We WATCHED Corey arrive in Antarctica!

Well, my brother made it safe and sound to Palmer Station!  (You can read a tidbit about it here.) Because the government posts a live feed of Palmer Station online, we actually got to see his ship come in!  Brynn was VERY excited, although Bryce was too busy throwing up (more on that later).

It's coming...

just a little closer...

 And, "Hi, Corey!"  Those small black specks off to the side of the ship are people, and I'm going to go ahead and assume that one of them is him. :)

Bryce has had a stomach flu all week and was SO miserable that day.  At the time all this was going on, he was doing so poorly and I really wanted him to be able to just lay on the couch downstairs and watch a movie.  That meant lots of going up and down the stairs to check the computer and see if the boat had come in.  Finally I gave up and asked my mom to text me when he was coming.  She saw the boat, texted me, and SECONDS later Bryce was crying that he was about to throw up, Gabe face-planted (hard) into the sliding glass door and got his arm stuck between that and the screen door, and Brynn dumped her bowl of cereal all over the kitchen table, chairs, floor and high chair (I'm not convinced she didn't THROW it).  And guess what I said?  "Sorry, kids!"  I ran upstairs and watched anyway.  I know that sounds terrible, but Bryce didn't throw up after all, Gabe got himself unstuck and calmed down just fine, and Brynn cleaned up the cereal mess herself.  I guess that's our present from the kids, Corey. :)

A FB message to Corey:

• Thursday
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  9:32am
  

  
  
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  9:39am
  

  Emily Oldham Johnson
  

  
  

  SO...we checked out some books at the library. One was called Polar Regions. Asking Brynn what we learned about from that one: "Oh! The more it's melting, the more it might flood!" (Global warming to a 6 year old). We also learned about how polar bears are being seen in not just on the ice, but also on the land (actually in AK - she flipped through the book and that's the page she wanted) because the ice is melting. We saw pictures of glaciers in 2002 and then 2010 and saw how much smaller they are. We also checked out a book about Extreme Weather. Calving was our favorite thing to learn about. "Brynn, what do you understand about calving?" "Well, there's a little crack in the cliff of ice and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until it falls down. And I also saw that happen in "Ice Age 2."
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  9:40am
  

  Emily Oldham Johnson
  

  
  

  So yes, I will be way better at responding, but we are getting the e-mails and loving them and Brynn is devouring this stuff! (Bryce usually makes it through about half of what we are learning about before he finds some toy cars). Right now Bryce is in his room for his fourth day of stomach flu and it is sad sad sad and his looks so skinny! Poor little guy. I have Palmer Station up on the screen and we are just checking in from time to time. Love you!
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  9:41am
  

  Emily Oldham Johnson
  

  
  

  P.s. It's so funny to pray out loud with Marty "Bless Corey in Antarctica..." WHAT!? 
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  12:38pm
  

  Emily Oldham Johnson
  

  
  

  We saw you come in!!!!!