Final Alaskan Visitor

Well, after a month of back to back to back visitors, our little Alaskan B and B is officially closed!  We have less than two months left in Alaska, so we will be spending the rest of our time exploring the state ourselves, saying our goodbyes, and packing up!  It's a very bittersweet feeling.  Okay, enough about that right now, let's talk about Aunt Leanne's visit!

Aunt Leanne (Michael's sister) was only here for a few short days, but we made sure to pack as much into her trip as we possibly could fit!   We took her hiking down in Girdwood, Thunderbird Falls, Eagle River, Hatcher Pass, and Byron Glacier!  She got to see some wildlife up close and personal at the conservation center, as well as out in the real wild!  She got to eat lots of good Alaskan food and spend lots of quality time with her favorite nephew!  :)   Here are some photos from her adventure...

Joey and Aunt Leanne on the Winner Creek Trail!

Aunt Leanne taught Joey the swing game.  You know, the one, two,...

THREE!!!  He absolutely loves this game now!  Even if we weren't playing it, he would.  He would sound like he was saying "one, two, three" and on his three, he would drop his legs out so he could be swung.  It was really funny how quickly he picked up on this game!

Joey loved spending so much time with Aunt Leanne!  He even gave her a daisy to show her his love!

Michael and Leanne got to spend a lot of well-needed sibling time together, too.  When Joey was napping or in bed, the two of the them would go check out some other sites in the area while I stayed home with the babe.

At Independence Mine in Hatcher Pass. 

Yes, Leanne wore shorts and there was still snow on the ground!  Ha ha!  In her defense, we were supposed to do a 10-mile hike this day, but Joey was having a super bad day and we decided to skip that hike.  Leanne just never changed...she was a little chilly though! 





Joey really loved hanging out with Aunt Leanne!  We all did, actually.  We're so glad that she was able to come and see us!  We had a great time and were sad to see her go. 

Published!

Well, not exactly published, but part of my blog has been printed and made into a book!  :) 

There's a site that will turn your blog into a book.  When I first started doing this blog, it was to keep all of our friends and family back home in the loop.  A way to make people feel like they were right here with us through this crazy journey.  However, once I found out that I could turn my blog into a book, this became more about a baby/memory book for Joey and myself. 

 We printed out the whole pregnancy journey and made that our first book.  We went with the soft cover versus hard cover (a lot cheaper) to see how the book turned out.  We really, really like it! 



There's a table of contents, all of my stories and pictures, even a dedication page!  It turned out really nice and we are probably going to make the next books with a hard cover.  If there was ever any doubt, I have posted almost double the stories during Joey's first year than I did during my pregnancy!  So, the First Year book is going to have to wait a little while before it's print date due to the increased cost of more pages!   

Fourteen Months

Our little baby is getting closer to closer becoming a little man!  Joey hit the big fourteen month of his life today!   

He has become so much more independent just within the past month!  He loves to go to the park!  The slide is his absolute favorite!  He would go down the slide over and over and over and over... 

He is so inquisitive and curious about EVERYTHING!  If it can be picked up, opened, closed, moved, or whatever, he's into it!

 He doesn't walk anymore, he runs!  The little guy can't get places fast enough!

He still really enjoys imitating us.  He likes to pick up the remote controls and point them at the T.V. (Ooopss!  So much for waiting until Joey was 2 years old to let him watch any T.V.)

He has no problem asking for help.  When he wants assistance getting down the steps, getting into the high chair, getting up on the couch, walking through tall grass, he will put his hand up so you will grab it and help him.  He has also learned how to climb within the past day or two!  Not sure if I'm ready for this stage!  Ready or not, it's here!

Joey hasn't really said any new words, since "Mama" and "Dada", but he does understand us when we say certain things to him.  When we ask if he's hungry, he'll run to his high chair.  "Wanna take a bath", he runs to the bathtub.  "Where's your ball/car?", he'll go get the ball/car and bring it back to you.  He knows who the puppies are.  He also "understands" the whole Skype thing.  He gets really excited when we turn the computer on and family members are in the little black box!

We are so amazed at all of the new things Joey can do every day.  Happy Fourteenth Month Birthday, Joey!

Happy Fourth of July

We really didn't have any plans for the Fourth, since I was supposed to be on my trip.  However, when my trip got cancelled, and most campgrounds and cabins were booked, we decided to just stay home and have a party!  

It was a really great party and an awesome way to spend Independence Day! I'm glad we were able to spend the day relaxin', eating, conversing, and celebrating our country!  I was also very happy that we were able to all be together as a family.  Thank you to all of the servicemembers and their families, past and present, that have dedicated their lives to defending our country.  

Camping...Try Two

We took Joey camping again while our friends were a couple of weeks ago.  Let me just say...nothing improved from the last camping trip!  Ugh! 

Joey and I at one of the saddles in Arctic Valley.  These photos have nothing to do with our camping trip, but we didn't take any pics of the nightmarish camping trip and I wanted to post some sort of pics on this post!

Joey stayed up all night, fussed, played, cried, played, hit Michael and me a few times, and finally passed out in between us in our sleeping bag.  We brought a play pen this time.  He wouldn't have anything to do with it.  There was a lot of noise outside of our tent.  The campground we stayed out wasn't that great and they had placed our tent site right on the main road into the campground and super close to the one and only bathroom building.  Plus, we're still in the middle of summer so we have lots and lots of sunlight. 

Joey passed out!

 The kicker to this story is that we just purchased a new tent that is a piece of crap.  It totally leaked at every single seam!  We woke up the next morning in puddles of water!  The side of Joey's head was completely wet from where he had rolled out of the sleeping bag and laid on the bare tent floor.  *Sigh*

We hiked with one of parent groups, but Debbie and I continued on after the group stopped.

 Oh, and everyone in the campground heard Joey crying throughout the night.  An old man came up and talked to Joey the next morning and asked if he was feeling better since he had been up all night.  One of the deckhands on the boat was talking to the captain about a crying baby...yep, that was Joey.  When I spoke up and told him that was my baby, he apologized.  I told him not to worry...I KNOW that he didn't sleep all night! 



A little black bear was eating something in the road!  He would hide when you drove by, but then would return to the road once you passed!

Luckily, the campground did have one single room left for Saturday night.  We jumped on it!  We set up the play pen, taped garbage bags over all of the windows to make the room really dark, and laid Joey down.  He cried for about 20 minutes and then slept for the entire night!  SCORE!  What a relief!  Michael and I met our "neighbors" and we were actually finally able to relax by a campfire during our camping trip!  It was so nice! 

We still haven't given up tent camping with Joey, but we are taking a little break for a few weeks.  We do have a camping trip planned for next weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes! 

More Company!

Our second guests of the season arrived a couple of weeks ago (I know...I am wayyyyy behind in posts!).   Thornton and Tammy arrived in Alaska ready for an adventure!  Thornton has been to Alaska before, so he had his trip pretty well planned out so that he and Tammy wouldn't miss a thing!

Joey and I took the happy couple on a six-mile hike at the nature center the day after they arrived!  We saw three moose on our little hike! 

 Joey stayed awake the first three miles.  When we got to our halfway point, we let Joey get out and play.  All he really wanted to do was run right out into that cold river!  Since we were so far from the car and I did not have a change of clothes for him, I did not even entertain this idea of his! 

The workout must have been good enough for the little guy because he passed the heck out on the way back to the car!

One of the three moose we saw!  How perfect is his location for this photo?!?  I had the dogs that were going crazy whining at the sight of the moose so I moved quickly away from this area so we wouldn't disturb the bull.  It really was an image from a postcard or something...big male moose in water with huge snow-covered mountains as the background image.

 The pups and Joey chilling after our hike.  I wasn't the only one that thought this was freaking adorable...some foreign tourists actually came up and took a picture of this too!

 Later that night, we all went down to Seward for some fishing, kayaking, and camping fun!  While Thornton and Tammy were out on a wildlife cruise and Michael was fishing, Joey and I checked out the Sea Life Center.  He really liked this seal that kept swimming by Joey!



The boys got to do a little fishing.  They didn't have much luck, but they did have a great time!  Thornton said that he felt like a real Alaskan out there!  :)

We parted ways with our company after Seward, and they continued on with their vaca.  They stopped back by our house on the way north and we got to hang out a little more.  We had such a great time with Thornton and Tammy.  We are so glad they were able to come up and visit us and Alaska!

Disgruntled

Sorry, I have been a little slack in posting anything on here lately.  It's been a crazy, emotional week(s)!  (Also, please excuse my misuse of past-tense, present-tense, and future-tense throughout this post...I started writing this a week ago and just now am getting around to finishing and posting.  I didn't feel like changing everything). 

Our friends, the Thorntons, came up to visit us, so we were gallivanting all over the Kenai Peninsula for a few days.  Then, I hurt my back. 

Yes, hurt my back one week before I was supposed to leave for my 33-mile, 4-day, 3-night backpacking trip that I have been planning for a YEAR!  The Thorntons and I went kayaking last Saturday and everything was fine.  However, when I woke up Sunday morning, my back was hurting and it continually got worse as the day went on.  I could barely walk on Monday, so I went to the doctor.  He thought I had pulled a muscle and for me to take it easy.  We discussed my upcoming trip in which he told me that he wasn't saying no, I shouldn't go, but he wasn't saying yes either.  After much discussion with Michael, the doc, my Dad, and one of my good friends that is an avid backpacker, I came to the decision that the trip wasn't worth it.  What if I hurt my back worse?  I was having troubles picking up Joey this week, what would I do if I hurt my back even more on the trip?! 

I was so disappointed that I was not able to go on this trip.  I was upset I wasn't going to do this hike, but I was more upset that I wasn't going to get my "me" time.  I was going to have 6 days where I was Sara again.  Not Michael's wife, nor Joey's mom.  Just Sara.  I was really looking forward to that.  As a stay-at-home mom, I very rarely have my own time.  Yes, sure, when Joey is napping or in bed for the night, it's just me, but I'm stuck at the house.  I can't go anywhere.  A lot of professionals recommend for SAHM's to leave the house, alone, for a little bit whenever the hubby gets home.  Well, with the the hours Michael works, that would mean I would have to go out at 9 or 10 at night.  By then, I'm ready for bed!

 

Anyways, I didn't go on the trip.  I'm over it now.  I really think hurting my back right before the big trip was a blessing in disguise.  What if my back would have went out on the trail?  What if I was going to twist my ankle on the trail?  Or be chased by a bear?  Or be in an avalanche?!?!  OMG!  So many things that could have happened, but now will not because I didn't get to go!  Everything happens for a reason, right?