the glow

This was just two weeks ago! ... with snow falling yesterday before church, I thought I better put these up before ALL the leaves are gone and the snow finally decides to stick around.

Do you have 'the glow' yet? My favorite parts of the day are taking Mont outside and just breathing deep; the yummy scent of fall is so strong here. OH, I just love it!

little sassafras

best pals

Mont has a best buddy in this house just his size. 

Actually, half his size, but Buckwheat's pretty fluffy.. 

a key story

What a headache keys give us! Always going missing when you need them the most. Well.. never for me. Just Mark. He always misplaces his phone, wallet, or keys. But not me. I'm the key master.

Until today, that is!

Lately I have been leaving my keys in a very easy place so I can keep my hands free while hauling Mont out to the car with my bags and paraphernalia. The only thing is... my car must always be unlocked to get to the keys (know where I keep them yet?) I must be getting too used to this, because when I pulled into my parking spot at the church today, I slipped them back into the key spot, and grabbed everything (thankfully, including Mont), locked the doors by hand (which I never do, to ensure that I don't do what is about to happen), accept some shirts from a friend, put them on my passenger seat, then she shuts the door. The ghost of the thought nearly surfaces regarding the whereabouts of my keys, but I brush it off thinking I always have my keys..


As soon as I get inside the church, the thought finally pushes itself to front and center, so I dig through my bag and proclaim, "my keys are in my car!!"

My friend tells me that the cell phone trick works, so Mark tries it from his work, holding the key up to his phone and me standing with my phone to the lock.... no luck! Inside the building again, a friend says her contractor-husband could easily break in, which I pass on to Mark, then I say, "all these options are sounding costly.."

I ask for a ride home... I don't know why I thought my house would be unlocked.. so as I realize this, a friend says she can jimmy the knob lock open with a credit card. She asks, "it's not the deadbolt, right?" "Right. It's only the handle that I lock."

We all hop into Jodi's car, and we start the drive to my fortress. What was I thinking?? It's only the deadbolt that I lock to avoid locking myself out! We don't use the knob lock because that's so easy to overlook as you shut the door behind you on your way out; the deadbolt on the other hand, you have to do from the inside. I'm such a genius. My fortress doesn't even need a moat to keep me out.

We parade around the house and they praise my work of using dowels and locking the doors from the inside.. what a day to be safe. I have no way to get in! "Do you have a garage door opener?" "Yea, it's in my stroller, inside my car.. with the keys."

Good thing Mark is on his way to the church.  We count cars and start a game, to which we all lose, but that's okay, because now I don't have to make anyone treats. HA. This is where he finds us sitting in the nice warm sunshine (great day to be locked out, thank goodness!).

Mark shows up with a smile (good!), and I start to follow him home. When I pull out of my parking spot, everyone starts to point at the ground. My first thought, did I run over a child?!?! 


No. Oh, good.

But I left my sewing machine, cutting boards, and fabric bag on the asphalt. Jodi says, "You win."

I'm going to make myself a treat tomorrow.

apple to mac daddy apple

After a week of it being in the car (thank goodness Alaska summers are only around 60º), I stopped procrastinating and took my little sweet laptop to the Mac Store (an Apple retailer - we don't have the real thing up here). We had to put it on life support, thank goodness for Apple Care! $50 total (I opted for the optional back up).

Nothing per-se is wrong with it, the screen just won't turn on... so perhaps it was just used too lovingly? But the doc said he'd get it up and running in no time. Here's to hoping!

Now who would like some apple pie?

mont-e-pants

Our new question to Mont is, "where's Jesus?" He will always point to the right place. We didn't even teach him. We just started asking him! Tessa says, "That's totally why babies can't talk! They know too much!"

She may have a point. At least, I have fun thinking so.

Hike XV and XVI: Nature Center

*phone picture - can you tell by now? I'm getting lazy!

I went to hike the Nature Center twice, back to back. Once on a Friday with my friend, Nelli (aka: my hula guru!), and the next day I went with Mark who took some stellar pictures for me with a camera that was 'not his own'. Above is from the Friday hike, and below is from the next day. We went a lot further than this, but this is the most picturesque place for a full view of the valley. I love this place! And I sure do love Mont's goofy face below:

Maybe he was thinking about his new fuzzy friend? ew..

happy hiking to YOU!

Hike XIV: South Fork Waterfall

Mont's bummin' a ride from Grandpa R. I just love that bum!

I did this one again with the family. When the Reeders came I knew this was an easy one we should all go see. The mosquitos were the worst, though! I don't remember any from the first time, but we kept batting at them the entire time and all (but Mont) got at least 2. Anyway - it was still beautiful. Gotta keep counting all these hikes!

Hike XIII: Winner Creek

Hiking with this kid is the best. Sure, he's heavy after 6 miles, but it is worth it! Watching him get so excited at new surroundings is what I love the most. When he's having a hard day, all I have to do is strap him on and take him out. He loves it and I love it. Now if only I had tied string to one of his shoes! They were my favorite electric guitar robeez... oh, I'm so sad!

I've hiked Winner Creek before, but never with 25 lbs on my back! Even still, I loved it all. Though, my shoulders were quite sore!

behind

I don't think I've ever felt 'behind' in my posting before! ... kind of hard to get started again, eh?

Ristorante 'R

While looking through all my pictures tonight from last week, I realized this was the only one I had of the three of us, and the only one that had more than 2 people in it! I hope I can see more pictures from our fun, fun week from someone else? 

This was the day after the Halibut Charter that Mark, his dad and sisters went on. It was nice having a day for them to recuperate. In the middle of the table, there is fresh zucchini from the Reeder's garden (they are expert carry-on-ers), my 'White House' salad, red salmon and halibut, and our fancy water substitute for wine (reminds me of the latter-day church!).  My, oh my, it was a tasty dinner. Mont is in the back enjoying his whole milk, cheez-its, bread, and graham crackers... I'm tough on him. 

Dig in!

ps - Mont is such a computer wiz..

Eagle River: rafted.

This is the only picture I have from our adventure today... so I'm going to do my best to briefly describe the experience in words.

We borrowed this 8 man raft from our ward (I love Alaskan wards!), and set out this morning after my amazing VTers came over to give me some spiritual nourishment. I love those ladies. Hi Steph and Stacy!

We carried this heavier-than-I-thought-it-was-gonna-be raft to the river and hopped in. Mark jumped in last (he was the rudder), and shoved off with his oar. Marty was in front, I was on the left, Molly and Mamie was on the right, and Mark in back.

The river started off super calm, so we practiced our synchronized rowing as we dodged the tree-overhangs. The river was quiet, and solitary. We didn't see houses, people, or animals. We laughed as we thought of falling over the side into the freezing river water and tried to anticipate the rapids that were at the end of the trip.

Water droplets streamed from the oars as we lifted them from the water and swung them frontwards to row again. The drops of water sounded soft and soothing, reminding me of the fountain I had just outside my bedroom window as a little girl.

As we passed our house and church, we saw 2 bald eagles in the same tree... that was all the animal-life we saw. Well, I guess we did see one weird eagle/hawk thing, and a jumping fish (a salmon, perhaps?). But that was it. Oh, and a few bearded men at the end. Okay.. they count.

Once past the bridge, the rapids began. The were seemingly small at first, and were building our excitement as I would let out yelps and screams and hollers to get the girls laughing. It had us doubled over (not a good thing as we are being shouted at to "ROW! ROW! ROW" by Mark as we try dodging trees and rocks), but it did do the trick to lessen Molly's fears. She was pretty nervous, but with my fake rumbly screams she had found humor in it instead. It was great.

We did get stuck on a few big rocks (we couldn't even see them! - they looked just like the other rapids rather than what they truly were), and went over a few submerged trees. We were glad the raft bottom was so tough and thick, as we shifted our weight and rocked back and forth until dislodging ourselves from the rocks. We really didn't want to have to swim to shore. ha!

What a day... I loved every bit of it. Even the huge splashes that had us all drenched in glacier-water and shivering in the cool rain coming down. It was absolutely beautiful, and gave me a new perspective on the valley we live in.

Still wish I had seen the bears and wolves whose tracks we had seen all over the place, though! That would have been most excellent and exciting. Don't you think??

I want to count this as a hike.... so I will. I just asked Mark if I can and he rolled his eyes and said, "suuure."

It was 7 miles rafted, and 50 yards walked with raft. One little blister under my wedding ring, and two swoll (sp?) shoulders, and 10 sore fingers. What a rush! I loved loved loved it.

hike XI: South Fork Waterfall

So I am beginning the hikes again. My goal of 50. I have only documented 10, even though I've done a few small ones since, undocumented. I have not forgotten my goal of 50. Yikes.. 

Anyway, hike 11 was South Fork Waterfall. I went with a couple girl friends of mine from the ward, and we went the easy route. I want to maintain some of my 'tough-girl' regard, so I won't explain how easy it was. But here are the pictures from my phone (Mark still had the good one packed up).

The bridge you cross runs over this roaring river. Narrow... but roaring! btw, in this picture, the water is coming towards, not away!

The waterfall... at the time of the hike, we didn't know the name of the falls, so they came up with "Wet Water Waterfalls." They didn't like my "Archibald's Waterfalls." (I think I had read something about an Archibald earlier that day)

These are the girlfriends I went with. Jodi on the left and Nicole with her boy, James on the right. My boy was sound asleep with his sleeping papa bear. I left a note and was off for a very short (and easy) hike/walk. It was great!

The only hard part was getting from the platform down to the falls.. my legs were pretty sore afterwards. Glad I didn't have my baby backpack! Mont would surely have had some bumps and bruises from tree branches we used to climb up/down with. James had a careful aunt with him to help guide his cute head around them.

Sorry about the sunny/misty glare on these. The mist was insane, and pretty refreshing. This was a look back up the wall we scaled. HA. Just kidding. We went up a trail-sorta-thing on the right of these pictures.

It was beautiful.

bad things happen to good people

(photo via Britni's blog)

A friend of mine and Mark's today messaged Mark that he had some 'bad news'.. so Mark stepped into the other room and called him quickly back.

The news was of a murder.

Is your heart beating faster? Mine too.

Our friend had us look on adn.com (Anchorage Daily News) at an article entitled: Woman Found Stabbed to Death.

She was at an activity-hike for the singles' ward with our friend, and later in the night, when people were expecting her, they went out looking.

Being the nosy person I am, I looked her up on facebook. Her pictures are that of someone who loved and lived life to the fullest- every moment.

The news article referenced her blog, so undoubtedly I had to check that out as well. All her posts have to do with thanksgiving, love of life, helping others, the beauty she sees around her, her religion, and her outlooks. She was a beautiful person, and will have great work to do now that she is on the other side.

I did not have the honor of knowing her, but a few of my friends did. Please pray for them and her family. I do not like thinking of this sweet girl's last moments on earth, alone, and more than likely, afraid. I hope she had some peace of mind thinking of her loving Father in Heaven before she slipped into the life after this.

I pray that she had comfort.

I pray that her family will now have comfort.

fleeting moments

Two days ago, the clouds came rolling back into the valley where our treehouse resides, and here they have stayed. Our once warm air has returned to the chilly air I will be sad to leave one day. While Mark is gone, Mont and I do whatever we can to fill our hours and days.

I sew, he practices his scooting slash crawling.

We play with Buckwheat.

We knock heads together and he laughs while I fight back watering eyes as he comes crashing in for another killer nose crusher.

He is one hundred and one percent boy, and I love it. Though, I would survive a little better without the nose crushing. Is it possible to slowly break a nose?

When he starts to get sleepy, I wipe off the graham cracker crumbs from his small hands using a warm washcloth I call, "the blue monster!", and then we begin our ungraceful dancing.

There is music playing most every hour in our house. But when he gets sleepy, I turn on more swirly-dirly music and lower the volume a few notches. Then I begin our twirling and side stepping.

He begins in the upright position in my arms, and ends in the supine, cradling position I won't be able to do for much longer. This is the part I especially love. The last few days he has been more of a cuddler. Not much... but ever so slightly. I can hold his hands a little more easily, and he'll nuzzle me right back.

My days are full of these sweet moments. In so many of my prayers, I can only utter statements of gratitude with a sprinkle of, "please watch over my loved ones, wherever they are."

shhh

... the pacifier is no longer an available "mute button" at church; he just keeps talking!

"bababa" 

"....ah! ...ah! ...ah!"

"wa wa wa"

"mama ma"

"oowa!"

"AARRRRGH!"

"*click *click"

"rra rra"

tarzan boy

I think in each of us, there's a little bit of Sweet:

a little bit of Happy: 

a little bit of Wild:

and a little bit of Thinker: 

TARZAN BOY! ... 

*currently his favorite song/youtube video to dance to.

looking to dad

At the zoo, last Thursday, Mont saw polar bears for the first time and didn't know what to think. I think he was excited, but he looked back to his dad just to be sure he had the right reaction to something so big and different. Just as he looked to his dad, I luckily had my phone out to click the capture button. I love this look he is giving Mark.

Prince William Sound

With my parents in town, Mont and I set out with them by train to meet a boat in Whittier for a glacier tour of Prince William Sound. My parents sure plan perfect trips, because not only was the train ride nice and easy, but the weather was unbeatable. I have never, ever seen Whittier in the sunshine. It was glorious: 

Right? Look at those trees! This was right where we waited to hop aboard. 


Once on board, we saw quite a few rafts of sea otters. They are so hairy - let me explain. They had a pelt on board (I didn't touch... you didn't see who else was on board this boat - another story that I can tell you in person if you'd like) and 'Ranger Cassie' said that they have 800 million to 1 billion (ONE BILLION!) hairs per square inch. That would take one serious bottle of Nair to get rid of THAT. 

Going a short ways past the sea otter raft, we pulled into a shallow alcove so the passengers could get a photograph with this waterfall. We were mere FEET from the rocks on the side and below the boat. I was a bit nervous.. but the captain must have some hours logged or something, because he was great. See the man in the picture? If you were to ask me, I'd say he looks a bit nervous, too. 

On trips with my family, I am usually "the spotter" of animals.. bears in the Yosemite forest, dolphins at Laguna Beach, and now whales in Prince William Sound. Here was the location of my spotting. I had just come out to stand on the bow of the boat with my dad, and I happened to be looking around at the surroundings behind the boat, when I see this black fishing boat that has mist coming off it. In a second, these are all the thoughts I had: 
- "Why does a fishing boat have misters on it?" 
- "That's a big fishing boat."
- "Wait.. boats don't have misters.."
- "WHALES spouting look like mist!"


That was when I shouted, "LOOK! a whale!!" At that moment, the back of the huge, black whale, curved, dove, and up came its huge HUGE tail, then down it went.. 


Then I thought to take a picture:

I was so glad my dad had been there with me to see it too... otherwise I'm not so sure anyone would have believed me! In fact, it happened so fast, that no one knew what happened, other than the fact that someone (... me) shouted "Look a whale!" The captain stopped the boat for a few moments and when no one fessed up what they saw (... me again), the captain decided to keep on going [because he spent a few moments too long at the waterfall for people to get scary close pictures!]. ha!! My dad said Humpbacks can hold their breath for around 10 minutes, so I didn't want to have all these people waiting and then looking at me when it resurfaces somewhere no one can see (around the mountain). I'm so glad I have it imprinted on my memory!


On to the glacier... these were even more breathtaking than they were on the first one. Because we were on a slower, more leisurely boat this time around, we were able to wait to see parts of the glacier calve. We saw one big piece fall off near the bottom. It did a "belly flop" maneuver into the water, and I was sure we were going to feel the wave.. but we were farther away than it appeared. My mom was quite nervous, asking me, "What would happen if a HUGE (meaning half of the entire glacier) piece fell off?" I said, "We'd capsize." When she didn't laugh, I had to. We were further away from it than it would seem, even in person. By the way... this picture is completely unedited. The ice still was that blue even when in full sunshine. And just to prove we were pretty far from the glacier, look at the picture beneath this one: 

When we were waiting for calving pieces of the ice, we saw about 10 harbor seals. These chubby seals can weigh from 330 lbs. to 375 lbs. They are huge! AND, this is how small they were compared to the small rocks next to the HUGE glacier: 

Oh, sorry... you can't see them? 


Here they are: (major zoom and crop) .. Mark just told me they look like rocks in the water. There's one on top of a rock (you can see its tail, and two heads in the water next to it (they were looking for room to hop on and get some sun as well).

So.. to put it all in perspective, this is what we were looking at, nearing the glacier. The ice "spot" in the seal picture is visible in this picture: 

The face of the glacier we were told was at least 1200 feet tall.... that is CRAZY!!!!! ... update: I just had to convince Mark of this. I said, "I doubted it too at first, then I put it all in perspective. I thought to myself, 'Okay.. how big is that seal, away from that rock, which is how big... next to the bigger rock... how big would I be... then I tilt my head back and gawked at the glacier.' It's easily that tall." He nodded his head - meaning two things. 1: He did believe me or 2. he just wanted to get back to his Pawn Stars show 


I love family outings. Thanks, mom and dad!

homemade rolls

Don't these make your mouth water? 

We're supposed to be saving these for Mark's homecoming dinner tonight... 

oops.