Winter Scenes from Petersburg, Alaska

A few of the mornings we were lucky enough to see the sun rise and light up the mountains.

We drove "out the road" to Blind Slough. The snow covered all the branches of the trees and the iced over slough.

There were two deer enjoying the blueberry bushes outside our house. They both had already lost one of their antlers.

A green marker keeps boaters from getting into shallow water.

The downtown was bustling on Christmas Eve with julebukking. Lots of the local businesses set up drinks and treats to thank the locals for their support this year. We stood in Lee's Clothing for over an hour and ended up seeing our entire family plus past teachers and friends. We didn't even make it to the goodies! I think julebukking should be adopted by every community!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has a lot of tradition in my family. Click here to watch a video about our Norwegian tradition of making lutefisk and korv for Christmas Eve dinner. Early in the morning all the men in the family arrive at Grandpa Wally's house to make the korv (sausage). The potatoes are ground, meat and spices added and then put into the casings. Everyone gets a chance to help.

All the Swanson family men (and Brooke) at Grandpa Wally's house on Christmas Eve morning. From left to right: Matt, Kent and Brooke, Gerald, Adam, Ethan, Jim, Sawyer, Lance, Logan, John S., Brian, John M., Rob, and Wally.

Forty people arrived at Aunt Terri and Uncle Rob's home for dinner that evening. Every inch of their house was so beautifully decorated for Christmas.

Brooke looked pretty cute with her Christmas dress on. The cute velvet shoes were her Auntie Caitlin's shoes from 1983!

Christmas + Music = A Very Merry Christmas

It would not be Christmas without music! We both brought our trumpets up to perform in a concert and two church services on Christmas Eve. Above: Kent and Grandma Koke play some jazzy Christmas music.

We joined the Oxford Carolers as they sang Christmas carols at the local businesses and hospital.

The group of carolers walked on snow filled streets between stops at local businesses.

Arrival in Petersburg

After sitting on the plane waiting in Juneau for an hour, we were finally taking off to Petersburg. We were so lucky to have a beautiful clear day to fly so we could see the mountains and water. We landed in Petersburg and saw a very frozen place! We were happy to find a warm welcome in the airport. Below is Annie's cousin Lauren holding Brooke for the first time.

After having four children of his own, Annie's grandfather Wally is a natural with babies! He was looking forward to rocking Brooke in his big chair at home. We were hoping she'd like it too!

Holding Brooke is Great-Grandmother Koke. Brooke is Wally and Colleen's fourth great-grandchild.

The evening of our arrival we decided to make breakfast for dinner!



We all thought this was a great photo of these two!

Christmas 2008, Part 1

So much has happened lately, that I'm going to add a few photos at a time. The first part of our Christmas break included a drive to Seattle to visit our family there. Tom, Kerry, Leah and Ben were so much fun to visit with and let us camp out for two days.

Life in Seattle was pretty crazy because of the huge amount of snow that was falling. Never thought I'd see xc skiing down the streets of Seattle! I hear that Seattle owns six snow plows, so you can't expect much! Kent is good at driving in those conditions so we felt like we were in good hands. We did a little shopping at REI and Northgate Mall getting ready for Christmas.



The day before we were scheduled to fly out of Seattle all of the flights were cancelled. We were praying that our flight would make it out the following day so that we could see our family for Christmas in Alaska. I haven't been home for four years and haven't had an Alaskan Christmas for seven years. There was the LONGEST line to check in at the airport. We felt so bad looking at all the stranded passengers who had spent the night there. Up ahead we noticed Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens. In 1999 I was an intern at the capital for Senator Stevens, but I didn't want to bother him (see him in front of us in the photo below).



Below is a photo of Brooke's first plane ride! She was pretty well behaved on the plane. We spent a lot of time in the back of the plane rocking and dancing on the changing table in the small bathroom staring and talking to the mirror! I'd do whatever I could to keep her happy!



After a quick turn-around in Juneau we headed back to Petersburg. Below is a photo of home-sweet-home.

Oh Maisy! Part 5

Maisy's new chew toy is my rose bush. While it's extremely frustrating that she is eating my plants, I can still laugh when I look out the window and see Maisy ready to tango. As you can notice in the photos we are having our first (late) snow in Cashmere. It's now winter wonderland and we're LOVING it! It seems like in recent years our first snow would be in November so this has been a long time coming, Can't wait to get out the xc skis!

4 Months Old

It's hard to believe that our journey into parenting only began four months ago. What a joy it has been to watch Brooke grow and develop. It was only a few months ago that we were wondering when she would have her first real smile and now we get laughs. It was only months ago that her eyes wondered everywhere; but now she knows exactly who her parents are from across the room. Sometimes I just want to press the "pause" button to get some more time at each stage with her!

Every day we are seeing more of her personality, likes and dislikes. We get a lot of comments that she looks a lot like her dad... and I wonder if she'll be a "go getter" like him too. She wants to be in the middle of all the action; no sitting down for this little girl! She also loves being held out so that she can see everything that's happening. She is love hearing music and doesn't get upset when it sometimes surprises her. One of her favorite toys is the play gym that has the rattling toys overhead. She will kick them and grab on to them until she's bored; then she rolls on to her side and talks while sucking on both her hands. She's sleeping pretty well at night but doesn't realize that we would love her to fall asleep at 11pm... or please by midnight! She enjoys sleeping in; this morning until 10am and is groggy and a little grumpy waking up (just like her dad!). It's only a matter of days until we are up in Alaska for Christmas. Can't wait for Brooke to meet the Swanson family!

Crazy Weekend

(Photos from the Seattle Times)

We had a crazy weekend. Kent stayed the night at the school on Friday with his high school band students because they were off to Tacoma for the football state championship game Saturday morning at 6am.

The photo above is Kent's drum line. Jacob (wild hair guy) has been photographed by newspapers for the last four games. Kent's football team came back that afternoon as state champions! It was a very close game against Cascade Christian; the final score was 10-9. Kent said the whole town of Cashmere was in Tacoma that afternoon told by the steady stream of cars coming back over the passes. This is the second time Cashmere has been football state champions in school history. The last time in 1984.

That evening we had an orchestra rehearsal followed by Kent's big band gig. Sunday was another symphony rehearsal followed by the concert that evening. Luckily we had Caitlin's help with watching Brooke!


After all this craziness we were talking last night (Kent holding Brooke facing me) and I had a big SNEEZE! Brooke laughed for the very first time! So we tried it again and we got another laugh! So we grabbed the camera to catch these very first laughs.

As parents, these "firsts" are so exciting! It was a special moment for Kent and I to experience together!

On the Farm with the Chalmers'

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Swansons Get Down!

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Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanks Auntie Terri!

I've learned to dress babies in clothes that are a little to big for them. So we've started to enjoy this beautiful sweater (the hat is still a little to big). Pink seems to be a great color for her face, which is good because there is a lot of pink baby girl outfits out there!

The Tongue

Brooke has truly discovered her tongue in the last couple of days. I wonder if she's copying me or if she likes the feel of her tongue on her gums. Yesterday she stuck her tongue all the way out; it was soooo long!

I wonder if she's teething... she's a drooly mess and is chewing on everything!