Rhubarb growing under the snow

I shoveled the snow off the rhubarb plants so they would grow quicker, and this is what was there.

Easter pictures for Holly

Holly, here are some photos of Abigail and Grace for you. Perhaps this can be a little happy birthday greeting for you. By the way, is your birthday tomorrow (AU time) or the next day (AK time)?

Easter Email

Dear Family and Friends,
We hope you are all doing fine this Easter. We just arrived home from a good church service and are going to the Tauriainens for dinner later this afternoon. It is kind of cool out today, even with the sun shining it is only in the high 20's. Much of the snow has melted with only about 2 feet left to become liquid.
The first weekend of April we were in Kirkland, Washington visiting Heidi and John. They were doing fine and the weather was very nice. They called it SPRING! John and i played several golf games while Lois Ann and Heidi shopped. We could only afford 9 holes with the ladies shopping the same time we were golfing. On the 3rd and 4th of April we took a ferry ride over to Victoria. There are some photos on the blogs of Butchart Gardens which were beautiful.
On our arrival back in Alaska it looked like spring had arrived here although it was a little cooler. Just as i was thinking our second spring was here it snowed 2 more inches over everything that had melted. The second spring will come soon....
March was a very busy month. They had the Arctic Winter Games here on the peninsula. Young folks from many of the northern countries come to compete in many games like hockey, basketball, soccer, volleyball, badminton... and also lots of native games as well. Lois Ann and a lot of the secretaries and teachers volunteered with helping out. They have been having these events every couple of years for about 20 years now.
Hockey season ends in March so the Bantam hockey team i help coach went to Fairbanks for the final tournament. They finished in second place out of nine teams. So that was a good ending to a very successful year. In three other tournaments this year we had two firsts and one other second place finish. Some of the boys had not skated on a team before.
Holly is doing fine in Perth, Australia. She is applying for a visa to stay longer. Amy Stynsberg is also over there and Karen Rose Tauriainen is going over soon. That will be nice for her.
Christoffer is up in Anchorage electrifying the docks for now. He has been praying that the snow keeps coming so he can keep snow machining on the weekends.
We hope you all have a nice SPRING!!!
God Bless You,
Mark and Lois Ann

Taxing Times

This is not my favorite activity of the year. In fact it is the least favorite thing to do and therefore it gets put off until the last minute. I did get taxes sent in on the 15th even though we had until the 17th this year.

A few years back there was a contest somewhere online for the messiest computer office space. At tax time i could come close to winning the prize. If anyone knows the web address of the messiest home office space let me know.

Some family portraits

This is a great picture of Heidi, John, and Johns Dad Chuck.
This was taken just before we left for the airplane. The camera was sitting on a glass table.
Can you see Lois Ann, Heidi, and John in this photo? This is not Alaska unfortunately, but Victoria, BC.
Almost looks like Christmas.

The Coffee Photos

It was amusing to see about 10 'coffee cup photos' of John and Heidi when we went to Butchart Gardens. It was cool outside as you can tell by the jackets and the coffee helped to add some warmth.

What is different?

I wish i knew how to make the photos switch from one to the next in a flash presentation but you can still play the game this old fashioned way.