More Updates

Another series of updates in which I quit feeling guilty about not blogging.

We had a wonderful visit from Grandma Allison.  We ate too much pizza, but also hiked up a mountain.  And she took some pictures of us as a family, which never happens.

Also, Cedar was cute.

I ran in the Klondike Road Relay race.  It was exhausting and amazingly fun, and I took a two night trip out of town with only grown ups.  Woot.

Bryce and Porter are commercial salmon fishing with a friend right now, which is a male bonding experience that I'm so glad Porter gets to have.  Bryce was a commercial fisherman of a different sort back in the day, and even though this is a smaller (and safer!) kind of trip, it's a good one for them to be on.

With the boys out of town, Molly had a sleep-over with her best friend Kate.  They are four.  They didn't sleep.  I got kind of cranky about it.  But they were cute.

We just went through the post sleep-over day of hell and crying and hour long tantrums over I want to zip up the pajamas.  No you do it.  Nooooooooo.  And the house is quiet and I'm all alone.  And I'm out.  Peace.

Weekend

We had a fun and busy weekend here with Grandma Allison!  The kids got spoiled by all the attention and stickers, and we managed to get outside a little despite the less than stellar weather. 

We also finally said goodbye to Big White.  She was a nice chicken, but far, far too large for her own good.  In fact, it really was amazing just how big that chicken was.  We had friends over on Saturday and roasted her up.  Then the next day we had chicken pot pie, and the next day chicken soup.  Both with enough leftovers for lunches.  For everyone.  That is five meals from one chicken.  That's a lot of meat.  It made us think harder about raising meat birds, but that will have to wait until next year.  We are also suspecting that the Little One, the bantam, may be a rooster.  So he may not have a flock of his own for long.

And we will kill the old red rooster when she comes

My parents came to visit last weekend. It was short, but we packed a lot into a few days.

Along with the usual child wrangling and scenery viewing, there was a lot of fishing and seafood to be had.

And their time here just happened to coincide with the end of patience for our break of dawn crowing rooster. Bryce took matters into his own hands, and the whole process proved to be less dramatic, noisy and difficult than we had imagined. The kids watched the whole thing, and didn't seem upset, although Porter did tell me afterwards that he felt a little sad about the chicken. I told him I did too, and that was okay.

We cleaned him up, and made a fantastic rooster stew that very night. Despite rumors to the contrary, we found rooster meat to be delicious. I think the hens might be wondering what happened to their leader, but the vibe in the coop is decidedly more mellow.

We are trying to catch up on rest, cleaning and other vital chores now, but we all had a great time. And no one even had to sleep with grandma or wear red pajamas.

Cowee Meadow

During the past few days, we've had a short but very sweet visit from Grandma Allison. She was graced with some fantastic winter weather here in the Far North (cold, but lots of sunshine), so we decided to spend the night in another public use cabin way out in the woods. Grandma was a great sport, and we really had a great time. The trail was not too long (2.5 miles to the cabin), and relatively flat, but it was still a gargantuan effort with two small children and all the needed camping items. We had to reconfigure different combinations of kids on skis, kids in sleds, kids in backpacks, walking kids, unwilling dogs pulling sleds and the like before we got there.

There was definitely some of this...

And with me being pregnant, Bryce had to shoulder a vast majority of the burden.

But we made it! And we got the cabin warm. And we spent a lovely night playing Uno by lantern light and eating hot dogs and marshmallows cooked over the wood stove. A good time was had by all.

And a small side note, that I know Bryce finds as funny as I do: When we arrived home the next day, we all showered and prepared to go out for pizza. As we were leaving, Bryce couldn't find his wallet. We spent the night and next morning searching through all of the camping gear, the car, all over the house, recounting the wallet's last moments, etc. We finally decided that he'd left it at the cabin. Ugh. He went out there the very next day, skied all the way back, didn't find it, and skied home again. A nice 4 hour trip (it's a little faster without kids). He came home very tired and bummed that he really wasn't going to find the wallet. And then? I found it. In a craaaaaazy place. On the table by the front door. But hey, Bryce is really getting in good shape.

Bits & Pieces

I know that all kids eventually wind up using the toilet like grown people. It is a good place to be in life when you no longer have to be associated with the intimate details of their bowel movements. But getting there is basically a hassle. At least for awhile. At least to me. Porter was difficult to potty train. He resisted, and made messes all over the house and it took months of sticker charts and m&m rewards before I could count on him. And he was just about three years old at the time. So I've been in no hurry whatsoever to go in this direction with Molly. Honestly, it's a lot easier to change diapers than deal with the potty, and I'm all about easy these days. But she is telling me loud and clear that she is ready, and I don't think I can avoid it too much longer. She is taking off her diaper, climbing right up on the seat with no toddler insert and going herself. Sometimes without telling me first. Without making a mess. Even once at someone else's house (thanks Amy). I don't know how much longer I can justify putting a diaper on her, and I feel like I may as well take advantage of her initiative. Not even a single m&m. Today I bought size 2 Hello Kitty underwear, and tomorrow we will see how it goes. Wish me luck.

As far as sewing projects, I am working on some baby blankets. Really tiny ones. Bryce is making a wooden baby doll cradle for Molly's birthday (which is really creeping up on me), and I'm going to make some blankets and a pillow to fit inside. I have this huge pile of stained and old baby blankets from my babies, and I am hoping to reincarnate them into something more suitable for a doll. This is also possibly the world's easiest sewing project imaginable, so a good one for me.

And then, here are some pictures we took when my mom was visiting. They are more like outtakes, but are the best ones we could get. I can only imagine how impossible it will be to get everyone looking at the camera when there are three of them.

I'm Cooking: The other night I made Poached Salmon in a Cream Sauce from the Fiddlehead cookbook. Rich and yummy, although I just used whatever white wine I had, not the Riesling. Served with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts, Brown Rice and a Salad with White Balsamic Vinaigrette and Persimmons. Molly went nuts over the persimmons. And I think Brussels Sprouts are about my favorite thing ever.

Halloween and Everything Else I Forgot

Okay, I am behind. You know. My mom was here for a week. It was great, and the kids had a fantastic time. But it went waaaaaay too fast. It seems like we did a whole lot of running around and errands and dentist appointments and dressing up and not enough relaxing. I have pictures to post and stories to tell, but first things first.

Halloween. Porter was Anakin (or Luke, depending on the day) Skywalker. My mom made the costume, and it was perfect. It was also warm, which is sort of important here. Molly was a cow, which surprisingly, she fully embraced. She even managed to moo at a couple of people. This picture was taken right as we were heading out for trick or treating, and even though they both look totally bored, I swear they had a great time.

They got to wear their costumes at Porter's preschool costume parade, and then again at a Halloween party hosted by friends, and then again on Halloween itself. Molly is still waking up every morning and saying "costume???" And I'd probably let her if it wasn't smeared with chocolate in the laundry hamper.

Anyway, much fun was had last week, and my mom left on Tuesday. I even got to vote that morning with no kids. Porter loves his grandma, good-byes are hard, and he sobbed his little heart out the whole way home from the airport. Some days it is very hard to be so far away from family, but I'm grateful that we can visit as often as we do.

So, life has been pretty busy, and this morning I decided to just relax with the kids and take them to the library, which we hadn't done in a long time. Right. Relaxing. Porter was fine, but Molly, now I remember why we don't go there. It ended with me yelling and everyone crying and by the time we got home, the first snowfall of the year was dumping on our house. We miss you Mom!

And everything else will have to wait until next time.