St. James Bay Cabin

We've had an eventful couple of days lately.  So for those of you who have been patiently awaiting my return to blog-landia, thank you--yes, all three of you, thank you!  I hadn't planned to take a leave of absence for a week, but that should tell you how busy and crazy things have been.  But I'm happy to report that it's been the good kind of busy and crazy!  And I'm equally happy to say that all this busy-ness means I've got LOTS of content for future blog posts.  So if you're a frequent reader, stay tuned for more soon.

This afternoon we returned from a one night camping trip to the St. James Bay cabin.  Not too far from Juneau but only accessible by boat or float plane.  Since we don't have a float plane handy we took our boat.  :)  And fortunately the weather was even better than forecasted.  But unfortunately, I wasn't feeling all that fabulous.  Mostly just feeling tired from being 8 1/2 months pregnant.  But fortunately my brother-in-law joined us, so he did all the extra boat details with Shawn and I was able to take it easy.  Unfortunately, my sister-in-law had to work and couldn't join us.  Next time we'll have to plan it better.  Of course, there probably won't be a next time when I'll be boat/cabin camping at 8 1/2 months pregnant with baby #3.

The other unfortunate part about not feeling well and going along for camping anyway was that I didn't take hardly any pictures.  So that meant the boys took most of the pictures.  And now that we're back, I'm wishing we had taken more.  I guess it goes to show you how quickly things were moving along on our trip that we didn't even have extra moments to grab the camera. 

For example, this is our best family photo.  The little missy is in there too, just on the other side of me.  Why we didn't attempt at taking a great family photo at the cabin is a mystery to me.  But this is us ferrying over to the cabin from our boat.

I wish I could say that I took a stunning photo of the cabin in all it's natural majesty, but instead we have a decent photo of...the outhouse.  Taken from inside the cabin.  

(Boys, boys, boys...apparently there's a story behind this one.  I was just puzzled when I found it on the CF card.)

But I was able to capture a photo of our delicious dinner and our grill master.  We had Blackjack moose steaks (a new marinade recipe I tried), corn on the cob, and my new favorite salad, Cherry Tomato Salad.

Then some pics of our dining view

To the right...

straight ahead...

and to the left...such a gorgeous place!

In the morning, Shawn was the first one up and saw a friendly humpback whale come into the bay.  We also saw about 4 on our boat ride back to Juneau.

A nice little iconic Alaskan photo taken by my husband.

And my brother-in-law, catching what turned into being his breakfast.  It's true, he went with a dolly varden fish instead of chocolate chip pancakes and farm fresh eggs!  Silly, I know.

We all had a great time and are glad we went.  The kids had a blast and kept saying, "This is the best camping trip ever." or "I wish we could stay for 5 days!"  We'll definitely try to make this a yearly trip.  And I will definitely try to take some more pictures the next time!

Homemade Water Table

Way back when we still had snow on the ground, I was already thinking of summer activities for the kids.  I knew that being in my third trimester during the warmest months in Juneau would mean we were gonna need some fun things to do in our own backyard.  So I wondered about buying a water table for the little missy's birthday.  But I didn't find one I liked in time, so the idea got put onto the back burner a bit--especially since  it wasn't warm enough to use one anyway.  But then I realized I could probably just make my own and have kids that were just as happy as if I'd spent $50!  So on a particularly hot day a few weeks ago, I ran across this blog post that was a visual of what had been running through my head.  So after that kick start of motivation, we made our own water table.

I started with some basic supplies from around the house.  Some bath toys, a few things from the kitchen, and a large under bed storage box.  I just took the things that had been in the box and put them into something else.  (But what I really should have done was just purged myself of the unnecessary things that were in that box.  Just another nesting project for me!)

Then I took two buckets and turned them upside down.

And then I bumped up the water table a couple of notches with some new, fun water toys that I picked up at Fred Meyer for about $12 total.  They both ended up being well worth the purchase.

Then we put it all together and filled the tub part with water.

And it worked!  Just look at those smiles!  They played and played for quite a long time.  And they didn't mess around with the water hose, which they think is standard backyard protocol and drives me nuts!

And when they're done or the weather turns cool for a while, everything can be easily cleaned up and put back, rather than having yet another clunlky kid toy to store in your shed or garage.

So if your kids need something to do outside on a hot day, you can try to make your own water table.  My kids definitely enjoyed it.  I'm sure we'll do this several more times this summer.

32 Weeks at Nugget Falls

Don't be fooled.  I'm not hiding a watermelon or basketball under my shirt in this picture.  It's all me...and the baby.  I'd been feeling a bit large, but now seeing this picture I'm realizing that I look ridiculously large.  No wonder two people separately asked me at church on Sunday if it was going to be "any day now"!  The sad reality is that I still have about 7 weeks to go.  But when I look at this picture I'm really hoping it's only something like 6 weeks more!
Other than looking a bit large, I'm feeling great and everything is going well with this pregnancy.  I am really thankful for that.

So during this last weekend, I managed to convince Shawn to put aside the jobs around the house for a little outdoor adventure.  It was really what we all needed after putting in a lot of work this weekend.  A quick and easy walk out to Nugget Falls which is right by "our" glacier--the Mendenhall.

Posing with a tiny iceberg that was floating at the edge of the water.

Taking a rest with Daddy.

We made it to the falls!

Family picture thanks to a helpful tourist from Michigan.

And now here's a few examples of how my kids are truly Alaskan.

It was completely their own idea to dip their feet into the chilly waters of Mendenhall Lake.

Heading in...

dipping...

(notice his pants show this isn't the first time he's done this)

and back out again

goofing around in the sand/glacial silt

and yes, we took baths right after we got home

Posing with Momma.

If you think this is a funny face on my son for me to have picked for the blog, you should see my next best option (just below).

Yes, a couple of yahoos we have.  And we're about to add one more to the bunch! 
Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed an outdoor adventure or two of your own.

The More the Merrier

The other day Shawn was passing the time while I finished getting dinner ready by roaming through the postings on Craigslist.  And low and behold he found a posting for free baby chicks.  A guy in town had his plans change and he was giving away 18 baby chicks--just three days old!  So after dinner we went over to his house intending to get 2 or 3 and came home with 4!  Now before you think we just gave in because they were so cute--you're only half right! :)  They definitely are cute, but we realized looking at them how fragile they truly are and how 3 chicks may not necessarily turn into 3 hens, if you know what I mean.  And also, there's not a 100% guarantee that these are all females.  Sometimes the hatchery gets it wrong.  So we decided to get a little more insurance with an extra chick.  And then just look at them!  They're adorable!  And their sweet little peeps are just as adorable as they look.

For the next several weeks they will be hanging out in a cardboard box in our shop (garage) with a heat lamp.  And just as you'd expect, they act like newborns.  The other day I stepped out to check on them to find one of them had fallen asleep with it's face in the feed trough.  The poor little thing was just too tired to finish eating!

But this afternoon I took them out to the backyard for a field trip and photo shoot.

I think they liked getting out.  They definitely seemed to like the chance to explore and discover new things.

And I let the kids hold them for a bit, which they (the kids) loved, of course .

This picture sort of makes me think of the Loony Tunes cartoon with the abominable snowman who finds Bugs Bunny and says something like "I'm going to love you and hold you and squeeze you..."

And I promise that his shirt doesn't just say that he's a monster.  It's got a monster truck on it. :)

A little more calm in the gentle hands of Shawn.

The big boys also decided that today was as good as any day to expand the chicken coop.  This will give them better space to stay warm in the winter and more room for when all 8 chickens are in the coop together.
The space on the left side of this picture (the gray-er colored wood) was all newly constructed today.

 I kept thinking of today as "Extreme Makeover: Chicken Coop Edition"!  :)

power tools can be noisy

Here are the big girls (as we're calling them lately) checking out their new coop space.  The guys got it all finished up today.  Pretty impressive I think.

So just in case you had wondered if we were still enjoying the whole chicken "farming" thing, the answer is a definite YES!

Last Day of Preschool

Friday was the last day of preschool for our little girl.  It was bitter sweet in many ways.  It'll be nice to have a break for the summer from the school rush/routine.  But just knowing that she's DONE with preschool seems so strange.  She's growing up so fast!  Next year is kindergarten!

Last Day of School pose

And the First Day of School back in early September

Her hair has definitely grown this year--I guess she's ready for a trim.

Her school had a combined spring program and preschool graduation.  Here's both of the 4 year old classes.

Singing in the program

And then the diploma!

I'm sort of glad they didn't have graduation caps or anything.  That could have been slightly traumatic--for Momma!

with her teacher

and the assistant teacher

I believe he wanted to perform as the second act!

He did such a great job sitting and watching the program, when we went to the front for pictures with the teachers, he was immediately up on the stage.  Hmmm, maybe there's some sort of performance in his future.

Hope you're enjoying your end of the school year festivities.