California

The flight to California was another blessed, peaceful experience. Despite the change in plans and the rigamarole to change our tickets yet again, all the swapping gave us the chance to see my Mom and my sister. We hadn't seen my sister in over 3 years so it was a nice treat. We arrived in Sacramento and headed to my mom's about a half hour away. We had dinner with Far Nanny and Papa Scott and spent the night at their house that night.

We had breakfast with my Mom the next morning at a super tasty local cafe and then picked up a few necessities at the store and headed back to the house to get Ella down for a nap. While Ella napped at home with Nanny, Sycely, Lem and I took a trip to the mall to the Build-A-Bear store to make a Hello Kitty with Aunti Mahcoya.

When we finished up Ella was still napping so we headed over to a local park so us girls could spend some time, swinging, sliding, and most importantly, GIGGLING!

We swung by the house and got Ella and headed to have lunch at Chevy's. After lunch we just spent some time tootling around another mall, making fun memories and giving the girls a chance to be "out" as much as possible before our drive to Fairfield that evening. Though it was only one day, I'm thankful that the girls and I got to spend some time with my sister being silly and building bonds.

We got the car loaded up (again!) and hit the road to Farifield where we'd spend the night so as to avoid a long drive to the service in the morning. We stopped in Davis at Papa Scott's work for a short visit (and picked up an ice cream cone for Sycely) then made the rest of the drive. We checked into our FABULOUS suite for the night and got the girls to bed. We had two rooms, each with their own bathroom (one with 2 queens, one with a king) and a living room. So, my Mom and Sycely had the queens room and Lem and I had the kind and Ella had the living room. It was the perfect set-up and everyone had a good rest that night.

The next morning my Mom stayed at the hotel with the girls while Lem and I went to the graveside service. Lem had the honor of being a pallbearer and did his job well, considering he ended up at the front, leading the pack, rather than following everyone else like he thought he'd positioned himself to do! We said good-bye to my family at the cemetary, headed back to the hotel, packed up (AGAIN!!!) and picked up my Mom and the girls for lunch at Red Lobster. After a terrifically tasty lunch we headed back to Sacramento to the airport. Mom helped get us all checked in, return the rental car, etc then we said good-bye and headed home.

One of these days Lem and I are going to take a trip to Napa when we're NOT burrying someone so we can enjoy that beautiful winecountry. We did get to enjoy a blessed time with my Mom and my sister and I'm thankful for that opportunity, no matter how short our visit.

The trip home was uneventful-pretty unbelievable huh? We had some dinner in Seattle, got the girls into their jammies and back on the plane and they both slept most of the rest of the way home. Astoundingly, in the end, Ella slept on EVERY plane we flew on! In the end, we were thankful to be back home 6 planes and 5 airports later. The girls did amazingly well the whole trip and I'm so thankful that God heard our pleas for a peaceful, blessed trip, even with all the surprises and changes we encountered.

Idaho

We'd originally planned to go down to Idaho at the end of May to visit my Grandpa, but his failing health led us to change our travel plans (no easy feat!) Fortunately, Lem was able to use sick leave to get a few days off school so that we could get down there ASAP. My dad was already in Idaho so we got the added bonus of the girls getting to visit with their Grandpa while we were there, too.

From the first moments of our travels, God's hand was truly resting on our trip. Despite the added leg from Anchorage to Juneau that changing our tickets created, it was about the smoothest flying we've ever done since having kids. Adding that extra leg broke the trip up into roughly three two hour segments which worked really well for the girls, giving them a chance to get their wiggles out before they were totally "done" with being cooped up on the plane. And, every leg of our flight down benefited from a nice boosting tail wind that got us to all three airports ahead of schedule. To top all that off, BOTH of the girls slept on the plane, even overlapping their naps about an hour on one leg of our flight down! We certainly did enjoy the blessings of God's traveling mercies upon our family.

We spent much of our time at my uncle's house visitng with my Grandpa and other family. The first day we were there was really the only day my Grandpa was really awake and able to talk. I got one good day of visiting in with him, and he was able to see both the girls and know we were there, but after that first day, he pretty much started to fade-sleeping and not really waking up all the way again after that.

The girls in Mommy's very special chair at Popper's house

(someday soon this chair will come to our house)

Sycely got to go to the neighborhood park (actually this same park was the first park she ever went to when she was just 6 months old!) and enjoyed time on the slides and swings. We did some outlet shopping (Mommy's fave) and took a trip to the Boise zoo with my dad. We also got to enjoy all our favorite eateries: Olive Garden, SONIC-yum!, and Texas Road House.

She had her very first swing ride on this same swing 3 years ago

Always her favorite, the penguins REALLY loved her and showed off their swimming skills

Grandpa tries his hand at navigating the double stroller

The morning we were supposed to come home I got a phone call from my dad around 7:15. He told me they thought Grandpa was going to go real soon and if I wanted to be there I should head on over. I threw on some sweats and headed to my unlces (he lives just across the main road so it's a real short trip). Within 15 minutes of me getting there my beloved Grandpa took his last breath. I'm so blessed to have been holding his hand when he went home to be with Jesus and to be back with my Grandma again. I will never be able to express the importance of the influence this dear man had on my life. I truly would not be the Godly woman I am without the direction he gave me growing up and I'm so grateful for all the sacrifices he made for me.

That development, of course, changed our travel itenerary (AGAIN!). Kudos to Lem for handling all the dealing with the airline for me! Instead of flying home that day, we instead would be staying in Idaho another 4 days then flying to California for 2 days, then finallly flying home. We had a couple days before the funeral so we did some more shopping (we all needed something to wear to the funeral since we hadn't packed for that) and lots more eating. Why is it that when someone dies EVERYONE feels the appropriate thing to do is the bring the family COOKIES?!

We had a viewing the night before the funeral; by that time Nanny Kate had arrived so we had pizza night afterwards. The funeral went well and was a nice tribute to a very special man of God. The next day we flew to California so we could attend my Grandpa's burial/graveside service.

April Update

What a whirlwing things have been around here the last month or so! Pardon the chaos as I try my best to get you all up to speed...

April turned out to be a super busy month for all of us. I had my usual skating lessons, Governor's Picnic meetings, board meetings and the like. Additionally, I started my coaching session with the pageant director and have ALMOST mastered my pageant walk. I now have all four pieces for my pageant wardrobe as well.

April also brought Week of the Young Child. WOYC is a National Celebration that focuses on appreciating those who work with young children, the policies that support early learning and highlights the importance of the early years. I oversee Anchorage's local celebration and this year (again) AAEYC teamed up with our church to host a Family Fair with lots of free, fun, hands on activities for kids. This year we had a proclamation from the Governor's office (big surprise, huh?), the Mayor's office and a resolution from the Anchorage Assembly supporting WOYC. I even got to go the Assembly meeting, receive the resolution, and speak about WOYC, all on live TV! Our event went off without a hitch and hundreds of children were able to have some fun family time while their parents got ideas of simple ways to support their development.

The Mayor's under there somewhere...

Sycely and Scarlet had a great time enjoying all the activities

There's lots to report on the Ella front: she's now weighing in at a whopping 15 pounds 2 oz-just under 5th percentile, but she's over 27 inches. So she's still outweighed by her peers by about 4 pounds give or take and she's still a tiny little Roo Bug, but she seems to be maintaining her figure by being continually active. She's mastered pulling up to standing and she's pretty much always standing in her crib calling to me when she wakes up. She's saying some words now, "Mama" and occassional "Da Da," "more," "hi," and "mapp-o" (apple.) She's uses her little index finger to point at everything which is stinking cute and she's really gotten a knack for tactile books and knows all the spots to feel in each of them now. She's eating lots of new foods and is making her way to finger/table foods now. She LOVES peas and green beans, peaches and rice cakes and give her some freeze dried apples and she's happy as a clam for 30 minutes.

My morning alarm clock

Ella's 9 Month Photos

Sycely has been really developing her visual representation skills and has done some pretty spectauclar artwork or late. Last week she held up a finished painting to me and said, "Look Mommy, it's you and Daddy when you got married." She'd even given Mommy a veil. She's also still pretty stoked about the volcano and we're still working on her volcano project. She's still completely enamoured with her little sister and is quick to let anyone (even strangers) know that Ella is her little sister and that it's fun to be a big sister. She's even started helping feed Ella bites once in a while and her favorite is when Ella eats prunes-go figure!

Lem was only able to help with the nominating committe at State FFA Convention one night this year since rearranging our travels to Idaho (more on that later) had us flying out the second day of convention. At least he got to be there to get them started, and techinically he still hasn't missed a convention in like 15 years.

April also brought sad news regarding my Grandpa's health. After completing both chemo and radiation the doctors determined he was losing his battle with Lymphoma and that there really was no treatment left for him. So, they began working with a wonderful team of Hospice workers to keep him comfortable and cared for so he could stay home at my Uncle's and not spend his last weeks in the hospital. We made arrangements to go down to say Good-bye and, God willing, our travels and our timing were a perfect blessing.

Easter

We had a pretty fun-filled Easter around here. Sycely and I baked sugar cookies for church on Friday afternoon and baked chocolate chip ones on Saturday. Ssaturday morning we went to a Creative Activities Fair and then had lunch at Sycely's favorite restaurant, Red Robin (where she felt it appropriate to pray to tell God thank you for giving us a good parking spot). After nap on Saturday afternoon we dyed eggs.

Sunday morning started off with egg-shaped pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We went to our earliest church service then came home to put Ella down for her nap.

Sycely opened her Easter Basket and made the slushy trek outside to hunt for eggs. She enjoyed playing with her new Easter treats (some puzzles, a new Silvermist fairy dress, and her fave-a little pet shot animal). We helped Ella open her basket when she woke up from her nap.

Once everyone had enjoyed a restful afternoon nap, we packed up and headed to Nanny and Papas for Easter dinner. Sycely did a little (plastic) egg hunting around their house and got some more Easter treats. Nanny gave Ella a super fabulous goat puppet the sings the Lonely Goatherd song from Sound of Music in a ridiculous munchkin type voice. Mommy is gathering signatures to petition this toy permanently reside at Nanny's house! Or at least make prank calls to her number at 2am. Dinner was delicious, as always. Another day to remember and celebrate all the blessings God has bestowed upon us- and nothing says Halleluja like jelly beans and Cadbury Eggs!

Riverskate

We spent traveled down to Soldotna this weekend for the 14th annual Riverskate competition.

Because our friendly Redoubt volcano had been fairly calm last week they decided to demote it's level from "warning (red)" to "watch (orange)" which never fails to really peeve the volcano and cause it to reassert itself as worthy of the "warning" level with a major erruption. So, needless to say, after being demoted Friday evening, Saturday morning dawned bright and early with a major erruption at 6am. Fortunately, no ash was headed NORTH where we'd be driving from BUT it did head SOUTH to Homer where my Dad and Kate were planning on driving to Soldotna from. They got abotu 1/2 inch of ash accumulation that morning so they weren't able to drive over to Soldotna to visit us while we were there. By the time we left Anchorage to head down the ash advisory had ended and our air filter was safe! God-willing our journey wasn't effected by the erruption, aside from the heinous smell (I likened it to boiled salt water which Lem informed me isn't even a thing) Think hot springs aroma.

The drive down was uneventful and BEAUTIFUL. We enjoyed gorgeous clear, blue skies that afforded us wonderful views of the ocean, mountains, glaciers, recent avalanches and the spectacular image of the volcano and it's huge ash/steam plume rising from the distant horizon. Sycely was totally stoked to finally see this volcano she's become so fond of in the flesh. For about 80 miles all we heard was, "Mommy, is that mountain the volcano?...Mommy when can we see the volcano?" Her and Ella both did marvelously well on the 2 1/2 hour drive and we only stopped for one potty break! We checked in at the rink then headed to Uncle Bill and Aunt Teresa's to get settled before I headed back to the rink to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening judging and coaching.

I had a student competing in two events and I was scheduled to judge many of the events so I decided (despite the fact that it's been 10 years!) to come out of "retirement" to compete in an event myself. I figured it'd be a fun opportunity for the girls to get to see me doing my skating thing. I didn't really have a ton of ice time to prepare something so I decided to do an event called interpretive. For interpretive you don't know what music you'll be skating to until the event starts. Everyone in your competition group gets the same music and you get to hear it twice on the ice and once off the ice before you have to go out and skate a one a half minut program to it. You never know exactly what kind of music you'll get; sometimes it's something you totally know like a Disney song, sometimes it's a popular current radio type song, sometimes it's something more "classic skating music" like Swan Lake. So bright and early Sunday morning I headed off to the rink to compete, 10 years after my last competition. Sycely loved wearing Mommy's medal all day and for the whole drive home. She's also taken up "skating on the floor" trying to replicate much of what she saw performed. Her new fave..."teenage mutant ninja turtles."

I took one of my "special skaters" down to compete. She competed in artisitc and skates against regular skaters and placed second which is a HUGE accomplishment, especially considering her limitations and the short amount of time we had to get her prepared (just about 3 weeks).

Sycely enjoyed playing with all the fun toys at Uncle Bill and Aunt Teresa and her, Daddy and Ella were able to spend the afternoon with our close friends, Matt and Janelle and their kiddos on Sunday while I was judging. Once my judging wrapped up we hit the road to head home and enjoyed about an hour or blissful QUIET as both girls started napping about 15 minutes into our trek home. We made it all the way home in less the 2 1/2 hours without a single stop which may be the biggest accomplishment of the whole weekend considering it was our first MAJOR road trip with two kiddos in tow.

March Madness

Another month has come to an end and, like always, it's been a busy one around the Wheeles household. March started off with me doing some extra lessons with a student I share with another coach. We spent the first weekend of March out in Wasilla for a skating competition. my skater did well placing 1st in two events and tying for 4th in a third event. That weekend also kicked off Lem's spring break. For the first time in years we spent spring break at home, which actually was a nice change of pace. We were able to spend lots of extra time with the girls, getting to take Sycely on some dates and enjoy some quality family time. That included another attempt at taking Sycely skating. She tolerated things a little longer this time, actually standing up on her skates and getting on the ice this time. Mommy is having to be VERY patient with her little princess wanting to learn to "skate like Mommy."

The second weekend of March was state games for Special Olympics. That all went extremely smooth and our season has, thankfully, come to an uneventful close. Since Special O has wrapped up I've been able to use my Friday for lessons I actually get paid for, so that's been a nice bonus!

BFFs, Ella and Charlie-watching the snow fall

March also brought about an exciting endeavor for me. I officially became a Mrs. Alaska contestant. It's something I've been considering the last few years (both ladies who have won the last two years are in my Mom's group at church so I've gotten to hear some about it) but finally felt I'd reached a place where I didn't have major fitness hurdles to overcome in order to compete. So, after much prodding and convincing from friends and family, I've entered my first pageant. It's definitely something that is going to challenge me, but I'm so excited to have the opportunity to refine some things about myself and sharpen some skills in preparation. The pageant will be held here in Anchorage on June 7th and consists of 4 equally scored portions: panel interview, on stage interview (in coctail dress), fitness (in swimsuit), and evening gown. So far I've got both of my dresses picked out and a "back up" suit, but am still looking for something fabulous to wear for my interview and need to order my swimsuit. I'll get to start my coaching with the pageant director soon as well.

I took Sycely on a date to the circus this month. She loved watching the "sisters in the pink outfits handing on those ropes and spinning with their necks." Ever since we've heard a lot of "Guess who I am at the circus?...I'm the 10 yeard old little sister" or "I'm the lady with the dress that changes." It was certainly a fantastic show and we saw some amazing talent. Hopefully Sycely does try to replicate too much of what she saw involving aerial ballet and tightropes and bicycles!

We had our first planning meeting for the Governor's picnic last week. The picnic's going to be about 2 weeks later this year and we're expecting aroudn 10,000 people thanks to Sarah's new-found National stardum. Lem and I went to the Governor's prayer breakfast this past weekend. We listened to a really great speaker and enjoyed our morning outing-despite the early hour. Unfortunately, Miss Sarah wasn't able to make it thanks to a little uprising around here called Mt. Redoubt.

Ash covered the snow in our front yard this week

Our beloved nearby volcano has been shaking and shuttering and on a "watch" level for months but finally decided to "let off some steam" so to speak starting early last week. Redoubt has now officially errupted close to 20 times since March 22nd. Only once has Anchorage gotten a dusting of ash though we have had hazy skies from the volcanic gas and ash hanging around in the atmostphere. Redoubt continues to wreak havoc on the flight schedules at the airport cancelling most if not all flights on most days due to erruptions in the flight paths in and out of Anchorage. just another little way living in Alaska is the unique expereince it often is.

We rounded out the month celebrating Lem's birthday. We had a birthday dinner with his family, a pizza/wii party with friends and him and I went to a fancy dinner on his birthday. The girls and I also visited him at school for lunch as a birthday treat. Sycely made him a card all by herself writing all the words and decorating it with a precious drawing of her "hugging Daddy."

Out little "bath gnome"

Musical like Mommy?

Ella continues to grow like a weed. She's moved beyond the scoot, to the crawl to the "quick as can be" crawl that allows her to get into anything anywhere faster than I can catch her! She's also quick to go from sitting to crawling and vice versa. She often pulls herself onto her knees and can pull up to standing now, too. She's got two teeth all the way in and more soon to follow I'm sure. She's getting to eat a few more foods now, trying new things slowly but surely. So far no reactions to anything so that's good news. She always seems to have something to say these days and she's quite outspoken about her input. She's using all those strong consonant sounds and she still LOVES to sing (and dance) whenever she hears music or singing. She also gives super sweet (open mouthed) kisses.

Ella's 8 Month Pictures

We're spending this coming weekend down in Soldotna (hoping the volcano won't disrupt our planss!) at a skating competition. One of my special skaters will be competing in two events and I'll be competing and judging as well. I took and passed the test to become a certified bronze level judge this month so now I haev yet another way to earn some skating related income. Since I'm going to be there anyway, I figured I might as well do some judging and skate a little myself. I'm also planning to compete in a competition this summer-doing a Cinderella number for Sycely :) Guess that's all the updating we've got for now. We'll keep everyone posted on any new excitement.

St. Patty's Day-Our "Green Day Party"

Seeing how green is Sycley's very favortie color, St. Patrick's Day was a pretty exciting time around here. We started off our day with a traditional breakfast of green eggs, green shamrock shaped pancakes and green milk. She of course was decked out in some of her favorite green attire. We did the whole die the daisy green thing with the colored water, too.

Later in the morning we made some green shamrock shaped jello fjigglers for an after school snack to share with Daddy.

Sycley enjoyed a special "green day" snack of green grapes, green apples with green soynut butter, and green juice. For lunch Sycely had a green tortilla filled with green cream cheese, green applesauce and one of those "jiggly dessert things."

We made no exception for dinner when it came to enjoying our "green day party." We had curly green pasta, green salad with cucumbers, spinach and green shamrock shaped peppers on top, green beans (and Daddy and I enjoyed some yummy non-green sauce for our pasta.) The table was complete with a green tablecloth, green plates, cups and napkins.

We followed dinner up with a super tasty green treat-chocolate chip mint milkshakes. Daddy was excited for the excuse to have his favorite flavor, just because it was green!

The girls even enjoyed a green bath that night. It sure was a creative, exciting day-who knew all things green could be such a big deal. Such is life when you are three I suppose.