Drive Out the Road

Yesterday, was a gorgeous winter day so since it was Shawn's day off we took a drive out the road. Yes, I did just type "the road". In case you didn't know, Juneau only has one road that goes out of town and it doesn't go to any other town. So unless you put your car on a ferry, you can't drive anywhere outside the borough of Juneau.
Anyway, we packed a lunch and found a great spot to park just past Eagle Beach. This was the view we had from our car while we ate our lunch. It was beautiful. We saw lots of birds and even two seals swimming by. We couldn't have asked for better weather--well maybe a little better...it could have been 30 degrees warmer.

After we ate, we got out and walked along a the beach for a bit. As we walked, I tried to take advantage of a teachable moment and help Carly discover things on the beach. We found muscle shells and pieces of a crab's back shell. She also very smartly answered that the rocks were all smooth because of the water.

The girls

The boys

Eagle Eyes

The other day Carly was playing in the family room and called for me to come look at something. When I got over to her by the window, she asked me to look in the tree. I didn't see anything and told her so. But she insisted that there was a brown thing in the tree. After a thorough scan of the tree across the street I finally found it. Can you see it? (You might have to click on the pictures to make them a little bigger.)

Do you see it yet?

Surely you can see it now!

Well in case you can't tell, or you still couldn't see it, Carly spotted a porcupine in our neighbor's tree. And by the looks of it, I think it's the little juvenile one that sometimes shows up in our neighborhood. So in other words, not only would it be impressive to find any porcupine in a tree across the street, but I'm even more impressed because it was a little one.
Carly sure is a fun girl. I'm very blessed to be her momma.

Swimmer

Carly is doing so well with swimming lessons. It's so good to see her enjoy it and be confident. Hope you enjoy these video clips of her from the other night.

Walk to the Glacier

In case some of you lower-48ers were wondering if we still have snow, the answer is yes. Yes, we still have a quiet a bit of snow. Juneau has actually had 145 inches of snowfall this year in case you're counting.
So the other day, we had a great combination of sunshine and surprisingly not so frigid temperatures. So since we haven't had any fresh snowfall in several days and I knew the paths were well worn, I decided to load the kids into the jogger stroller. We walked all the way to the glacier from our house. In the summer it usually takes me about an hour, but with snow it took almost 1 1/2 hours. It was our first walk out to the glacier this year and surely not our last.

wearing shades--us Juneau folk aren't so used to the bright sun

In the summer this area is a parking lot for the big tour buses that drop people off at the glacier. But in the winter, it's a dumping ground for excess snow. With 145 inches you can't just leave it all on the sides of the road. Some streets are too narrow to just have the snow accumulate. I must admit, I sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic driving around in the winter or even just walking from my car to our front door. Anyway, on days like this, the city road crews spend time removing the snow from neighborhoods. I lost track of how many dump trucks past by on the street as we walked. They all drive out loaded with snow, dump their loads, and then go back out to get more. My guess is that about every 2 minutes a dump truck would pass us that was either coming from or going to the parking lot.

The Mendenhall in winter

On the way back Carly was very impressed with these icicles hanging from the rocks on the side of the path. They were very cool and picture worthy.

Carly also talked her way into walking for a bit on the return. It was good exercise for her, but it really slowed down my work out. She had fun though. And there was no worry about her wandering into the street when we had our very own tunnel to walk along.

The Year That Was 30

Another year older, another year wiser. That's the saying right?
So today was my birthday and it turned into a very interesting one. When Isaac got sick last night, I was thinking it was going to be a bit of an unfair birthday. I mean who wants to stay home and take care of a sick kid on your birthday? Or how about being thrown up on? Well, thanks to the ladies bible class I went to last Monday night, I realized that there had to be a positive, joyful perspective that I could view these same events with. One thing I realized was that Isaac's sickness wasn't really all that bad. In fact, I took him to church with me tonight and he's doing much better. Another thing to be joyful about was that instead of hurrying off to church and going through our usually busy Sunday schedule, I got to have a more leisurely morning. And I'm very blessed to have a friend to call upon to come and take Carly to church for me. Thanks, Janet! And you know how kids just want to be held when their sick. They seem to be a bit extra clingy. Well, I knew my usually clingy guy would probably be even more so today, but instead of being bothered by it, I decided to enjoy it. I know his wanting to cuddle with me won't last forever. So we did lots of rocking and we even fell asleep on the couch together. What do you know, I got a nap on my birthday! So I realized that staying home with a sick kid on your birthday isn't really all that bad if you can just find the joy in it.

Another reason for my post tonight was a to reflect a bit on some things that I think I've learned over the past year. I've been blessed with many lessons from God but these two in particular have had a pretty big impact on my life.
The major lesson I've learned is a better insight into God's love for us, his children. As I'm sure many of you can relate, I have a better appreciation for God's love ever since having my own children. My role as a parent has shown me more clearly how God could love us in spite of our shortcomings. But on the other side of the love coin, why does God need or want our love? I mean the bible says that even if we're silent the rocks and the trees will cry out praise to God. So does he need our love in return? Well, I tend to think that he doesn't need our love like we need oxygen or water, but that our love directed to him is so pleasing that he desires it. Here's why I've come up with this idea. A few months ago, just as I was thinking about how my love for my children is similar to God's love for us, Isaac came up to me without any prompting or request and gave me a huge hug. He was just starting to give hugs at this time and really getting his arms around your neck for it. Anyway, it was with the thoughts of my love for him going through my head that I think I fully appreciated his sign of love for me. And then I realized how it must make God feel when we return love to him. Wow, if it gives God even half of the delight that I felt that day, I hope I can show my love to my heavenly father continually.

The second lesson I've learned over the past year is how I really feel about the world and nation I live in. I am so proud to live in America. Our nation is so blessed and it can be easy to take that for granted. Over the past year I followed the recent presidential race pretty closely. Even though the campaign was a bit of a roller coaster and had plenty of negativity, I really think I gained a better appreciation for our nation, it's people, and the principles it was founded on. Maybe it also has to do with my age, but this past year I almost feel like I've had a bit of a political awakening. It's just that I've started to connect some of my core beliefs to the path that I hope our nation will take in the future. I could go on with specifics, but it would make this blog post ridiculously long. I think you get the point.

So in your next year of life, I hope you'll look for and appreciate some lessons that God sends your way. Shawn pointed out to me in my birthday card today that I've lived 11,323 days. I'm not sure if that includes leap years, but that sounds like quite a bit. There have been a lot of lessons learned in those days. I pray I'm open to more in the next 365 days.

Have a blessed day!
Rachel

A Day of Love

As I write in my details (2/15), the Little Man is taking a nap in his bed. He's had a rough 18 hours or so. A little after going to bed on Valentine's night, he got sick in his bed. He had vomit all over himself and his bed. So after getting everything changed, washed and back to sleep. I hit the hay myself predicting a rough night. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad--it could have been worse. He's doing better now (Sun PM) and I think we're on the downhill side of it. Hopefully we won't have to change tomorrow's schedule. Anyway, that's why the pictures were here last night with no details or captions.

Our Valentine's Day was pretty fun, even though it was a work "day" for Shawn we still made the most of it. This year, I tried to make it more of a day instead of just exchanging cards/gifts at one point in the day. I tried to incorporate love and especially hearts into the entire day.
In the morning, the kids woke up to the table all decorated for Valentine's Day with their valentine cards from grandparents and aunts and uncles. Plus they had each had a book from us to open.

reading their valentines

Two of my valentines.

When Shawn came home (during breakfast) he brought some balloons for the kids and some flowers for me. Plus a flower for the Little Miss. She loves it and smells it often.

I also wanted to keep a heart theme in our food today. So for breakfast the kids had cinnamon sugar heart toast with their cereal. I didn't quite get my picture in time. Apparently the zookeepers don't feed the animals fast enough in this joint.

For lunch it was grilled cheese hearts with grapes.

And for dinner it was a heart shaped pizza.

Since I enjoy cooking, it was fun to show love to my family with our regular meals.

Just before dinner we sent the kids on a photo scavenger hunt to find a box with some other treats from us and other relatives. The Little Miss had a blast and has since told everyone she's come in contact with about it. At the end of it she said, "That was the best treasure hunt ever!" Of course, we should probably mention that it's the only treasure hunt we've done for her. :)

Finding the photo clues about where to go next

Discovering the treasure box at the end of the hunt.

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and that none of you had a Valentine's Night like the Little Man and I did. Lots of love from our family to yours.

More Swimming Lessons

Carly started some more swimming lessons this week. She is doing SOOOOO much better with them. She's actually repeating preschool 1, we didn't think she was comfortable with the skills from that class, so we thought it would be better to retake it. We were able to take her an Isaac for some open swim time a couple of weeks ago, and that really helped her. We were able to get her to do all the skills that were expected of her in her lessons but that she either never or only rarely did independently. Anyway, she's doing great now. She's doing so many of the skills all on her own. I'm so relieved that she got over her nervousness and found the courage to try new things.

Jumping in all by herself!
Last time she would only jump in if she was touching her teacher's hands.

Kicking her way down the pool--all by herself!
Last time her teacher pretty much pulled her down every time.

Carly actually waiting on a classmate to hurry up.
That never happened last time--she was usually the last or slowest one.

I promise I didn't ask her to pose in this picture. She looked up to show me the stick she had picked up off the pool floor. Seeing that I had the camera up, she immediately started smiling. Yep, she's not camera shy!

Maybe It Will Be Basketball

Last week when we were at jumbo gym, Isaac found a new source of fascination. Following the preschool playtime, there is a men's lunch basketball league that Isaac discovered. When the playtime ended, I set him down in the coat room to get our coats, hats, and boots rounded up. And before I could blink he was busting through the doorway. When I caught up to him he was standing like this, at the edge of the court with his mouth wide open in amazement. He had a "kid in the candy store" look on his face, so I had to take a picture of the scene. (Even though I had already put the camera away.) The lighting in the gym is horrible though, so I'll have to play with the colors later. (Or if one of you out there with photoshop wants to have a try at it, just let me know and I'll email you a larger file size.)
Anyway, everyone always says that they think Isaac will be a football player, but he seems to have an interest in basketball too. Or maybe he'll be one of those multisport athletes. Who knows. I do know that he was so interested the other day that he didn't want to leave.

Jumbo Gym

The other day I took Carly and Isaac to Jumbo Gym for the preschool playtime. Beth also had her kids there, so they had a good time together.
Isaac was particularly active and loved the little slide. I was very thankful for the mat at the bottom. At first I helped him through each step of going down the slide. I set him up on the top platform, then sat him down at the top, guided him down, and then helped him stand up at the bottom. He thought it was great and wanted to keep sliding. Of course, he needed my help to get up to the platform, but everything else he was able to do for himself. He was acting like such a big boy--not quite a baby anymore.

getting ready to sit down

pausing to smile for momma/the camera

more cheese--my kids must be used to having their pictures taken, huh?

This is how it all began--trying to climb UP the slide by himself

Carly and Morgan--teeter totter buddies

I wish I had seen Carly and Morgan when they first saw each other. Beth told me that they both walked up with their backs to each other, just looking at the not so familiar faces of the other kids there. Then they both turned toward each at the same time and met eyes. Beth said they both had a huge look of joy and relief come over them.
What a great thing to find a friend to play with when it seems like you don't know anyone else. I'm glad Beth told me about it, but I really wish I could have at least seen it. Getting a picture of it would have been even better. :)