Igloos, Chicks and Birthday Cakes

Grandaddy, Papa and Squirt Boy ventured into our mountains and built an igloo earlier this spring. Not only did they build it, but Papa and Squirt Boy slept (or tried to) in it!




Fuzzy Butt wasn't so sure about the new two-week-old chicks. This was the day they came home, Gus' birthday.


Speaking of birthdays, here is Gus' construction cake.


And, a few week's later, Squirt Boy's dragon cake:

Their First Hike

Memorial Day, 2010. We hiked the Winner Creek trail in Girdwood to the hand tram and back. The boys did awesome! Both walked almost the entire way. (2 miles, round trip)

Setting out.

What's in here?

Progress was leisurely. This is the age of exploration, is it not?


The hand tram across Winner Creek Gorge. Let's just say Gus Gus and Fuzzy Butt were a little nervous.

We're still smiling! It was a fantastic outing for all of us.

Logging, Birthday, and Soccer, oh my!

What did you do for Mother's Day weekend? We rented a 66 foot high lift and felled six cottonwood trees in our own and our neighbor's yards. Here is Papa and another neighbor getting ready to top the 70+ foot tree in our front yard.



We couldn't have had better weather for the entire weekend. What a blessing! Here we are, taking a ride as high as the lift would go. The view was stunning. Too bad everyone has a ranch house in our neighborhood.


Here are the boys enjoying a summertime treat on the logs from the front yard tree. Notice the giant stump in the background? Taking it out is now on Papa's to do list. Our neighbors are ridiculously grateful that we took the cottonwoods down. I've heard from every single one of them just HOW MUCH cotton these guys make. Still, it's a bit sad to take down such a big tree.



In other news, Squirt Boy turned 4 last week, complete with a homemade skateboard cake (no, he doesn't skateboard) and a party at a local park. It was a very fun day.



Among many special gifts, he received his first canoe paddle. The lake has melted, and Squirt Boy and Papa got out a few days ago to paddle around.



A new era has begun - little boy soccer! It only took three practices/games for Squirt Boy to decide he might actually have fun. Watching 3, 4 and 5 year olds mob the ball and negotiate the field makes me laugh. so. hard. I love it!

Summer is upon us - long days, mosquitoes, gardening mishaps - I mean adventures, camping, fishing...come play with us!

2010?!?!

Yes, I'm back in the blogosphere. I know you've missed us! In the past few months, we've moved into our new home, I've walked away from grad school, we enjoyed the holidays, and we're gradually getting into the groove of "big city" life again. All in all, life is much more peaceful than it's been in a while, and I'm thankful.

All gussied up for an anniversary dinner while spending a few days in Girdwood at Hidden Creek B&B. Our first getaway in 4 years; thank you, Granny and Grandaddy!

Cross country skiing in the meadows of Girdwood during the same getaway. Amazing snow! Fabulous company!

The view from our dining room window:

Speaking of great views, this is the view from Papa's office window.

So many uses for a Tonka truck!

Squirt Boy is an aspiring photographer, specializing in self-portraiture.

After a fun-filled afternoon of sledding with the Nobles.

Fuzzy Butt brings new meaning to the term "sled dog". Yes, she stayed in all the way down!

Squirt Boy ready to tackle the sledding hill in our big kicksled (with an adult driver). The boys got a kid-sized one in the mail just the other day; thanks, Grandma and Grandpa! Gus crawled up into it while Papa was putting it together, ready for a ride, and Squirt Boy can kick with the best of them.

"The better to see you with, my dear!"

Here's wishing you all the blessings of a fabulous new year, and I look forward to keeping in better touch.

Turn a Square - FO

Turn A Square by Jared Flood

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Gray, Noro Kureyon from Holly Jo's stash

Needles: US size 6 and 7, circular

Papa sporting it while cross-country skiing in Girdwood. I'd make it a smidge longer next time, but a fun and fast knit. DEFINITELY do the jogless stripe technique!

The dust settles...

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks.

The house is finished! We finished touch up painting on Thursday afternoon, and drove to the Big City that night. Papa took extensive video and photographs, if you're interested. Too many to post here.

The house has sold! More accurately, it is 'pending'. In our little town, real estate transactions take an AVERAGE of sixty days to go from offer to closing. That said, we are still delighted that our little house in the big woods had an accepted offer within two weeks of being on the market.

We have moved! Really, we are still moving....staying at Granny and Grandaddy's for a few days, housesitting for friends for a month, trying to decide where to rent/buy/live while waiting for our little house to close, getting our Costco membership, reconnecting with old friends. Squirt Boy and Gus-gus have played at a couple of different parks and are enjoying some lovely time outside with Granny's new black lab puppy. Fuzzy Butt is learning to love the little guy, too.

Papa started his new job yesterday! He likes it so far. What's not to love? Hiking in the Chugach mountains, riding helicopters across Kachemak Bay, tootling around in a boat in Prince William Sound...sounds fun, no? And it's not a dream vacation in Alaska, but Papa's every day job now, along with schlepping unknown pounds of equipment up and down mountains to install, repair and maintain weather stations all around the state. A bear ripped open the one he repaired today. Hence, the need for repairs. Did I mention his cubicle overlooks Cook Inlet, with a stunning view of Mt. Susitna and Denali (Mt. McKinley, for you non-Alaskans), when the weather is right? We are super excited for him.

All that said, it was hard for me to leave Delta - our friends, our house, the Drive In. I very much enjoyed the slower pace of life there, and miss it tremendously.

We ran into someone you may know at our last supper at the Drive In.

And finally, this might be the REAL reason we left Delta, after all.

Please come see us in the Big City anytime.

Miscellaneous.

Squirt Boy is busy and loud much of the time. When things get quiet, I worry. This is where I found him one day - happily coloring away. What a pleasant surprise!

Self-portrait.

The cutest boys ever.

Papa's musical prowess emerges. The instrument? A dishwasher drain tube. Yes! We will have a dishwasher, for a week or two.

Spring is finally here...

On May 5, a tinge of lime green graced our aspen trees outside the window by our bed. The leaves have popped! A rash of 70 and 80 degree temps hastened the snow's departure, and our avian harbingers of summer are flying through in droves. Yesterday, I watched around 300 sand hill cranes circle in the thermals above our house on their way north. The cranes, along with trumpeter swans, canada geese and the distinctive Turdus migratorius (Just for you, Dad.)let us know that summer in Alaska is just about here. Seven months of winter is a long time.

We are busy. Who isn't, when the sun shines in excess of 18 hours a day? School has finished. (Do a little dance with me!) Our house is almost finished. The grass and my rhubarb are growing. Squirt and Gus are as cute as always, and busier than ever. We are moving.

Oh?! You didn't know? Yes, just as our little house in the big woods is finished and the glorious Interior summer is upon us, we are moving back to the Big City. In 3 weeks.

Papa has taken a new job as a snow hydrologist. He will have a grand time in the far reaches of Alaska, installing and maintaining weather equipment in the summers, riding on ATVs, snowmachines, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft year round to monitor snow levels and analyze data that is useful for flood forecasting, how full reservoirs will be for hydroelectric purposes, and the like. If you know Papa, you know this is his dream job, and we really believe God has orchestrated this job change for him.

It will be good to be closer to good friends and family (Granny and Grandaddy live in the Big City). I will enjoy eating at many, many yummy venues. Target is there now.

That said, looking at leaving our life in small town Alaska is bittersweet. I love our friends here, the slower pace of life, our little house and the big woods that Fuzzy frolics in, the Drive In, knowing who's at an event just by the cars in the lot. I'm thankful to have tasted life in a small town. I will miss it.

Wanna buy a little house in 3.5 acres of woods?

Winter Fun

Winter keeps its grip on us in the great white north. 8 inches of new snow in the past couple of days. The chickadees and redpolls devour their weight in sunflower seeds daily. I still marvel that little birds can survive the winter at all.

As the sunshine pours through my lovely round window and warms outside temps from -20 to +20 during the day, we have ventured back outside.


Some time on the kick sled. They stayed on!


The great black Yeti. Didn’t know we had those up here, did you?




A walk on the wild side.



The road home.

The House

This weekend, Papa installed most of the remaining base cabinets in the kitchen. I really like them. Want to see them? Head to your neighborhood Lowe's and look at the in-stock hickory cabinets. They really are lovely.

Our flooring, however, is a sadder story. We went on our merry way to Fairbanks last weekend to buy cabinets, the rest of the flooring, and other sundries. We only need six more boxes of the Heirloom Hickory by Swiftlock. Wouldn't you know, Lowe's no longer has that ONE color. Anywhere in Alaska. (There are 5 Lowe's stores in our great state.) And things aren't looking so good for anywhere else, either.

Ah. But, the kitchen flooring aside, we have trim waiting to be painted and nailed to the wall, a couple of crawl space doors to create, some wiring and a little painting here and there, and the top two floors of our house will be FINISHED. Wahoo!!

Papa really has crafted amazing things from what was once a grove of poplar trees.

'Twas the week before Christmas....

And all through the town, the sun barely came up before it went down. (High noon on December 21.)


The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,



While sheets of fresh gift paper dried everywhere.


Papa and Squirt Boy read and snuggled together,


And Squirt Boy worked out, despite the cold weather.

Seven Months

As I type, the sun barely lights the sky. The wind is blowing, and the thermometer reads 0 degrees. Snow swirls its way across the land, and all the critters are hunkered down.

The time? 9 am. Welcome to winter in Alaska!

Tomorrow marks seven months of life for Peanut. He sits straight and tall, grabs toys, giggles, and eats all kinds of yummy pureed food. He babbles a lot; he and his brother have some great "conversations". Here's some video of him laughing with his brother, and dancing on the couch.

In honor of Squirt Boy's "whole moon" last week, we took a moon walk. It lasted all of 10 minutes. The beautiful moonlit evening was only marred by the bitter cold. Those of you in wintery climes can appreciate it taking us longer to get ready to go than the entirety of the outing. Here the boys are, waiting for cocoa. Okay, so Peanut snores while Squirt Boy craves marshmallows.

Squirt Boy's been singing smidgeons of songs lately - "Rocky Mountain High", "Happy Birthday", "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" are some favorites. The other day, I heard "Happy Birthday" coming from the bathroom Squirt Boy frequents as he learns to potty BY HIMSELF. Birthday cake, anyone?

For those that care, my Tangled Yoke Cardigan is about 4 inches of ribbing along. So far, it looks like it's going to fit! I'll keep trying to get a decent photo to show you.

In closing, a couple pictures of the cutest boys I know. Hope you are warm and cozy, wherever you are!

P.S. Sorry for the spacing issues. Don't have time to mess with them today.