My beginning photography tutoring

My friend Megan is giving me photography tutoring on my new camera. I am finally learning to take it off of auto and put it on manual. She even posed for me in this series. I am looking forward to a sunny southern US summer vacation where everything will be in color instead of grey. It should make picture taking much more interesting.

Easter Sunday in Alaska

Kirsten and her friend Casey look for lost eggs. At least there is no snow. We still had snow at our house.

Claire is looking for her eggs.

The kid table ate first since there were almost 40 of us. Then the adults ate at the tables. Everyone had a great time, and Bryan Court serenaded us with some singing and guitar playing.

Grace and Kirsten hanging out after Easter dinner.

April in Alaska is always a surprise

Kirsten, Claire and Kaela navigate the road to Kaela's house.

Our Kids at Youth Group Events

And of course, what would snow camp be without a couple of good snow machining jumps. Karl LOVES riding and jumping his machine.

Kirsten is participating in the grape toss....hope nobody chokes!

Karl is 'encouraging' Morgan to ride snow machines! Morgan is not convinced. (Morgan is one of our dog Kate's, puppies - 2 years old now.)

Kirsten and Briana hoarsing around at snow camp.

The Youth went out to Caribou Lake on Snow Machines and had a great time. Even playing egg toss in the snow. Karl is in the blue and white coat and Kirsten in the brown.

Youth Group Painting the Youth Room, (and themselves!)

April in Alaska

Here is our Pioneer Club 3-6th grade earning our hiking badge on the Spit. My best friend Kathy has a small 3/4 class and I have 19 5/6th graders. We have a lot of fun. This week, we are planning our annual camp-in, tents and all.

Karl and Clayton riding together

The Beachy's came and spent the day with us. While the mom's scrapped, the kids went sledding, played LEGOS and rode snow machines.

What a great way to spend Spring Break.

Karl and his hockey buddies (Asa, Josh and Luke) are out for just one more ride before the season ends.

If you look closely, you can se Karl and Pete snowmachining at the bottom of the ravine, while Mt. Redoubt is going off in the background. The volocano has given us quite a lot of excitement, with bursts of ash covering our snow from time to time.

Kirsten is loving choir and band at the high school this year. She just finished the huge production of "GODSPELL". She was one of the main singers, and even got to do a little soft shoe dancing.

Bowling with 5/6th grade Pioneer club was a lot of fun. We had 16 people turn out and a couple of mom's as well.

Claire and her friend, enjoy hanging out for the day during spring break, a welcome break from school.

This the the cabin that we wish we could afford to buy out at Caribou Lake. We can get on our snow machines and get out to the lake in about 40 minutes, right from our house. Alas, maybe someday

Here it is April and we still are going sledding one more time. Claire is out for an afternoon ride on her (and her sister's 550). Luckily all of us love to snow machine (please do not embarass yourself by saying snowmobile in Alaska...ha!) Lenore is getting in on the fun as well.

Alaskan Winter View

Karl had a great season in hockey this year. He moved from offense to defense and really likes the new position. Football season along with a lot of working out has really helped him to get in shape and be a better hockey player. Now that hockey is over, he is working out every day after school with next year's senior football players. He is still refereeing some Mite hockey games and riding his snowmachine whenever possible.
This is the morning view from our house. Pretty spectacular. We live on a postcard. We are thankful to be in Alaska.



Kirsten is still dancing. She was lead angel in Nutcracker and also danced, snow, flower and Russian. She is hoping to take a dance intensive this summer at Arizona State University for two weeks. It is also a good excuse to get some sunshine and visit with grandpa and grandma.

Welcome to the Swanson Family Blog.

Pete and I (Lenore) just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. We took this picture ourselves in front of the Anchorage Performing Arts Center. We celebrated by attending/participating in an Irish band concert; Cherish the Ladies. The kids had a happy time staying with some of their best friends.