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.