One last photo before he shaved the Alaska beard. It was fun...but he just can't grow it thick like a true Alaskan frontiersman.
Brent: it was itchy.
Our Dancing Queen
2 months ago
One last photo before he shaved the Alaska beard. It was fun...but he just can't grow it thick like a true Alaskan frontiersman.
Brent: it was itchy.
Brent's latest invention was a HIT with the kids!
camera phone quality, no extra charge!
camera phone quality, no extra charge!
More male bonding...and it looks like someone ate a little turf (Toby's face looks scratched up in case you can't tell from the poor camera phone quality photos...poor kiddo)
Thanks to Brent's Camera phone:
Portland Overlook Park...Hmm...looks fun!
Portland Overlook Park...Hmm...looks fun!
Alright...so any of you who REALLY know me, you know how much I love camp and working with Young Women. So I was thrilled that I got to go to girls camp this year even if I was 33-34 weeks pregnant (I've since heard that's against church policy...oops). The whole pregnancy issue was no big deal though. We slept in beds in rustic cabins, we cooked over the campfire and in dutch ovens, we had a pool and got to go swimming! And basically that was it. No hiking, nothing strenuous (besides walking to flag and around camp). My responsibility was to sleep in the cabin with 12 - 13 year old girls and do meals with them. The youth leaders took care of the rest of the activities. It was like being a Brighton counselor all over again, but with a lot less responsibility (except having to plan for and cook all the meals). It was awesome and I had a great time! I love working with girls that age and it was so fun to get to know them.
I didn't get many pictures since my battery died, but here are some shots from the skit that our group did:
This girl in the front was the best! She had a spiderman swim shirt!
Vader did a cameo in our skit
I didn't get many pictures since my battery died, but here are some shots from the skit that our group did:
This girl in the front was the best! She had a spiderman swim shirt!
Vader did a cameo in our skit
Such fun times! I really enjoyed getting to learn some new camp songs...one in particular that my family loved learning (and I would love to teach my friends at Brighton Camp) was the 'Humpty Dumpty' song. So funny! It's a competition sing off between two sides...each coming up with impromptu truncated nursery rhymes and ending with 'HUA! Ain't that funky now?' all dancing and craziness included.
Thanks to Brent for arranging his work schedule so that he could stay home most of the week with the boys...and thanks also to a couple of other helpers who filled in the babysitting gaps!
Thanks to Brent for arranging his work schedule so that he could stay home most of the week with the boys...and thanks also to a couple of other helpers who filled in the babysitting gaps!
We managed to squeeze in this holiday after getting back from Alaska and before I left for girls camp
We spent the morning hiking at Tryon Creek State park
We did a lot of fireworks in the Fox's backyard so Toby and Mason were watching the fireworks from the swimming pool
Joshua and his buddies...
in boy heaven watching snakes
My two preggo friends! Aren't they cute mamas? (we did take a picture with all of us together, but it's on someone else's camera). What a coincidence that we are all due within several weeks of each other. It's made for a fun pregnancy!
Toby and his buddies
these three are all about the same age...they had so much fun!
Thanks for letting us crash your house Fox family!
We spent the morning hiking at Tryon Creek State parkThen we had a wonderful barbecue, swimming and fireworks with our friends the Foxes and the Mansius':
We did a lot of fireworks in the Fox's backyard so Toby and Mason were watching the fireworks from the swimming pool
Joshua and his buddies...in boy heaven watching snakes
My two preggo friends! Aren't they cute mamas? (we did take a picture with all of us together, but it's on someone else's camera). What a coincidence that we are all due within several weeks of each other. It's made for a fun pregnancy! 
Toby and his buddiesthese three are all about the same age...they had so much fun!
Thanks for letting us crash your house Fox family!
I thought that I would let friends and family know that all is well in Oregon. The temperatures have dropped nicely (by 40 degrees!) and have allowed me to get on with getting ready for the baby.
Did you know that the hardest part of painting is picking out the right color??? I've had this serious problem the past two times I've painted inside our house. After visiting many paint sections, buying the wrong color and then mixing it with white...I finally came up with a color of green for the nursery that I like. And now the painting is taken care of (pictures to follow).
There is still a great long checklist of things I want (need) to get done before this baby comes (like cleaning the upholstery in our car since some unlocatable smell is making Joshua gag). The boys have one more week of swimming lessons, I would like to catch up on blogging...and then the baby can come. OK? Too bad I don't have much of a say in it. The baby is head down and well engaged. I am cramping and having irregular, somewhat-serious contractions. That would make one think that the baby is on its way soon...however I know that this could all drag on for a few more weeks (since I'm only going on 38 weeks), so stay tuned.
Did you know that the hardest part of painting is picking out the right color??? I've had this serious problem the past two times I've painted inside our house. After visiting many paint sections, buying the wrong color and then mixing it with white...I finally came up with a color of green for the nursery that I like. And now the painting is taken care of (pictures to follow).
There is still a great long checklist of things I want (need) to get done before this baby comes (like cleaning the upholstery in our car since some unlocatable smell is making Joshua gag). The boys have one more week of swimming lessons, I would like to catch up on blogging...and then the baby can come. OK? Too bad I don't have much of a say in it. The baby is head down and well engaged. I am cramping and having irregular, somewhat-serious contractions. That would make one think that the baby is on its way soon...however I know that this could all drag on for a few more weeks (since I'm only going on 38 weeks), so stay tuned.
A couple of noteworthy pictures from our trip to a cool park in Juneau (day 1 in Alaska):
Just in case you were wondering...
Toby is most definitely our little climber
Just in case you were wondering...
Toby is most definitely our little climber
Alaska Day(s) 8 and unexpectedly 9: Once again, travel conundrums...all thanks to the Alaska State Ferry (yes, this is the last Alaska entry!!)
Just so you're not all too jealous of our wonderful, amazing, once in a lifetime trip to Alaska...I will now tell you about our travel home nightmare (along with some amazing scenery shots)...
So...we had been debating for days whether or not to trust the Alaska State Ferry again for our ride home. On the one hand, it is the much cheaper option. On the other hand, we all remember what happened on Day 1 of the Alaska trip when the ferry changed it's departure time leaving us stranded. Our other option was to take a bush plane back to Juneau...very reliable, but much more expensive. Of course we are cheapskates so we went with the less expensive option:
This was the first time while we were in Skagway where the clouds were low, hiding the peaks and glaciers. Luckily also the only rainy day.
Leaving Skagway on the ferry...and the last view of the port and the cruise ships.
Good times on the ferry...watching dvd's on the laptop
Just so you're not all too jealous of our wonderful, amazing, once in a lifetime trip to Alaska...I will now tell you about our travel home nightmare (along with some amazing scenery shots)...
So...we had been debating for days whether or not to trust the Alaska State Ferry again for our ride home. On the one hand, it is the much cheaper option. On the other hand, we all remember what happened on Day 1 of the Alaska trip when the ferry changed it's departure time leaving us stranded. Our other option was to take a bush plane back to Juneau...very reliable, but much more expensive. Of course we are cheapskates so we went with the less expensive option:
The Glorious Ferry
But boy did we have some amazing scenery on the way out:
But boy did we have some amazing scenery on the way out:
This was the first time while we were in Skagway where the clouds were low, hiding the peaks and glaciers. Luckily also the only rainy day.
Leaving Skagway on the ferry...and the last view of the port and the cruise ships.
Good times on the ferry...watching dvd's on the laptopSo what, may you ask was wrong about taking the ferry this time? Well, our arrival time in Juneau was SUPPOSED to be 90 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave for Seattle (tight schedule). If the ferry was on time, we could have made it...but of course the ferry was late! We arrived at the airport only 30 minutes before our flight's departure...just 15 minutes to late to check our bags!!! So we had to change our plans fast. Luckily, Alaska Airlines has no problem re-scheduling all our flights and we were set to leave Juneau around 7 pm and arrive in Seattle around 9:30. This gave us about 6 hours to kill waiting in the Juneau airport. Brent ran to the local Fred Meyer to pick up a couple more dvd's for the boys to watch and we had a great (boring) 6 hours waiting for our flight.
We got on our later flight with no problems...but the big problem lay ahead: there were NO flights from Seattle to Portland that night after our arrival. So we had to wait until 5 am to board our flight to Portland. There was no way we (cheapskates) wanted to pay for another night in a motel or risk missing this flight (all the later ones were booked)...so we had the most FABULOUS accommodations EVER!..sleeping in the Seattle airport! JOY! I am sure our family will remember this forever. Especially I. Who oh so comfortably slept on airport chairs being in the state of 7 months pregnant (with Toby often sprawled out across my lap).
But I guess those are the risks you take when you travel. And those are risks I'm willing to take because the results of the trip are SO worth it! The really kicker in the ending of this story is that we could've driven back to Portland in only 3 hours getting home sometime in the middle of the night. But then we would've had to rent a car and not get our money's worth on our airline tickets...no way we were doing that.
But the good news is that we made it home safe and sound, and all the guys seemed to sleep pretty well at the airport (the little boys were such troopers, I think more travel is in their future)...and best of all, we had an absolutely AMAZING trip!
(I think we slept for 2 days straight after we got home).
THANK YOU once again Liz for being an incredible hostess!
We got on our later flight with no problems...but the big problem lay ahead: there were NO flights from Seattle to Portland that night after our arrival. So we had to wait until 5 am to board our flight to Portland. There was no way we (cheapskates) wanted to pay for another night in a motel or risk missing this flight (all the later ones were booked)...so we had the most FABULOUS accommodations EVER!..sleeping in the Seattle airport! JOY! I am sure our family will remember this forever. Especially I. Who oh so comfortably slept on airport chairs being in the state of 7 months pregnant (with Toby often sprawled out across my lap).
But I guess those are the risks you take when you travel. And those are risks I'm willing to take because the results of the trip are SO worth it! The really kicker in the ending of this story is that we could've driven back to Portland in only 3 hours getting home sometime in the middle of the night. But then we would've had to rent a car and not get our money's worth on our airline tickets...no way we were doing that.But the good news is that we made it home safe and sound, and all the guys seemed to sleep pretty well at the airport (the little boys were such troopers, I think more travel is in their future)...and best of all, we had an absolutely AMAZING trip!
(I think we slept for 2 days straight after we got home).
THANK YOU once again Liz for being an incredible hostess!
Day 7: Our last day of Skagway Adventures
We hopped aboard another helicopter to the Meade Glacier. This time without the boys. This was a serious glacier tour/hike wherein we got to observe some serious Moraines (glacial debris) and Moulins (glacial ravines).
It was a much longer helicopter ride.
The picture on the bottom left is the glacier with two moraines (the dark stripes) from the air. The picture on the bottom right is what the moraine looks like up close.
This is some of that blue glacial ice peeking through the moraine
This is our helicopter pilot/tour guide showing us a large boulder that got carried down the mountain on the glacier.
This one amazing scene right here was the most beautiful and frightening thing we saw on our whole trip...a deep glacial moulin. It was wide enough for two or three adults and how deep was it???
Brent's panoramic picture
We saw a pair of bald eagle beauties on the way...
These were the only bald eagles we saw in Skagway, but in Juneau they were EVERYWHERE...like seagulls or crows (crazy!)
Some wild purple irises on the Dyea Ghost Town trail
(if I look tired...it's because I was...in a good way)
The one store front left standing in the Dyea Ghost town
After our Ghost town tour...we were able to visit this family that we met in church:
Our kids really had a great time playing with their kids and it was nice to see where they live and hear about living in Skagway year-round. Thanks to Liz we enjoyed very freshly caught shrimp and s'mores!
Glacier Exploring:
Blue glacier ice...one of the most beautiful natural phenomena in the world
Blue glacier ice...one of the most beautiful natural phenomena in the world
We hopped aboard another helicopter to the Meade Glacier. This time without the boys. This was a serious glacier tour/hike wherein we got to observe some serious Moraines (glacial debris) and Moulins (glacial ravines).
It was a much longer helicopter ride.The picture on the bottom left is the glacier with two moraines (the dark stripes) from the air. The picture on the bottom right is what the moraine looks like up close.
This is some of that blue glacial ice peeking through the moraine
This is our helicopter pilot/tour guide showing us a large boulder that got carried down the mountain on the glacier.
This one amazing scene right here was the most beautiful and frightening thing we saw on our whole trip...a deep glacial moulin. It was wide enough for two or three adults and how deep was it???WAY TOO DEEP!
Brent's panoramic pictureAfter the helicopter ride we drove back over to Dyea to hike the little historic ghost town loop.
We saw a pair of bald eagle beauties on the way...These were the only bald eagles we saw in Skagway, but in Juneau they were EVERYWHERE...like seagulls or crows (crazy!)
Some wild purple irises on the Dyea Ghost Town trail(if I look tired...it's because I was...in a good way)
The one store front left standing in the Dyea Ghost townAfter our Ghost town tour...we were able to visit this family that we met in church:
Our kids really had a great time playing with their kids and it was nice to see where they live and hear about living in Skagway year-round. Thanks to Liz we enjoyed very freshly caught shrimp and s'mores!
