5 Years!

This year Maren & Wells celebrated their birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. They each picked one friend and the rest of the partiers were family. My personal highlight of the birthday was when Maren came up to me and said "Mom, isn't this the best birthday party ever?". They both decided that my next birthday party should be held at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Tonya, Ethan & Mick

In Sept. my mom was finally able to fly back to Alaska after recovering from uterine cancer surgery in Minnesota. Jon (with assistance from friends and family)was able to work from home for a week while Dean and I flew to Alaska to help my mom and dad adjust. My mom is healing as well as can be expected given her circumstances. While I was in Alaska, my dad took this picture of me, my brother Ethan and the family dog, Mick.

Camping in Big Sur, CA

Our friends Beth & James Carlson invited us and a few other families to attend their annual camping trip to Big Sur, CA. It was a great time. The sounds of the ocean waves were so beautiful, the kids loved playing on the beach, adding to an already existing shelter, and trying to catch Crawdads in the creek next to our camping spots after dark. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Gymnastics Injury

Maren fell off the high bar at gymnastics. She had to wear this splint for a few weeks. Poor baby.

First Birthday for Dean Michael Isom

Our baby Dean Michael turned one year old on August 21st. He has been the easiest baby of all time! I suppose anything would be considered easy after the baby twin experience. Crazy how time flies. His birthday was a small family affair. We made a cake and gave it to him in the pan. He wanted nothing to do with it until he had his own little piece which he voraciously consumed. His birthday present was a mylar helium ballooon which he loved.

System Overload

Funny Wells

I was visiting my grandparents and was hoping Wells was sleeping. I went to check on him and found him with this wig on. I had to take a picture.

Maren

My brother Ethan's Halibut

Imagine going on a deep sea fishing charter. Last time we tried this the waves were too dangerous and we had to head back to shore. It was Jon, Ethan and I and we all had great hopes of enjoying the experience of catching 2 halibut each. The boat heads out and begin to see the most amazing scenery. We find a nice place to anchor and start fishing. The poles are much heavier than the salmon rods we are used to using and the weights are very heavy. The halibut are at the bottom of the ocean so you have to drop your line hundreds of feet down until the weight touches the bottom and then you reel it up 3 to 5 turns. Ethan catches the first fish. It is very huge as you can see in the picture. Ethan was a machine. He just reeled and reeled without stopping until that fish was in the boat. Just as we start to move closer to him he turns and spews his guts out onto the ocean. They say chumming is a great way to draw more fish to the boat so I guess we should have thanked him. He continued to feel sick for the rest of the day. He really did look green (I thought that was just in the cartoons) and lost his cookies numerous times and we were all feeling bad for him. Ethan was the last person to not meet his halibut limit for the day. He refused the SeaBands I brought and when it came time for him to pull in his 2nd fish he didn't stop reeling it in even though the rest of us seemed to have a tendency to reel a little more leasurely . Just as our deckhand was helping pull in Ethan's fish it slipped off and he lost it. Poor Ethan had to go through the process again. I felt so awful for him. When the day was done I turned to Ethan and said "So what do you think". Ethan's reply was "I had the best day". I loved the experience, and I am so glad Ethan did too because he was so sick.

Boat ride in Seward, AK

Jon's Yellow Eye

Sidney & Wells in Alaska Land

Jon & Sidney showing off her 16lb. Pike

Dean Michael Isom

My Mom

Love you Momma. Thursday I received word that my mom has cancer. Today all who love her sit on pins and needles while she undergoes surgery to remove the cancerous tissues. She has been such a great mom to me and my siblings and today I was forced to contemplate what it would be like to not have her in my life.

Good news, the doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota believes he has removed all of the cancerous tissues. I am beginning to feel a little more comfortable with this situation. Modern medicine, what a blessing.