The Cure for Tummy Time Blues...

Bring along a friend

Over Night Camping...FINALLY!

I apologize ahead of time, this is going to be a long post. But I am SO excited about going camping for the first time this year, AND with Adelle. And I am so happy about it because we had so much fun, and Adelle did so good. She was happy and content most of the time, even when her ears and hands were cold, she smiled through the whole thing. Camping means so much to me and I am glad to know we can do it without a crying miserable baby.

Ryan took us to Jim Creek in Palmer, which is a big camping hot spot but I had never been there. It was so much more beautiful than I had thought. There was so much to see, and so many FREE places to camp. It was right alongside Jim Creek, but which is really more like a river, it was very big.

This is the perfect place to go biking or 4-wheeling, there were trails going in every direction.

It was very very windy. Ryan said it was the worst he'd ever seen it. The sand was blowing everywhere, I kept expecting to see a horse skeleton coming out of the sand, like in the desert.
It didn't feel like Alaska, but it was beautiful.

This is part of the dried up river. It was silt for miles and miles.

Ryan had to wade across a part of the river to feel how soft the silt was beneath to make sure the jeep wouldn't sink in it. We got across safely, many times.

Trying to get set up for camp, we set Adelle on a camping chair. It was shocking how incredibly happy she was there. Just watching the world go by, she was such a champ!

For dinner, ribs! And LOTS of them :o) And we use Chris' favorite Bar-B-Que sauce, "Sweet Baby Ray's". It was Heavenly!

Can you guess what this is? Your right! It's Adelle's make-shift bed! Works perfectly, keeps out the bugs and the sun, and keeps in the warmth. It's rather crafty if I may say so myself. (All you baby rights crazy people out there....I don't want to hear it. The only way this will effect her when she's older is her using this on her own kids. And yes it has holes for air)

Good night us.

Good night Little Thing.

Good Morning Mom! As Ryan got up and started the fire, I fed Adelle. She took over Dad's warm sleeping bag.

I decided to give Adelle a taster of my hot chocolate. (Warm chocolate) She was IN LOVE with it! When I took it away she followed it devoutly with her eyes.

This is what happens when you say "no more hot chocolate little thing."

As we were walking along the river bed I stumbled on this LOVEly rock....

and then Ryan found one of his own. It was a very fun camp out. Now the question is where should we go next, and who will come with us?

Getting So Coordinated!!!

Two hands, two feet. Makes sense :o) In the last 3 days she has mastered the art of seeing something, grabbing it with her hands and bringing it to her mouth. It's so fun to watch her hit this mile stone. Mama's so proud!

A Day at the Knik River..

Today after church we had an impromtu get together at the Knik River in Palmer. It was a beautiful location!. All kids went swimming (sorry no pics), and they had a blast digging a whole. What was the hole for you say? To hide in, while playing hide and go seek. Needless to say the kids never got that far. The hole digging was much more fun than hiding in it.

Melissa has a new little baby Ida that she's fostering, she's adorable. Melissa hit a delema when she realized she had no way to heat a bottle and a baby who wouldn't drink cold milk. So I got creative. I heated the milk up in a glass, then put it in the bottle. So much fun making do with what you have.

We spent a little over 4 hourse there, and the WHOLE time Melissa and Vanessa smelled different candle scents and placed Scentsy orders. 4 hours, really!

When Adelle got tired I wrapped her up and put her in Rayna and Joe's car. She went right to sleep. It was fun watching her through the window, like watching a cool fish in a tank.

And thats all folks! I am really loving this fun summer of the wonderful campfire smell!!!

FINALLY I Don't Think Mom's Trying To Kill Me!!

I don't know why this has been so hard for Adelle, but tummy time is my time to torture her, or so she thinks. But she's getting better. She seems to like tummy time on her dresser a bit better (as you can see by her smiles). Makes Mama happy, she might crawl after all! And her many therapy sessions in the future might be cut back.

And Time Goes On..

Adelle met her Great Granddad Watson today for the first time. (It's been REALLY hard getting there at the same time Adelle is awake AND happy.) It was very precious! In my baby book my Mother wrote that when I was born and Grandpa came to visit me at the hospital, he didn't want to put me down. That was always very sweet to me, so I was very excited to have him meet Adelle. This is her last surviving Great-Grandparent on my side, and he's doing so well. (He informed me today he was almost to the 90 mark!)

We also saw that Grandpa had his own little one. He and Kathleen got a little new babydoll kitten a few weeks ago, they named her peaches. I could tell Grandpa was awestruck by her, he's missed his previous cat Kawn. So we shared "baby" stories and admired each others. It was a sweet visit.

We love you Grandpa! (Oops, sorry I didn't get a picture of your baby.)

Puzzle Pieces...

Ryan went back on the slope Thursday and he's been having problems downloading Adelle pictures through email on his phone. So today he called and asked that I put up some pictures of Adelle on the blog, since he can access that just fine.

My struggle is that just posting random pieces of Adelle with no real reason seems way too disorganized for me, plus I feel like people would be in Adelle overload. (Can that really happen? Its not like you can hear her crying..). But whatever. Ryan needs to see his daughter so I apologize in advance for the random puzzle pieces that make up our life. I'll be doing these montages more often. I hope you enjoy, this means many more posts. (But I'll give you a two weak break when Ryan's back.)

"I think I can get a third hand in...."

Adelle decided she likes to suck on string cheese. She was really motivated to hold on to it and not lose it. She's still working on the coordination :o)

We went camping for the day at my Dad's property, I love the way her face looks while sitting in her bumbo!

First cereal!

K, that was a lot! Stay tuned....

Bear With Me...

Just a normal day in Anchorage. Adelle and I dropped Ryan off at the airport, we ran some errands and then I stopped by my Dad's. When we left and were driving away I saw a medium sized black bear running besides the road. Now for those of you who don't live in Alaska, you may be thinking this is a regular occurrence. Well it's not, bears aren't like Moose, we don't see them often in the heart of Anchorage. Occasionally they break the borders but it's rare, and normally they stay close to the borders. Living in Alaska my whole life this is the second bear I've seen in Anchorage, the other was up on hillside which is pretty much wild country anyway.

So I did the crazy driver thing, freaked out with excitement, grabbed my camera and started driving crazily through all the back neighborhoods as it snuck through yards and came out on the other side. We found it again coming off someones porch, he walked over to their dumpster, jumped up and started scavenging for lunch.

It is illegal to have an uncovered garbage can or dumpster for this reason. As to why Fish and Game aren't doing anything about it I really have no clue. I called 911 to report this sighting and the lady treated me like I was crazy. "Yes Ma'm we know, anythingelse?" "Ya, the bear ate my arm". Rude ol 911 operator. I should have gotten her name so if I ever do have an emergency I can tell them I have an emergency and I don't want to talk to ________.