Bear Square

On the Monday that we were in Alaska, Celeste took us to this cute little tourist trap called Bear Square.  It was a really kid friendly place where you could try out some of the adventures that most people think of in Alaska, but in a virtual manner.  There was virtual dog-sledding, virtual deep-sea fishing, virtual skiing, and a virtual hot-air balloon ride.  My niece, Hannah, was very adventurous and wanted to try everything.  Here she is mushing. . .

And deep sea fishing (with P-pa's help). . .

It was a big one! Notice the concentration.

Here she is beating me at skiing on the Wii.  (How embarrassing!  Beaten by a 5 year old!)  

I just noticed that we are both holding imaginary ski poles.  Funny!

I decided to try fishing, too.  I really look the part! wink!

It's MUCH harder than it looks!

But, I ended up with the catch of the day.

You can tell Cora was so thrilled about it!  She kept freaking out whenever I'd put on a cap.

Notice I'm the only one with no cap on in this picture.  Cora would have no part of it!

There was also a small theater where they show a really fun and kid friendly documentary about bears.  Hannah cozied up to her new polar friend.  Cora was pretty anxious at first, but she absolutely adored the movie.  She was clapping and squealing for all the cute bears.  By the way, did you know that brown bears and grizzly bears are the same thing?  And, brown bears can be brown, black, and blonde.  Very educational.

After Bear Square, we unfortunately lost John to a grizzly attack.

But, I really can't blame the bear.  It was lunch time!

Memorial Day 2010

(Yay!  John fixed my Picasa problem!  Here's the post that was intended to go up on Monday.)

Y'all, I have a ton of things to tell you about Alaska.  And, I have tons of pictures to share.  But, it seems I'm suffering from a bit of bloggy apathy.  My plan is to sit down tomorrow night and just blog, blog, blog, but until then, here is a blurb about our day today.

We are back home, by the way.  We had a blast in Alaska, but it sure is nice to be back in our own beds.  Cora has had a bit of trouble adjusting to the time change, so it was no surprise that John and were feeling a bit run down this morning.  We've spent several days trying to figure out her sleep pattern.  John convinced me to go for a walk this morning, and that was just what we needed to kick start our motivation.  In fact, John was quite the work horse!  He spruced up our backyard, hung up Cora's swing, and set up her baby pool.  While he was doing that, I headed out to the store and got us some goodies for the grill and a sprinkler toy for Cora.  When she woke up, we had a little water park going in the backyard.  Our little water baby was pretty excited to get in her swimsuit and play in the backyard.

As Cora played, John fired up the grill.

This is where Penny was caught when John went inside to get something. Naughty, naughty!

He made the steaks and jalapeño poppers, and I whipped up some loaded mashed potatoes and side salads. Yummy!

We were pretty sure Cora would not eat the steak, so she got some grilled chicken nuggets!

A few minutes later her fingers were reaching for steak off of John's plate.  Prove me wrong, sweet baby girl!  She loved the steak!

We had a few more rounds of swinging and swimming before it was time for bath and bed.

We had a great day, and we are so thankful to the men and women who have served and are serving our country so that we may have lazy, fun days!

Be Back Soon

I have tons of things to blog about, but I've run into a tiny blogging issue.  It appears that I have joined the ranks of pathological picture takers and have exceeded my file quota in Picasa.  I can solve this problem, but it will take me a little bit of time. . .and that just ain't gonna happen tonight.  More coming soon. . .

Eagle River Nature Center

Our first Alaskan outing was a trip to the Eagle River Nature Center.  Can I say that I quickly realized how much of a city girl I've become?!  We 'hike' on a 'trail' near our house - a nice, paved, level trail.  This trail was a little bit different.  It was a wee bit more rugged than the 'trails' I usually walk on. . .not to mention the water hazards. Oh, did I mention the water hazards?!

There were a few puddles right in the middle of our path.  Here is my foot after sinking a couple of inches into the muck.

Thankfully, I did not lose my shoe to the muddy suction!!  But, my foot was a wee bit cold for the rest of the hike.  Can we say city slicker?!

Speaking of city slickers, we like to make sure we look like totally geeky tourists wherever we go.  Here is a picture I took of John taking a picture with his phone.  Yep, we're not from around here!

But, we can appreciate the beautiful scenery.  You don't see that every day!  

The Long Journey

Y'all, Alaska is amazing!!  I never thought I would go there; it really wasn't even on my radar, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity we had to experience it.

The plane ride up was actually okay.  P-pa sweet talked the people with the airline and managed to get us a row to ourselves.  This worked out really well because I think Cora ended up eating most of the snacks that Mema and P-pa brought.  (Good thing we were all laden with snacks because despite the fact that it was an almost 7 hour flight, there was no meal served!)

We arrived in Anchorage at about 7 pm (10 pm Texas time), and we got to Scott and Celeste's house in Eagle River at around 8:30.  Celeste is a fabulous hostess and had everything set up and ready for us.  So, after moving in (at least that's what it felt like - the rented SUV barely held all of our stuff!), we visited a little and then went to bed.  This is what it looked like outside when we went to bed at 10:30.

Weird, huh?!  It doesn't get dark until after midnight, and the sun rises around 4:30.  It was very confusing to the sleepy brain, but it was nice to be able to enjoy the gorgeous scenery for those extra hours. This is the view from Scott and Celeste's top balcony.  It's hard to see through the trees, but those are mountains in the background.  Here is the view from their front yard.

Yep, surrounded by snow-capped mountains!  It was a bit of a geographic culture shock.  More on our adventures in Alaska to come!

In Preparation for the Long Journey, Part Deux

As I mentioned before, we are going way overboard in trying to make sure everything about our Alaska expedition is absolutely perfect.  (And, by we, I most certainly mean my type-A, OCD self.  John is the come-what-may partner in this relationship.  I am the let's-think-about-every-single-possible-occurrence-that-could-possibly-happen-no-matter-how-minute-that-possibility-is-so-that-we-will-have-any-little-item-that-we-may-need-to-deal-with-whatever-it-is-that-may-come partner.  I like to think we balance each other out.)

So, for the sanity of the other passengers on our looooong flight, Cora now has her own personal dvd player replete with the entire season 3 of Blue's Clues.  We really weren't sure how she was going to take to the dvd player since she would have to wear headphones.  Fortunately, girlfriend loved it.  She may or may not have sat and watched an hours worth of Blue's Clues while mommy cooked dinner and cleaned the kitchen.

You're welcome, fellow passengers!

Kindergarten Baby Boom

Since I left my job teaching kindergarten, the grade level has gone through a bit of a baby boom.  After Cora, there have been 2 babies born (if you count grandbabies, too!), and there are 2 more on the way.  That doesn't sound like too many, but when you consider there are only 10 people in this category, it becomes a pretty high percentage.

Next week is the baby shower for Jessica and Martha.  I know how important all the equipment is, and we all chipped in to get each new mommy something from their respective registries.  But, I also think that new mommies need some fun stuff, too.  I decided to work out my sewing machine a little to make some fun accessories for the babies.

Martha is having a little girl in September, so I used this fun fruit print.

Jessica is having a baby boy in July.  She is the teacher that took my position when I left, and my old room looks really adorable with her dog theme.  I thought this print would be really fun for her sweet baby boy.

Congratulations, ladies!  Cora and I can't wait to meet your little bundles of joy!

In Preparation for the Long Journey

This year we will be taking our first airplane flight with Cora.  We decided to jump right in and go ahead and go for a 7 hour flight.  I think we might be crazy to have this be her first flight.  Hopefully, we will all survive - and hopefully, the other passengers will too!

So, this year, we will be flying to Alaska to visit my brother and his family.  Because I am type-A, I am already panicking about how to pack, what to pack, what to check, what to carry-on.  It's like I forget that they have stores in other places.  My sister-in-law is a great hostess, and she has already assured us that she will take care of us once we get there.  But, I'm pretty sure that I will still overpack.  It's genetic!

One of the things that we are hoping to do while we are there is to go hiking at this really scenic trail near where they live.  I have successfully resisted the deep temptation to bring the jogging stroller. . .though, from it's living space in the garage it quietly begs me to be able to come along!  Instead, we are going to take this kid backpack thingy.  I'm sure you've seen them before.  Since we needed to see if Cora would even stand for it, we tested it out on our trail near our house.

Surprisingly, she loved it!  I think she liked being able to see everything.  Now, if we can just get John used to her wibble-wobbling!  (Incidentally, doesn't John look great?!  He's lost over 20 pounds!)  Now, the next time you see those two in that position, Alaska will be in the background!

Swimming - Redneck Style

The weather here has been mostly amazing.  Beautiful sunshine, gentle breezes.  It's too bad we've already had a week of 90 degrees!!  Oy, what will August be like?  Last week, I filled up the pool for Cora and let her have at it.

Splish-splash!

Yes, we like to get back to our roots.  Nothing wrong with some almost skinny dipping in the privacy of our own backyard!  Don't worry; we wear our suits at the neighborhood pool!

What could be more fun than a little water action on a hot day?

The Post by Cora, Part 2

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Friends and Fun

I met Susy about 7 years ago (gasp! Has it been that long?) when we were in a discipleship class together.  We have both since gotten married and had babies.  So, now we get to let our little girls play and become friends.  Susy invited us over to their new house the other day.  We took a nice long walk and then let the girls play in Eliana's big backyard.

Sharing some yummy strawberries!

Playing peek-a-boo! on Eliana's porch

Friends forever!

How My Type-A Personality Affects Cora's Development

I know Mema and P-pa are going to wonder who this person is that is raising Cora.  I was a hugely messy child.  My room was always a wreck.  And, it never failed that whenever I got a chocolate ice cream cone, there was always at least one drip on my shirt.  Somewhere around college, the neat switch in my brain flipped and suddenly, I am all about the cleanliness factor.  (Although, I do believe I successfully ate chocolate ice cream cones way before then!)

So, I was a little surprised to find out at Cora's 15 month appointment back in October that I should be working with her on using utensils to eat.  I was pretty gung-ho about it as we left the doctor's office and had great plans to have her fork trained by the end of the week. . .

As we quickly approach 2 years old (gasp! Where has the time gone?!), I suppose I need to actually start teaching her.  I just have a little trouble watching this.

It's a little messy!

When using the spoon gets too tedious. . .

She doesn't want to waste any of it.

It's been a little while since we've had yogurt.  Mommy needs to recover!

Creative Accessorizing

When I was a little girl, I liked to accessorize every outfit by putting on about 50 beaded necklaces. I remember going with my mom to the elementary school to pick up my brother thinking that I looked amazing. In retrospect, I can't believe that my mom would let me out of the house looking like that, but I suppose she was helping me to foster my creative individuality. It looks like Cora may be following in my fashionable (?) footsteps. She has recently discovered my bracelets. If I am am wearing them, she will reach her hands up to me and say "Bras-uh-kets, pez!" Then, she would put them on and walk around with her arm high in the air so they will not fall off. Here is the new incarnation of this fashion trend.

Yep, bracelet earrings.

We're looking forward to the teenage years!?!