Bella, Gabe and Josiah

I’ve been off work all week because daycare was closed after one of the teachers tested positive, so I’ve unexpectedly had a whole week off with the boys. It’s been a lot of fun, although I definitely don’t think my head is designed to be a stay-at-home-mom... On Tuesday, we went on a walk with Gram out on the airport trail. (Monday we were all wiped out after our crazy hike...) Yesterday we met up with Gram again and went out to the Arboretum. And the rest of the week was spent playing pirates, basketball, reading books and trying to convince Josy to walk. It hasn’t worked yet, although his top tooth finally popped through so he is significantly more pleasant...

Well, this was the weirdest 4th of July ever.  Without any of the normal 4th of July activities, it kindof just felt like another weekend... On Friday we were all home, but we're having some work done on our house, which involves a plumber being under our house.  I didn't actually know he was coming until I suddenly heard a drill under our house.  Gabe was very confused, so I told him to go over to the vent and say hello.  He did, and then a voice came from under the house saying hello.  Gabe said "Where are you?"  He responded with "Under here."  Gabe was very confused.  "Under the ground?"  Then he told me that he needed go outside and look around the house to find the hole that he had dug to get under the house.  Funny, he looked, but couldn't find the hole.  Somehow I think we should not tell him how he actually got under the house... Friday night we went over to Aunt Jan's house.  There may not have actually been any f...

While Pat and I were on our trip, the boys stayed with Gram and Gramps and I got pictures like this: (Yes, that is bear poop for home plate...) Baseball is suddenly Gabe’s favorite thing. When we got home, the first thing he asked was if we could play baseball and he has asked every day since then. Apparently “I have to play baseball every day to burn up all my energy.” He’s actually really good too. To be fair, I’m not the best pitcher, so the fact that he’s hitting any balls at all is impressive. However, he’s hitting really well and hitting the ball a long ways too. I’m really impressed! And now he’s convinced that he doesn’t need to play tball because “I play baseball now.” And this one just likes to eat the extra bat. But Gabe assures me that he’ll teach Josy how to play baseball when he’s a little bigger.

Last weekend, the weather was lovely and we still haven’t started having regular church, so we decided to take advantage of the extra weekend day and bike out to a glacier out the road.  We decided to go right in the middle of naptime, so I was really hoping that Josy would sleep in the car. He fell asleep five minutes before we got to the trail head. Then I was hoping he’d fall asleep in the bike trailer. Nope. Luckily he didn’t do much of his usual I’m-so-tired-I-can’t-function routine, which is to scream at the top of his lungs. I mean, he did a bit, but nothing too crazy... We biked out four miles and then hit the point where the bike trailer couldn’t go further, which was conveniently at a nice sandbar, so we stopped for a picnic lunch.  Josy are mostly sand, but that’s what happens when you keep dropping your watermelon... If you look closely, you can see the glacier at the very top behind the trees. On the way home, both boys managed to fall asleep. Josy woke up as soon...

We officially have a preK-er now! For months we’ve been hearing about how “I can’t wait to be a preK-er!!!!” so Gabe is thrilled that it is finally here! Last night we ate leftover pie to celebrate (which Gabe declared was the best pie he’s ever had...and it was four days old.) and Gabe told us all about his new responsibilities. “I have to be a leader to the other kids and show them how to share. And preK-ers have to take a little rest, but not like the napper. And only preK-ers get to be line leaders. Nappers don’t get to.” Oh the innocence of being 4...

M: Take off your eye patch before bed. Pirates don’t wear eye patches to bed. G: Actually they do. They have very good eyesight. M: They don’t wear eye patches if their mommies tell them not to. G: They don’t see their mommies for a long time. They’re off finding treasure. M: That’s the last things their mommies say to them before they get on the pirate ship. “Good bye. I love you. Don’t sleep in your eye patch.” And this summarizes much of our life right now...

For my birthday this year, Pat and my parents got me the best birthday present ever: a weekend away with just Pat and no kids! It was wonderful! We can’t nicely leave the state yet, so we flew up north and got a cabin on a river. And yes, I made him take all sorts of pictures with me, partly to prove that I do have the ability to take pictures of more than just the boys... Saturday morning, we got up and went for a run. This in and of itself should be shocking. In the last six months, Pat has gone on a crazy diet and made some serious adjustments to his eating habits, which resulted in losing 75lbs and suddenly having energy. It’s weird. I’m definitely not used to this side of him, but I’ll take it! Well, suddenly now he’s started running and I have a new running buddy and we are now one of those couples that goes on vacation and goes running together. The main event for the day, however, was a flightseeing trip over Denali. We were going to see the mountain and then land on one of the...