down to Kenai (a nearly 4 hour drive). It was gorgeous scenery along the way.

Upon arrival at my sister's at 12:30 AM Halle promptly hopped out of the car and jumped on the trampoline and played on the play set. She never fell asleep on our 4 hour drive. Never.

After a good night's sleep it was play (and picture) time!!!

Cosmo

Newman the Basset

Ethan (ain't he cute??)

Kolton (He's pretty dang cute too)

Halle picked these weeds, I mean beautiful flowers, and Erin put them in a vase. Anything to win over the affection of Halle.

Apparently daddy and Halle had a pretty serious conversation on the trampoline about something.

Halle finally warmed up to Erin...as long as she was sleeping. Kidding. They were sitting together, THEN Erin fell asleep.

There was a lot of digging in the dirt that went on.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire one night.

Don't hate me, mom.

There are two good sized hills in their yard and the kids enjoyed rolling down them in various trucks, cars, and wagons.

Dylan

Nolan

Hayden and Nolan conspiring against Halle.

Brenden had to make a silly face once he noticed me taking his picture.

We went out on the lake.

We drove to Homer for a day of halibut fishing (and another work meeting). Jared LOVES bald eagles and was thrilled by our drive there and back.

Sea Otter in the middle of the ocean.

Doug made it through the insane traffic (you'd think I'm kidding, I'm not, it was terrible with construction) just in time to join us for halibut fishing. It was HARD WORK to reel in the fish as is manifested by these ridiculous pictures Jared took. You're lucky I'm even posting them. I look like I'm in labor.

"I caught one!"

Doug didn't have to work nearly as hard.

Crazy Doug wearing shorts. It was FREEZING!

It's exhausting because as soon as you drop your line to the bottom of the ocean you get a bite, so you have to reel it in, which takes like 10 minutes each time. You have a 2 lb lead weight (it feels like 100 when you are dragging it through the ocean) and then a big fish. You can catch as many as you want, but if you don't like the size, you throw it back. You're only allowed to keep 2.

My catch.

Jared's catch

Doug's catch

Halibut are ugly.

The crew on the boat filet the fish for you. We went home and cut it into smaller pieces and vacuum packed it. We ended up with about 35 lbs of fish. We were able to take a lot of it home and Erin was also nice enough to give us some of their salmon they caught last year.

On the drive home from Homer we saw lots of moose. They are right on the side of the road. We pulled over right next to them and took lots of pictures. They didn't care.

This is about 10 PM on our drive home. It didn't get dark until about 1 AM. I don't know what time it got light, but usually when I woke up in the middle of the night at 3:30 (pregnancy makes you pee a lot) it was already light.

Halle was sleepy and adorable.

One night after Doug got home from work we went on a moose and bear "hunt". We saw this momma and baby, but no bear.

The Cook Inlet (where we were hoping to find bear) was very pretty. This was about 11 PM.

Here's all of us pregnant ladies. I think Erin was about 26 weeks (4th boy), Paulette 23 weeks (4th kid - finally a girl), and I was 20 weeks (a boy).

We drove back to Anchorage to catch our red eye flight.

The Kenai River is turquoise. Incredible.

The drive was beautiful.

When we got home we ate some cereal and Jared put the dry ice from the box of fish in some water so Halle could see it.

Then we slept from about 9AM to 2PM. We went back to bed at 9PM. Halle slept until 11:15AM!!

The vacation was obviously awesome. Erin was so nice to have all of us at her house. She made a warm dinner every night, which I know I couldn't have done, especially after dealing with 7 kids under the age of 7, two additional pregnant people, and being pregnant yourself. Thank you to the entire Boehme family for allowing us in your home!

Alaska Collage

I am sure Emily will write up a whole blog about our trip to Alaska, but I had a lot of fun making this collage, so I wanted to share it. Enjoy.

Cousins!

In March my sister came to visit and Halle had a wonderful time with her cousins.

Ethan-almost 3

Nolan-4

I don't have pictures of Brenden (7), but they had a blast chasing each other in the house and having a pillow fight. It was sweet to see how gentle Brenden was with Halle and then how he'd smack his younger brothers. It really is a bummer that big guy isn't getting his biggest wish, a little sister. Though I'm sure he will enjoy his baby brother just the same.
Rameses enjoyed digging in my parent's backyard. He never digs at home.

Then it was Easter. The Easter Bunny brought Halle this adorable stuffed bunny. Thank you Easter Bunny! And a telescope. Grandma Koren thought the Easter Bunny was a little crazy, but as soon as Halle saw it she squealed, "A TELESCOPE!" That Easter Bunny isn't so crazy, huh mom?

Rameses enjoyed Easter.

Then we went to Houston to visit Halle's other cousins.

Dylan-7

Hayden-4

Kolton-almost 2

We went on walks and enjoyed being outside.

We went to a gym that had this little zip line that Hayden and Halle loved.

We had a crawfish boil! DELICIOUS!

FYI - for those of you concerned, nobody in this group sucked the brains out of the crawfish heads. Dylan thoroughly enjoyed joining us in eating though. And Halle even tried a bite, but preferred her hotdog.

And by our last evening or two Halle finally enjoyed her Uncle Dustin and became quite attached.

So much more to blog about, but I have to organize the pictures first. More tomorrow or Monday!

Cute Quote

Yesterday Halle enjoyed taking a shower in our bathroom. We had this wonderful conversation while waiting for the water to warm up.

Halle: When I'm a mommy I get to take a shower in your bathroom!
Me: When you're a mommy you won't live here. You'll have your own house and a husband. Just like daddy is my husband.
Halle: Who's my husband?
Me: I don't know. Someday you'll meet him and get married in the temple like mommy and daddy.
Halle: But WHO'S my husband? Maybe Nate...or Corbin... (kids from her preschool class)

Me: I don't know.

Halle: Who's Great Grandpa's husband? (she's talking about Great Grandpa Stastny, her only living great gpa)

Me: You mean wife. She died.

Halle: When will she come back?

Me: She died. She's in heaven.

Halle: With Heavenly Father?
Me: Yes. But Great Grandpa got married to Great Grandma in the temple so that means that when Great Grandpa dies he'll see Great Grandma and be with her in Heaven.

Halle: With Heavenly Father and Jesus?
Me: Yes.

I thought it was interesting that she had such concern for Great Grandpa. He lives in San Diego and she sees him rarely, I think the last time was Janae's wedding in September, but she obviously recognized that his companion is missing. When he's here she has such adoration for him, sitting on his lap and holding his hand. Kids are so sweet at this age.