Riley's First Camp

Riley has been looking forward to this summer for quite awhile.  She has spent the last couple years watching her older sister go off to various activities and has had to impatiently wait until she was old enough to also participate.  She is four years old now which means that she gets to choose which activities she would like to participate in and one of her choices was Camp Habitat.

Last day of camp.  The kids circle around for a final Hoo-Rah.

The camp director, Elisabeth (in blue), and Riley's camp leader, Katie,
are trying to get the kids to imitate animals they have seen on their daily walks
through Creamers Field.

Riley attended her first camp this year.  Camp Habitat is a wonderful week long program at Creamers' Field for kids ages 4-11.  The kids are split into smaller groups with their assigned  group leader and helper.  The younger kids are only in camp for a few hours in the morning but for many of them, that is more than enough time away from their family.  The kids go on daily hikes, exploring the fields, forests, and ponds, and learning about the animals, insects, and their ecology.  Morgan attend the same camp when she was 4 and 5 and loved it.  We also spend a lot of time at Creamers Field walking or skiing the trails which made it an excellent first choice for camp.

One of the many exciting discoveries the kids made during the walks.
A birds nest filled with little birds born that week of camp.  

It has been a wet and cold summer and rained most of the days they were at camp.  I never once heard Riley complain.  She looked forward to going each day riding in Ms. Ali's car with her friend, Mason, headed to camp.  It also helped that she had other friends from other activities in the same group.  On her final day, family and friends get to gather around their make shift day camp to see and hear what the kids have been up to during the week.  Riley excited ran around trying to show us everything she had created.  They end the day with their usual song, "Habitat, Habitat, have to have a Habitat".  A pretty catching song which we find ourselves singing off and on as the summer goes on.

Controlling My Addictions

Don't worry, i don't have anything to crazy.  I gave up smoking almost twenty years ago and haven't looked back.  I like to drink a good beer or a glass of wine.  I still dabble in making liquors and wines.  My addictions these days are those darn fancy, high calorie espresso drinks and.....Facebook.  It sounds innocent enough but i dislike the time time spent playing on mobile devices, especially, when i realize i don't read much anymore except a kids book before bedtime or for their school assignments.

I allow myself one fancy espresso each week...okay maybe more if i make them at home.  The money is more of an irritation than the calories as i don't make them with all that syrup.  As for Facebook, i have tried just deleting the app but i still manage to spend my free time on there by accessing thru the internet.  My only choice was to deactivate.  Extreme, i know.  I was also wary of the security of the site when i posted my mobile pictures.  Not being able to post picture daily using my phone was really difficult so deactivating helped.

My family has expressed sadness at my sudden and, most likely, lengthy departure from Facebook.  I know they miss hearing about my daily activities and the many pictures i take of the kids as we go about our day. Therefore, i am returning to my blog.  I do enjoy documenting and sharing both the trivial and the ground breaking aspects of our crazy life here in Alaska.   The kids grow fast and i want to make sure they...you are get to see these changes in them.  I also miss taking photos with my fancy camera.  I feel like i have lost a little bit of photography knowledge from my time away.  Getting back to these basics won't be easy and don't expect daily posts.  I will do my best to post pictures and some rambling a few times each month.

I won't guarantee that they will all be current posts.  It is probably kinda of like cheating but i have a back log of old posts and some wonderful pictures i have wanted to share for quite awhile but never published. I am hoping to work my way thru them and throw in some current stuff, too.

Some quick news -

As of this month, i am officially back to working full-time with the same company.  Jeff is back in Fairbanks working for the government.  He worked in Anchorage the first half of the year.  Morgan started second grade this fall.  She continues to play piano and will begin competing this year.  I am not sure what it all entails but she is excited for the opportunity.  She continues lessons with hockey, swimming, and skiing.  Riley will begin pre-school full-time next month.  She continues with her swimming lessons and will start hockey and ski lessons next month. The girl amazes me, she can put all of her hockey gear on all by herself, minus the skates.

I am definitely looking forward to a busy winter with my girls.