One fish, two fish, red fish...white fish

The past week and change has been quiet with the exception of our sickly little men. Poor guys still aren't feeling too good. For several days all Zach wanted me to do was read to him. He must have found some comfort from Dr. Seuss books because that's all he would bring to me.

For the past few weeks Darius has been out fishing hard for Winter King Salmon. He's had miserable luck, but today his luck changed.

Darius and I both had a good feeling about today although neither of us said so to the other. At slack tide Darius was trolling his favorite fishing spot parallel to Orca Road and caught his first Winter King of the season. It weighed 20 pounds and unlike the kings he caught last year the meat was white instead of light pink.

Darius grilled the salmon on cedar planks with fresh lemon and garlic butter. It was so yummy! I wish you all could have enjoyed it with us.

Zach was all about the slimy fish, and Ben was all about the broom.

Count to 10

Several years ago a good friend gave me some advice that his dad passed along to him. He told me that anytime something bad happened to count to 10 and breathe deep. After counting to 10 ask yourself, "Will this bother me 10 years from now?"and if the answer is no let go of whatever it is that's bothering you. I have used this advice countless times since my friend, Dustin, shared it with me. It has often helped me put things in perspective especially when I overreact to something which really isn't important in the long run.

A week ago I received the unfortunate news that Dustin unexpectedly passed away. He was 31 and it's that simple fact which makes his loss especially difficult.

As much as I'd like to, I can't claim Dustin as a close friend because I know the kind of friends he has. His friends are more like brothers. I've never seen such a tight-knit group of guys before. The thought of how difficult a time his family, in all it's parts, must be going through makes me very sad. I don't know how I would cope if I lost someone so close to me.

Dustin was such a good person all the way to his core. He was always looking out for his family and friends. He often took a back seat to the needs of others. As his obituary so perfectly stated, He was the "rock" for all who knew him. I think it's safe to say that Dustin left a positive mark on anyone who was lucky enough to know him. He had a passion for life, and he seemed to me to be the eternal optimist. I'm very fortunate to have known him. My memories of him are happy ones. It was practically impossible to be anything but happy when you were around him.

Life does not give any of us guarantees. We are fortunate for every day we're able to live, for every chance we get to make a new memory, to reach a milestone, or to tell our family and friends that we love them.

To my family and friends, "I love each and every one of you. I know I'm terrible about keeping in touch on a more personal level than this blog, but please know that it's my attempt to reach out and involve all of you in my family's lives as best I can."

In the words of John Wayne, "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life...it puts itself in our hands and hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

The Quicker-Picker-Uppers

Here's some cheap fun for the little ones. Buy a case of paper towels, sit back, and enjoy the show. Had we known what fun Ben & Zach would have with a dozen rolls of Bounty, we could have saved quite a bit on our Christmas budget.

Making Lemonade

When life gives you lemons...

I had plans to take the boys to Utah for a week. My sister Carrie is getting married soon (hooray!) and I wanted to spend a little time with her, and watch her try on some dresses. Another sister, Connie, had been visiting us over Christmas and the original plan was that I'd go back at the same time with her and she would be able to help me with Ben & Zach on the flights. As nice as flight benefits can be, they can also be very tricky. After checking flight loads it didn't look promising that we'd make it onto the same flights as Connie. Lucky for us, Darius was able to take some time off from work and come along. We left a day before Connie, on New Year's Eve and watched a beautiful full/blue moon from the window of the plane. We celebrated the new year at a hotel near the SeaTac airport in WA.

Finally a refrigerator he can play in!

Can't you just imagine Ben's scream?

On New Year's Day we planned to fly to Boise, connect to Idaho Falls, and then drive to Utah. Unfortunately our plans didn't work out the way we had hoped. The flight to Boise had gone from twenty open seats to no open seats and we didn't make the flight. We checked flight loads for the rest of the day and following days, but there was clearly no way for us to get where we wanted to go any time soon. To make things worse we had already checked our bags through to Idaho Falls, so we were left with just what was in our backpacks. I thought for sure we'd have our bags back by later in the day....not so lucky! The flights coming back to Seattle from Idaho Falls were overbooked and passengers and bags were bumped from flights. It was nearly two full days before our bags finally came in.

Okay, so we finally got our bags back and in the interim we were trying to make the best out of our situation. We had a nice place to stay near the airport and there were trains and shuttles to get us to other places. We spent one afternoon piddling around downtown Seattle and killed more time at a gigantic mall that was near our hotel. After our bags finally arrived we were ready to cut our loses and go home. Again, we weren't so lucky. There must be at least a dozen or more flights leaving Seattle everyday for Anchorage, but there wasn't one single flight we could get on the following day, so we spent a fourth night in SeaTac.

Today we're finally going home. We're currently enjoying a very long layover in the Anchorage airport and have another five hours or so to kill before we board our flight back to Cordova. Personally, I'm glad for the break. Let's just say our flight this morning was a little hellish. Ben has a piercing scream, much like an amplified bald eagle screech, and was doing his best to damage mine and our fellow passengers' eardrums. Zach was doing his part to annoy the passenger in front of him too, by kicking the tray table while he was trying to sleep. What can you do? At least it's almost over and our next flight is only a short thirty minutes. I'm very disappointed we didn't make it to Utah (sorry again Carrie!), but we'll be glad to get home.

I won't look at our attempted trip as a failure or bad omen for 2010. One of my resolutions for this year was to keep the big picture in mind...be grateful for the good I have in my life and do my best to get through the bad gracefully. The past few days have been good practice for me!

Happy New Year!

Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow...

Merry Christmas! Hope you've all enjoyed the holiday as much as Ben & Zach!