Random thoughts by Chris Olsen

Things have gotten a little more complicated for the Olsen's. I am now commuting back and forth from Wasilla to Kotzebue for work. Although in this day and age we just have to be thankful that we are employed and that the family is healthy... I just finished my first two weeks on the new schedule. I tried to come home a day early so I could make sure I got home in time but the plane broke down in Nome and Alaska Airlines put us up in the Aurora Hotel. It was really nice... much better than anything in Kotzebue. I was surprised how much Nome is like a real city. They had little shops and everything. People claim that Kotz is a city,but it is just a big Village. There really is nothing in Kotz. Nome actually has a swimming pool, a movie theater and at least one fast food chain (Subway)... The next morning another Jet landed and took us on to Anchorage. I got home and we immediately had to prepare for Emma's baptism. Mel bought her a beautiful white dress, she looked like a little princess. And if you know Em. She put it through a fair amount of twirl practice. It was a very nice night. I got to baptize and confirm my little girl. We had some family over and I got to see my lovely wife for the first time in a month. I really appreciate her for all the work she does while I am gone. It is amazing how being away for a while, magnifies all of the things we love about a person...Man I love that woman...

This week we have been having blizzards left and right. The day before I came back to Kotzebue there was a big storm and one of the cargo planes crashed on the ice. No one was hurt thank goodness. I was kind of disappointed when I went out to take a picture of it and it had already been moved. One of my co-workers got a good picture. Maybe I will get a copy and post it. This is a picture of the mailbox out front of the post office. This might be the reason that mail delivery is so slow here.

Emma had her 2ND grade concert last week. (She is the one in the middle with the blue dress) Mel and I went and was expecting the same o'l kid concert, but the music teacher had other ideas. Instead of a holiday concert they took a few more months and worked really hard on a Broadway theme. Each class sung 2 songs and then they had a big finally at the end. It was amazing!!! they were all in tune, they knew the songs and it was the shortest concert ever at 25 minutes, Perfect!!!

Aidan is the funniest little guy...He loves music. He likes to borrow Emma's I-pod. He has the music bug. The little man can remember lyrics to almost everything he hears. Although in the car when Mel and I are talking he is always yelling "turn it up" He loves the radio blaring while he sits back in his car seat and belts it out...Man we get a kick out of him...

Raylene is quite the little character. She loves to dress up and play superhero. Although I am not sure what she is suppose to be in this picture... Kind of looks like a sword fighting super airline pilot... although if you can fly with a cape why would you be flying a airplane.. and how would you get the sword pass TSA?