Sayonara Baby

July 31 is a big day in Phelps history--at least for these Phelps'.
On July 31, 2001, Shawn and I arrived in Mito, Japan to start working as assistant English teachers. Then on July 31, 2004 we returned to America and started our family. Japan changed us in so many ways. We feel so blessed to have had three years worth of experiences in Japan. We met so many amazing people and gained some friendships that will last a lifetime.
It's unbelieveable to think that we've actually been back in America for four years now--that's longer than the three years we lived in Japan. But in our seven years of marriage, the three years that we lived in our Japanese apartment is still the longest we've lived in one place. Amazing, huh?

Us--March 2004

Now, we just pray that we're able to pass along to Carly and Isaac all the wonderful things that we gained from our time in Japan. So far, we must be doing something right because they both love rice, jinbeis, and Carly loves using her chopsticks.kiddos in jinbeis--May 2008

Lost Lake

Here are some pictures from our trip to Oregon. We went up to Lost Lake near Mt. Hood and stayed in a cabin for one night. Unfortunately, Shawn was already back in Juneau. But it was a fun cousin time with lots of the usual camping joys! Enjoy the pics.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

On Sunday, we spent some time making home made ice cream for an ice cream social later that evening with our church family. Shawn chose peach as the flavor, so we put our recently purchased bag of peaches to work. Carly was very impressed with the whole process. She had never seen homemade ice cream being made, so she thought it was very neat. And it was fun. It was quite the group effort. Carly and I made the ice cream mixture and Shawn did most of the job of churning the ice cream. We used our ice cream maker that we realized we hadn't used in almost seven years. Bob McCoy and family from Pocatello gave us the maker as a wedding gift and we used it a few times just after we got married, but not since. Here are some pictures from our ice cream social. It was to honor and say goodbye to Sarah our friend who is moving to Colorado at the end of week. We are not looking forward to her going, but we know it will be a good experience for her. We pray the Lord blesses her on her physical journey to the Colorado Springs area and on her personal growth journey that is sure to blossom as she takes this leap.Sarah (in the center) next to her Grandma Bea (a very special lady to our kids)

This was Isaac on Monday night. He seems to finally have the crawling thing figured out although it's not totally perfect. He pretty much uses one knee and one foot. (Like his cousin Gabrielle if I remember correctly.) Who knows if this will evolve into the perfect little tush rocking crawl or if he'll keep this up until he just walks. But for now it is getting him where he wants to go, much to the dismay of this unsuspecting laundry basket of socks. But isn't he just cute? Who could be upset with a little sock sorter that gives you a smile like that?

Today the clouds parted and we had a pretty nice day--not completely dry, but close enough. The three of us set out for a walk to the glacier. Carly was disappointed that we didn't see any bears. I was a bit surprised, because there were plenty of fish in the creeks near the glacier.Here are some of the Sockeye salmon trying to get up the creek to spawn.

This was as good as it got today. Isaac was not interested in taking pictures.
He was more interested in picking up rocks and trying to get them into his mouth.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

If you're not a Juneau-ite, you may not realize that it has been raining like crazy for the last week. But then again, I've heard from some of you that you think you know when it's been raining because you say I tend to blog less. That's probably true because I don't usually take as many pictures when we have dreary weather.
So in case you're interested, on average Juneau receives 4.12 inches of rain each July. But as of July 24th, according to my calculations from the reports on weather.com, we've received 6.59 inches. Since we got back to Juneau last week, it really doesn't feel like the rain has stopped. And in addition to the extra rain our temperatures have been about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than normal. We've had a bit of re-acclimating to do after coming from 85 degrees for three weeks in Oregon.

But despite the rain, we have done a few things this week. On Monday, we donned our rain jackets and fleece to watch Joe Paden's baseball game. His team, Juneau West All Stars were undefeated and are the current SE Alaskan Champs. They flew up to Anchorage on Thursday to play in the state tournament this weekend. We hope they do well. Joe is a great player and an even better kid.

This is us at Joe's game. Don't be fooled by our clever disguises, this picture actually was taken in mid July.

Mom and Isaac. Yes, he does smile practically all the time.

These next two pictures are of Carly and Isaac doing some indoor rainy day activities. I just have to laugh to myself when I hear of my friends down south who talk about the difficulties of keeping their kids indoors for a few days during their one rain storm of the season. Try eight days in a row. Actually I don't require that Carly stay inside. She does go out, just with rain jacket and boots--otherwise when would she be outside? And truth by told, my kids don't really mind staying inside, I'm the one that goes crazy. Silly me to want sunshine in July!
Good news! The forecast is looking up. We're just supposed to have a chance of "showers" on Sunday. And the little icon for Monday only has clouds with no liquid coming out of those clouds. We'll see, don't hold your breath.

Carly with her playdough

Isaac getting around and into things. He doesn't crawl very beautifully yet, but he gets all over the place if you give him enough time. And he finally seems somewhat interested in books other than for chew toys.

Vacationing with the Phelps'

Here are 8 signs you know you're on vacation with the Phelps family.


1. There's a car load of cousins everywhere we go.
2. great food
3. picnics
4. visiting unique places (we went all enjoyed the sturgeon pond at the Bonneville fish hatchery)
5. sourdough pancakes for breakfast
6. big cousins to practice their baby-sitting skills
7. playing blackout or other card games
8. mugs full of ice cold soda

We had a great time vacationing with Grandpa and Grandma Phelps, Uncle Eric, Aunt Shannon, and cousins Alexandra, Gabrielle, and Isaiah. Here are some pictures that I took on our outing to Multnomah Falls in Oregon. This is one of my favorite places in Oregon.

A New Friend

Isaac doesn't realize it yet, but just last Sunday a new little friend for him came into the world. Little Elijah was born to our friends Geoffrey and Dana last Sunday night. Apparently, he didn't want to wait until we got back from our trip to make his appearance. We won't hold it against him though. We were able to make it over to visit him yesterday. He was 6 lbs, 10 oz at birth, but Dana says he's down to 6 lbs, 2 oz now. I always enjoy holding babies this size because my kids were never visible when they were that small. In fact, with Isaac, I had an ultrasound at 36 weeks (or just starting my 9th month) and they estimated that he was already 6 lbs at that point. He was born just three weeks later at 9 lbs, 13 oz. So as you can see holding such a small baby is not "old hat" for me even though I've held two babies in particular a whole lot.
Welcome, Elijah! We are glad you're here and look forward to many play dates in the future. Here are also a few cute pictures of the kids on Thursday during our northward trek. These were taken in the play area at the Seattle Airport. This family only needs two things to make an airport layover in Seattle fun--the play area and a frosty from Wendy's.And if you saw my post a week or so ago about my brother moving to Richland, here's the true picture of all his worldly belongings...minus the little stowaway. This is his 12 x 6 Uhaul trailer all loaded up and ready for the road on Wednesday. My Dad towed the trailer up for him because apparently Uhaul won't allow you to pull one of their trailers with a Ford Explorer--because of that tire recall years ago. Anyway, Eric got all of his things and is settling into his new apartment. It sounds like his first week of work went well too.