raindrops and cedar

I've been meaning to post a little something about our family vacation to Southeast Alaska (yep, we are now officially those Alaskans who vacation in Alaska).  Being back in Southeast always makes me a little homesick for the ocean.  

And a lot homesick for family

Now that several of my siblings have young families of their own, I really wish we could be closer, so that Sadie and Eli could see their cousins more than a couple times a year (and I could see my brothers and sisters!)  But, heck... we'll take what we can get.  It's no picnic traveling with the small ones.  There were viruses and teething miseries and sea sickness and tantrums a plenty on this trip, but still it was lovely in it's own respect.

There was the gift of time spent with loved ones--both family and dear friends.  Breathing in that Southeast aroma of cedar and moss. There was delicious venison roasts and mom-made meals a-plenty. It was so nice to just be there and be present with family that I actually did a very crappy job at photo documenting the trip.  You know, sometimes it's good not to have a camera stuck to your face every moment of the day just in case something cute or memorable happens.

There were friends to be made--both furry and feathered

and grandparents to converse, play with and snuggle with. 

The kids loved it, although on the last day Sadie got very homesick "for her chickens." 

After several weeks away it felt sad, but good to come home to our own place and fall back into familiar routines.  Our dry-bags are unpacked and our hearts are full of happy memories. 

And that is where we find ourselves this mid December, with a healthy dose of elving happening and lots of time spent building new holiday traditions of our own.  

Merry. Merry. Merry.

a little bit of cousins

I've been sorely neglecting the blog lately, but can you blame me with this kind of adorability (can that be a word? It should in this case) to distract me:

seriously.... is that not the most baby cuteness that ever did grace a fish box?

And let's not fail to mention the sunshine and sandy shores of Oahu.  Thanks sister, for moving to a place that makes family reunions double as tropical vacations!  It was the most fun, and a real treat, to reunite--or just unite--these adorable, squishy cousins.  And the big(er) cousins, weeeellll.....they played hard, and drove each other a little nutso, but that's just how it goes, and at the end of the day, there was a lot of love to go around.

And that's what's best about family, right?  No matter how many awkward timeouts you get put in, you still love each other like crazy cakes.

the summer that came and went

The summer kind of got away from my camera this year.  I guess that happens when you are umpteen months pregnant and chasing a two-year-old, not to mention trying to buy a house in a different town over 500 miles away from the one you live in.  But it really was, all in all, a wonderful, delightful summer--especially the month of August, which we spent mostly together as a family and Sadie got unlimited dad time, much to her delight.  I think we visited every other playground and walking trail in the Anchorage area.  Sadie even told me that the baby needed to come out of my belly so I could start going down the twisty slide with her.

Among our adventures, we happened upon the gem that is the Anchorage Botanical Gardens.  While I'm sure the prime time to go is early summer, it was stately in it's late August colors, and I just happened to have my camera with me. Some of the photos were quite lovely--I thought I'd share them here, so I can sneak back in the white months that are fast approaching for a warm dose of colors.  If you let your mind wander you can almost smell the peppery nasturtiums and hear the hum of the bees.

 And for this girl...I photo-documented the mushrooms.  She was quite enamored with her fungi on this trip.  She can even tell you why you shouldn't eat them.

But they sure are pretty.

Alaskans go on vacation to America!

Monday we got home from a wonderful trip to the Pacific Northwest.  It was kind of a whirlwind trip, catching up with many, many loved ones and dear friends, most of whom we hadn't seen in years.  I can't even begin to describe how lovely it was--not just to share a meal or cup of coffee and hear what people have been up to/ or are scheming in their respective lives, but because it is a gift to have the kind of friends and family that you can just sit down with and it's like no time has passed at all--yet there you are touring their farm, or meeting their new baby, or grown up kids who you remember as just tots. A real highlight of the trip was surprising my Grandpa at his 80th birthday party--it was a mini family reunion of sorts and a real treat for Sadie to get to meet great grandparents, great aunts & uncles, and many cousins (don't even ask me to figure out the proper terminology or number of times removed they are, that just makes my head spin) from my side of the family.  It's been too long.

Sadie was delighted, immediately upon arrival, to see grass and trees--both of which she wanted to count.  Since her numeration only really goes to three, can I just say it was good to see 3 to the 456th power of green?  A very welcome break from the vast white springtime landscape we left behind us in Nome. Even our rental car was comically green--about the same color as Sadie's new shoes.  Remarkably, the weather was very fine for Oregon/ Washington at this time of year.  Shucks, we even got two sunny days in a row out of Seattle!  When does that ever happen?

Sometimes, being the bushed Alaskans that we are, we just drove to a whole foods market and stood in awe at the jaw-dropping variety of things you can buy in one place.  And for cheap! But plenty of other adventures were had as well. Many miles were driven in the green rental car, we slept in a 100 year old barn in Sequim, logged a lot of walking miles in downtown Seattle, listened to street music at Pike's market (though Sadie's favorite person there was definitely the cat rescue guy and his two silky, besweatered tabbies).  Zoos and Aquariums were visited, snowing cherry blossoms were admired, and good food was eaten at every occasion, and thanks to my friends Rachel & Jon I will now be dreaming about the Jade Bistro's chilli noodles for the remainder of my pregnancy.

That was the other highlight of the trip.  Going to our 20 week ultrasound appointment to see that our little baby rock lobster is growing right along as he/she should, and everything looks good and healthy.  We even got to see that baby in 3D this time--which was remarkable, if just a tad creepy.  We couldn't be more thankful or excited, and it is crazy to imagine that in about 4 months now we will be getting to meet this little person earthside.  Wow.

The only downside of our trip was that we brought home an epic bug and I have been sick, sick sick this week and having a horrible cough & head cold for over 7 days while pregnant, well.... it's no bueno.  Loren fought off his cold and seems to be on the mend,  but now Sadie has had a fever and cough for 3 days.  The moral of the story... don't come over to our house for a while, unless you want to get the plague.  We are off to check in with the doc tomorrow, to make sure everything is okay, but it's my guess that it's nothing that a little more time, caribou bone soup, and popsicles can't cure. Oh, and raw garlic--I could write a whole other blog post on all the bizarre home remedies we have tried out this week in our desperate attempts to get well, but right now I need to give some snuggles to my sick girl who has now added thermometer to her vocabulary.

joy!

Just got back from a fun and exciting trip to southeast, then south-central Alaska where we got to:

Catch up with old friends

Meet some new ones!

See trees again!

See my amazing and hard-working sister graduate from her nursing program. *so proud*

Catch up on a year's worth of hugs to my family

See most of Loren's family (we see them more, so not quite so many hugs to catch up on)

Eat lots of yummy food

usher in a period of intense separation anxiety with Sadie, who refuses be more than 3cm away from my person at any given moment now.

And now it is time to snuggle into our own nest for a while.  It was good to come home to a house smelling of Christmas tree and the wagging tails of the pups.  I am also excited to test out my new Christmas pressie from Loren:

I grew up with this book, and I totally guessed what was in package because I recognized the unique hollow sound it makes when you thump on it.  It has a familiar feel, like a favorite pair of jeans. 

(and by the time you're done cooking your way through this bad boy, your favorite pair of jeans probably won't fit anymore!)

I don't know how I've made it so far in my adult life with out this book on my shelf.  Probably because I always just call mom and ask her to look up the recipes for me.  Don't worry mom, I'll still call you!

Thanks for the awesome gift Loren (and Loren's shopping elves:)

a case of the gypsy blues.

When Sadie woke up from her nap today she asked to go bye-bye.  My one-year-old gets cooped up too.  Since the boys were out in the country, I didn't have a vehicle, so my bye-bye options were somewhat limited to where our chevrolegs wanted to take us.  We went for a walk on middle beach.  Sadie was perfectly happy to run around there and pick up rocks, and roll in the sand, even though that meant I had to pick a cigarette butt out of her hair (gag) but on the walk home through Front Street I felt bad for the first time that this shabby looking town is all I have to show my kid.  Sadie points her pudgy little fingers at a pile of decomposing refrigerators that are lined up in a litter-strewn alley between two falling down houses.  I'm trying to give her some kind of an adjective, because she wants to know what everything is these days.  "Junk." That's the best I could do. Front St. in Nome is decaying.  The ever-prevalent wind is scouring the exterior off the buildings, the sidewalk is streaked with hawked loogies, spilled beer and expired cigarettes.  Even though it's 5pm on Sunday there are plenty of people staggering around more than a few sheets gone. They are laughing really loudly, and ridiculously, which Sadie then immitates in her childish way, which is sad because she is trying to comprehend funny, and that laughing really isn't funny.

I know this is part of my love-hate relationship with Nome... as in I LOVE the surrounding country, and the awesome friends we have here (truly some amazing people) but I HATE the town of Nome itself. Seriously. I cried the first time I saw it.

Dear Sadie, If I could redo our bye-bye this afternoon I would have us wake up in Edinburgh, or somewhere else like that.  Somewhere old, but clean.  We would stay at an inauspicious pension, or maybe a tiny bed and breakfast owned by a sweet snowy haired lady with a thick accent that's just a little to hard to understand. We could go for a walk on old cobblestone streets that are so worn from foot traffic that you wouldn't trip over them too much.  When our legs got tired we would pop into a cafe and I would be so delighted to find a really strong cup of espresso, and a raisin scone for you.  We'd take our snack to a park, where there would be a fountain and some grass for you to run around on. You would feed the crumbs from your scone to the pigeons.  If we were lucky, we might even see a police officer on a horse. You would probably really like to see a horse. I don't know what else we would do...admire the magnificent, towering castles, maybe just walk around and people watch--look into shop windows at all kinds of different curiosities, go eat dinner in a place that has comfy vintage chairs and warm yellow light filtering through prismatic lead crystal.  When our eyes had finally seen enough new things for one day, we could retire to our accommodations and fall fast asleep under a fluffy, white feather-down comforter that still smells just a little bit like the sunshine soaked up on an afternoon clothesline.

Now that would be a bye-bye I could feel proud of. So it's midnight and I am travelocity-ing tickets from Anchorage to Edinburgh, and guess what? $345! That is less than a plane ticket from Nome to Anchorage.  Maybe when Loren gets home from this most recent hunting excursion I'll convince him that Sadie and I really need to go bye-bye to Scotland.

10 months

Look at this big girl:





That's right... We're off and walking all over the place. I think the final push to really start walking has been hanging out with cousin killian (seen here imitating Sadie who just woke up from her nap) Sadie has a little ways to go though before she can move like said cousin;) Also working on a whole bunch of new sounds, especially "ffffffff" as in flower. Sadie loves flowers. Good thing this whole house is surrounded by plumeria. It smells like I imagine heaven would.



Ffffffff flower.



Another ffffffffavorite: eating sand.



And best of all, fffffffamily.



We sure do love you little 10-month-old girl. looking forward to many more beautiful family vacations together, weather that be the sunny shores of Hawaii, the misty moors of Ireland, or our own beautiful Alaskan back yard. You light up our lives wherever we go.