Some Recent Views

The other day I snapped these pics on Egan Drive (the main highway/thoroughfare through town). I just love this view on a beautiful sunny day in May like we've had lately. I know dandelions are weeds, but they look so beautiful scattered on the sides of the road like this. I think it's the perfect spot for these weed flowers. This sight won't last for long too because sooner than later a big mower will come through and we can say bye-bye to the dandelions. But that's ok, because in July we'll have pretty fireweed to enjoy on our drives.
Maybe some local reading my blog can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the two peaks in the pictures are Blackerby Ridge (left) and Mt. Juneau (right). And that would be the corner of Fred Meyer in the left of the second picture.
Then the other day, I looked up to see this view. I was quite proud of myself for not freaking out and cleaning up the "mess". Instead I took a moment to enjoy how much Carly loves her brother. She really does enjoy taking care of him and helping him. Isaac has been a great eater since my last post about him eating bananas. I got up for just a minute to get him a wet washcloth to clean his face, and sister instantly nabbed my seat and decided he had room for more. That's plain yogurt that she's feeding him--he's quite fond of the stuff.

Memorial Day Picnics

We started our day of picnic-ing at Lena Beach for our annual picnic with the church. The weather was great, so we all had a great time. Here are some pictures showing how each member of our family enjoyed themselves. Shawn also played some frisbee and managed to not loose the aerobie this time. Carly also played with her sand toys (even though it's a rocky beach). Isaac was pretty content to sit on Lela's blanket most of the time.

Here's a good chunk of our group enjoying the feast and the view of the water. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the view. I was thinking more of getting "people" pictures.

This picture just cracks me up! Three out of four Baird children out for the count at the same time! Now how often does that happen in the middle of the day? They were all pooped from a night of camping.


Picnic #2 was at Mark and Connie Petz' house. They were our neighbors when we lived in our apartment up here. And we soon found out that we have a bunch of mutual friends. Anyhoo, we had a turkey we were needing to get out of our freezer and I happened to remember that Mark and Connie had a crab pot that could be used as a turkey fryer. So about a week ago we called them up and they thought having it on Memorial Day would be perfect. So that's just what we did--a little Thanksgiving style dinner on Memorial Day!

Here's Carly playing in the dirt and rocks with Justus and Ethan (Mark and Connie's grandson--more about him later). Unfortunately, Carly was the only girl. I'm afraid that's a scenario that's going to repeat itself a lot in the coming years. So far it doesn't seem to bother her.

Here's "the guys" watching the turkey cook.


Matthias--I wish I was on the other side of the screen door to get this shot. Especially when he had his face smashed up against it.


My sweet baby boy--3 months younger than his buddies he's playing with.




Owen (aka Baby Oh-oh--that's what Carly used to call him). I see so much of both his parents in him. I just love his hair.





Joe and Luke finally returned from their wilderness trekking--good thing they didn't miss the turkey!




Ahh! There it is. Careful, it's hot!




My boys!










These three people make me so happy!





This photo is a little blurry, but Shawn frantically snapped it. You're looking at the aftermath of Carly's first kiss. Carly and Ethan (who's almost 4) along with Ethan's older brother, Seth were playing of to the side of the campfire us adults were enjoying. We all noticed something going on and looked over to see Ethan looking like he was hugging Carly and then--smack--right on the lips. It just cracks me up how embarrassed Carly looks and how guilty Ethan looks. It turns out that Seth--the older brother--was the one who told Ethan to kiss Carly. The blurry man in the sweatshirt is not Shawn ready to take Ethan out back, it's Ethan's Dad going over to investigate. I suppose it could have been worse. It could have been a snotty nosed, stinky boy. Fortunately, it was sweet little Ethan who was just a little too trusting in his older brother.

Swimming at the Glacier

This afternoon (after lunch and Isaac's nap) we rode our bikes out to the Mendenhall Glacier. For those that don't know, we live about a 3 minute drive, an 8 minute bike ride, or a 30 minute walk from the most beautiful attraction Juneau has to offer. We literally live right around the corner from a glacier. Anyway, we loaded up the kids in the bike trailer and brought along some sand toys and beach towels. That's right we went swimming at the Mendenhall Lake. Now don't be worried, no one got hypothermia. Actually there are a few shallow fingers of the lake that sits at the edge of the glacier that heat up pretty nicely when the weather is nice. So that's where we went today. We walked onto the farther set of pools today so we wouldn't have to listen to the tourists gasp as they walked by. It was great. Carly pretty much just played in the sand and waded. I think the only time she really "got in the water" was when she tripped. Isaac had a ball too.This is the new carrier we got for Isaac--well actually it's for me. And I love it. It makes it so much easier to carry him around. It is so much more comfortable than a sling or front pack. And I feel like he's much more secure. Anyway, you'll surely see lots more pictures of us using this especially since Isaac loves for me to carry him.

Tomorrow we have two picnics to go to, so we'll try to post some pictures and stories tomorrow night. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Yea for Sunshine!

We had some fabulous weather in Juneau today (it's about time). Sometime before lunch, I said, "Yea for sunshine." And Carly responded with, "Yea for not raining!" Can you tell we live in a temperate rain forest or what?
Anyway, they said on the news the high was 63, but I really think it was more like 68 around our house. That may not sound warm to you, but it's pertnear a heatwave in Southeast Alaska. Plus with the humidity in Juneau, it always feels much warmer if it gets above 65.
We had so much fun playing outside today. We didn't do anything too crazy, just stuff around the house. But I took a ton of pictures (51 to be exact) and I wanted to share some of them with all of you. Enjoy! And we're supposed to have even better weather tomorrow and all weekend, so I just might blog about our summertime adventures each day.

Keeping you happy

Here are a few pictures to keep all of Carly and Isaac's fans happy.

This is Carly trying on her hula outfit from Uncle Jesse and Aunt Victoria. They got it for her on their trip to Hawaii in January.This is my favorite onesie of Isaac's. I bought it for him before he was born. I just love the colors, the design, and of course the message.
Carly and Isaac have been playing together a lot lately. Carly loves to softly say to Isaac, "Hi buddy. Do you want to play in the family room with me. Yeah, come on." He usually agrees.Isaac is so proud of himself and his sitting up ability.Isaac is very into this ring stack toy thing. He can play with it for an hour--as long as everything else is going well.
Carly playing with one of her favorite things--a phone!

How do you like those bananas?

Well, I sort of promised pics, so here they are.

This is Isaac eating yesterday. Except for the first few times that he ate rice cereal, he hasn't been so excited about solid foods. It's been a bit disappointing. For quite a while he would spit out way more than he'd actually eat. Finally in the last few days he's been eating more. The only thing I did was give him a big break and started over again. I also had a sneaking suspicion that he was a little too bothered with teething to eat food. Now that the teeth are in, he seems to be eating better, so maybe I was right. Anyway, this was his first taste of bananas yesterday. He didn't eat much of them, but I think he was just getting full. That's why he was happy to let them pool up on his chin.
Today however, he ate like a champion. Probably 1 1/2 oz of plain yogurt (he tends to like that better than rice cereal), the equivalent of 4 or 5 banana slices, and about 1 1/2 oz of applesauce. Plus pieces of about 5 cheerios. That may not sound filling to you, but this is by far the most he's ever eaten. Hopefully this is the start of much better solid food eating.


The flowers are the hanging baskets I planted yesterday. They are just some petunias, but I have high hopes for them. I couldn't bear to pay for a pre-made one here--they go for $30 easily. Maybe I'm just remembering some childhood price, but that seems a bit steep to me. So for about $10 or $12 each I made my own.

And don't worry, I didn't do nearly as much as I did yesterday. I was just running on super mom adrenaline or something.

My Day

Today I....

• subbed in a kindergarten class
• went to the grocery store
• nursed a baby 4 times
• fed a baby yogurt and bananas
• changed 5 diapers
• planted two hanging baskets
• planted flowers in my mailbox planter
• made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner
• vacuumed the house
• made my bed
• washed the dishes
• cleaned two toilets
• put two kids to bed
  
• washed a load of laundry and hung it up to dry
• talked to two people on the phone
• checked email
• picked up toys
• packed my lunch for work tomorrow
• emptied the trash
• blogged about it all
  

Whew! Writing that up makes me feel even more tired. I'm beat. Good night!
Pics tomorrow if you're lucky. :)

Peace Officers Memorial

In case you didn't know, this last week was Law Enforcement Memorial Week. A week set aside to honor those police officers who paid the ultimate price for their communities. Fortunately, not a single officer in Alaska lost their life in 2007. However, nationally 181 officers died in the line of duty last year.
On Friday the Juneau Police Department held a ceremony to honor those officers. Due to a down pour of rain, (a bit unusual for May even in Juneau) the ceremony was moved indoors to the crowed assembly chambers. About half of Juneau's sworn officers were there. Shawn is the head just peaking over the shoulder of the guy holding the Alaska state flag.
The ceremony was really nice. We had never been to it before, so I'm glad we could attend this year. Carly and Isaac both did very well during the ceremony. Carly did especially well considering that all I had for her was a drink--no books, no nothing. Isaac also did amazingly well. The only trouble was when we got to the "moment of reflection". Don't think that it was quite or anything, because all of the sudden "Amazing Grace" was being played by bagpipes from the adjacent hallway. Isaac did not appreciate the bagpipes. I managed to keep him from going into a full on wail, but he whimpered his way through the song all the while producing huge crocodile tears. I did my best not to laugh at the funny situation, and I noticed a few other officers smirking at the display my son was putting on. Fortunately, they didn't play all the verses and I didn't have to take Isaac out. I'm not sure where I would have gone, because the bagpipes were in the hallway where I would have had to walk him through. Not to mention dragging Carly, the stroller, diaper bags, rain jackets, and umbrellas with me! The Lord was kind to this mom yesterday.
Here's all of us after the ceremony. Enjoy!