blueberries and new babes

We went to the Girdwood Blueberry festival this weekend. We made the hour drive (with Emmett screaming most of the way) mainly to see our friends Cyrus and Tina and to meet their brand new babe, Joya. She was so adorable and tiny. She weighed 6lbs 14oz at birth, which is the same as our Mr. E. I cannot believe that he was ever that small or frail. No wonder I was scared of him when he was so new. I remember having friends visit when he was new and they commented about how they couldn’t believe that their daughter (who was 4 months old) was ever that small. At the time, I remember thinking that their baby was huge. Now, I’m sure Emmett seems huge. It all comes full circle.

The blueberry festival looked fun. It is probably really enjoyable for people with children old enough to pick berries. There were TONS of children, all running around with blue stained faces and appearing happy. The drive back was also filled with screaming by Emmett for the entire trip back. Poor Guy.

Sunday, we had an awesome day. It was rainy out, so we smoked some ribs, and did some cooking for the week. I’ve heard that babies sense when you are about to lose it and turn their acts around at the last second. True, of our lad. Whereas, Saturday he was grouchy, and couldn’t sleep unless he was being held, Sunday he was mellow and took naps like a champ. And we had a terrific day.

He had his 4 month check-up last Wednesday, which included some vaccines. This is probably what led to most of the fussiness. On Thursday, his daycare teacher called me to tell me he had a fever and needed to be picked up. His “fever” was 98.6, which she insisted was a fever for a baby and that he should also stay home on Friday. I didn’t know much about these things so I took him home and looked into it. It turns out a temperature isn’t a fever for a baby unless it is 100.1 or higher. I’m not sure where the miscommunication was. Aaron stayed home with him on Friday. Daddy daycare!

updates! updates!

Well, I’m a horrible blogger. I’ve thought about trying to update the blog on everything that has happened in our lives since mid-June. But that would lead to more procrastination…

So in short:

Emmett started daycare. He didn’t want/take bottles. For the first two weeks I had to go back and forth from work to daycare to feed him. After this he started taking bottles, but then threw a nursing strike. Sigh. This has also resolved itself.

My parents came to visit. It was great to see them, and ultimately much easier than flying to the Midwest, renting a car, and driving 5 hours to Kansas. This coincided with Emmett starting daycare so it was nice to be able to cry to my mom about that. I was really excited to introduce them to Emmett.

I started work again. I thought this would be horrible. But, it wasn’t bad. I would still prefer to spend all day with my little boy, but ultimately for now daycare it is. I think being a mother has helped me put aside work stress. Ultimately, little work things that used to stress me out I have a new attitude about. The do not matter to me anymore. It’s only a very small part of my day. And not an important part at that.

Aaron has done a few stints of field work. I feel like I just recently became ok with his stints away from home and used the time to watch shows he would hate and enjoy food he would dislike (olives, popcorn, pickles). Having a child makes fieldwork just awful again. It is hard work being a single parent. Kudos to all of you out there, seriously. It takes a lot of energy and isn’t for the faint of heart.

Chris and Rachel our friends from our Seattle days came to visit us. It was so great to see them both. I can’t believe I haven’t seen them in 5 years. That’s downright silly. But, you know how it is with good friends, how you can just pick right back up where you left off? I love that. I wish I could move all of our Seattle group up here (or at least, have us all live in the same spot again). It’s hard work making friends when you are adults.

We went on our first camp trip with Emmett this weekend. We went to the Lake Louise area. We didn’t stay in the campground, for fear of annoying other campers with cries. But it was great to watch Emmett. He is so curious and wants to look at absolutely everything. He also gets a little attitude when you try to prevent him from getting the absolute best view. We all had a lot of fun, and I think Emmett loved it. It was really hard to put him down to sleep at his normal 6:30pm bedtime. It doesn’t get dark here until after 11 and he was, let’s say, very reluctant to go to sleep. After 2 hours he finally crashed. He had his own tent that was set up in the vestibule of our tent (trust me, he was safe and warm). The highlight of the trip, for me, was when he woke up in the middle of the night and I unzipped our tent to get him, he saw me and the look on his face was an incredible mixture of happiness and excitement almost as if to say, “Mom! You’re here?! Isn’t this awesome!!” It melted my heart and made my night.

Aaron was hired on permanently here at AVO. This is really great for us, because we can finally settle down in one spot at least for the foreseeable future. No more moving every 2-5 years. We are excited to stay, and I would say lucky. But Aaron is terrific at his job, so whereas there might be a bit of luck involved, a large majority of it is talent and hard work.

There, I think you are caught up. Hopefully, updating now won’t seem like such a major chore. 

byron glacier

we also took the kids (paul and sara) to see byron glacier. we hadn't been there before, so it was new to us as well. one of the really awesome things about living in alaska is that a short drive, and a small hike can bring you to really beautiful places.

the view from the drive over to the glacier

the hike was really short 1.5-2 miles, perhaps. all flat. and then you got to the glacier...

yurting with paul and sara

aaron's brother, paul and his girlfriend, sara came to visit us for a week over christmas. i had met sara twice, but only for brief moments, and i hadn't properly hung out with paul in a long time. so it was really nice to get some quality time with them.

on christmas eve, we hiked 2 miles to a yurt in the woods. rapid camp yurt. the hike in was easy, and beautiful. see?

once we got there, we promptly started a fire in the cute wood stove. it took an hour or so, but the yurt slowly started warming up. once it was warm, it was never cold again. in fact, the yurt felt downright tropical. we occasionally stepped outside to cool off. 

our christmas eve dinner consisted of pork and pumpkin chili, which was delicious, and cheese and crackers, of course. 

we welcomed christmas morning with breakfast burritos and then packed out of the yurt and headed back to the eagle river nature center. 

hockey

ice skating polar bear mascot

last night we went to our first alaska aces game. the company I work for sponsor the aces so we frequently get tickets. let me tell you, these people love their hockey. this shouldn't have surprised me but it did. i'm glad we went. it was fun probably because it was a new experience, which doesn't happen as often when you are 32 as it did when you are 20. also because aaron accidentally stole a burrito.

                                      

right after a fight, which happened a lot

hidden lake

last weekend we had our last camp trip of the season. we met our friends, john and cara at hidden lake. they have a boat so we loaded up our gear and went to an island in the middle of the lake to camp. the trees were in full color and the sunset was breathtaking.

lion's head

last weekend we went on a hike. we had both wanted to do something outdoorsy, but the weather wasn’t supposed to be cooperative. by early afternoon things seemed fine, so we headed out the door for a fun fall drive and hike. we went to a place called lion’s head. it was a 1.5-2 hour drive from anchorage, but the colors were wonderful. when we got to the trail head, there was a sign posted by telephone company that warned of proceeding further would be trespassing. one of us thought perhaps, we shouldn’t. the other one prevailed and we proceeded with the hike. it was actually less of a hike and more of a climb. it was relatively short, distance wise, probably about 1-1.5 miles but when you reach the top, you are 2,000 feet up. even though i was frequently out of breath it was really fun and i would do it again in a second. the views were magnificent at the top.