Christmas Festivities

Well Christmas is here again, and the festivities have grown more and more as the big day approaches. After coming home from church and getting the Baptist nap, I felt inspired to build our ginger bread house. Within minutes the boys were playing and watching tv and the girls were perfecting the exterior design of the 1 bedroom home. All I know is whoever will live in this wonderful home will have a sweet exterior.

Then we decided to go ahead and have the family picture, and personally I will never go to Sears Portrait Studio again. I don't mean to boast - but I think ours turned out way better. Anyways, I will post our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pics come that evening if I'm not dead tired. Love you all and Merry Christmas.

--
Greg

View the entire Album HERE!

The Ghost Light

My sony camera has built in infra-red on it and it allows us to make the kids laugh and get freaked out when they see themselves on the LCD. Take a look and don't say that we didn't warn you.

--
Greg

Matthew - Up close

Ok -

So I am going to start adding video every once and a while to this blog. If you are on a slow connection, I'm sorry but my children's cuteness needs to be shared with the familia (that's spanish for family). Anyways, this is a real short clip of Matthew getting to see himself for the first time in the LCD screen of the video camera just before he goes to bed.

Enjoy.

--
Greg

Back in Swing of Things

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Ok -

now that vacation is over it is time to get back to updating the blog. I gave you guys phase 1 on Hawaii, but phase 2 will have to wait till later. There are some other pressing things that have occured in our family that need to be shouted from the blogosphere. So here we go:

Christmas is HERE!!

This is our first Christmas in our new home and Karen and I are excited. We have decorated the outside as much as rent lights will take us, and we plan on buying more right after Christmas.

So we put up the tree and Matthew and Rachel were a huge help. Rachel especially, she got right to hanging ornaments and setting up manger scenes, then taking them down and doing it all over again. So please come on over and give us the pleasure of showing of our modest abode.

Lady and the Whitworths
Ok. I can't believe I fell, but the time finally came when I allowed a four legged creature to enter my home - and no - Jeff doesn't count. I went to the dump and took Rachel with me, because what little girl doesn't want to see the dump; especially my little girl whom hates to get her hands dirty. Anyways, we were leaving and I decided to let her look at the animals at the shelter - and from there the rest is history.

Her name is Lady, because we let Rachel name her and that is the only female name she blurted out besides plain ol' "dog." So we brought her home today and she is very worn out and still getting accustomed to the new digs. She is a Lab/Retreiver mix and we look forward to what she will bring to our little family on KGB.

New Job
Ok - so I was working for a wonderful company called Larry Moore & Associates for 6 months and got to shoot events for the Asoociated General Contracters, photograph Wynona Judd, learn video to some degree, and even take part in a historic 50th celebration event.

It was a huge blessing to work with LM&A but I was approached by an Ad Agency to come and work with them. Most cases I wouldn't even consider up-rooting my work life except for the fact that this new agency had benefits. Long story short - I got the position and am working with a company named Marketing Solutions.

Whew.... well I hope that that gets you guys up to date and you can go a little while without one. I will update you guys after the holidays are over. Love you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

--
Greg

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Hawaii -

VIEW THE ENTIRE HAWAII PHOTO ALBUM HERE!!

Ok - its been a while since I posted last and that is mainly because I have been insanely busy and have also had the wonderful opportunity to go to Hawaii. So - without further adue here is the break down...

Holiakala (8.5 / 10)

The first touristy thing that we did was bike down a volcano on Maui named, you guessed it, Holiakala. It hasn't erupted since 1719 so don't worry too much. We got up at 1:30 AM(way too early on a vacation) and headed to Sunrise Riders to get the bikes and gear and head out on the 1.5 hour drive up the volcano. We arrived at around 5 AM and at an elevation of about 10 thousand feet. We waited for about 30 minutes and the sun finally started coming up.

The sunrise was, in the words of the local surfer, the most epic sunrise I had ever seen. It was truly spectacular. The smoke from Mount Kilauea and the sun added to the colors and brilliance of the sun rise.

The volcano itself was huge and magnificent in its own right. Inside the volcano were tons of cynder cones, they are areas where the volcano had erupted leaving a a miniature looking volcano behind. Inside there are miles of hiking trails and even cabins to sleep in, so you could easily spend days in the volcano.

But we went down the volcano on bikes, and we stayed to the outside of the volcano on a paved road and gauked at the scenery and enjoyed the warm air. All in all it took about 2 hours to get down the volcano and return our gear.

Snorkeling (10 / 10)

We did a lot of snorkeling while in Hawaii, and I must say that this was my favorite thing to do down there. It was a amazingly relaxing and satisfying all at the same time. We went to three places while on Maui: Molikini, Turtle Town, and Black Rock. The first we went to was Turtle Town, it was very clear and had 2 turtles from what we could see, and hundreds of fish. Molikini, is one of the top 10 snorkeling stops in the world but we didn't get good weather while at the sunken volcano so there wasn't much sea life and the water was pretty choppy.
The second to last day on Maui we went to Kaanapali and went to a snorkeling destination known as Black Rock. The sun was shining, there were hundreds of people, and the local could not be better. We dove in and the water was crystal clear. About 100 yards from the beach Karen and I came face to face with 3 sea turtles, and a plethora of colorful sea life. This was by far the best place for us for multiple reasons: tons of wildlife, gorgeous weather, and really cheap (all you have to do is rent the gear ($10), you don't have to be shuttled out to the location like the other two).

Surfing (7 / 10)

This was fun in its own right but was quite difficult to master. What am I saying, I definitely haven't mastered it. From the beginning our instructor informed us that we would be worn out at the end of the session and he was right. We paddled and paddled, and paddled, and paddled. Then rode a wave. Then paddled, and paddled, and paddled, and I think that you get the picture. Karen was amazing and took to surfing really quick. My instructor informed me that that is usually how it goes though since women are usually smaller and their center of gravity is lower, but my pride was still hurt. That isn't to say that I didn't surf, I did get up on every wave I just could only stay on the board for a little while and then fell off. Anyways, worth the money to do, but I look forward to doing it more and practicing so that I'm not as embarrassed next time.




Well that is all this time around - I will write next time on the shopping and the other stuff we did. So talk to you guys later. LOVE YA.

--
Greg

VIEW THE ENTIRE HAWAII PHOTO ALBUM HERE!!

PUMBKINS!! (<< Rachel Speak)

Well, I know it's been some time since I last posted. Well, here you go. Rachel and Matthew painted 'baby' pumpkins last night. Everything was going fine until Matthew decided to see what the yellow tasted like on the edge of his brush. You can see in the pictures that he put quite a bit in his mouth. Luckily it was non-toxic paint, but from there on Matthew wasn't too keen on painting the pumpkin.

Rachel seemed very intense on making sure that her pumpkin was perfect, at one point she even started wielding 2 brushes. We are excited at how much she enjoys art - who knows - maybe we have another Karen on our hands.

They turned out pretty good and we have them on display on our counter, so come on by and see them - Rachel would love to show them off - TRUST ME.

Anyways, this painting of the pumpkins officially starts the beginning of the Holiday season so; Happy Holidays.

God Bless,
Greg

View the entire pumpkin painting album HERE>>

Adding Comments...

I have had many readers express that they don't know how to leave comments to my posts, so I thought that I'd address that issue right now. Google has a great article on how to leave comments on Blogger posts HERE!

Also, for future reference - I have added this article to the 'Important Links' section to the left, allowing you to have easy access if you run into trouble. Thanks for reading and I hope that this clears up some of your comment issues.

--
Greg

Labor Day - Part II

From Blog Heads

Well, my mom pointed out that I have neglected to post the pics from the Whitworth Labor Day evening, so I thought that I'd get it done before I forget again. So here they are - nothing too amazing but you do get to see Matthew's and Eli's birthday celebrations.

We had a great time, and hopefully the photos reflect that. I will be publishing some more pics later - and will soon have a blog post covering the many faces of 'Jeff.'

View the entire Labor Day Album HERE!

--
Greg

Took a Shot (Sorry about the Pun)

From Blog Heads

Well, as you may all know - I love photography; as a hobby at least. After seeing so many wonderful photo shoots by a friend of mine at Kara Pennington Photography, I got inspired. So, I sought out to do a no-kidding photo shoot of my two willing loving children.

Rachel

I took her to 4 or 5 different places in Wasilla, trying to show off the natural beauty of the land and her adorable smiles. She was very excited about the shoot, every time I'd ask her if she wanted me to take pictures she'd say, "Yeth (she has a lisp right now - it's really cute.)" Then we'd stop and look at all of our pics on the camera.

We went to a playground at a local school and took some shots of her - but unfortunately - she fell off the slide, as you can see I got a mid-air shot of her scary ride. She was completely fine - but it scared her enough to have her scream in my arms, so photo shoot was over.

See Rachel's Shoot Here!

Matthew

We took an easier approach with him since 1 year old toddlers aren't too crazy about sittin' still. We picked a decent afternoon and sat him on a log in the front yard dirt. He was thrilled to play with the leaves and of course, being my son - was not camera shy.

See Matthew's Shoot Here!

Let me know what you think -

--
Greg

Labor Day 2008 - Part I

Hey Guys,

This is Part I of a two part mini series of Labor Day Weekend. We went to the Gross' house last night and they showed the kids their new swing set that they obtained through Craig's List.

Rachel loves swing sets, she went down the slide about 30 times and then went on the swings, and then back and forth between the two. She did get knocked down once by a fellow swinger - but she brushed herself off and got back to playing. So check out the gallery of pics and be prepared for Part II as we head for the Whitworth home.

See the whole gallery HERE!

State Fair - Here we Come!

We decided to hit the fair today since it was a nice day out. Boy, am I glad that we did - it was gorgeous all day. The second the gates opened we were in, and so was thousands of other people.

We let Rachel ride 3 rides and she wasn't too thrilled being by herself on the first one - she came around later in the ride though.

We stayed for about 4 hours - but we had a ball and I hope the you guys enjoy the pictures.

See the rest of the images here!

Daddy Time 2!

Karen had to work today, and it was quite the eventful day, so I got the joy of watching my two little angels (no sarcasm in that - I'm serious). We started off the day by watching a movie and cleaning the house (it needed it bad). Then we decided that we were tired....and we should ALL take a nap. I thought it was a genius idea and so we all climbed into my bed and went to sleep for an hour or so. Then we got up and went to Palmer to see mommy and to see the train. We played on the NON-USED tracks and under the trees for a while until we decided to head to the store.

Then we went home and there was this awesome sunset so we took a shot of it from the road - hope you guys like it.

View all of the images from this ALBUM!

--
Greg

Jeff & Heidi's

I know, I know - I haven't had a blog post in a while. Well, things are pretty busy up here in the AK, so the blog posts kinda had to wait. Ah well, on with the blogging, or the posting.

I was invited over to my brothers for dinner and it just so happened that I was free for the evening. I was able to get Rachel and Matthew to clear their schedules as well and join me and their cousins for the evening.

We had a great time, of course, the kids jumped on the trampoline and the adults played bad mitten - so we were all playing Olympic sports. If you look at the pics, I think that Bry and Blake could go to the Olympics and be pro tramoliners. Hmmm.... that's a funny thought.

Here are the results of the bad mitten throw down:

Brad and Greg vs Jeff: Jeff Wins
Brad and Jeff vs Greg: Greg Wins
Jeff and Greg vs Brad: Greg & Jeff Win

There you have it folks, thank you for listening to ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio.com for all of your Olympic needs. Good Night.

View the rest of the photos from this album!

--
Greg

CROQUET!!

Well, Grandpa Dick is leaving tomorrow so the whole family got together for one last shin-dig. We had crab, and well, nothing else really matters because, well, we had crab. But, we set up the croquet set and we had a blast - we played 3 or 4 games and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Matthew and Rachel tried - but the clubs were just a little big right now - maybe next year guys. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy the album of the family enjoying the sun and the family time.

See the rest of the pictures from this album HERE!

--
Greg

Good Bye Grandpa Dick.

Well, the time has come to watch Grandpa Dick ride off into the sunset sunrise towards the warmer weather of Oregon. We had a great time with you Dick and I hope that even though it was rainy, that you enjoyed Alaska. Let's see here - you got to go to Fairbanks, Whittier, Seward Sea Life Center, Wasilla Transportation Museum, Anchorage Aviation Museum, Portage Wildlife Center, and of course got to have a lot of family cook outs. Sounds to me like a pretty good vacation. So I hope that you had a good vacation and that you will have a good trip. It was nice having you up here and we hope to see you soon. God Bless.


--
Greg, Karen, Rachel, and Matthew

Casting Crowns Concert

Our College Group at our church went out Saturday night to the Casting Crowns concert. This was unlike any concert that I have ever been too - it was remarkable. They had the words up on the screen the whole time (which made it feel more like a worship service than a concert), and more importantly they basically had a sermon that they then used their songs for emphasis. I was very impressed with their attitudes and their desire for Jesus Christ, you knew for sure that they were there for his glory only.

If they ever come back up this way - make sure to see them - they were awesome.

--
Greg

See the rest of the Casting Crown pics here!

Plant a Tree!

Hey,

We finally had some sun tonight and so we ran out side and planted 2 trees and hydrenga flower (spelling is wrong I'm sure). Anyways, we had fun and we finally have some green in the yard - and of course tons of smiles.

View the other 20 images from this album!

Welp I love you all. Gotta get some sleep.

--
Greg

Sea Life Center

Another weekend was cloudy, which this summer equals gorgeous day; so, we took the opportunity to go with the Gross family to the Seward Sea Life Center. This isn't a mere jump across the pond, it's 190 miles each way - and takes about 3 hours to travel. We left at about 10 AM and the kids were done driving at about 11 AM - they finally fell asleep at about 12 PM and we showed up at the center at 1. All of you parents out there know what happened, we had to wake our young lings up from their much needed naps. So, Rachel was crabby and Matthew was a ticking time bomb.

Now on to the center, once we got in there - Rachel was just enamored by the fish. We must of stood at that first exhibit with simple silver fish in it for about 10 - 15 minutes (kind of made me laugh to myself).

Then we moved on to the little pool that has little touchable living creatures in it. Rachel was not too keen on touching them, and since she was already cranky - I didn't make her touch them.

We then went out and met Steve - is that the Sea Lion's name - no but I have now named him Steve. Rachel loved him - she got a kick out of watching him go under the water and then come back up and then go back down (could have been there all day).

Rachel went into this cave and I instantly thought, "OH - RACHEL - PHOTO OP!" That wasn't too smart - she was not in the mood to be cooperative at all - as you can see.

We then went to the next exhibit where there are rare water birds that go crazy, and splash which of course Rachel loved.

Then we saw the Sea Lions from underneath and Matthew thought he was watching TV (we could have left him there and he would of loved it.) So, I got the worker there to let us have Matthew up close with the big Lion since he liked him so much.

Finally, we saw the birds from below - I know that that sounds boring, but there are some birds here that go swimming. The funniest part about it is Rachel's shoes had lights on them, and one certain bird - loved the lights, and kept on pecking at them. Downright hilarious.

All in all it was a good trip, and we saw some great nature along the way - as well as some great nature scenes and settings.

Love you all - and miss you all.

--
Greg

View all 37 images from this album HERE!

Daddy Time!

Well, mommy had to go to a baby shower and I got the great opportunity to hang out with Rachel one on one. My life is very busy, like most I know, but I hate the thought of the moments that just slip by. So, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to just relax and hang out with Rachel. She is an amazing girl and we had a blast. We of course had to watch Aerial in the Little Mermaid, and dance at the great music. About the time where she begins to get cranky because of sleep, I got out some clay and we each made bugs - I helped her a bit - but for the most part she made a little fly that she was very proud of. I love you Rachel.

--
Greg

P.S. I included some shots of me and Matthew - just because I didn't want it to seem like I was favoring Rachel. The wrestling over the foam letter (it's in our mouths) was taking by Karen.

Rachel meets Thomas (the blue train)!

Sunday, we decided since Grandpa was here that the whole family should go out and do something - weather permitting of course. Luckily, God smiled upon us and allowed us to have a clear day (if you live here - you know that that truly is a miracle). So, we went to the transportation museum in Wasilla. This was the first time that I had been there, as well as Rachel and Matthew's first time.


This place had tons of stuff to read, so if you are a history buff - especially in the transportation industry this place is for you. We looked through all the cars and planes, and Rachel enjoyed every minute of it - especially since she got to run and play in the grass with the big boys. Matthew got to crawl and play too - he sampled their grass and has decided that they need to get more sunlight.



Rachel had a somewhat hilarious bruise from this outing, I say funny because it was funny that she hit her head, but not funny that she hit her head - do you know what I mean. Well - Karen was taking her under a C-47 from the WWII era, and there is about a 2 foot high piece of metal that hangs down from the belly of the plane, and Rachel wanted to touch it so Karen took her over there; and sure enough, she jumps up and hits her head on it - Karen was like, "I thought that it was big enough that she could see it." Rachel was fine - just scared.


The highlight of the day was when we got to ride on a mini-railway next to the museum led by none other than Thomas the train. It was pretty remarkable, but kind of expensive - at $4 a person - but it is quite entertaining and Grandpa Dick even sponsored a section of track.



Thanks for the enjoyable afternoon.

Click here to see all of the photos from this awesome trip!

--
Greg