Photos by Fitzgerald Photography

Scott and Alicia Miner, of Fitzgerald Photography, do all the photos at Dimond, and I mean ALL the photos-school pictures, yearbook photos, dance portraits, even sports photos and many of the grads head out to have their Senior portraits done with them, too. Scott also shoots during Special O state games each year so we've known each other for several years now. They sponsored my first round of head shots before the pageant last year, and did another round for this year's pageant. So, of course, I was excited to have them do some Mrs. Alaska shots for me. I always have such a great, fun, relaxed and comfortable time with them and am always so impressed that the shots turn out so great when I feel like we're just hanging out messing around with a camera. I'm so very blessed to have such generous people in my life. I'm so very thankful to have such beautiful documentation of my memories as Mrs. Alaska. Below are some of my faves from our most recent shoot:

Our Seward-versary!

Lem and I had our first whole weekend away from the girls for our anniversary last weekend. We decided we'd spend our time in Seward since it wasn't too long of a drive and we hadn't been there since the week before we got married, nine years ago. We got the girls packed up and headed for Nanny and Papas and we hit the road mid afternoon on Friday shortly after Lem got off work. It sure was a nice change to be able to drive at our own leisure (with half a much stuff loaded in the car!) and to be able to enjoy peace and quiet (i.e. no back seat requests) on our just over two hour drive. We checked into our hotel and settled in to our lovely corner ocean view room complete with fireplace and sparkling cider. We headed out to a nice dinner shortly thereafter. We enjoyed delicious seafood and a breathtaking view overlooking the boat harbor. We enjoyed the added bonus of getting to see one of the seasonal cruise ships docked directly our our window.

Unfortunately, that was about the end of us accomplishing our planned activities for the weekend. I finally got the stomach bug the girls had earlier in the week and ended up spending most of the night sick. I felt really awful Saturday morning, but tried toughing it out. We set out for a walk from the hotel to the harbor to check out the sites, etc, but after trying to stomach some lunch, I felt so miserable that we had to just go back to the hotel. After a nap I was feeling a little better so we tried getting a light dinner but my appetite still wasn't up to par so we spent the evening watching movies while I sipped Gatorade and 7up.

Sunday morning, I woke feeling alot better and was starving so we started our morning with a yummy breakfast as one of the local diners. We did a little walking around then hit the road and headed out of town. We headed up to Exit Glacier and of course it started raining. I thought taking a Mrs. Alaska picture with crown and sash up at the glacier would be super cool, so we set off on the hike. I was feeling super sore from being sick, but we made it up to the glacier and enjoyed a leisurely pace and conversation along the way.

After our hike I had kind of lost all my oomph so we got back on the road and headed to Alyeska for lunch. We took the tram up to the top of the mountain and had lunch up there. Of course, like the rest of the weekend, it was raining, and the view wasn't super great, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We've always wanted to take the tram up for lunch so we were still glad we finally got to. After lunch we drove the remaining hour back to Anchorage and picked up the girls, who of course, had their own weekend full of adventures with Nanny and Papa.

Camping Out

Lem and I got up the gumption to try our first family camping trip with the girls. And, then the weather forecast got up the gumption to predict rain for the whole weekend (which it did in fact do.) So, we scrapped our original plan and decided we'd try our hand at indoor tent camping, just for fun, since Sycely was really looking forward to sleeping in the tent. The girls helped Lem set up the tent in the living room, and got the air mattress and sleeping bags all set up.

In true campout spirit we had a backyard cookout on the firepit. We roasted up some hotdogs and corn on the cobb and followed that up with traditional roasted mallows and s'mores.

It started to rain just as we were finishing up our roasting so we headed inside and got the girls cleaned up and ready for bed. Ella actually slept upstairs in her room in her own bed, but Sycely, Lem and I "roughed" it in the tent for the night. Sycely got snuggled up in her Mermaid sleeping bag and we read some books and prayed and got her tucked in for the night.

Lem and I went upstairs to get ourselves ready for bed, and we did catch Sycely rummaging around outside the tent once, about five minutes after we'd left her, but it wasn't too long before she was sacked out, tired from a busy, fun evening of "camping."

Photos by Rhae Anne

I had the opportunity to work with a very talented photographer, Rhae Anne Etheredge for some of my Mrs. Alaska photos. Rhae works with our youth group at church and I've been a long-time admirer of her skills and unique style. She's really awesome with candids and kiddos and I love the "real" look to many of her photos. They always showcase the personality of her subject and she's got an amazing eye for catching that "perfect look." After winning my title, one of the things I was most excited about was the possibility of getting to have some photos done by Rhae Anne. I'm very grateful that she was willing to give up her day and invest her time, energy, skills and equipment to get me some great Mrs. AK photos. She also did some just me shots and I really loves many of those as well. My very favorite one is one she caught while we were talking about a pose and we were both laughing hysterically about what she'd said and the shot turned out to be a really beautiful one capturing a totally, natural, real me smile. I actually ended up using that one in my national ad. Here are some of my faves:

Triple Date

Lem and I got to go on a triple date with his brother, Ian, and their cousin, Jesse and their girlfriends, Kathryn and Rachel a couple weeks ago. Rachel was up here visiting and Kathryn's till pretty new to our lives so we were excited for the chance to spend some kid-free time getting to know these gals better and making some fun memories.

We started with dinner at Lonestar which featured Ian and Jesse being their usual boisterous, joking selves. I gotta hand it to these girls, though, they can not only take it, but they can dish it out when it comes to these guys' crazy antics.

After dinner we all headed out for some bowling fun. Us girls did out best to put some points on the board, and Rachel made a fine showing, but even Kathryn's granny style roll and my knee-to-the-floor stance didn't do us much good. Even my tiny pink kids ball didn't bring me any luck!

Nonetheless, it was a super fun evening and it was nice getting to know the girls better and have some time out with other couples, without any kids in tow. Usually, if we're out with other couples, it's some kind of family activity like lunch or a bbq or something like that so it's pretty seldom that we get kid-free couple time and that was a nice change of pace for a date too.

June-PHEW!

What a crazy whirlwind things have been around here the last 6 weeks or so! Lem finished up his school year, did graduation and the after party and had a little time off during which he worked as Ian's paralegal/secretary. Summer's in full swing which adds softball to our schedule and throw in a little Mrs. Alaska here and there, and you've got one busy household! Lem's teaching summer school-one section of Government and one of Economics and is already almost ready to start wrapping up the summer session. We've been watching him play softball and watching Uncle Ian play some baseball, going on lots of bike rides, playing outside in the pool, on the slip-n-slide and on the swing set, and bbqing with friends including the Gibsons, Bracketts, O'briens and Boutons, and whipping up s'mores about as often as the weather cooperates, and sometimes, even when it doesn't.

Sycely's doing a Nutcracker Primer ballet class for the summer session. It's a class for Kindergartners and 1st Graders, but as expected by Miss Theresa, Sycely is keeping up quite well. She may be dainty compared to all the other girls (measuring at LEAST a head shorter than anyone else) but Theresa is continually impressed by her precision and says she's never know a kid her age to have such great musicality and choreography skills. Sycely's having a blast with her class. They even started doing Barre works which really tickled Sycely who for a long time has seen that as being a real ballerina. Each week they choreograph a number to one of the pieces from Nutcracker, they practice the dance, add costumes and props, put it all together and wrap up with a Nutcracker coloring sheet for each dance.

Ella is...well Ella. Not really sure how else to put that. She pretty much talks and eats non-stop, unless she's sleeping. She's still a little love bug and loves to cuddle up with her blankie for a good long snuggle a few times a day. She's finally gained a little weight, a little over a pound, weighing in, on our scale at 20.2 pounds, which means she's legal to ride forward facing-just a month shy of her second birthday. She's constantly cracking us up with her long, detailed sentences. She was dipping her bread in her salad dressing the other night and took a bite and says, "mmmmm...that's really tasty!" She's always telling me, "there's my Charlie buddy; he's my best friend." She tries her best to keep up with all that Sycely's doing whether it's art, dancing, dressing up or playing princesses, animals and Little People. She's getting pretty good at her colors and can count pretty well up to 20. She loves reading books in her room and it's one of the many times every day that we hear, "I do it first" or "I wanna do it all by myself!" I just translate that as, "I'm two." :) We transitioned Ella to her toddler bed (with the rail) a few weeks back in preparation for spending the weekend with Nanny and Papa and our trip to Vegas. We figured it'd be easier for her to adapt to sleeping away from home if she was already used to sleeping in less of a crib and more of a bed. So we gave her plenty of time to get used to the idea and she's doing great and loving her "big girl bed" as she calls it.

We celebrated Father's Day with a extreme grill dinner. Lem's family was here and we enjoyed some scrumptious grilled steaks, salmon and scallops and asparagus with a side of crab and mashed potatoes. We had two yummy desserts, brownies and mint chocolate mousse pie. I'd made Lem a framed posted of the girls wearing matching Daddy's Princess nightgowns with a caption reading "Someday I may find my Prince Charming, but Daddy will always be my King." He really loved it, even more than his other present, a new backpack so he can bike to work.

Alot of my time has been spent focused on Mrs. Alaska stuff. I'm still doing skating lessons and am getting one student ready for a competition next weekend in Eagle River. And we're getting in our last few planning meetings for the Governor's Picnic (the day before we leave for Vegas). Add to that, appearances, events, meetings with sponsors, photo shoots, radio interviews fundraising, wardrobe shopping, thank you letters and cards and putting together an entire silent auction and you can see what the last month has looked like for me! We also had a garage sale and I listed a TON of stuff on Craigslist like baby items and maternity clothes and some household stuff. Between those two we made about $500 toward our trip to Nationals. Between the donations of all my generous sponsors and my two fundraisers I've been able to raise about $4200 towards my nationals expenses. For more details (and testimonies!) about my super successful silent auction and all my other Mrs. AK events, check out my Mrs. Alaska blog at http://www.mrsak2010.blogspot.com/.

The girls and I are enjoying having some down time around the house during the days and along with Daddy, our evenings are full of summer fun and activities. We're looking forward to the Holiday weekend and our trip to Vegas in less than three weeks!!! Hope summer is treating you well!