Monthly Archives

May 2017

Alaska

Fri-yay beach yay

26 May 2017

School is out for the summer.

What a joyous time!

When I was a kid (okay, I’m still a kid, except I have my own kid now too), I loved the end of the school year festivities- parties, BBQs, field trips, beach days, classroom clean up, year book signing… Have a great summer!

And then to be FREE to play as much as I wanted.

Now, I’m pretty free to play as much as I want and it’s great. I just have an adorable bebe boy to keep alive and well, and a house and animals to take care of. Oh, and a dumb, growing pile of mail to sort through. We sort of always have a pile of mail… I haven’t mastered life yet.

Well, the nieces just finished 2nd and 4th grade, and now they’re out of school for summer. I think we’ll play a lot together, especially with both their parents working. Which reminds me, must set up the trampoline! But first, Chris needs to work on our lawn.

Anyway… today was a -5.6 low tide! That’s mega low! So of course I wanted to do a little beach excursion and tide pool. Since the nieces are now out of school, I took them with me. It didn’t go as I envisioned, but it was still super super great.

When I went to pick them up, they didn’t want to go yet because they were making people and things out of tin foil – they so crafty. Buuuut the tide was already on its way back in, so we left.

They were camping on out the Spit with my brother in law, and so we just crossed the street with their pooch, Cody, and played on the beach! It was so great. I loved it.

We took our boots and socks off and enjoyed the cold, wet sand on our feets. We played line tag, which was not easy whilst carrying the babe. And Apollo played in the sand for the first time! Actually, I just laid him on the ground on a coat and his monkey suit got all sandy, and he fortunately didn’t get much sand on his face and hands.

The girls made him sand cradles too and then decorated it. Good times all around.

Cody pup especially had a good time, being free as can be.

I love Homer. And I love summer. And it was really hard putting my socks and boots back on while holding Apollo and with wet, sandy feet. But I made it!

Alaska

May Update And Homer Is Cool

25 May 2017

Apollo had fallen asleep and we were cuddling, one of my favorite things to do, so I went to take this picture. And surprise! He was awake and looking at the camera. Haha funny precious perfect cherub angel boy. <3

We had some friends in town this week and it was great to show them around our Homer. We ate good food, experienced some lovely  sun and wind and rain, and enjoyed Homer’s beautiful nature and artsiness. 

Love toting my boy around. I feel like, for the most part, Apollo is pretty easy to adventure with. And I love having him with me all the time.

We’re working on getting Apollo more familiar with his crib. He’s six months old now and too big and mobile to nap on the couch or in his rockers, so when we’re home he’s been napping in his crib, once finally falls asleep. :) This kid… fighting sleep this week. But he’s soooo cute.

I dressed the boy up in his lovely bowtie, and me in one of my new shirts, and we went to HHS graduation. It was pretty nostalgic and brought back plenty of feelings of my high school graduation TEN YEARS AGO. I still haven’t heard anything about a tea year reunion, but there’s plenty of people from my class still in town. 

I went with the YW presidency. It was a good time! And what’s also a good time is that us four are reading the Book of Mormon together! AWESOME possum. It’s exactly what I’ve needed to jumpstart my scripture study that has been slacking the past five years. :)

These pictures aren’t really in any order. Kind of just a usual photo load of recent happenings. Here’s me and my boy sleeping in the morning. I love being with Apollo and Chris. I love my boys. I love seeing Chris as a loving father. And I love cuddling with him at night and talking with him. And I love taking care of Apollo and feeding him and cuddling with him too. 

I know these two love me. And I love sharing life with them and taking care of them.My precious babe is SIX MONTHS old, so I’m feeling the pressure to get his birth story done! I’m working on it.

It’s Thursday, so here’s some things I’m grateful for.

My Body

Earth

The Spirit’s guidance

My body again, so grateful for it.

Alaska

Valdez STOL 2017

16 May 2017

May 12 – May 14


Goodness, I do love where we live. I can’t say that I don’t spend time thinking about Hawaii days and traveling the world, but I love my Alaska land.

Our flight from Homer to Valdez was so so beautiful. What a perspective. And so grateful for our neighbor’s airplane and Chris’s piloting so that we arrived safe and sound. (Apollo looks so adorable here. Reminds me of my dad wearing his hat like this.)

We traveled to Valdez for the annual Short Take Off and Landing competition. Chris went last year for the first time, and I was hesitant to join this year, because I wanted to be home for Mother’s Day! Buuuut Chris’s cousin and her family from North Pole were going too, so that made me want to go. And weather depending, we were planning on flying home Sunday morning so we could be home for church and Mother’s Day and I could get my flowers and chocolate. :)

When we arrived, I saw my first aerobatic airplane! Wow! It was pretty crazy and hard to believe that this shiny green airplane was zooming upside down so low over the runway.

We got out of the airplane and friends came down to greet us! The people were so warm and friendly and so was the sun! I loved it all. It was such a nice gathering – so cozy and feel good.

Saturday was a much busier day. Chris and his friend Deon went to the Valdez airport first thing in the morning, but Apollo and I didn’t go until lunch time. He got a nice nap which was needed, and I worked on my Book of Mormon reading at our B&B. So proud of my recent scripture study! Oh! And we saw black bears… a mama bear and 2-3 cubs. PRECIOUS.
When Apollo and I got there, Chris was pretty busy and occupied, but we met up with Chris’s cousin, Melissa, and her family! It was really great to hang out with them and watch airplanes together. We got to check out this big old airplane. No idea what it is. But kewl. 

Melissa and her family didn’t stay the whole day since their great kids were ready to go play in their hotel pool. :) So then Apollo and I just kept wandering around the airport grounds. I pretty much just kept looking for what to eat haha. I found some fish tacos and these veggie kebabs which were a hit. Even my little monkey boy was eyeing them.

This monkey suit was so perfect for the weekend.

The weather turned pretty windy and rainy, so the boy and I went inside and I let him roll around on the floor. I had been wearing him in my baby carrier pretty much the whole time, so he was happy to stretch out. He was such a good boy. I love him so much and I’m so glad he’s my little buddy boy. 

We finally got to see Chris later Saturday evening. He and his aviator photographer friends were just shooting pictures and video for hours and hours while the STOL contest went on. Apollo and I watched some of it but we also just wandered around the booths and made some friends. 

Sunday morning we woke up in our little B&B and I wanted to go to Mother’s Day church! And our North Pole cousins said that the Valdez church was pretty great. So we all got ourselves ready pretty quickly and enjoyed sharing a bench together, singing songs, and hearing good words. I do love going to church. 

After church and lunch we said goodbye to our good friends Deon and Angie (but missed Ashleigh), and said cheers to our cousins and their little dog too. Valdez was BEAUT.

We then loaded up 2423Uniform and prepared for liftoff!

Apollo… what a doll!

Our flight home… BEAUT. It was pretty cloudy around Valdez and wasn’t just clear and calm like weather I had previously flown in. It made me a teensy nervous, but Chris took good care of us and knows airplanes and weather pretty well. And he’s constantly learning and often teaching. 

The views from the air, spectacular. I loved seeing it. And I loved the friends we made in Valdez and seeing Chris in his airplane and video element. I loved having people tell me how cute Apollo is. And I loved sharing it with husband and little babe. ❤️

Alaska

Apollo’s First Flight

16 May 2017

Friday, May 12, 2017

We journeyed from Homer to Valdez in our neighbor’s Cessna 172. Apollo was a champ and the flight was stunning. 

We put him in his car seat and buckled him in the airplane. We strapped on his ear protection and he fortunately didn’t mind at all! This kid is so mellow and sweet. 

Once we were safely in the air I took him out and had him look around. He was content as could be and when I put him back in his seat, he took a good nap.  

We all enjoyed a meal in the air. Apollo had the usual breastmilk and Chris and I ate delicious bagels from the bagel shop. Seeing this picture makes me want one right now.

The flight was amazing. It was so beautiful. Apollo required some good attention for a while, but once he was asleep I couldn’t help but stare out the windows at our beautiful Alaska. So grateful to live here and to be an Alaskan and to have the opportunity to fly around with my family. 

Apollo woke up crying on descent, so I leaned over his car seat and fed him. Breastfeeding is like the magic cure-all and so far it works for any physical or emotional problem that Apollo may have. 

This kid is the best. Chris and I love him so much and we’re so happy to share our lives and world with him. 

Apollo’s first flight in a little airplane was a great success!

Alaska

Thankful Thursday maythefourth

5 May 2017

I’m grateful Chris will be home in a number of hours! I’m grateful for all of Apollo’s adorable clothes and for our washer and dryer and dresser to help with those clothes. Dressers are kind of hard to come by and my mom hooked us up with a perfect one. I’m also grateful for our bed and bedding and bedroom and closet and bathroom. I’m so grateful for our walkie or two everyday. It’s really really nice. It takes me some effort to get ready for the walks sometimes, but they’re delightful. And I do often do instagram stories while I’m out, but try not to get too distracted. I love when the cats walk with us because it is so funny! Always cracks me up. I’m also grateful that it’s not too muddy because edelweiss hasn’t been getting very dirty. 

I’m grateful for an app called POST! It’s made by social print studio who has some great photo products and even better customer emails. And with the code BOOYAH, each postcard is only $1. I’ve been sending quite a few lately and I’m grateful for that. 

I’m really grateful that our friend lent us this jumperoo for Apollo. How kind and perfect. This was his first time outside in it, because of the glorious sunshine today, but he enjoys it and I like dancing around to its music. And, grateful for Apollo’s sunglasses, because they’re adorable. Look. He’s so cute. 

I don’t normally wear my boy like this, but we tested it out for a bit. But I’m grateful for his wraps and carriers and car seat and especially for my arms! All these tools help to tote my boy around. Grateful for the time we’ve had together with Chris gone this past month and that I’ve even made food while he’s been gone. And that I rediscovered banana cookies. And that I’m breastfeeding so I didn’t have too much pressure to do a juice fast. And I’m grateful for breastfeeding in general because I really really love it.


I’m grateful for my recent Book of Mormon reading, for the young women presidency, for our car, vacuum, sunny weather, fridge, the russian guy at safeway, my midwife, my instax camera, our keyboard piano, our tall ceilings, hot water, ripe avocados, my phone camera, the notes app, instagram, Simba, planet earth, emojis, amazon.com, and portugues! Grateful my family will be complete in 5-6 hours when husband is home! AND! I’m grateful for my body. I’m appreciating it more and more and am so glad it’s works so wonderfully and looks and feels nice too.

Alaska

MY CFI and a summer bucket list

3 May 2017

Guess who became a certified flight instructor today!! Duh! My Chris boy!

I’m so glad and proud of him and us. It’s taken a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice, but it’s the path for Chris and it’ll be worth it. I’m really proud of him and so glad I could support him in these worthy endeavors. This is going to bless him and others and our family, and it’s his passion. Wonderful. 

Three thousand million cheers for Chris the aviator at Angle of Attack! He’s done swell.

Nowwww he can officially teach me to land an airplane. Just so I know in case anything were to ever happen when we’re out in the air, galavanting around.

At mutual tonight we made summer bucket lists. It was awesome and I loved it. But I added “learn to land and airplane” to my list, along with find a four leaf clover! I never have. AND the most seemingly daunting item is to read the Book of Mormon this summer. Haven’t done much of that since the mission days! But I read three chapters tonight and gots to keep going.

Thankfully I have a good support team to help me accomplish my goals and bucket list items. Here’s the list I made. It’s open to change, as we should all be. 

Alaska

From February 5th

3 May 2017

I’ve been trying to make a blog post for our second trip to California, and a couple times I’ve selected a load of photos to upload, and it hasn’t worked. Guess I need to upload less photos. :) Buuut the last time I tried, this one photo uploaded hahaha. Thanks to the funny Snapchat filters. 

Alaska

Thoughts on Grief 

1 May 2017

Chris and I talked on the phone on my walk in the morning. I miss him. But we’re both doing well enough and doing good things in a good way. I asked him what I should do with my day and he told me to read an article that I sent him and then I’d know what to do.

That blog is appropriately titled “the Unexpected Journey into Grief.” It’s written by an Alaskan woman who lost her husband and two of four children in a plane crash in December in Lake Clark. So heartbreaking. She writes beautifully and depicts her feelings so well, that you can’t help but feel with her as you read.

I held sleeping Apollo in my arms, and didn’t want to stop reading her posts. The news articles are also linked so you can find out a little bit more information. Her faith and trust in God is very apparent and refreshing. Her love for her husband and children is great and sweet. I can’t even imagine what she’s going through.

Reading her words reminded me of my uncle and cousins, who lost their Pam 10 years ago. I have no idea what that heartache would feel like, and I don’t want to know, but you never know what happens in life. I’ve had a couple aunts and one uncle pass away, and I feel for my cousins. What sorrow it must be.

Grief and anguish like that seem to stick around for a long long while, and reappear unexpectedly. Time seems to be the only thing which lessens the pain and I suppose the sorrow becomes slightly more manageable as the days go by, but I don’t really know for myself.

Either way, my thoughts and prayers go out to that faithful woman and her family, and always to my uncle and aunts and cousins.

If you feel like you could use more sympathy and compassion, go to beautifullyhard.com and mourn with those that mourn. 

Alaska

April was

1 May 2017

Pretty good. Chris was gone for a long time, but we’ve survived. Apollo and I are a good team, but life is better with husband around.

I’ve done some good creating while he’s been gone and have done a bit of yoga, though I’d really like to do more. It calls me and I hear it but don’t listen usually. Oops.

Apollo has grown so much this past month and my baby boy is on hi way to six months old, which is basically a year, which is basically college/mission. :( Stay little, my boy!

I really am enjoying all the growth and stages and adorableness and cuddles and so much goodness. I love that he’s mine and that he’s so perfect.

My sister and a friend are starting a juice fast today for five days. Whoa. I like food, so it’d be hard. Most people like food. Anyway, it’s motivating me to eat cleaner and healthier. Health is muito importante.

I just am sharing so random thoughts because I want to blog but am not taking the effort to organize my thoughts and photos. I need to do Apollo’s birth story! And I need to sort out our birth bills! It’s stressful to me. Just gotta do it.