M+M Daily Favs 7.31

MN=going to the playground

MR=having ice pop juice

My Other Parents' Dinosaur

MN: My other parents have a dinosaur.

B+E: What's the dinosaur's name?

E: Is it Brian the Brontosaurus?

B: No, it's Adam the Apatosaurus.

MN: No, it's Flowers. And the other dinosaur stealed him!

B+E: What other dinosaur?

MN: Earie! (as she tugged on her ears)

Hi again, Eagle Beach!

It's been a beautiful week, but much too hot in my house to cook anymore! After nap time, the girls and i headed to Eagle Beach to meet our friends and Bill's office mates... There were 7 adults, 4 kiddos, and 2 dogs... There were hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, potato salad, beer, root beer floats, popcorn, and smores... A good time was had by all and i hope we can all get together again soon!

M+M Daily Favs 7.30

MN=telling stories in the car with Mr. J

MR="picmick"

Another beautiful day...

When the girls go down for their naps, Bill always tells me i should read, or rest, or walk around town... I rarely listen... Over the weekend, i walked down into the overgrown mess that is our side yard and got a nice surprise:

RASPBERRIES!

Tonight after dinner, the girls and i stood on the small deck while Bill braved the weeds and thorns to collect berries:

After "cheering up" Bill from the deck, we piled into the car for a quick trip to Sandy Beach Playground for a ride on the tire swing and a game of tag:

It is our third day in a row of sun and warm temps... Working hard to soak it up! Heading back to Eagle Beach tomorrow for another cookout, don't let me forget the matches this time! ;)

M+M Daily Favs 7.29

MN=going to the stores

MR=going to the playground and eating rainbow ice cream

M+M Daily Favs 7.28

MN=taking our fun hike and reading our special Father's Day Books

MR=hiking with our friends

Hitting the Trail with Friends

At the end of the school year, the girls' preschool made a plan to meet somewhere around town each Tuesday. We've only made it a couple times, but today was one of those days. We met our closest Juneau friends there, but didn't see anyone else from school.

We arrived first, a rarity for me, and i had the girls pose for a couple pictures here...

The pretty purple flowers are fireweed, and that is Mendenhall Glacier that you see in the distance.

The trail is called Kaxdigoowu Heen Dei (which in Tlingit means: going back clearwater trail), but is also called the Mendenhall River Trail and the Brotherhood Bridge Trail. It is flat (nice for kids, strollers, and biking) and meanders through the woods alongside the river. We stepped off the paved trail onto some planks that had been laid and waved to the rafting tours floating by. We had fun looking for fairies, secret entrances to the castle, and collecting wildflowers:

M+M Daily Favs 7.27

MN=doing sparkle paint and eating ice cream

MR=dreaming about Old McDonald's

Sunday Supper

Tonight we met our friends at Eagle Beach for a cookout. The sky had clouded over a bit and it sprinkled on us a little, but it was too nice a day for dinner inside (nice in Juneau is when it's not raining!) Both of us forgot things we had said we would bring and things that would have been useful (like matches), but we managed to find, borrow, and make due. We had a lot of laughs, and a great time!

The kiddos found a tree at the water's edge and had a blast climbing all over and under it. Bill found an eagle feather... It went home with our friends' daughter, and, much to her mother's dismay, she has been sleeping with it!

Here are some pictures from our evening... Look for more shots later in the week, we're planning another trip out there on Thursday...

m+m Daily Favs 7.26

MN=eating watermelon

MR=having a cookout with our friends

Forest Explorers: Searching for Stars

Saturday was a pretty day after a long week of rain. When we arrived at the pavilion for the start of the program, it was so nice to see the glacier clearly as opposed to through the rain like last week!

Ranger Doug led us on a walk around looking for stars in nature. It was very cute to see all the kiddos looking down and around and seeing how creative they were in finding stars! M+M worked very hard to draw their stars in their "field journal"!!

The highlight for me came at the end... We walked over to Steep Creek and saw the salmon spawning! We heard there are a few bears hanging around feeding off the salmon, but we didn't see any. There is a fish cam in the creek that broadcasts on line and in the visitors center, but i couldn't get it to work for me. Here are a couple links to check out Mendenhall Glacier from where ever you are: from the US Forest Service and from Alaska Geographic :)

M+M Daily Favs 7.25

MN=looking at the clouds through the skylight

MR=getting Old McDonald's for lunch

On the way home from the glacier today, we treated the girls to their favorite lunch. I even let them eat most of their fries! ;)

After naptime, Bill worked on ripping the carpets out of the girls bathroom. (For those of you who didn't know, the house we rented had pink carpets in every room of the house except the kitchen and downstairs bathroom; yes, that means there was pink carpet in the 2 upstairs bathrooms! YUCK! Upon moving in, we ripped the carpet out of the main living space and cleaned up the hardwood as best we could - huge improvement! Days later, Bill ripped up the carpet in our bathroom and put down linoleum tiles - bigger improvement! In December, the downstairs bathroom flooded, which necessitated the removal of the remaining downstairs carpet - yup, even better! I dealt with the girls' bathroom by closing the door and never going in. Bill was finally able to rip up the carpet and lay down the tile in their bathroom this weekend. M+M are thrilled to be using the potty and brushing their teeth in their own big girl bathroom. Yeah, Bill! Back to the cloud watching...) M+M and i were in their playroom admiring the blue sky in through the skylights. Although it clouded up later, at that time there weren't very many clouds; but we laid there (on the pretty pink carpet!) pretending to see shapes in clouds that weren't even there... I was very impressed with their creativity. A pretty nice way to while away the afternoon with my girlies...

M+M Daily Favs 7.24

MN=making cupcakes

MR=playing with my friends

M+M Daily Favs 7.23

MN=the tour

MR=dreaming

The tour was our visit to the USCGC Fir this afternoon. The girls had a blast sitting in the captain's chair, climbing up and down all the staircases, and seeing the buoys on deck. It was neat for me to be on a ship again... I haven't set foot on one since Bill's days on Walnut! Bill had a great time with M+M showing them the buoys on deck and telling them all about his diving days. I think their favorite part was splashing in the puddles on the buoy deck!

We've been asking the girls a lot what they have been dreaming about... I need to start recording that as well, some of it's pretty funny! There was nothing specific today, just dreaming....

Buoy Tender Round Up

This week is the USCG Alaska Buoy Tender Round Up in Juneau... It is the annual training, moral, and readiness event for all the buoy tenders home ported throughout Alaska. They arrived from Kodiak, Cordova, Homer, Ketchikan, and Juneau. There are also ships visiting from Astoria, OR and Canada.

This afternoon, the USCGC Fir offered tours to the public. After a picnic lunch in Bill's office, we headed over to see the ships....

M+M Daily Favs 7.22

MN=having Mr. J over for dinner

MR=seeing Mr. J do his magic trick with the coin

M+M Daily Favs 7.21

MN=going to the blood drive

MR=going to the blood drive and getting frosting cookies

Usually when Bill and i give blood, he goes by himself and when it's my turn i drop the girls off at his office. Today, we decided to make it a family affair. Armed with coloring book, snacks, and their Tag readers, we headed to Centennial Hall for the Armed Forces Blood Drive. Due to his recent ravels to Africa and Cambodia, Bill found out that he cannot donate until next year. On the other hand, i was ready! The girls were highly entertained by the nice folks from Tripler Army Medical Center (yup, the team from Hawai'i was here!) and all the "juice bags" and yummy snacks they could drink and eat. By the time i was finished, MR had decided that she wanted to be a "blooder" when she grows up. When i told her that a "blooder" was a phlebotomist, MN asked if that was like a rhinoceros.

M+M Daily Favs 7.20

MN=going to my dancing class

MR=trying hotdogs and drinking tea and playing the bubble game

M+M Daily Favs 7.19

MN=going to church

MR=going to the play place

M+M Daily Favs 7.18

MN=watching dinosaur Sesame Street

MR=watching dinosaur Sesame Street

Just checking...

Bill: MR, take your finger out of your nose. Do you need you need a tissue?

MR: No, I'm just seeing what's in there.

Bill: There are boogies in there. Do you need a tissue?

MR: No, I'm just checking on the boogies.

Back to the gym...

It's been at least 2 weeks since i worked out at the gym. I should have hiked this morning (it wasn't raining), but we all slept until 7 and it felt great! We were planning to go to the Explorers Program at the glacier today, so i had a limited amount of time and the gym is good fast workout.

I did make it to Perseverance Trail on Thursday and Friday (i've abandoned Mt. Roberts since my last hike there - the spiderwebs in the face were just too much!)...

On Thursday, i saw a Sitka Black Tailed Deer (the picture is of its back end, you can barely make it out before the shadow in the road):

and salmonberries:

I also stood at the head of the Flume Trail and let the cool air over the water rush by me:

On Friday, the forecast was calling for rain. I woke up to sunny skies and was rewarded for my efforts with this:

Liken' Lichens

Alice Algae met Freddie Fungus and they "lichend" each other!

Today we attended our first Forest Explorers program at Mendenhall Glacier. It was raining, and MN was whining by the end, but we had a fun time walking around the trails with the ranger looking for lichen.

M+M Daily Favs 7.17

MN=coloring

MR=dance workshop

M+M Daily Favs 7.16

MN=trying new foods

MR=trying new foods

I have a thousand different reasons and excuses, but my kiddos are not good eaters.  They never met a fruit they didn't like, but they don't eat much else.  Tonight, i pored myself a huge glass of shiraz (thanks, John!) and served M+M plain pasta (that they picked out at the store this morning) and meatballs (on the side because of the sauce, i forgot to leave 2 out of the sauce when i heated them up).  Although it took a lot of talking, and a few crackers on the side, they each ate the whole serving of pasta and 2 bites of homemade turkey meatballs!  I couldn't be any happier.  It may be like climbing Everest with only 1 practice run, but tomorrow night is salmon night!

Happy Birthday...

To my dear sister!  I miss you very much and hope that you had the great day that you deserve!

Something new

Last week, MN took a book out of the library on balloon animals.  We bought the twisty balloons and pump and experimented before the trip, but were unable to make anything.  Today, i successfully made my fist balloon animal!  Here's to learning something new!!

It's supposed to be a dog, but i think it looks more like a horse or unicorn.  As long as M+M are pleased with it, they can call it whatever they want!

Pretty Peony

When we bought our first house in New Jersey, it was late summer.  

I was delighted the following April to discover 

beautiful peonies blooming in the yard.

This morning, i was delighted to find this beautiful bloom on my way home: