July 12-13

July 12:

Could ice cream get any messier?

We went to the beach to watch dip netters.

My mom attempting to get warm

and making sand angels

So much for "Stay out of the water!"

A seagull feather sand castle

After the beach, I dropped off Doug and the kids and my parents and I went in search of a moose. After driving around - all of the way to the end of the road, we went home without seeing a single moose. Then, right at the turnoff to home, there was a moose standing at the edge of the road.

The sunset was worth the drive!

July 13:

Is there anything better than this?

We sent Doug out to forage for our dinner (aka. dip netting for red salmon).

He did us proud!

(Thank you to the ever so kind Brenners for being the local dip netting experts and helping us package it all!)

S'mores

My mom and me

Ethan enjoying his single marshmallow one morsel at a time.

Brenden loves to roll down the hill in his wagon.

This is how Nolan plays soccer

Playing soccer with grandpa

After the Ethan was in bed, we decorated for his birthday.

My mom is not fond of blowing up balloons. They hurt her cheeks.

Seward and the Kenai Fjords

On July 10, we got BACK in the car (after about 8 hours the day before) and drove to Seward to see the Kenai Fjords.

Brenden and Grandpa have deep conversations

Nolan's ready to go!

Unfortunately, it was really foggy, so the scenery wasn't superb.

Dad and Mom in front of Aialik glacier.

We saw tons of whales!

A mom and her calf

What you can't see are the birds hiding

Puffin

Sea Lion

Murres - but I think they look like penguins

Seal

HEAVY!

Mountain Lion

Vicious!

It was a fun afternoon other than the lady who refused to move out of the way so the kids could see the animals. In her words: She paid just as much as they did, why should they get a front row seat!? My answer: Uh... cause they're SHORTER THAN YOU!?

July 9

On the morning of July 7, Doug was headed into work when a fist size rock was kicked up by the truck in front of him and smashed his window right in front of his face. He called me to tell me about it as I was packing up to take the kids to Anchorage for audiology appointments and to pick up my mom and dad.

I left for Anchorage around 2:45, knowing I was running late. I HAD to be there at 6:00 to pick up some paperwork from the audiologist. There is only a short window of time for construction in Alaska - maybe three months - so EVERYTHING is under construction. As I was headed through a construction zone, a HUGE rock went flying past the driver side window and I heard a smash near the back of the car. I thought, "Shoot, now I have a big dent in the side of my car!" Then Brenden yelled, "Mom, my window is broken!" The rock had hit the large rear side window at the back of the suburban and smashed it to little bits. There was a big gaping hole, but we were just lucky that it didn't go all of the way through the window and smash Brenden's face. We got Brenden all moved, but Nolan was asleep. I left him in the rear seat and hoped he was far enough away from the glass that he wouldn't get hurt.

I spent the next hour and a half of driving on the phone with Doug who was trying to arrange for a new window in Anchorage. Everyone was closed and without our policy number, no one would help us. Doug was still at work and I was driving and wasn't going to risk trying to find the number in the glove box while I drove. Finally, he came up with a random number, gave it to the lady, and I was scheduled for an 8:00 a.m. window replacement the following morning in the parking lot of my hotel.

There is pretty much nowhere to stop between here and Anchorage, so we trekked on. Every time an RV or large truck passed by, the whoosh of air knocked out more and more of the window. By the time we got to the audiologist's office, there was little left. We were 15 minutes late, but I called ahead and told them I was running late and they left the paperwork out for me. I parked directly in front of the main entrance of the hotel, backed into the parking spot and hoped that my car would be ok until morning. We went swimming that night - an interesting thing to do with two toddlers and one mom. Brenden can't swim, but he was on his own. (I find it completely alarming that MY kids can't swim. I spent 99.9% of my childhood in a swimming pool - whether for fun or swimming laps on swim team.)

7:45 the next morning, I woke up and left all of my sleeping children in the hotel room. I gave them all a talk the night before: If I am not here when you wake up, STAY IN THIS ROOM! Not the greatest choice on my part, but I really needed them to be refreshed and awake for the 4 hours of audiology appointments we had scheduled later in the day. 8:00 I am sitting in my car waiting. 8:15 I go back and check on the kids. 8:30, still waiting. 8:45, I call the window people. No one was ever coming. I spent the next 45 minutes on the phone re-arranging for my window replacement. Finally, 10:00, they came. While we waited, we walked around the float plane lake and watched the planes take off and land. The boys had a blast! 11:30, I put Ethan down for a nap in the bathroom in the hotel room. He slept briefly and we headed to the audiologist.

Brenden had the first appointment - I stayed in the waiting room with the other two. He did awesome. I bribed and bribed and bribed that kid beforehand. Then Ethan had an appointment. I again took a risk and left the other two in the waiting room. Then Brenden had another appointment. Then Ethan's hearing aids got programmed. Poor Nolan had to sit, and sit, and sit - for FOUR whole hours.

I truly feel for Nolan. He is so patient. He waits and waits and waits and his turn never comes. He sees me drop Ethan off for physical therapy (which, even as an adult, looks pretty dang fun!). He sits and watches Ethan get one on one play time for an hour with the speech therapist and all of her fun new toys. The longing look on his face tells all - he wants so bad to play with those toys and have that kind of attention from an adult. I wish there was some way to make it up to him - the best I could do was to buy him the toy he wanted from Target. It was more than I wanted to spend, but that boy has earned it!

Ethan is cochlear implant eligible in the high frequencies, but not in the lows. That means he can hear things with ok volume, but he lacks understanding of words because he can hear the vowels, which carry volume, but not the consonants which provide meaning. It is so frustrating to know that he will never learn to speak with hearing like that, yet there's nothing I can do but wait, teach him more sign, and make sure he can see my lips when I talk to him.

Late that night, my parents arrived! They stayed the night in the hotel with us and the next afternoon we made the LONG trek back home. I had my parents fly into Anchorage so I could show them how beautiful Alaska was on our drive home. There were 40+ wildfires burning at the time and the air was so hazy that we couldn't see anything. It's beautiful though, I promise!

Our usual hotel travel

Lake Hood and the float planes

We stopped in Sterling to check out the wood carvings

Doug had a yummy taco dinner all ready for us when we got home and then we headed out on the lake.

So far behind!

I haven't blogged for lack of time and now I'm so far behind that I don't want to blog. BUT, I will anyway. I promise. Just come back later.

Oodles o' photos and a few videos too!

Swinging is FUN!

No, those aren't Nolan's real teeth!

Silly dinnertime pictures:

6/29/09:  Sometimes when we're all done eating, we like to sit around and take silly pictures or sing silly songs or just do silly things together.

Ethan sometimes tries to catch invisible bugs.  We think it's funny, which he thinks is funny.  I almost DARE you not to laugh at this kid:

Mama Moose and the Twins:

On Friday last week, it was very warm, so I took the boys down to swim in the lake.  Ethan had a good time until he fell face down in the water, over and over and over while trying to get out.  He never went back after that.  The other boys swam for quite a while and eventually their friends came and joined in.  Thanks great-grandma Williams for the new towels!  We came home and had lunch, got Ethan down for a nap, and put the sprinkler under the trampoline for some more wet fun.

Saturday we tiled the bathroom (YAY!) and then went to a fantastic 4th of July BBQ at our friend's house.  Boy do they know how to throw a party!  There was more food than anyone knew what to do with and they bought every outdoor toy or game imaginable.  The adults played wiffle ball - men against women.  I don't know who had that idea (ahem, Holly), but it was a bad one.  Eventually, the kids joined in and fortunately for us, Holly's 11 year old scored the most points for our team.  I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any photos other than the ones below that I stole from the Ley's facebook page.

Ethan ate more cupcakes than I could count.  Every time I turned around, he was licking the frosting off another cupcake.  No matter how many people thought they put them out of his reach, he always managed to find another.  Once the cupcakes were gone, he moved on to the chocolate chip cookies.  This was the very last one.

The one below I just couldn't NOT post.  Look at Ethan's face!  (And no, that's not Nolan, but it could be his butt-double.)

We were all sad again this year with no fireworks.  We heard some, but never saw a thing.  (I remind you - this is Alaska.  There is no darkness right now.)

Today we cleaned out our paddle boat to take it down to the lake.  I have been looking forward to it for a long time.  We paddled from the neighborhood boat launch around to our dock.  The boys loved paddling, but Doug and I eventually had to take over in order to make it home at a decent hour.  It may look like it's the middle of the day, but again I remind you, this is Alaska.

While cleaning out the boat, Ethan discovered what fun the hose was.  Check out the video - this is the "This is fun!" laughter.  Previously, it was evil laughter as he was getting away with squirting mom and dad and there was nothing we could do about it.

Also today, we saw Newman (our basset hound) had a small animal in his mouth.  We rushed to remove it, but too late.  We all witnessed a tiny bunny take his last labored breaths.  The boys were so sad and dug a small grave, buried the bunny, and placed flowers on the grave.  Brenden had immediately wanted to pray to heal the bunny.  He's so sweet and takes things like this very hard.

Brenden has a question:

He wants to know what a scientist who studies books is called - a bookologist?  (That was his theory.)  Doug says a scholar.  So, what is a scientist who studies books called?

I finished the bathroom today, but then tore out the floor, so you still get no pictures.  Sorry.  Now you need to start bugging Doug to get the cement board down so I can tile - I don't do cement board - did it once or twice and wasn't thrilled with it.  I figure it's the least he can do, right?  Okay, maybe I'll end up doing it, but I really do need Doug to take out the toilet.

I have moved on to Nolan and Ethan's room.  This is what happens when you're painting a kids' room:

Isn't it sweet?

You know what else happens?  Your six year old's little six year old friends walk in the front door uninvited and say, "Wow, this place is a MESS!"  Everything from the bedroom is stacked pretty much right in front of the front door.  I said, "Yes it is, thank you" and pointed them back toward the door.

Now, what I can't figure out is how I hate to paint, Doug LOVES to paint, and yet I have spent a solid week painting alone.  Oh, wait, Doug hasn't been home A SINGLE DAY I have been painting.  I find some peace in knowing that he hates the situation as much as I do.  

Doug only has 3 days off work before my parents come in two weeks, and one of them is a Sunday.  I am not concerned about the painting, mostly just the tile in the bathroom.  Let's explore Erin's way of thinking: "I better paint the bathroom before we tile so I don't have to worry about the paint getting on the new tile.  Well, now I have the paint out already, I might as well do the boys' room, oh, I have to paint the ceiling... Brenden's bathroom ceiling needs some touching up, oh and his bedroom ceiling too..."  Besides that, I decided that as long as I was painting, I might as well paint all of the exterior doors on my house.  Now there are little fingerprints and bugs stuck to them.  Today I painted the previously green ceiling in the boys' room to white and painted one wall the exact same color.  Unfortunate, I know.  (Why would anyone paint their ceiling green, another brown, and another yellow with pink polka dots?  Perhaps they missed the memo that said CEILINGS SHOULD BE WHITE! unless there are extenuating circumstances, which I am quite sure there were not.)

The results of Brenden's making and doing late at night: