Happy Holidays!

Now that things have hopefully settled down a bit for you we are glad that you took the time to come and catch up a little with the Johnson family.

We love comments so if you can spare a minute to let us know you visited we would love to hear from you.

Haakon is keeping extremely busy as Bishop for our local church congregation. The volunteer work has allowed him great opportunities to work with the youth group and he has really put an effort into creating a "ward family" with all of those within our ward. We feel so grateful for all the wonderful friendships we have developed through the church and can't believe that he is approaching four years in this calling.

(Haakon with the Scouts on a hike at Crow Pass)

In October he hit his five year anniversary of working for Pfizer Pharmaceauticals and we have felt so blessed to be with such an excellent company where he has enjoyed great success and had wonderful opportunities for growth.

In Haakon's free-time he has spent time fishing for rainbows, dolly varden, and salmon,

getting proficient with his drift boat,
camping with the family, mountain biking,

downhill skiing and skate skiing with me, and playing on a late night recreational hockey team.

March 5th, 2007 brought our son Torsten Haakon Johnson into the world. He is a little blue eyed toe-headed boy that looks just like a pale version of his father. We have thoroughly enjoyed having a son and feel so grateful that he is such an easy going happy baby. It has made the transition to three much less challenging.
The bumper jumper has been his favorite activity

but his recently acquired skill of crawling and climbing (fast) has led him into a little bit more mischievous activities.

He is a true little boy and loves to bang on anything and everything he can. His sisters absolutely adore him.

Lauren is a little spit-fire at 2 1/2 and likes to do everything her own way.

She is also a little bit of a daredevil and in August she broke her arm after a fall from a friends play-set. (See What Luck? for more info.)

We are so grateful for her fun personality and laugh on a regular basis because of her.

Corinne entered Kindergarten this year in an excellent optional program that allows me (with kids in tow) to come in and help out whenever possible. She loves her teacher and is learning to read and write. Much to our excitement she has learned how to downhill ski and we can hardly get her off the slope.

Both she and Lauren also love to ice skate on the frozen lakes here and have a great time skating around with us.

I have kept busy with three kids

and adjusting to life with a schedule (having a child in school). I still love to get out and camp, hike, mountain bike,

ski, ice skate and enjoy the beauties that Alaska has to offer. My favorite thing is spending time with my husband and children and family in general and have been so blessed this year to do that.

In April we were informed that Haakon would be given six weeks paid paternity leave which we were able to take at the beginning of the summer. It afforded us the opportunity to do lots of wonderful things with our family. We spent several of the weeks camping all over various parts of Alaska that the kids and I had never been to. We went to Valdez,

Tangle Lakes,

100 (dirt road) miles across the Denali Highway,

Chitna (Copper river)

and Kennecott/McCarthy, (see Sixty Miles In for more info.)

several trips to the Kenai Penninsula to fish

and a fun four day stay at a Yurt on Katchimak bay only accessible by boat. We had a wonderful time and created many cherished memories!

(We rented a kayak and took turns taking the girls out in the cove. We also walked around when the tide was out and had fun exploring the tide pools.)

Torsten was initiated very quickly into life with the Johnson family.


In November we were able to take another fun trip to visit California and Utah had a great time there. The highlight of the trip for our girls was getting to meet some of the Disney Princesses in person

and also playing with their cousins.

(see Our California Adventure )

This year we were able to spend Christmas in our very own home for the first time in the eight years that we have been married. We enjoyed so much the relaxation of staying in one place and just soaked it all in. It was a great reminder to us of how important the simple things in life are.

We are so thankful for the Savior and the opportunity we have to celebrate His birth at this time of year and reflect on how we can improve in the new year to become more like Him.

We wish you and yours a wonderful New Year full of the rich blessings that family, friends and life has to offer and hope that you will take the opportunity to keep in touch with us. We always love to hear from you!

Leave a comment or email us if you get a chance!