I took this picture of the kids in July of 2000. It was a photo contest that the newminer ran. You picked up one of those throw away cameras, took the 12 pictures it had on it, and then turned it in. They then published the pictures that they chose as winners. We won 2nd place for this one. I think I got a newsminer coffee mug for it. Anyways, just came across it and it made me smile at the memory.

Okay, being that the Holiday's are over, not to mention that it is MINUS 40 below outside, there has not been a whole lot going on around here lately for me to post about. I decided I would re-tell you all a story about Carson.

This was a couple of years ago, when Carson was around 10 years old.

While we were in New York (Jared and I) for hockey, Derek was working nightshift, so Carson was being shuffled back and forth between family and friends during that time period.

He stayed one night with my younger brother Steve, his wife Connie and their daughter Maggie. Maggie was 7, I think.

Anyways, Connie told me this story, so hopefully I repeat it correctly. Connie said they were watching soccer on TV. (Maggie was, and still is big into soccer). So they are watching some sort of professional soccer on TV, and Aunt Connie jokingly says to Carson something like "Hey Carson when Maggie is playing soccer for the USA Olympic team are you going to come and watch her play?" So Carson replies something like (with all seriousness)

"Yeah, I will try, but I will probably be so busy with my own NHL schedule that I doubt I will be able to make it!"

That's my Carson!

All Stars prosper Anchorage Daily News Published: January 2nd, 2009 11:08 PMLast Modified: January 2nd, 2009 11:08 PM Kyle Clapper scored off a Daniel Roberts pass earlier this week to lift the Alaska All Stars 16AAA midget hockey team to a 3-2 win over Honeybaked and claim the championship of the Honeybaked Invitational Holiday Hockey Tournament in Detroit. Jared Linnell and Kyle Simmons also scored for the All Stars to support the 24-save effort of goaltender Trevor Gutierrez. The All Stars advanced to the championship game with a 4-2 win over Victory Honda. Alaska used two goals from Bradley Duwe and one each from Linnell and Austin Wuthrich to back goalie Blake Mendenhall's 23 saves. The All Stars concluded their trip by watching the Detroit Red Wings beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 behind the goaltending of Ty Conklin of Anchorage. After the game, the All Stars took a team photo on the ice at Joe Louis Arena and were invited into the Red Wings' dressing room. Article I found in the Anchorage Daily Newsminer about the Allstars 1st place win.

Ping Pong time...

Jared built his Ping Pong table at about 9am on New Years day. I on the other hand had stayed up until about 3am, and was trying to sleep in, but he was on Detroit time, so was wide awake! I woke up to the drill!! What could I say, since he took the initiative to build it himself. It folds up and it now in the garage where they play it.

Happy New Year...

Ringing in the New Year!

The biggest kid of them all, Uncle Mike plays dart guns with the kids....

(see the dart coming towards him by the picture frames? He is trying to dodge it).
Grandma with Macy on her first New Years

Tiger has to share my lap, and doesn't mind since Macy gives him a little scratch!

It was hard to do much with the cold, but we had way too much food, games, and lots of family made celebrating the New Year on a below 40 F or colder night very enjoyable.

Happy New Year!

Since we finally took all the photos off of Jared's camera phone to get those Detroit pictures, we also found these.

This was a picture that Jared took while looking into one of those round hallway mirrors at the hospital. While we were waiting for Macy to be born the kids were finding ways to entertain themselves. That is Carson and Maggie behind him.

Jared captured this monster of a moose walking through McDonalds while he was living in Anchorage this past fall. Can you imagine? He is lucky they were offering Chicken McNuggets and not Moose McNuggets!