Fall 2011 - Christmas wishes!

Merry Christmas from the Swanson family! We hope you enjoy a snapshot of our family life. Megan Sullivan Lyon took these terrific photos for us. Enjoy.




Megan also took Kirsten's senior pictures. Kirsten is planning on attending Point Loma Nazarene University next year. She is looking forward to going to school in San Diego, California.












Nutcracker was amazing this season. Kirsten was the "Snow Queen" and wowed the audiences as well as her own parents. She was gorgeous and a beautiful dancer.




Instead of Russian dance this year, we had the wolf dance. This was a fun and unique alternative to the traditional Russian dance.

Kirsten dances "flower" for the very last time!
Kirsten as 'WOLF"
pKirsten dances with the Nutcracker
Kirsten and Mariah check to see if their 1st chair Alaska All-State medals were gold. (Homer was well represented!)
Kirsten made Alaska All-State Choir (she made it all 4 years of high school). Students from all over Alaska performed a magnificent concert.
Kirsten, Peter Hendrickson and Claire enjoyed hanging out with the family for Thanksgiving. Karl got to come home as well. We enjoyed spending time with friends and family.


Claire turned 14 in October. In Alaska a person can get their driving permit at 14. She is enjoying 8Th grade and looking forward to ski season when Christmas break is over.
Homer Middle School Concert. Claire sings in the the choir and plays the flute in the band.
Thor on his throne! Karl flew down from UAF (Fairbanks, AK) to attend the Football state playoffs. Homer came in 2nd in the state.
Claire
Claire and Mariah dressed up in Togas for Halloween.
This is how we grow our pumpkins in Alaska!

Pirates at the Alaska State Fair.
Claire had fun playing soccer for the first time. She really liked it and plans to continue in future years.
We canned some of the fish Karl caught in Bristol Bay so he could take it to college. How many college students do you know that have fresh canned wild salmon at college!
Claire's first day of 8th grade at Homer Middle School.
Kirsten's first day of her senior year of high school.
Pete got us all stuck on the moose trek. We had to walk back in the dark.
We spent the night at Hidden lake campground on the way home from the Alaska State Fair.
Rachel, Claire and Mariah enjoy a mini shopping trip.
Lenore with her first moose....and food for the winter!

Lenore was one of the lucky ones that got drawn for the cow moose hunt. Karl had not yet gone back to UAF for the school year and was able to hunt with us. After several attempts Lenore went out alone and got her moose. The boys came to help take care of the aftermath.

Karl is still at UAF in the Honors Engineering program and doing well. Kirsten is ready for scholarship applications, upcoming Junior Miss pageant, and soccer. Claire is about to start cross-country skiing again. Lenore is still working on her M.A. and will be taking 6 graduate units again, and Pete is busy at school and lining out next year's high school football season.


Well, we hope you have enjoyed this snapshot of the Swanson family! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas full of family, love, peace and joy. Keep in mind the point of celebrating is Jesus!

Love, The Swanson Family

Pete, Lenore, Karl, Kirsten, and Claire

2011 - Spring and Summer

Pete finally got his brown bear back! It took up most of the upstairs rail!

Claire and Mariah enjoy one last camping trip to Hidden Lake before school starts.

Our church Elder Leadership families took an 2nd annual camping trip. Karl and Ian having fun sharing transportation.

Karl's new Thor - Viking look.

Kirsten and Mariah went to Sitka fine arts camp for two weeks in July and studied music and dance. Kirsten had fun visiting her old stomping grounds from Kindergarten.

4th of July in Sitka.

Downtown Sitka.

I got to chaperon the 8 Homer High school students who traveled to D.C. for National Honor Choir. What a great time of sight-seeing, singing, and finally performing for a full crowd at the Kennedy Center.

View of our front lawn! Sandhill cranes.

Church Family Camp was great fun. The girls hung out with Kerby.

John, Daniel and Lenore played camp songs around the campfire.

One very confused goose!

Grandpa and Grandma Swanson came to AK for a visit and we took them to Engineer Lake. We paddled our way in. Claire brought Kayla along for the adventure.

Grandpa and Kayla take off for a paddle.

We also took Grandpa and Grandma clamming at Ninilchik. We had such success that we ended up having a big pot of homemade clam chowder.

After sending the girls to Sitka from D.C. I took a few extra days and visited my dear friend Theresa in North Carolina. She took me to the Atlantic Ocean where it was too hot to even lay in the sun. Yikes.

We had Thai dinner at Nag's Head on the Outer Banks.

The amazing Kennedy Center performance.

The girls posed outside Ford's Museum where President Lincoln was shot.

Kirsten and Alain spent a week in Wasilla at Girl's State. They learned how to run government operations and Kirsten ended up the Speaker of the House.

Claire attended a Christian leadership camp for kids in Soldtna, then on to Naknek (a bush community in AK) with the Vantreases to help with their lodge and then to Camp Tanilian for fun in Port Alsworth. While all the kids were gone (Karl was fishing in Bristol Bay), Pete and I took a quiet couple of days at Dolly Varden Lake. We paddled in. The highlight was having a 5.2 earthquake and being 2 miles from the epicenter. The whole lake bubbled up with released gasses.

Karl and crew getting ready to set out fishing Bristol Bay.

Kirsten in the Alaskan Pacific.

We got a new Subaru (new to us anyway) for the Swanson fleet. Looks pretty good with the canoe on top.

The Kindergarten class loves Mr. Swanson...the last day of school.

Kirsten and Alaine were Jr. Marshalls for Graduation.

Karl was pretty happy to be leaving UAF for the summer! Now he is heading back this Sunday.

Traven and Kirsten (prom date) are now Student body President and V.P.

Even the parents got invited to prom dinner.

Mariah, Claire and Rachel are ready for the spring concert.

My first ever new car. I love it! It starts every day and even starts remotely from my classroom when it is -20 degrees outside. Whooeeee!

Easter Sunday at our new building. We made it stage friendly so the community could use the building for events.

The new coffee bar in the foyer at church. This project is done after several decades and 5 months of meeting in the gym for church. Yeah!

We hoped you enjoyed this Swanson Snapshot! Love to all of you.