Tennessee

is different than Alaska.

In Tennessee they have lightning bugs and sweet tea and Heat and Humidity and wonderful tomatoes and catfish and kudzu and outdoor swimming and cousins.

In Alaska we have mountains and good beer and rain and blueberries and crab pots and pine trees and friends and the ocean.

Although we (and especially Porter) are having a great time here, I think Alaska will always win my heart. We miss you!

Big Long Catch Up Post

We've been busy! The big city is a fun place when you live in the Far North.

We've hung out with old friends.

And made new ones.

We've played outside.

We even went to Chuck E. Cheese's (and I kind of had fun too).

Of course there is family too. Molly and Ava are becoming fast friends.

I've also (of course) done some serious shopping. And eating of ethnic foods.

Tomorrow my mom and I are cooking a Father's Day brunch for my dad and grandad. We're making Overnight Cinnamon Rolls (these are really good, I've make them before), Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Green Onions and Gruyere, and Fruit Salad with Strawberries and Blueberries. I miss Bryce and wish he was here with us too!

Still On The Road

We are still hanging out with family here and enjoying our summer. We had a fun trip to the Children's Museum, I had a kid free 3 hour brunch with old friends, and I got to see my seven month old nephew (who is the cutest, quietest baby ever).

I mean, he seriously could not be any cuter, could he?

I'm not sure why I thought I could get a good picture of four cousins in bad lighting. It didn't work. At all.

And this happened to Ava when my sister was out of town. We blame her dad.

On The Road (Expanded)

So, yes, good times here in the (not so) far south. As far as the airplane, 18 months has just got to be the worst age of kid to fly with. They don't want to watch a movie and they don't want to sit in your lap and they don't want to sleep and arrrrrrrgggh. Thank you business man for giving me the stink eye. It really helped. Also, Porter gets airsick during turbulence. He always has. Our quick flight from Seattle was very bumpy, and my poor guy was green. This time though, for the first time ever in his life, he managed to get it all in the little airsickness bag. And not all over me, the seat, the aisle or a random stranger's luggage (yes, really, fun times there). He's growing up! Anyway, it could totally have been worse, but I was pretty dang glad to have that part of our trip over with.

Now that we are at my parent's house, life is fairly uneventful. My sister is out of town at a wedding, and I've been watching my niece and my two kids here during the day while my parents are at work. The babies have been really good for the most part, and Porter has been doing all manner of cool things with his grandma like a Rose Festival Parade, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and going to the movies. There seems to be an endless array of fun things to do in the big city, and it's a wonderful place to visit. This weekend holds more family events (I get to see my baby nephew for the second time ever!) and some quality time with old girl friends. I can't wait.

Also, happy birthday Mom!! You're the best!

On The Road

We are officially enjoying the company of family and friends, and we are having a very nice (if maybe not very relaxing) time. But no trip is complete without a toddler tantrum and a bag full of vomit on the airplane. I'm just sayin'. More soon.

Wrapping It Up

The kids and I are leaving tomorrow on a month long trip to visit family and friends. We are not packed (even one bit), so my time is short. But I wanted to post a few pictures of what we've been up to the past few days (other than enjoying the insane Juneau weather).

We've come into ownership of a fledgling raven that fell out of his nest. He is not a baby, but also can not fly yet, and so still needs some help. He is living on our deck, and we are feeding him fish and nuts and bread. Despite my misgivings about birds in general, this guy is growing on me. But we are hoping he soon learns to fly and takes to the sky with a flock of his own kind.

We found this little guy in our crab pot yesterday. Not the kind of crab we were looking for, but he was lovely all the same. Hermit crabs from the ocean sure are a lot bigger than the kinds you see in fish tanks!

We also finally filled the flower pots that live on our deck in the summer. For those that are here locally, Landscape Alaska has some absolutely beautiful finds these days.

Okay, I will be blogging on the road, but I'm not sure how often. I hope to see you all soon!

Friday

It's been a long week here. I'm not sure why, considering Monday was a holiday, but it has just gone on and on. For whatever reason, I am just at the end of my rope. Molly starts fighting me on a diaper change or I walk into a room to find a huge mess on the floor (both common and fairly minor offenses), I feel the anger rising in my throat, and I find it way too hard to just have some dang perspective.

Porter and I had a several hour long battle last night about cleaning his room. It just got to this ridiculous point with me screaming empty threats and being totally inappropriately impatient with Molly and cracking a beer at 4pm. Ugh. Anyway, I think what we all need (besides getting rid of half of those damn toys) is a break. The good news is we are leaving to go down south on Tuesday to see my family. I hope they are ready!

On a nicer note...

Cheeky

Porter: Mom, you know what?

Me: What?

Porter: That's what chicken butt. (insert insane laughter)

If I have this exchange one more time I'm going to lose my ever loving mind. Thank you Bryce.

Also, I bought a bag of fun size candy bars as a special treat for our camping trip. We didn't end up eating many, so now they are in my kitchen cabinet. I don't buy things like that often, and Porter surely knows exactly where they are. He asked me this morning if he could have one. I said no, but he could have one after dinner if he was good. And then two minutes later, I walked into the kitchen and found him on the kitchen counter, bag in hand, a candy bar hanging out of his mouth. This kind of disobedience drives me mad, and I FREAKED OUT. After a lengthy stint in his room and yelling and talking and all that, he said he was sorry, but honestly I got the feeling that deep down it had all been worth it to him. I'm not sure what to do with that.

But it did get me thinking. Who took my sweet little boy and replaced him with this dirty, cheeky four year old??

And That's How Memories Are Made

Bryce had three days off in a row over Memorial Day weekend, which is very unusual for him in the summer. Plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous, hot and sunny. So we decided to take the kids on a camping trip.

The first night we stayed in a campground near town. We had some friends camping with us, so it was fun, but crowded in a major way, and the campground had a rather Nazi-esque host which brought the vibe down considerably a few times. Luckily it was also pretty funny.

In any case, the next morning we loaded all our gear onto the boat and took off for more solitary pastures. The water was calm, and we were able to get quite a ways from town to a nice little bay. We picked a camp site on the beach next to a pleasant stream with wildflowers lining the rocks and even a spectacular waterfall around the corner. And then I think the weather lulled us into a sense of complacency or bad judgement, and despite being neither novice boaters nor campers, we sort of miscalculated where the highest and lowest tides might be. We went through a tide change during the day during which things looked good at our camp, and then we just went about our merry lives. So we ended up with this...

Which really isn't a big deal. We just had to wait, and we had plenty of time.

But the night before, of which I did not get a picture, I woke up around 2:30am to the odd feeling of something very cold underneath me. Something wet. I shook Bryce and told him I thought we were floating. He shot up, and jumped out of the tent in his bare feet, right into 18 inches of freezing cold ocean. Now, there was not 18 inches of water inside the tent since there is a waterproof edge that did its job, but sleeping bags were starting to get wet and it was not good. Next came about 10 minutes of tent stake pulling, Molly screaming, moving of said tent to a new location, and Bryce consulting the tide book, after which he announced the tide was at its highest point right then and we should be good. The kids weren't wet, and things could have been a lot worse. We went back to sleep. Only to wake up half an hour later, getting cold and wet again, and realizing that Bryce had mistakenly read his watch. High tide was actually right now. Molly screaming and tent moved again. Slightly more wet, but okay. And then we all actually slept again for hours, waking up to a warm tent and blazing sunlight and the kids laughing.

Which is when we looked out of the tent window and saw the boat as pictured above. But by then we really, really didn't care.

Anyway, despite our mishaps, we had a really fantastic time. The kids fished and threw rocks in the stream and were never bored, and it was just so nice to be away from screens and phones, even for such a short time. It was completely, amazingly beautiful and relaxing. And I know this will be a story I'll tell the kids later about when they were little and the tent flood of 2010.

I'm Cooking: I made a Veggie Pot Pie last week that was really good. I had these fingerling potatoes that were so creamy and perfect, and I think they really made it. So I know the recipe recommends Russets, but if you can find good potatoes, I'd go with those. I also used more vegetables than called for I think, a whole cup of milk, and a cup of cheddar cheese. I also made my own crust. Bryce had two helpings, and the kids ate some too. This is a nice recipe that you could adapt to whatever you have on hand.