An incredible weekend here.  So hot! Today I had to move into the shade.  Milo had his first taste of the sprinkler and wasn't so sure about it.  Both days we have gone on a bike ride while Seth runs and enjoyed the sunshine.  Tonight we went to a neighbors bbq, it was so hot Milo had to borrow a sun bonnet, an Amish one from Pennsylvania no less, I hope they do pass along some pictures.

Not only was it beautiful outside there was action inside too.  Milo ate some Thai Laksa chicken noodle soup and than he pulled himself from sitting to standing.  He pulled himself up again outside on the packraft that was full of freezing water and enjoyed dipping his hands in the water, the water on his face took the little fellows breath away.  Big things happening all the time with that tiny boy, so great.

On another note the best father's day present Seth could've received was the pictures posted below of the cabin. Finished on the outside!! That is right! So beautiful ah? Do you see that fellow sitting in the sun having a drink? That will be us soon! Seth also woke up to find some photographs of Milo holding a Father's day card and a copy of his favorite book, "Where the Wild Things Are." Milo has unfortunately been practicing his Manimal voice. Seth also received a Snickers Peanut Butter bar, as a present to him I haven't eaten it yet, he has left it lying around the house, no promises tomorrow.

Now that school is out we have been enjoying sunny days outside.  Milo and I bike downtown to meet Seth for a hotdog or bring him lunch.  On Monday Papa shared his peach with Milo, he loved it!

Cormac and Milo have been interacting more and more, slowly.  I think that Milo realizes Cormac is a little boy, but just wants to touch him and taste him so bad.

A bit of crawling has been happening.  More like a covert CIA operative moves, Milo is sliding around on the wood floor, nudie brings him the most traction. Tonight he slid all over.

On Sunday I finished the triathlon.  Felt great, had fun, finally cracked the top 200, doesn't sound like much but there are 1500 entrants, so that makes it sound better.  This year Milo and Seth were there to cheer me on and so there are a few rare pics, usually I would not have pictures and in the shape I'm in, would not want pictures of that situation but they are actually quite nice.

Off to the cabin for  10 days, hopefully we report back with good times and no adventures too big.  Is that a bad luck sentence there? Knock on wood.

Biking 

Finishing the race- boys cutting off timing tag

This is why not many people ask for a close-up after the race

Running from the pool to find my bike

Milo eating and loving his first peach

"I love you Cormac."

One happy baby

Crawling lessons from Uncle Bob

Enjoy your long weekend.

It is a balmy 60 something outside today, has been like this all week and is predicted to stay this way until Monday.  It's a good thing the weather is so great, we have BBQs and a triathlon to do.

Today is also the last day of school for kids and tomorrow us teachers clean-up our things and run away.  Friday is bike to work day which will be fun, we've been biking for a few weeks now but it's always fun to see so many bikers out and about.

This pictures where on my computer this morning, I imagine they made Seth's day.  Mine too, looks like with this good weather the guys have really made progress, who would've expected less.  Now what we can't wait for is my Dad to pull up in his boat, we haven't shown him any pictures just for fun, I wish we could see his reaction.

Milo and I need to head out for our morning run, I hear if you train really hard the week before the race you do much better.

Front View

Front view on a bit of an angle

Back view- nice sun ah?

View from Kachamak Bay

Can you believe these guys? They are working on the roof as I type.  The weather has taken a turn for the cold and windy, snow has been reported in places, not your typical spring outlook.

Tomorrow is my last day of work and than Milo and I can bike all around town in the sunshine.

In other news Shipper passed away yesterday.  No sign of fowl play, I suspect she ate rhubarb or Monkshood leafs.  Soloman now spends his time in the chicken coop, since the ladies no longer have a rooster they will have to make due with a grouchy drake.

Milo is scooching around.  Up on all fours than pushing forward, 2 inches of progress at a time.

Well, Seth is home, if only physically really.  His mind is still in Homer.  Josiah sent some pics of the cabin progress.  These guys are incredible! Walls up, plywood on, next seiner load comes on Monday, more materials!

Seth and I went to a granite sale today down in the port below our house.  They were selling all their remnants.  We found a marble counter top for around the sink, with hole already cut and polished, a granite slab for under the wood stove and a quartz slab for the desk.  It was so fun to look at all the giant pieces, man we wouldn't be at that place unless it was a sale, now to get them all to Homer and than up on top of the island.

Mom is here in town and life is great.  Mom makes dinner and typically dessert or cookies, has Milo fed and Ginger walked, she has been grocery shopping and is still chipper, she must be experienced.  We just biked home from a meal at Aunt Diane's, Mom and Diane made baked chicken and peanut butter pie per Seth's request, that is why it is hard to move right now.

One more week of school, oh my.  We've been biking every day, I meet two friends and we go together, nice to have company for a 16 mile round trip everyday, I could eat a horse and it's horsey friend.  Maybe that is why I'm so tired? Milo is tired too, he is eating his fruits and vegetables and sleeping through the night, ah what a life.

Spring has sprung here in Anchorage. I am back to work and Seth is now off to the cabin, or the cabin site really. Milo and I are just a duo these days, Seth has been sending some great pics and reports it's been the hottest he has ever experienced in Homer. Milo and I have been out for runs, walks and afternoon sun sprawls, all very nice. Don was baby sitting for us the two weeks while I was at work, so great. He showed up every morning at the crack of 7:28am in a button up shirt and kaki pants, overnight bag so he could shower while Milo napped. Those two had a ball together,they cuddled, walked, Costco shopped, went swimming twice and bonded in general. Don's goal was to imprint and I am afraid it worked. We went to lunch today with Aunt Bonnie and Don had Milo the whole time, awful nice to eat an uninterrupted meal.

 Here are some pictures of the first seiner load to Bear Island. Seth left Anchorage at 4:30 am and had unloaded 42,ooo lbs of building materials by 10pm at the island. The seiner pulled up under the fish dock in the Homer Harbor and Spenard Builder's Supply pulled under a crane up above as I understand it. The crane lowered the wood on to the seiner and the seiner slowly made it's way down the bay to our island. Seth reports a seiner usually carries it's load of fish in the lower hold and isn't used to it's heavy weight up above on the deck but they lucked out with great weather so the trip was smooth. The seiner had a crane as you can kind of see from the pictures so it was nice to pull up at high tide and unload straight to our dock. Now Josiah (the builder who is working with us on the cabin) and Seth have built a ramp that they pull the materials from the dock to the top of the island with a wench. Tomorrow two boys from Homer are coming out to help load the wood up the very slow ramp while Seth and Josiah began laying out the cabin footers and digging holes.

 Meanwhile, in the big shitty city Milo and stay busy with errands to the oil change station, grocery store and walks and runs with friends. We are signed up for the Turnagain Arm trail run in a few weeks along the bluff overlooking Turnagain arm, so beautiful. Than it's to the triathalon for me, better start biking to school. In other big news there is a new member of the family. Melissa and Gail welcomed Sherlock into the family last week and he is a really striking dog. Fun to see him and Rum Doodle play together.

Hiking Trip

Last weekend was beautiful, sunny and........ warm! Milo circumnavigated Blueberry hill in a first ever attempt via Chariot on skis. Oh, the hiking was slow and step but Milo's trusty porter Seth pushed and post-holed to the end. The Chariot was a smooth ride, the front was mostly in the air, it was lucky Milo was restrained in his infant sling because his child transport system was pushed to it's maximum. The day was finished in style at the bakery with treats and than book club at our house, with a reduce/ reuse theme of clothes trade and simplification discussion. Just another way to drink a few bottles of wine and chat with friends.

Spring is in the air around here. The yard is a mess of this year's dog visitors presents, chickens peeking out of their house and mating squirrels. Stephen the squirrel has found a mate and are they amorous! Seth and I took a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday where Milo was "declared a squat redhead, a stout muscle man." We also borrowed Grandpa's live trap and than Uncle Bob emailed with news of a refined "Squirrelinator 5000, cat-friendly and humane." I think we'll set them both and see what wins. Stephen has lived here two years spongeing off the chickens and the free ride is oooooooooooover! His poo and his mess in my shed was the end Stephen, the end! THE END STEPHEN!

Snow Art

This guy is incredible, artist Simon Beck. A friend posted his artwork on Facebook and Aunt Bonnie sent me a link to our favorite website, Poppy Gal Blog. Poppy is the designer for Isis, or used to be anyhow. Her website is pretty incredible for color ideas. Poppy was inspired by Simon's artwork like I was, he sure must be patient ah?

Seavey appears unbeatable in homestretch

Nuts. That cocky little sucker looks liked he clinched the race. He describes in detail how he "built the monster" and will win the race on adn.com. I liked it best when Lance Mackey a three time winner was quoted in the newspaper as calling Dalas "cocky and obnoxious." I hope that in these last few hours Aily out races him. Also, I wish we had a T.V to watch the live finish. Big day around here :)

Milo might not realize it yet but his parents put him on a schedule to sleep through the night, no more midnight feedings, it worked last night, they say it takes three or four days, we'll see, basically an uninterrupted night of sleep sounds like Christmas in March.

This morning we dropped off Pat and Caroline to begin their 6 month around Alaska trip. They will pick up their beautiful homemade rowing skulls in Seattle and start out for the Inside passage from Belligham on Saturday. They are ready and were in high spirits.

On that note, we have the luck of spending the week with little Nelly. Since Ginger is on visitation with Dad, Nelly will be our substitute dog until Rose and Willy come back. Spy the cat hasn't warmed to Nelly just yet, although Nelly thinks shes died and gone to heaven with the basket of Milo's stuffed animals. You see, at home Nelly has a basket of her own stuffed animal toys and MIlo's looks just like it, some of his even make noise like she enjoys, have to keep a close eye on this crew.

So that is the big day around here, airport trip, Iditarod and a ski tonight with Seth in the new Chariot with skis, Milo likes the fast motion and the cold air not on his face.

While looking at the Iditarod results....

While I have been checking the Iditarod results like crazy waiting for Aily to win and pull ahead of Dallas Seavy who is a big head in my humble opinion I found these. If we had in floor heating one would be awesome, if the arctic entry was in floor heating they would make so much sense, for mittens, hats diapers ect. Alas, something else really simple someone created that we should've thought of. Basically they are just cabinets with rods for drying, just marketed cute is all.

Back from vacation and still re-adjusting

Hawaii couldn't have been any more fun really. Met with Seth's side of the family in Kauai and than headed to the Big Island and met my side of the family in Kona. Kauai really stole our hearts, the jungle, the sand, the baby beach across the street from our house, it was too perfect.

The house in Kauai was in the perfect location, really fun to share it with Alicia and G-ma and Me- ma. Milo had a blast I think, someone to play with him when he woke at the crack of dawn and I went back to sleep, something I miss so bad now when it is just the two of us and I yearn to close my eyes. We hiked, beached, ran, swam and ate great.

Kona was fun too, the entire family was there and we celebrated Mom's Leap Year birthday. We ate great, did lots of snorkeling and swimming. Seth and I had a fun run/ swim and spent lots of evenings in the pool, the condos were very quiet. Just seeing the family and having everyone meet Milo was great. My brother Don had a good time with Milo as he was recovering from a broken leg so they were on the same page most days as far as movement went.

In Kona Milo did start rolling over and hasn't stopped. He also developed some terrible sleeping habits he is still carrying out, last night he woke every two hours on the dot, ugh it is terrible. He wakes up and either cries his newly developed Teridactile cry or grunts while rolling over, neither scenario is conducive to sleep.

The flight home was terrible, Milo slept the whole time but the red eye took two days to recover from, getting home at 5am and trying to recover some sleep than Milo is up at 7 am bright eyed, lucky he learned to smile so well because you need that grin with only two hours of sleep under the belt.

It is bright and beautiful here, cold but amazing. I should be outside checking on the chickens and the ducks. Ginger is with Dad for the week so we are dog free, I always feel like I forgot to let her back in the house and than I realize she is on visitation with Pops.

February 2nd

Here in Alaska February 2nd is Marmot Day, Marmots look like Groundhogs but make better noises, high whistling noises. Oh, and they are all over, I am not aware of one named Phuksatony Phil or Anchorage Bill.

The first two months

One Month


Two Months


Three Months

2 months old!

Milo is now two months old and my does that make a difference. His eyes are open so much, he usually sleeps all night with only one or two wake-ups and he is really moving. When he's on his tummy he can hold his head up and is almost ready for the Johnny Jump Up.

It's been as cold as -15 for the last few weeks and than yesterday it was a blizzard and 40, today it is a blizzard but 22. Milo and have been going on walks, Seth and I have been taking him in the Chariot all bundled up for runs and the occasional ski. I am including pics of Milo and Ginger, Milo and his friend Grahm who lives across the street and was born a day earlier than Milo and an example of how strong his head is.

Man is it snowing hard out right now!

6 days left till we go to Hawaii! Found a great house sitter who likes the idea of ducks, chickens, finches a cat and a dog, whew! Today Milo and I venture out to meet a new friend just born named Sabina, pretty excited to see the little girl and bring her Mom and Dad some lunch.