Sweet!!

I was hoping that we could bring a little sunshine and heat back with us from Florida...didn't happen. But despite the dreary weather we're continuing to have, we're trying to make the best out of it. Darius took Michael and Dylan fishing over the past few days. They caught one good-sized halibut and were able to see some wildlife and a couple of the fishing vessels from Deadliest Catch.

Patti and I stayed closer to home. We walked around town a bit, took the boys to lunch, did a little shopping, and Patti graciously allowed me to go off on rants about everything and talk her ear off. I must keep reminding myself not to get so carried away....you're a saint for putting up with me Patti!

Dylan was excited about his first encounter with snow.

Today we took a drive out the road to Childs Glacier. The weather was chilly and overcast and we weren't too sure how enjoyable it would be when we got there. We left prepared to have a good time regardless. We took firewood, hot dogs, and fixings for smores. We ended up having a great time. I've been to the glacier a number of times, and I was blown away with how much activity there was today. I have never seen it calve so many times, and I was so excited the Bacons were there to see it.

We had a full carload as it was, so the boys stayed home with Grandma. Thanks Mom for helping out!

West to East and back again...

Last weekend I took off from Mom responsibilities for a few days and flew down to FL to pickup our lovely Bacon friends who are here visiting Alaska for the first time. I'm an excellent pilot in my spare time. I arrived on Thursday evening, and we left the following morning. We arrived in Seattle and had the rest of the day to explore. We took the train from the airport to the Westlake Center and walked down to Pike's Place Market. It was their first time there, and it was fun to see how much they enjoyed it. I took advantage of the great fresh produce and filled 2 bags to take home with me. I was also pretty excited to eat a delicious pocket full of goodness from Piroshky Prioshky, and if that wasn't heaven the coconut ice cream that followed later on certainly was. Mmmm!

We worked our way over to Chinatown after walking along the waterfront. There we stopped by the awesome Uwajimaya Asian Food and Gift Market. We were starting to hit a wall when we arrived and probably could have spent a lot more time exploring the store if we had more energy.

After unloading our goods at the hotel we headed back out for dinner, and after a quick and delicious meal we promptly headed back to get our butts to bed. It had been a super long day that started around 3:30 AM on the East Coast and ended an exhausting 19 hours later on the West Coast. Unfortunately there was no time to sleep in, and we were up again super early to check in for our flight to Alaska.

It's a long process to get all the way from Florida to Alaska, and on stand-by travel there's always the extra element of suspense when waiting at the last minute to see if there are enough seats open on a full flight. I'm so happy that our friends were game for the adventure! We're happy to have them here visiting us!

Robot!

Zach's latest obsession is robots. Dad was flipping through channels last weekend and Transformers was on. Zach got so excited and started repeatedly shouting "Robots!" Since then we thought we'd let him watch a few kid-friendly movies showcasing robots. We started with Wall-E which he and Ben loved. I hadn't seen it before either, and I thought it was a cute movie. We also rented Robots for him. Another big hit. Before Zach saw Robots Joy broke out a Rodney toy figure from the movie. It was a toy included in a jumbo Christmas stocking she won last December. She also found a cute wind-up dancing robot at the drug store that she bought for him. Well, we're on day 5 now and Zach won't part with either robot for very long. I'm not exaggerating. He literally has had one or both robots in hand for probably 95% of the day. He eats with them, and "feeds" the robots. He takes them along on our walks. He bathes with them. He goes to sleep with them.

We were playing outside a couple of days ago and Zach put down Rodney Robot on the back porch so that he could push around his little cart. We went down the street and all of a sudden he stopped and looked around with a puzzled look on his face and said "Robot" as though he was asking himself where it was. He immediately took off back to the house, around to the back and went right to the spot where he had left the robot.

Ben has managed to get hold of the robots a couple of times, and it has not been a pretty sight. Zach blows his top and you would think his world was coming to an end. It's a good thing that Ben isn't as passionate about robots as Zach is, or I'd have a big problem on my hands.

Zach must imagine that the robots are talking to him (definitely gets that from me) and talks back to them. I overhead him saying thank you to one of the robots the other day, as if it did something nice for him. Even the way he says robot is adorable. I love this little phase he's in!

Listen close at the end of the clip for a little something extra from Zach.

Holiday Weekend

It's probably just me, but holidays in Cordova don't feel the same as they do in the other places I have lived. In some ways it makes me kind of sad, but I try to shrug off the negative feelings as best I can and find ways to get involved in a few of the local traditions.

Cordova's Independence Day celebrations took place yesterday. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and wet, so we didn't get out to see as many events as we did last year. I made pies again for the pie social which wasn't much of a social this year. At least I opted to save one pie for us (banana cream) which we all enjoyed after the beer battered halibut Darius made us for dinner.

Today was a quiet day. Joy and I took the boys for a walk around town and then out Orca Road. I enjoyed taking random pictures along the way, and adult talk with Joy after the boys fell asleep. We ended up cutting our walk short due to looming rain, which we still got caught in anyway.

This afternoon I tried to create a picnic-like barbeque. We tried a yummy Rachael Ray burger recipe with sides of macaroni salad, baked beans, chips, and strawberry lemonade. We cheated just a bit and "roasted" marshmallows for smores in the oven under the broiler. They were sticky and delicious, but missing that slightly smokey element that you can only get from a campfire.

Big or small celebration, I'm still very grateful there's a reason behind it all. I'm blessed to live in a beautiful part of a beautiful country. I'm also very grateful that there are men and women in this country who willingly serve it and us.

Water

Our temps have been comfortable lately but still on the cool side, upper 50s maybe. My boys definitely have thicker skin than I do and were thrilled to get sopping wet outside this evening. Dad got the hose out and started squirting off the windows on the back of the house, and Ben and Zach stood right below the (very cold) spray.

Ben eventually got the hose all to himself and kept squirting off the back of the house like Grandpa did. It reminded me a little bit of an old photo of me from when I was about their age, outside in my birthday suit, watering the sidewalk. You've got to love life a little more when you see the pure joy a toddler can get from water.