Christmas Comes to Kenai

Alright, most of these are pictures of our new fireplace... it was such a hassle to get it installed we had to document the results! There are also some good pics of the house decorated for Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
* The Stantons *

Christmas comes to Kansas

We had a lovely visit with Ben's family in Topeka and little Sammy was baptized!

A reminder that all these pictures come from our online gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Benjamin.J.Stanton ... there are videos too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
*The Stantons*

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

We had fun taking Sam the Pumpkin out for his first halloween. We even had two trick-or-treaters come to the house!

Visit to Arizona!

Debbie and Sam went on a 10-day trip to visit family in Arizona... and they actually brought the camera! Join us on the adventure...

Seward trip

We decided it wasn't wintery enough yet, so we had to go visit a glacier near Seward. The first 2 pictures are in our house and the next are all by Exit Glacier. We both remembered the hike up to the glacier being paved, so we brought the stroller along. Needless to say, we abandoned it about halfway up. If it was raining we probably would have quit there, but it was warm and clear enough to keep going. The pictures are kind of deceiving... it looks like we can reach out and touch the glacier, but there's actually a pretty big crevasse between us and the side. We decided not to climb over the barricades to touch the pretty ice - there's a $5,000 fine, and the potential for ice calving and crushing us. Maybe next time.

Continuing to "winterize" the house...
*The Stantons*

Beach and Oktoberfest

Okay, so there's only 1 picture of Oktoberfest... so sue us.

Mid September

I'm reading Sam "The Pluto Files" by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Great book!

Camping Stantons

These are pictures of our Labor Day camping trip in Denali Park. The majority were taken on the road into Denali Park. We actually got a chance to see Mt. McKinley on our drive up. Sam was a great camper and seemed to enjoy life in a tent... probably because it's a baby-sized house. Enjoy! (We did.)

Silver Screen Sammy

Mittens and Monsters

(The title sounds like a good northern-climate-pre-teen-fiction-mystery series.)

Many people have been very generous with gifts for Sammy. They are all special and appreciated. This slideshow highlights the very first gift he got (wacko green monster from Nic and Kier) wielded by Ben's mom Kay, and the first gift for his little hands (not-wacko green mittens from Leann Kunz) wielded by Sammy Mack:

Very serious pictures of Sammy Mack

Yes in some he is smiling, but the serious business of babyness is also revealed:

No pics? Here's some pics:

Sometimes the cameraman is not well represented. So I made a particular point to over-document the camera guy this time. Yes, Grandad does exist!

Smilin' Sammy

visit pictures

 

 

 

 

The Grandparents Visit!

Pictures from Debbie's mom's visit and Ben's parent's visit.


Pictures that Ben's dad, Lon, took during the visit.


Pictures taken the week after Sam was born, on the beach in Kenai during the dipnetting season. For information on Kenai dipnetting, listen to a story Ben ran about it here: http://www.kbbi.org/AudioNews/090717.dip%20net.MP3

Sammy boy

More pictures of Samster. To see the pics individually, you can go to our Picasa site here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Benjamin.J.Stanton!

Samuel Macmillan Stanton

Born: 7-8-09 1:31pm AKDT
Weight: 7lb. 6oz.
Height: 20 3/4in.
Grade: A
Sign: Cancer
Parents: Ben & Debbie Stanton of Kenai, AK

Finally a new post!

Pictures include Ben's trip to Seward, a walk on the beach, and the KDLL Summer Solstice Music Festival:


Check out the newest pictures! We can't believe that there's only a month until the due date (July 17th). The last nine months have gone so quickly, especially since moving. We're getting the house together for the baby and attempting to grow a garden to no avail. Bear sightings in our neighborhood! We found some tracks on a walk, but no Yogi or Smokey. Yesterday we saw a moose with her twins, so that was pretty great. Just enjoying the Alaskan experience : )

Take care, and happy father's day to all the dads out there!
*Ben & Debbie*

The choco title is almost as good as a real title!

We've signed all of the paperwork and, as of Thursday at 9 a.m., will be the official new owners of 4150 North Dogwood Road. We'll actually have a place for people to come when they visit. Yippee! Our own little log cabin in the woods. Okay, the "woods" are really a residential area but there are trees and stuff. Now let the visits commence!

*Debbie*

Debbie's Belly

You'll see it here first, folks... Debbie with quite a belly. It's only bound to get bigger (until it gets alot smaller). The two ultrasound pictures are the best we could get -- the baby had his/her arm in front of her/his face the whole time! Happy Easter!!!

Flat Molly & the Cabin

Hello all!

Some new pictures from our house to yours. The first set involves pictures taken with a Miss Flat Molly, sent to us in the mail from Topeka, Kansas. We had fun hiking near a frozen lake with her, and she met some new friends along the way. The last pictures were taken during the home inspection of the cabin we are very close to buying. There is an accepted offer and we're just waiting to close. Hopefully we'll be moved in by May 1st!

Enjoy the show!

*Ben & Debbie*

No ashes or puffin...

I might be an ash blonde, and Ben might have some ashy wisdom in his hair, but we haven't yet been confronted by Mount Redoubt's outburst. The wind has been blowing northeast, which means no problems for us. The power was out for a bit yesterday but that was due to an avalanche, not the volcano, so the joke's on it. It thinks it's so tough!

*Debbie*

Pictures!

Hello all!

Some new pictures to share...


Enjoy!
*Ben & Debbie* (more news to come soon)

New Stuff!

Yes, something finally happened around here...

No volcano eruption...
No baby, yet...
but...

a job!

Debbie just got a job as a Grant Assistant with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe. It is a temporary position until June -- perfect for the July due date! She starts on the 16th.

We're also house hunting, and are hoping to be able to make an offer soon.

Still snowing! But we can tell Spring is around the corner because there is a family of rabbits living under our stairs, and boy are they fat.

Until next time... *The Stantons*

Alright already

Thanks to some demanding notes by Anonymous (my guess is it's Mr. Kendall)... here are some new pictures:



ENJOY!

We are now in an almost-sorta-semi-permanent-until-the-summer apartment now, so hurray! Looking for houses, and Debbie is looking for jobs ("Yes, hello, can you train me and pay me lots of money and then give me paid vacation in 5 months?... Hello?"). Have new Alaskan plates and Drivers' Licenses. No, we won't post pictures of them, because our underage friends (Brad & Vincent, maybe?) might try to profit off of them.

We went down to Homer, AK on Thursday for the night and visited a Meadery. Yes, that is an establishment that makes and sells mead. Tim J. & Brent would love it! Oh yes, and the illustrious Mr. Kendall. We visited the beach, although it is really difficult to sunbathe in the snow. Many eagles in a section of "The Spit" with signs that say: "Do not exit your vehicles. Do not attempt to feed the eagles." Finally saw Mount Redoubt on the drive back. I doubt Redoubt's gonna blow... it still looks like a frosty old mountain to me!

Ben felt the baby kick for the first time. Debbie felt the baby kick for the umpteenth time.

Take care! *The Stantons*

New pictures!

Alright, we've uploaded the pictures from our trip. We put them in a slideshow on Picasa because Blogger is a little clumsy to upload to. We probably could have taken more pictures but, 1. We were too busy enjoying ourselves, 2. It's a new camera and Debbie was at the helm, 3. We like to keep some things a mystery so you're more likely to want to see it for yourself!

Enjoy! *Debbie & Ben*

Final ETA=now

We made it, and although we have not had the chance to explore much yet, our first impressions of Kenai and Soldotna are very good.

We are staying at a great Bed and Breakfast (Diamond M) for about a week.

Excellent dinner at Paradisos.

More photos Saturday morning. Right now it's bedtime.


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Map it again

As of Wednesday night...finally in the state!


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some pictures

Map it again

This is our trip as of Tuesday night. We cut it short because of snow, but we are still making good time.


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Pictures before we left

We hadn't had a chance to put any pictures of the preparation up yet, so here is one of the apartment piling up and leaving.

Map it out

Here is our trip so far, and the flags show each stop along the way


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First bump on the road...

We've cleared out the apartment and taken this bump on the road...

The trip so far.

We are in Winnipeg, Canada... enjoying Google Canada (offered in French) and fireworks.

Yes, some kind Canadian teenagers just welcomed us to their country by lighting pretty fireworks outside the hotel : )

But the trip isn't finished yet!

Packin' Up

Well, the car is slowly being overrun by stuff, and our apartment is disappearing into boxes. Anyone feel like helping the Swifts move our piano?!? It feels like we're really on the last leg of our Iowa adventure... soon to be on the road again!