Family Fun

Fourth of July weekend was fabulous here in Ketchikan. Kelly got in a day early and made it in time to watch Jake's championship Little League game! They lost after three extra innings to take second. But after the game they announced All Stars and Jake made it! We are so proud of him and so excited! Kelly is back at camp, but Kaitlyn and I will be going to Sitka to watch Jake play!!

Kasey, Melissa, Kyle, Tanner and Ashlynn all came over for the weekend! Along with Rob! It was so much fun. We miss those kids so much! They are all growing so fast. And it actually stopped raining and the sun came out for the parade on the 4th! Here are a few pics. And they weren't easy to come by with this crew....

Ashlynn sacked out on the couch. It was a long trip, people!

She really liked Aunt Jenn's clam dip!!

"Surrrrrrre, Dad...."

Grandpa Rob reading a story to Kaitlyn and Ashlynn.

Kyle looking a little tired.

Tanner looking sleepy also.

The boys.

One of the many cool things about living in Southeast Alaska is the wildlife. I had the window open and we could hear the whales before we saw them. We went out on the deck and I tried to get a good picture, but they never came out of the water long enough to get one. At least I got some of the back. Gotta love it.

Family Love

It's not very often that you arrive at the airport and not only do you get to see family, you get to see family that you haven't met before! You would never have known it though. We arrived on Thursday in Seattle and Jacob and Kaitlyn met Samuel and Benjamin, as did Kelly and I. It was wonderful. The kids became fast friends and are having a wonderful time with their cousins as we speak. Many thanks to Aunt Shanna for taking our kids on and loving them and showing them a wonderful time!

Nature Walk

Cool fact about Ketchikan: you are never far away from nature. Without leaving town, we took the kids on a little nature walk today. We drove up a hill, parked the car, and there you go. Pretty cool, huh? There is stuff all over Ketchikan like this! It was beautiful and we saw lots of cool things. Here is Jake and Kaitlyn sitting at the trunk of a tree.

Big brother, little sister. So cute. Posing on a bridge for mom.

I had to beg Kelly to post his picture, but I told him if I'm willing to put this hideous picture of myself on here, he had to. Besides, he looks cute!

I have lots more pictures, which I think I will post on Facebook.  There are too many to put on here. Hopefully someday everyone can come and visit and we can show you all these cool Alaska things!

Family and Happiness

No pictures today, just some thoughts. They say things happen for a reason, and it's not that I haven't always believed that, it's just been proven to me lately. I got some weird news at the doctor recently, but it brought my mom to visit and we had the best time together (things turned out fine, by the way)! It also has made me appreciate all my friends and family so much more this holiday season. The biggest surprise of all, though, has been my "new" sister-in-law. Kelly and Shanna met when we were Washington visiting for Thanksgiving. It has been so amazing seeing how much they have in common! It's like I can't imagine them ever not knowing each other. But the greatest part of this has been that I have a new friend/sister too. I look forward to talking to her every day! She is so special, and I hope that while she's reading this, she's all teary like I am while I'm writing it! She is so special and I am so thankful that we now have her, Jeremy, Samuel, and Benjamin in our lives! To top it all off, she got me to get on Facebook and I have found some old friends from high school and been chatting with them. And I know that I didn't post anything about our Thanksgiving trip, but I have to throw in how much we loved seeing everyone, and we love and miss you all so much! Ok, sorry about the schmaltzy post...I promise I won't make a habit of it. Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Early Christmas Fun

Talk about fun! Every year we have a early Christmas party with my Mom and Bob because they travel during Christmas. So the kids get to have early Christmas, complete with opening presents and fun food!

One more thing I would like to mention. Family is so important during the holidays (and the rest of the year), and this year we are blessed with even more family. When we went home for Thanksgiving it reminded us how wonderful all of our family is! We also welcomed a new family member to our family (Kelly's sister) and it is like she has always been here! I can't imagine not talking to her every day! Now, here are some silly pictures of our fun day, and hopefully Kelly doesn't get too mad at me for posting them!

Kelly playing the Hannah Montana video game while wearing a Hannah Montana wig!

Mom with her new vase!

Papa Bob with some new hunting accessories!

Jake shooting everyone with his new nerf gun while yelling "say hello to my little friend" (yes, our family is a little crazy)!

Kelly and I. He is going to kill me for putting this picture on here! We miss everyone so much and hope they're having a wonderful holiday season, and please, I lost my address book and need everyone's address so I can send out Christmas cards!

Two for One

This weekend is a two for one. Two postings in one day! I'm trying to be better about posting!! We Smiths love sports, and we can play them and watch them pretty much all the time. Making a ginger bread house? Not so much. We gave it our best effort though, and we had a pretty good time making it! Here's hoping it tastes better than it looks!

                                                                

                                                     

Kaleb

Look at that big boy! It's hard to believe that you're going to preschool tomorrow! You have grown so fast, and we're so excited for your first day of school! I know your Mom is going to have a tough time, but at least she won't be as crazy as Aunt Jenn was when she took your cousins to school the first day (I cried so hard in the car some lady knocked on my window to make sure I was ok). We love and miss you Kaleb!!! Have a great first day!