Berry Picking

It seems like everyone we up here know has something exciting growing in their year except us. I mentioned the other day that our neighbors let the boys pick all the raspberries they want and we have certainly raided the Hyden's raspberry plants more than once. Turns out another one of our friends has a ton of raspberry plants and they invited several of us over to pick berries. Given raspberries are probably my favorite fruit, how could we turn down the invite??

Eric is one of Matt's coworkers, so of course Abby was on the invite list too. I think Abby and Thomas spent the entire get-together in the raspberry bushes. I'm not sure what extent was picking versus eating - neither one of their buckets was terribly full compared to how many berries I saw them grabbing...

They were pretty excited about the amount of raspberry plants and so many tasty berries! I think Thomas finally got the hang of the appropriate color, he didn't ask me "is this red enough???" before picking every single one. Yay!

There was also a lone strawberry plant that got attacked. It didn't have nearly the number of berries, but it was quite possibly one of the best strawberries I've had in a long time. Why does homegrown fruit taste so much better than in the store?

This was his haul when I finally took his bucket away. I spent a good amount of time picking berries with him because I wanted to have enough for our favorite raspberry tart I haven't made in ages. And the bucket kept losing volume after each of my additions!

I finally began to get worried there was such a thing as eating too many raspberries! So after he nicely posed for a photo with all of his berries, I took the bucket away. In case you can't tell - he has a mouthful of them at the moment. 

I thought a zoomed in photo of the juicy berries would be a nice addition to the day:

Except as soon as I tried to take the photo, this little hand snuck in and grabbed more! This kid is a raspberry addict. Well, I suppose it's genetic so I can't say too much. I finally put the bucket on the table out of reach and told him the rest were mine. I think it should be enough for the tart - fingers crossed! :)

And Henry is missing from all of the photos because he was home with my parents. They just flew in for a visit yesterday and I felt bad taking off with the whole family and leaving them at home. So Henry got some alone time with his Nonni and Grandpa and we got enough raspberries to share (hopefully). Win-win!

Pool Party, Take 2

Yesterday, I promised the boys a redo on the pool since I failed to read the directions that explicitly state to only set the pool up on grass, not on hard surfaces like driveways. So I drug the empty pool out to the backyard and  started to fill it up again. (It won't drag while full, trust me I tried after the crash & burn yesterday...)

I told Matt that Henry was probably still mad at the pool, but he plopped him in anyway. Henry looks like he is trying to decide if he's going to be upset about that or not.

As a side note - the water coming out of the faucets is generally pretty cold in Alaska - even in summer. I didn't figure we had time for the sun to heat the pool up, but luckily for us the house has a faucet in the garage that has hot water. Once we got enough hoses combined to reach the backyard, we had nice warm water for the pool!

Henry was pretty excited when his dada gave him the hose to hold. What a responsibility!

Thomas was ready to go down the slide again as soon as I hooked it up!

Unfortunately he wasn't interested in going down correctly. I definitely remembered the "feet first only" part of the instruction manual and was ready to step in to stop him... He decided on his own that maybe going face first into the water wasn't the best plan. Ha!

And what's a pool party without friends? We had an already scheduled game night tonight, so I told Caitlin to make sure to bring Abby's swimsuit. It was nice having an abundance of adults around to make sure there was always someone with eyes on the kids in the pool. :)

We *may* have had the water pressure up a little high when I connected the hose to the dinosaur head. The kids were not impressed with the sudden water attack!

Henry finally discovered the slide! He got this far and wasn't sure how to get down. I helped him down and he seemed to like it, but I didn't see him attempt the slide again... 

Eliza kept trying to drink out of the pool. I told her there was a high likelihood the water was not 100% clean, but she didn't seem to believe me. Or care. Who knows with Eliza?

The guys decided that in the Alaska heat, a bonfire in the fire chimney was in order. I didn't mind until I looked over and saw the massive fire that suddenly appeared. George had just added wood to the fire and I was telling him to calm down with the lighter fluid. This is George insisting that Matt had done it after he added the wood.

In George's defense, the lighter fluid bottle *is* visible to the right of Matt's chair... 

It was too hot for a fire, but there were gnats all over the place. They weren't biting, but they were super annoying. The fire seemed to help.

Dinner time for the pool trio! I'm always amazed at how well they sit at this table to eat. Especially considering it's a mad house at the big table half the time when the boys are confined to high chairs. Maybe they feel with more freedom comes more responsibility? ;)

Thomas crashed as soon as we put a movie on after dinner. He and Abby are usually good for another 2 hours when they are hanging out, but the pool party really must have worn him out. Abby didn't seem too bummed about losing her movie watching buddy. She had wanted to watch a different movie than Thomas anyhow, and now she could!

Last, but not least, a birthday pound cake! Sam's birthday is next week, so I promised him a cake for game night. I took a vote on what kind of glaze to put on the pound cake and the group consensus was Lemon Cream Cheese, which Sam didn't want. I didn't want him to have to scrape the icing off his own cake, so I made sure leave him a section unglazed. I think he ended up with little bit on his piece anyhow and he said "it's not too bad".

A high compliment for a lemon hater. :)

Pool Party

Usually but the time I get to the daycare to pick the boys up, they have just come in from outside play or have had enough that they are mostly ready to go. It's perfect! 

Except on Fridays, when I get off a little bit earlier. Sometimes I can get there before outside time and they are so happy to see me that they forget all about play time. Other times, like today, they are in their swimsuit, ready to go play in the pool as soon as they finish their snack. I really didn't want to wait for pool time and the following outfit change, but felt bad about robbing Henry of pool time.

That's when I remembered that I had bought an inflatable pool at Target a few weeks ago when we were having a warm spell. Like many things I buy a Target, I put it somewhere and forgot all about it... But in the moment before my toddler had a meltdown at school I remembered the pool and promised Henry I would pull it out.

He helped me track it down in the garage and after I got light-headed blowing it up the massive thing, it was play time! Thomas asked several times why I was laying down on the floor while blowing it up - so mommy doesn't pass out! Ha!

It was hard to say which little guy was more excited about the pool! Thomas got in right away, but Henry was busy pretending to help me fill it up with the watering can. And of course I bought the dinosaur pool - would you expect any different? The dinosaur even sprays water if you hook the water hose up to it - how fun!!

Of course within the first minute of Henry being in the pool he slipped and fell. Luckily he hit the side and bounced off instead of face planting. I don't know what I was thinking by not setting the pool up in the grass - I think I was trying to keep it in a level spot outside of direct sunlight.

Ugh - mom fail. Big time...

And it's not often you catch the exact moment your child goes from joy to hate. He got picked up in less than a second from the photo - I was taking photos of Thomas when he bit it. :(

Even after the tears stopped, he refused to get back in the pool. 

But after I pretend attacked Thomas with the dinosaur a few times, Henry got in on the excitement of the dinosaur head. Maybe he would warm back up to the pool?

I finally got the slide piece aired up for Thomas to play on. I was out of air after blowing up the pool - I needed a break to catch my breath! He loved the slide! It's not the most secure thing in the world since it's a plastic slide full of air, but that didn't seem to matter. Plus it has an inflatable crash pad at the bottom, so it's fairly safe (even on the driveway!).

Once I pulled out their new toys I bought for the sand box (that we have yet to build), Henry got all kinds of interested in the pool again. There were several tools, but of course they both wanted the same one. Brothers... 

He refused to look at the camera for a mommy-Henry photo though. So maybe he is still a little miffed about the whole crash & burn thing. Sigh...

I could only get Thomas out of the pool by promising him to go pick berries. Our neighbors have several raspberry bushes that they inherited from the previous owners. The bushes are right next to the shared property line and they have mentioned since winter that the boys were welcome to the berries. The raspberries just came in last week and the boys have been raspberry obsessed!

I've even gotten Thomas to eat his vegetables at dinner by promising him we could go pick berries if he did. I'm going to be so sad when the raspberries are all gone... :(

Henry has gotten in on the action too. He's not quite as skilled at picking the berries, but he's quite adept at shoveling handfuls of them in his mouth. ;)

Once we got back in the house, Thomas found the box the pool came in and was checking it out. He pointed at the picture on the front and said "There's is in the grass. Why wasn't ours in the grass, mommy?" Seriously?!? He's already picking up on mommy fails at 3? I doomed if he starts keeping track...

After the question was repeated several times, I told him that Mommy didn't read the directions and we would be sure to put it on the grass tomorrow. Pool party, take 2!

Detour to Kennecott

We opted out of going to the town museums in Valdez because I wasn't sure the kids would do much besides make me chase them, so we have plenty of reasons to return to Valdez. But I wanted to stop by the old townsite before we left. The 1964 Good Friday earthquake that hit the Prince William Sound area definitely hit Valdez hard. The whole town ended up being relocated as most of the shorefront sloughed off into the ocean thanks to liquefaction during the shaking. The following tsunami devastated what was left. 

The old townsite was actually a bit of a letdown. They moved most of the buildings, so there isn't much left to see - at least from driving around the old roads. I read online later that you have to get out and explore to really appreciate the area and thanks to the rain, we didn't do that. Next time!

This section of dock and hunk of something was the biggest thing in the old site. I have no idea if it is a ship or something else. Google was no help on it. So I'm going with ship until told otherwise. 

We drove around the bay to see if we could find anyone fishing. It is supposed to be the best time of year and we thought Thomas would get a kick out of watching people fish. But either the fish weren't cooperating or people weren't braving the weather, because there was no one!

We gave ourselves two days to get back home since it is a long drive and we thought taking it easy would be more relaxing. On the way to Glen Allen, we decided to detour and go out to Copper River to see if people were fishing there. It's dip netting season, surely there would be people on the river known for the best salmon!

Nope!

There were several fish wheels on the side of the river, but no one was using any of them, so I still have no idea how they work. And you can tell it's a bit of a gloomy day - though not actively raining. With nothing better to do, we decide to keep on driving toward Kennecott/McCarthy. It's a long drive on a gravel road, but Matt has driven it twice on his motorcycle and has told me how awesome it is. So I was game!

The road is actually over the old railroad track. And in some places you can see pieces and parts of the old track - like where it is randomly sticking out of the hillside.

The first bridge is quite impressive - it's a single lane and about 240' above the river. Matt tells me it's a little bit disconcerting on a motorcycle. I thought it was awesome!

We also decided on this trip that there are no signs in Alaska that haven't been shot. It's definitely a thing up here for some reason.

End of the road for the cars! The bridge to get across the Kennicott is a footbridge, so we walked across. According to Matt there has been some historical drama over the bridge and the option to ride motorcycles and ATVs across it. Slightly down river you can pay someone a hefty fee to ferry your car across, but most people don't bother as the town has shuttles.

While this footbridge is wide enough for motorcycles, at one point barriers were constructed to block motorcycles. Then they were cut down. Lots of drama back and forth until finally it was decided they could cross. So both times Matt has visited, he has ridden across. Lucky him!

The water under the bridge is moving pretty fast. Surprisingly, neither of the boys were all that concerned. 

This is Rigor Mortis, a monument to the ingenuity of the people in town to make do with what little they have and how many different vehicles are cobbled together to make this truck. And apparently in the 1980's, though I would have assumed it was *much* older.

After waiting a few minutes for the shuttle we just missed, we found a sign that said McCarthy was only a half mile. We figured that was walkable and set out on our way. For future reference, Henry's stroller is not made for gravel roads. At the firs museum, there is a fork in the road. One side goes up to Kennecott and the other goes over to McCarthy. The guy across the river had said the grocery store in McCarthy had an ATM (to pay for shuttle rides, we had minimal cash!), so that's where we were headed.

As soon as we turned right, Matt started to realize that while he has been to Kennecott twice, he had actually missed McCarthy both times! It's obviously a very tiny town (last census was 42 residents!), so it's not hard to overlook I guess.

But the grocery store was pretty impressive! The boys were having a blast looking at all the food - they were scoping out boxes of milk in this photo. But look at the selection of above them - soy sauce and kaffir lime leaves. So international!

We stocked up on snacks before heading over to meet the shuttle. Thomas was super upset they didn't have popsicles in the store and refused to eat any of the snacks I picked out. Henry was super excited about his string cheese though!

The Kennecott mines were abandoned in 1938 after mining just over $200 million in copper. It was declared a national landmark in 1986 and they have been in the process of restoring some of the old buildings since then. The National Park Service runs it, but there are several private residences in the park from before it was made a landmark. It's a very neat place, I wouldn't mind a tiny house out there!

The large structure to the right is the 14 story mill. There are assorted buildings in varying stages of repair. We showed up way too late to get a tour, but I hear the official tour goes in several of the buildings and is pretty awesome. Excuse to come back!

The power plant for the mine. The biggest concern of the whole operation was this building catching on fire - so of course, it did. Amazingly, they got power back up in running in 12 days. In the 1930's! It took longer than that for our power to get turned back on after Hurricane Katrina when we lived in the center of Houston!

They had multiple ways to generate power, but the row of four steam boilers were by far the most impressive. I would imagine that this building was the best one to work in during the dead of winter. No insulation, but plenty of heat being generated!

This was inside one of the company houses. It looked so much like all of the old houses in our Houston neighborhood that it made me a little homesick. Thomas was just having fun playing in the cabinets. This one was owned by the park service, but the one next door was a private residence. So awesome!

The mill building was just so tall and impressive. It started out much smaller, but as they mined more copper ore, the ore quality would change and they would have to add in additional milling methods. So they just kept building the mill further and further up the hill.

I really loved this building. I took way too many photos of it. It was so impressive from all angles. I really want to come back for the tour just for the mill. 

Thomas of course was not as interested in the mill, but was super excited when he saw a fuzzy dandelion. He had to stop and blow all the seeds off before continuing on to check out the big boss' office. :)

Matt and Henry decided to wait at the bridge for us instead of fighting with the stroll on the gravel hill. If you look past Matt, you can see mounds of dirt with many different colors. Matt and I both had the same assumption that these were tailings and were a little put-off by the mess the mining made. Turns out we were both completely wrong. 

That is Kennicott Glacier and it is covered in the rocks and dirt it has accumulated over the years. There are a few places closer to the mountains where you can see the ice underneath, but the vast majority of the glacier is covered. The current appearance is much different than when the mine was active - they have journals that mention the town was in a valley because the glacier was so much higher than the town. I wonder if it was as "dirty" back then?

Also a note that I am not being indecisive in my spelling. The glacier was named after a geologist, Robert Kennicott, and uses the spelling of his last name. When the mine and town showed up, there was an error made on the paperwork and they spelled it Kennecott. Since the landmark is based on the town, the National Park Service chose to use the Kennecott spelling.

Back on the road west to Chitina and hopefully somewhere to camp, we stopped at the pizza bus. Matt and Sam have talked nonstop about how amazing this pizza is, so we were super excited that they were still open. I was super excited to try the pizza!

It was ok...

Even Matt thought that it wasn't as good as usual. Which begs the question if it is really all that good or it just tastes amazing because they have been riding their motorcycles all day when they eat it? I'm betting on the latter... 

After we ate, we changed the kiddos into their pajamas and finished the long drive back to pavement. It was getting late, so we figured they would crash pretty quickly once we started driving. And we were right. Since they were already out, we decided to drive back to the campground Matt has used before and we lucked out that it still had an open spot. Yay!

Plus being serenaded all night by a waterfall and stream isn't a bad perk. 

Sleepyheads in the morning! I obviously still need a little more work on blanket packing, it was a little chilly. Not as bad as last time and the boys slept ok, but my plan of matching their footed pajamas with my footed pajamas wasn't 100% successful. Maybe theirs are thicker material? Hmmm...

Maybe I should just invest in a double sized coleman sleeping bag for all of us. That seems easy enough. It's certainly how Matt and I used to roll back in our car-camping heyday!

Henry was in a great a mood as always. He slept like a champ and woke up ready for another day in paradise! :)

Breakfast options were pretty limited in Glen Allen, but the gas station there has an amazing selection of frozen breakfast food. Jimmy Dean sausages and Corn Pops? Breakfast of champions!

Came home early enough today to have time to hang out and relax at home before getting back to the week day rush. Given how much fun the boys had coloring the other day, I thought they could try painting. And they didn't even seem to mind sharing a big sheet! You can see they both have their unique styles of painting - Thomas' lines versus Henry's short jabs. 

Henry really seemed to get into it and only got paint on himself a few times, much more successful than the last time I attempted painting with him.

A great weekend with all three of my boys, can't wait to go back to both Valdez and Kennecott - so much more exploring to do!

Ferry to Valdez

Our last big family trip I had planned for the summer was the most exciting - a trip to Valdez! I have heard nothing but great things about Valdez. Plus it is supposed to be one of the prettiest places in the state. Sold!

This sign is actually a bit out of town (22 miles to be exact) and not even on the way we arrived to Valdez, but I thought it was a super exciting sign and a good opening photo.

Details, details...

Ha!

We decided to mix it up and take the ferry over to Valdez instead of driving. It didn't save much in the way of time, but I thought the boys might find it more exciting than sitting in the car all day. Taking the ferry, of course, requires going through the tunnel to Whittier. I love the tunnel, but I am always super stressed about getting there in time and worried we will miss the opening in our direction and sit there for an hour. Luckily, that was not the case. Whew!

Because we made the right tunnel time, we actually had a little bit of time to kill in Whittier. We ended up driving around for a little while to see if we could find any people fishing and then walking along the water front waiting for the ferry to come in. Thomas was pretty excited when we told him that big boat pulling into the dock was our ride. :)

As soon as we got on board, the boys were ready to dig in to their lunch! We've been on a Lunchables kick while traveling. They'll eat a sandwich maybe 50% of the time - but they will chow down on a Lunchable almost every time. Works for me! Of course, we didn't realize we weren't supposed to eat in the forward seating area until we had already staked out a good spot. So I whisked the boys off to the dining area while Matt chilled out with all of our stuff (mostly toys to be honest!). 

The boys were all over the place! The movie room was playing the Lego Movie - so that captivated Thomas for a while, but they mostly wanted to explore everywhere. Thomas started to get super sleepy and after a bit of a "I'm not tired!" meltdown, he passed out for a nap. Henry waited until Thomas woke back up before he decided to pass out.

Is it too much to ask for both of you to sleep at the same time so I can rest? At least I got my 10,000 steps in chasing kids around...

We got into Valdez pretty late, so we were asleep not long after getting a meal. I ended up making a last minute hotel reservation because the reservation I thought I had made, I never completed (whoops!). We luckily found a room, but it was a single bed, so in order to get Thomas to go to sleep - we ended up going to sleep too. A full night's rest was actually a nice treat! Henry is still in the pack and play for trips. He barely fits in there, but I'm still using it!

The next morning after a stellar breakfast at the Totem restaurant, we hit up the local playground. We figured we would go for a drive after the park and wearing them out to ensure a nap is always a priority! 

They were excited about yet another new playground. And if you notice in the background, this one also had active construction - double win!

Henry has been hit or miss on whether or not he likes the swing. I know he looks super concerned / upset here, but I promise he was enjoying it. Just maybe not while his momma kept ducking down to try and get photos... ;)

We decided to take advantage of the fact we brought Thomas' soccer ball along to kick it around with him. He's been playing soccer over the summer and it had been outdoors (unlike his first session). He's not been as excited / cooperative this session - he claims it's because he wants to play inside, but I'm not sure he isn't just using that excuse because I suggested it. Either way, he was somewhat into kicking it around with us, so there is that!

I didn't get any photos of the drive, but it was gorgeous! The sun was out with just a few puffy, white clouds. The green grass, blue glaciers and colorful flowers were all so vibrant today. It was a gorgeous drive! We finally decided it was time to eat lunch and pulled off at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park visitors center. This was the view from our picnic table - you can see the clouds were just uncooperative enough to cover the very the top of the mountains.

It was a great lunch, minus the wasps! At the time, I was insistent they were bees, but I have since decided that bees are nice, friendly insects and wasps are jerks. So they were wasps. None of them stung us, but they were flying all around us. I am not a fan of wasps and I was pretty much a nervous wreck. This might be the only calm photo Matt managed to take of me - obviously the kids weren't bothered. Look at those cheesy grins!

On the way back to Valdez, I made Matt stop at Bridal Falls. Valdez is surrounded by tons of waterfalls, but this one had the best pull off spot. I wanted to test out some filters I had bought for my camera. They are supposed to allow you to capture photos of waterfalls that look like softer streams of water. I thought it did a pretty good job!

This is the stack of filters! I had three of the ND filters in addition to my usual protective UV filter (the one with no label). ND stands for Neutral Density and is a way to block out some light in order to leave your shutter open longer - critical to get the smooth water look. It was bright enough that I had to stack all three of them to work - I'm assuming they are additive and it was equivalent to a ND 14. On a related note, I managed to get the ND 8 stuck to my UV filter. Matt thinks he *might* be able to get it unstuck.

Sigh... I'm a mess sometimes.

We decided to go back to the playground from this morning since the boys had been in the car most of the day. (The summer of road trips and playgrounds continues!). But when trying to convince Matt he had turned down the wrong street we found another playground!

And this one had pirate ships!!!

And a treasure box!!

They had two different ships - sized for younger and older kids. Of course my kids just ran back and forth between the two of them with no regard to what size they were!

Here Thomas is captaining the smaller ship with gusto! (Is captaining a word? I have the habit of making random things verbs that really shouldn't be...) Also note the gorgeous backdrop for the playground.

I think there must be a rule that they can only put Alaskan playgrounds in gorgeous places.

Or maybe it's because all of Alaska is gorgeous?!? :)

Henry, not to be left out, takes over the helm of the larger pirate ship. He mostly just made noises and moved the wheel back and forth. Seems legit to me! ;)

And it was Henry's first time to climb up the stairs by himself and go down the slide sitting up. Look at how proud he is of himself. He had to scoot himself quite a ways forward before gravity assisted him, but he was determined!

These two... So silly!

There was a section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline on one side of the playground that looked like it was meant to be explored, so I hopped up there to check it out with the boys. It's such a huge pipeline - 4' in diameter. I obviously had to crouch a little, but the boys were fine. Amazing they built this thing from the North Slope to Valdez - a feat of technology to be sure.

(And Henry is wearing his brother's shorts because he spilled all over his - I don't have him in weird high waters. Just because I don't want anyone judging my fashion choices for the little guy!)

For a day of driving and playgrounds, it was highly successful. These two guys are pretty easy to entertain! :)

Carens! And Corn on the Cob!

It occurred to me on the drive home from work today that Henry is past the age that I started doing dedicated art time with Thomas. He's not deprived - he does plenty of art at school, but he hasn't done much at home. I figured tonight was the perfect time to rectify that - preferably timed to keep him occupied while I made dinner. Multi-tasking!

Henry was so excited about the crayons! He didn't really do much coloring, but he was more than happy to make a mark or two and then just play with the crayons. 

When Thomas realized it was art time, he wanted in on the fun! He wanted to use the crayon gems that I bought Henry for Christmas. They didn't work great for Henry, so I let Thomas have a go at them. He seemed to do just fine with them - here he is explaining to me that the white is no good because you can't see it. And black is too dark...

As a side note - he pronounces them "Carens". I get so confused when he asks for them! "I want to use the Carens!" He has so many cute pronunciations these days. Overall he's pretty good, but he'll slip in the occassional Manna (banana) or Wiza (Eliza). Matt is very good at working on his pronunciation - his momma just thinks it's cute and is not so helpful. Ha!

Thomas picked out the corn on the cob at the grocery store yesterday, so I decided to cook it for dinner tonight. I cut the kernels off of the cob for the boys since eating it off the cob is kinda a mess and they aren't the *most* talented diners. 

Henry ended up throwing the most random fit and it took me forever to realize he wanted my corn and not his. See that sad little tear under his eye? I finally decided he couldn't do too much damage with the mostly cleaned cob and handed it over. He was so excited to get his own cob!

Which, of course, meant Thomas wanted one too. Instead of eating it, he tried to put his kernels back on the cob...

(You can see Henry in the background quite enjoying his mini-cob!)

When that failed, he decided to gnaw on the cob to get the rest of the corn off. Hey - whatever keeps them happy and doesn't hurt them...

Of course, the empty cob wasn't exciting enough to keep Henry's attention for long. He started pointing and grunting at my corn on the cob. It wasn't actually the best piece of corn, so I decided to hand it over just to see his reaction. You would have thought I gave him a hunk of candy - he was thrilled! He mostly just gummed it and smiled at me.

If that's all it takes to make your day Henry, I am all for it. :)

Making Playdough

Our new Koala Crate came in the mail and Thomas could not wait to open it and check out the goodies! The theme this month was Numbers, but the biggest activity was to make play dough. We've tried this once before with lackluster results, so I was curious how it would go with prepackaged ingredients. 

Can you tell he was a little excited about the play dough making? Or maybe because I gave him the spoon? He who wields the spoon, wields the power? Ha! :)

He was very focused on his mixing and didn't spill any of it on the counter. The kit had the option to use the included packet of kool-aid to make it blue (of course we used it!). I have no idea what the ingredients were - it was all nontoxic and I think mostly food based. So when Henry inevitably tries to eat it, I won't have to panic too much...

Speaking of Henry - he was bummed he was missing out on the action. He's not quite stable enough to use the helper stool with his brother, so I sat him on the counter to hang out. 

He even pretended to add ingredients. He held the empty bottle over the bowl and shook it around to "add" it. So helpful!

I ended having to finish the stirring for Thomas - I *did* spill on the counter. (He must get his neatness from his dad...) But once it was all stirred up, he got right to playing with it. The purpose of the play dough was to make shapes with it to match the letters or assorted other play mat ideas. 

He didn't quite get that concept, but he did enjoy playing with it. He plays with play dough at school quite a bit, so he is quite the pro at all the assorted toys.

The play dough was quite the hit! So far, the Koala Crates have all been a success - no matter what happens to be inside of them. The Christmas present that just keeps on giving! :)

Seward Camping Trip

As I mentioned on the previous post, Matt was down on the Kenai for a fishing trip. Somehow in the midst our summer of vacations, this one got missed. Matt generously stepped up to the planning plate and put together weekend plans to ride his motorcycle with Sam. But of course, the wives and kids would drive down to a campsite near Seward and meet them for camping fun. 

Unfortunately(?) the fishing got cancelled due to bad weather - so the boys had no option but to get started early on their trail riding. Poor guys... 

Caitlin and I stuck to the original plan of getting breakfast at our usual diner and then hitting the road. I figured if we timed it right, the boys might even get a nap in before we got to Seward. 

Of course, we had to stop at the Girdwood playground for a little fun first! I think Girdwood is the first playground we discovered when we moved to Alaska and it's so convenient for an attempt to wear the kids out before a road trip... 

Thomas bee-lined for the sand box to play with the excavator this morning. Not surprising, because:

They are apparently working on the park and the first thing Thomas saw when we pulled up was the excavator ripping up the old tennis courts. I would say a good 40% of the time at the park today was spent watching the excavator. (By all 3 kids!)

And no park visit would be complete without riding on the wooden sled dogs!

Henry was all over the park today! Thankfully Thomas and Abby were happy to hang out together, so I could chase Henry while Caitlin watched the older two. He "hid" from me in the train for a little while - he looked so funny when I "found" him. I have no idea what this expression is!

Finally made it down to Seward and the SeaLife Center! I tried to convince the kiddos to stop playing for a second for a photo op. You can see how into it they were...!

At least Abby was happy enough to sit for a photo with her momma!

Back to playing on the boat! The center is full of sea life (obviously), but their favorite part if always this boat right at the entrance. Abby was apparently concerned for her safety with Thomas being the Captain. She ran over and put the life jacket on without prompting. Ha!

"No, I'm the captain!"

*Screeech*

"I am...!"

Brotherly love... 

The attraction for the summer was all about the prehistoric Buzzsaw Shark! I didn't exactly get to read all of the signs about the reasoning for the circular saw teeth. I do know that one of the fossils of the teeth spiral was found in Alaska - so that's pretty awesome. 

We somehow managed to time it to see the Sea Lions being fed - a first! The kids were just as enthralled as the moms. So fun!

Thomas actually touched something in the touch tank! Another first! He then asked the lady overseeing the tank what something was. She couldn't tell what he was pointing to, so he explained he wanted to know what the black tubes were - part of the filtration system. She said in all of her time there, no one has ever asked her about the tank system. 

That's my boy - the engineer!

We started to lose them about halfway through, so we took a short break on the deck upstairs. Henry was occupied by a mini-dance party. He's got some pretty interesting moves... Not sure where he learned them!

Abby and Thomas raced bak and forth a few times to burn off some extra energy. No one out there seemed to be giving us the side eye, so I will assume they found it cute and not annoying. The two of them were giggling and laughing, so they were being pretty adorable. :)

One more trip back to the boat! This time both kids were concerned for their safety. :)

When we finally left, Thomas ran straight for the circle of benches outside and yelled "Train!" I was so confused why he was talking about the train until I caught up with him. Pretty impressed he recognized the train emblem so quickly. That boy does love his trains!

We set off on a quest to find cookies for snack time. We knew there was at least one place down the street that usually had them, so we headed there first. And these two were still pretty intent on being adorable. I'm glad they get along so well!

Now if we could just work on getting them both to look at the camera at the same time... I didn't trust Henry at all to stand up there for a picture. These two were bad enough - they started trying to climb the bear. Picture time is over! "/

Off to the playground to eat our cookie snack! Henry didn't finish his cookie quite as fast as everyone else, so he and I hung out on the dog sled (these parks are all very similar!) so he could finish. Unfortunately, right after this super happy photo, he started to fall over. Instead of catching himself, he held on to his cookie and ended up face planting into the bench in front of us. His cookie fell to the ground and his tooth went through his lip. Traumatizing all around!

I got him cleaned up and established that he wasn't seriously hurt apart from a bleeding lip. But I couldn't get him calmed down. I finally decided to call Matt back (he had called in the midst of the chaos). He didn't pick up and his phone went to voicemail. As soon as Henry heard his dad on the message he was all smiles and "Dada!!" Good trick to know for the future!

After the guys caught up with us and we had dinner at the bus in town, we headed out of town to find our campsite. Apart from our tent being a little big and the tent spot being a little sloped, it wasn't so bad! Matt was really the only person complaining since Thomas and I were both sliding in to him all night. Ha!

Oh and we need to reevaluate our blanket situation, it was a little chillier than I expected. "/

I was super stressed over getting everything packed up without help since Matt was going out before we were. Especially what to pack for food - I haven't camped in a while! Luckily, Matt packed up most of the big stuff before he left and the guys gave me a grocery list. But the best part was when they informed me that Sam was going to do the cooking. Well that's a welcome change! :)

Of course, I probably should have asked how much my risk of a heart attack would increase after this breakfast. That's a *lot* of butter in those eggs! I will admit, they were pretty darn tasty though... The road to a heart attack is paved with butter...

I kept trying to get a photo of Henry's fat lip, but he was not in the mood for cooperating. Usually he just sucks on two fingers, but this morning he was stuffing four of them in there. At least he was in a great mood! :)

Abby was such a ham for the camera, it was hard to get a non-cheesy photo of her. She did have to take a short break from the ridiculously big photos, so I managed to get a serious one of her. Such a cutie with her pigtails. Much cuter than I looked after a night of camping!

Thomas found her pink camera and we didn't have to worry about entertaining him for the next ten minutes. I should probably be better about packing his camera for trips!

Before heading back home, we decided to walk down to the river on one of the trails. Anything we can do to wear them out before a car ride is a plus in my book. 

They even got a chance to practice their balance beam skills!

Henry didn't get the chance to walk - he's so heavy that if there is a chance you might have to carry him for more than a short distance, it's better just to put him in the backpack carrier. He crashed pretty soon in to the walk anyhow. Not picture are the other two kiddos who ran out of steam on the trail down and had to be carried as well (on the shoulders, of course!).

Turns out that Thomas gets pretty heavy too. Ugh - I was sweating pretty bad before we got back to the car... Freezing at night and burning up on a short walk - I thought I lived in Alaska?!?

All-in-all it was a great trip and motivation that we can do tent camping with the kids successfully. I've been dreading the first trip because it just seemed so stressful - turns out it wasn't all that bad. Car camping added back to the list of family activities! Also, thanks to Sam, Caitlin and Abby for hanging out with us - it was a great time!

Company Picnic

It's that time of year again... That's right - it's Company Picnic time!! Thomas had so much fun last year, I was super excited to get to take them again, especially since they are a year older and love doing stuff just that much more. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for the same day Matt had to go leave work early and head down to the Kenai. (Don't feel too sorry for him - it was for a fishing trip!)

I really wanted to take both of the boys and was stressing over how to manage both of them at a really fun, but spread out event. Luckily, I knew someone that might be willing to help me out! 

In case you can't tell from the photo - the theme this year was "Bug Out!" - they had cutesy bug stuff all around, though the photo booth was by far my favorite (bug wise).

I think she must love her nephews... Why else would you run around in the rain chasing a crazy three year old? Ha - the two of them ran through this maze about 5 times before Henry and I got through it once.

Henry just wasn't too sure why there were so many dead ends. He kept trucking along though! There was an older kid trying to scare younger kids at one of the intersections, I was fully prepared to berate him if he made my kids cry! But when he yelled "Boo!" at Henry, little man just gave him a "What's your deal?" look and kept walking. Ha!

They loved playing in the boxes of sand. They were, of course, full of plastic bug toys - but also dinosaurs! And I learned something neat the other day about plastic dinosaurs. Almost all of them have the name of the dinosaur imprinted on them - usually on the bottom. Now all of us parents can look like amateur paleontologists - woo!

Over to the pony ride! He wasn't too sure at first last year, but ended up holding on all by himself at the end. Look how serious he is here - he is ready to ride that pony all by himself!

Or, you know, hang on to his Aunt Heather the whole time. He was leaned over so far at one point I was convinced he was going to fall out of the saddle. Luckily Heather had a good hold on him.

Sigh...

Three year olds...

Henry was intent on watching his brother ride the pony. He seemed pretty content to just watch, but next year he is getting a chance at being a cowboy!

The petting zoo was thankfully missing the unruly calf from last year, but there were still plenty of animals capable of knocking Henry over. Thomas couldn't convince any of the goats to eat the piece of straw his was offering. Probably because they were more interested in trying to eat my hair. Rude goats!

As a side note - what is that kid in the background doing with his lips? Ha - kids are so weird!

When we were at the Solstice Festival last month, Heather was talking about how cool it would be to ride the bucking salmon, if only the line weren't sooo long. I knew there was one at the picnic last year, so when I spied it across the field today, I started asking Thomas if he wanted to see Aunt Heather ride it? "How cool would that be?!?"

Yes, I used my kids to make my sister ride the giant mechanical salmon. She *said* she wanted to ride it - who am I to deny her that?? Haha - she actually seemed to have fun once she stopped making pretend scared faces. And she didn't even complain too much about how the whole inflatable area was. ;)

Also highly entertaining were the hula hoops. She picked one up expecting to be able to hula hoop like we did back in elementary school. Apparently it is *not* like riding a bike...!

She tried to teach Thomas how to hula hoop, but that wasn't nearly as interesting as trying to attack me with the hula hoop. Luckily my dodging skills are pretty advanced thanks to the fact I live with two small boys. ;)

We all had a blast - even with the rain! It's hard to beat a festival thrown by work that is aimed at families. :)

And I even remembered to ask Heather to take a photo of me and the boys. I'm trying to get better about remembering to ask. I've been on a selfie kick with my phone recently, but it's really hard to get both boys in the frame. 

Weekend in Homer

When I was planning out our summer of weekend trips, I mostly picked out new places to visit, but the one repeat was Homer. We came here last year while I was still on maternity leave and really enjoyed hanging out with the boys. It's a very chill little town that seems to encourage relaxing and enjoying the scenery. Plus since the boys are now a year older, I figured it might not take us 7 hours to make the 4 hour trip this time... ;) 

We hit the road after a late breakfast with the hope that the boys would take a nap and let us get far enough down the road for a lunch stop. And we managed to make it all the way to Soldotna before everyone was ready to eat - awesome! It took us a few u-turns to find a suitable picnic spot, but we ended up at the city park. (Matt actually knew what he was looking for, I think he and Duncan tried to fish from this spot last July - I was the one causing problems...)

It was a sunny and grassy spot for lunch, but the bigger draw was the playground right next to the picnic area. We managed to convince Thomas to eat by promising he was going to get to play as long as he would just eat first! The two of them took off once they had finished up, Matt and I took turns following each kid. Of course, I did have to snap a few photos of them having fun!

Henry mostly stayed on the 2-5 year old side of the playground, but Thomas was constantly running back and forth between the two sides. He graciously decided to slide with his little brother a few times to show him how to do it. Henry loves the slides - he's just not got quite enough balance to go down on his butt without falling over. (At daycare they teach the young ones to go down on their belly, feet first - which I have seen him do several times at our neighborhood park.) 

I tried so hard to get Thomas to stick his face in this animal cutout for a cute photo. And this is what I get. He was even making animal noises (although I think he was howling...), but he would not be convinced to run around to the other side. He wanted to be on the "pretty side". Just a fair warning for whoever is thinking 3 year olds are cooperative models. 

We got to Homer after another stretch in the car with super happy guys - a little playground time works wonders! We dropped all of our stuff off at the house we are renting for the weekend and then headed down to the spit for dinner. We loved Captain Pattie's so much last time that we decided to go there again. Unfortunately, there was quite the line, so I had to wait to even put our names on the list...

Matt wandered off with the kids while I was waiting and I come out to see my boys down the boardwalk with a crowd of people all staring at something exciting. What's everyone staring at? Only a big halibut getting filleted on the deck. Wouldn't have been my first choice for pre-dinner entertainment...

The wait for Captain Pattie's ended up being too long for two boys that were hungry and past their bedtime, so we ended up across the street. I was worried when we first sat down that they may not even make it to dinner before melting down. Luckily there was enough activity outside the windows that they were mostly entertained. And when that was losing it's appeal, I pulled out the camera to take photos of them (surprisingly, they like it as long as I show them the photos as soon as I take them).

This was one of my favorite photos of Henry because I just love his pretty blue eyes. 

Not surprisingly considering they are almost a perfect match for his dad. No genetic tests needed for the youngest! ;) 

And for the record, Matt didn't actually need distracting with photos, I just wanted a photo of him too. :)

Thomas was, by far, the most entertained with the camera. He was certainly in a mood to ham it up for the camera. He was lunging at me in this one, but I thought he just looked so happy and silly in my sunglasses. There's not much that can beat a happy kid photo!

The next morning we went to Duncan's Diner for breakfast. I ordered the boys "Bear Pancakes" and they loved their smiling faces! Thomas also loved the fact all of the breakfast plates had a slice of watermelon on them. I, on the other hand, couldn't get it off my plate fast enough. I think he had three slices before even touching his pancake - he was dripping watermelon juice all over me. Ugh - so gross... ;)

Speaking of which - I let both of them have a few of my breakfast potatoes since their pancakes didn't come with any sides. Shortly after Henry finished the pile I gave him, I look over to see him grabbing them off of my plate. Is nothing sacred anymore?!? You just know that wet toddler hand is covered in thousands (probably millions!), of germs. That whole part of the plate was all his after that contamination. Luckily, they gave me way more food than I needed so I didn't starve.

After breakfast, we decided to walk down to Bishop's Beach to have some fun in the sun! It didn't occur to us to bring the Minion kite like last time, but luckily our route to the beach took us right by the toy store! And of course they had kites for sale - there were so many to choose from I fretted over picking the right one. 

Hahaha - as soon as I saw there was a T-Rex kite though, the hunt was over. How could I resist a kite that looks like a ferociously attacking dinosaur?!? And it's feet would flap in the breeze so it really looked like it was running! Unfortunately, the kite was super into it's persona and may have actually dive bombed some poor lady who was walking by...

We had tied it off to walk down to the water and it was fluttering way up in the sky until she got under it and *bam* it went right for her! We were so embarrassed! I don't think he actually hit her, but he came after us a few times before we decided to reel him in. I know I should be ashamed of him, but he honestly made me a little proud. Go T-Rex!

Is anyone surprised by the first activity of the boys? Not me! Apparently this is the new favorite thing to do when confronted with rocks and a nearby body of water. The only reason Matt isn't in this photo is probably because he is off trying to corral T-Rex. ;)

Thomas flew the kite for a little while, but he wasn't nearly as interested in the kite as he was with throwing rocks. One of these days he will appreciate the ferocious T-Rex kite as much as his momma does. But I can't be too disappointed because - he likes rocks! :)

Soon they were both a little chilly and ready to leave, but when I mentioned that I had brought their construction toys, they were suddenly still up for more play time - ha! I vacated this position right after taking this photo because someone (no names mentioned, but the spoon might be a give-away) was flinging sand up in the air and the wind blew it all over me and my camera.

Thanks...

After a drive east to the end of the roads, we headed to the town park for a late picnic lunch and playtime. According to the owner of the house we stayed at, the town put it together in a group effort over a week and it is one of the best playgrounds in the US. With an endorsement like that, we had to go check it out! Thomas loved the boats at the playground in Soldtona, so guess where he bee-lined to as soon as we finished lunch? 

Personally, I was most intrigued by this water sluice set-up. There was a hand pump at the top and a series of rock bowls and carved out logs to direct the water downhill. It looked so fun and he ran right by it! As you can probably tell from the photo - it was by far the most populated park of the playground. Of course, that might be why he avoided it. 

It was the most entertaining group effort though! They were damming up the water in the first rock bowl until it was almost overflowing and then flooding the rest of the course. It took several minutes to fill it up, but they patiently (mostly) waited until it was full before trying to knock down their cobbled together rock dams. As you can tell, it was a huge splash when the gates where open and the shrieks of excitement and laughter were well worth the wait!

Back to the rest of the playground! There were house shaped buildings with slides.

There were trains! (Although the steering wheel for this train was way too high for the 2-5 year old target audience. Odd!)

This awesome excavator! Also too big for this side of the park. Details, details...

As a side note - I don't think I've ever been to a playground with such an impressive view. I might be behind the whole "Best playground in the US" moniker with that taken into consideration. 

A wooden xylophone - the boys (all three of them) banged on this one for quite a while. Matt is already plotting on how he can build one at home...

Thomas even went down the enclosed slide (with some encouragement)! You can tell he is *super* thrilled about it... Ha!

In his defense, it was a pretty huge slide! We even got Henry to slide down it once his older brother did it. But no pictures - I was too busy trying to catch him at the bottom!

We stayed so long that the bulk of the other kids had gone home and the boys finally went to check out the water sluice. Henry had a blast catching water in this little toy and dumping it all over his pants and shoes. 

Thomas finally wandered up to the water pump at the top. He wanted to get water in his toy too, but he was a little concerned about being splashed. In his defense, his loving mother may or may not have splashed him right before this photo.

I know nothing... ;)

On the drive back this morning, we decided to stop and play in the playground again in Soldotna. We weren't in any hurry, plus they have so much fun running around and tend to fall asleep longer once we get back in the car. Win-win! 

After playing for a little while, we wandered down to the Kenai River to see all of the people fishing. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. We were hoping to see some fish being caught, but no such luck. (Probably why it wasn't too crowded!) The water was flowing pretty fast in the main part of the river, so we didn't let the boys get too close. But the end of the path was in a side shoot that was pretty calm, so I let Thomas walk on the dock and check out the boats and seagulls in the river. 

Matt decided Henry was safer on his shoulders, but thought he would wander in to check out the water. As you might be able to tell, it was a little chilly. Ha - honestly, I think he was trying to photobomb Thomas and I, but Thomas wasn't having anything to do with me at the moment, so I caught Matt instead. :)

We finally made it home and the boys immediately went a little crazy pulling out all of their toys and running around the house. Matt decided to Skype with his parents and sometime in the process of getting them online, the boys both put their easter buckets on their heads and were running around giggling like crazy. But they managed to have somewhat of a conversation with Grannie and Papa - Henry was proudly showing off his new words of "Please" and "Yeah" in context. Woo!

All-in-all it was a great weekend! The boys obviously had a blast and it was pretty awesome weather. We may have spent the bulk of our time on playgrounds, but after the weekend in Seattle, I am convinced that playgrounds are a gift to parents. Free and so much fun - what more could you ask for??