A Quick Trip to... ALASKA! week one.

O.K., So I'm really behind in posting, and it wasn't a "quick trip", it lasted an entire MONTH! But, it was fantastic. So... I'll take a few days at a time, and hopefully, get everyone caught up on our summer vacation.

At the beginning of July, I took the children to Alaska. On an airplane. By myself. It was a great flight with no hitches or bumps or glitches. All the children in their Sunday best, acted their Sunday best, and it was rewarding to see the looks and hear the compliments of other passengers as our children exceeded expectations.

My favorite part of the flight? Listening to the children laugh hysterically when we landed because it was such a new experience for them. I also really liked landing in Alaska on a non-rainy day and feeling the land of my birth under my feet again.

The next day the adventures began! We started by spending the morning with Charity and her crew, then spent the afternoon on a drive to Hatcher Pass - a gorgeous drive, and obviously exhausting for the littles... they ALL slept on the way up the pass - except Margaret, who was my little photo buddy. She took pictures all the way. Including out the window at the mountains that LeGrand kept insisting we were going to fall off of. "Is this the mountain we're going to fall off of, Mom?" I have no idea where he got that idea... no mention of falling was ever made, and we were on the highway when he made those remarks. Funny kid.

When everyone woke up, we got out and stretched our legs a little...

This picture of me was taken after the children finally went to sleep at 11:30ish PM. no flash. Getting used to daylight well into the wee hours of the morning took a lot of getting used to. Turns out, I really love the stars in the summer time, and I'm not as used to daylight 22-7 anymore. I will readily admit to staying up until the sky got dark reading more than one book. More than one night in a row.

Other highlights of our first week include spending the July 4th with Family - something I haven't done in MANY years. We went hiking at Hatcher Pass... IN THE SNOW! Not typical Alaska, by the way. It was an unusually chilly July.

The children (those who didn't spend the time shivering) enjoyed playing in the snow in July, and eating donuts and drinking hot chocolate with cousins to start our holiday; but I'm sure they were thrilled to get out of the mountains and into a little warmer weather to watch the parade! (Funny how warm 65 can be when you've been in snow in the morning!) LeGrand loved watching the tractors in the down home parade; all of the children were a little mystified that people would actually give them candy... (we don't get to may parades here in Oregon.)

Thanks, Uncle Ethan, for helping these two cuties figure out how to get the most candy! Our Independence Celebration ended with a wonderful barbecue and tons of fun with cousins.

And on... to the Reindeer Farm! In 1990, the Williams family in Palmer, Alaska, started a reindeer farm. I went to school and seminary with the Williams kids, but had only been to the farm one other time - with Andrew. Unfortunately, he wasn't with us when we went this time, but we took a tour so that we could feed the reindeer. After all, Santa might not stop if we didn't take time to feed his reindeer! LeGrand liked feeding the 4 year old moose... Boy am I glad my 4 year old isn't this tall!

Caroline wasn't as thrilled about the reindeer as LeGrand was - and I nearly was bowled over by her lack of enthusiasm more than one time. Sure was grateful for some good balance skills! LeGrand just couldn't get enough of feeding that moose!

The end of week one brought a family birthday party for my youngest Sis - Brittany. Haven't had a chance to celebrate with that many of my family for a long time, and it was super fun! From the white elephant to the Carrot Cake (YUMMMMM!!!) to the cousins playing with the Magnavox to the food, it was all fantastic.

And thus we finish week one in grand style. Week two on another day. This should be a good start to the trip!

The Best Bread on the PLANET

I made this bread on Sunday for a family dinner. I was lucky to get a piece.

3 c. white, unbleached flour
1 3/4 t. Kosher Salt
1/2 t. yeast
1 1/2 c. water

Whisk together dry ingredients. Add water. It's going to be a sticky dough, don't worry about it. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and let it sit on the counter for 12 - 18 hours (My first loaf sat for 29 hours and was wonderful). You'll need a large bowl for all this. It will bubble and ferment; that's perfect.

After it's done its time on the counter, heat your oven up to 450. After the oven is preheated, put a DUTCH OVEN in to preheat - for half an hour or so. While it's preheating, flop the dough onto a liberally floured counter and shape it into two blobs. Don't knead the flour in, just shape it.

Once the oven is hot, flop the dough into the hot Dutch, cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes. Get to the loaf before anyone else, or you won't have any.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'm making a double batch right now... can't hardly wait for it to come out of the oven!

Bailey Boo, I LOVE YOU!!!

Somewhere in here, I have a Cheerio. Or something! Hold on, I'm looking for it!

One year ago - not exactly, but within a couple of days - I was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck following an ambulance to Portland. In the back of that ambulance was my little punkin trying to figure out how to breathe. I was scared a little - but peaceful at the same time. It's not something I can really explain, only to know that as we followed that ambulance to Doernbecher's Children's Hospital, I felt complete peace. I knew that Bailey would get the help she needed to be able to survive.

Three days later, we came home. She was a teeny little punkin! (Not as small as Caroline, but a close second!)

Bailey also has an adoring fan club. Caroline can't wait to see Bailey first thing in the morning, and her adoration is returned. LeGrand is an adoring big brother, and Margaret and Savannah will do anything for her.

Birthday celebrations were fantastic. For the first time, I cheated and purchased cupcakes from Safeway.

$4.99 will get you ladybugs and sunflowers!

Another $3.99 got these flowers...

Bailey didn't really know what do do with the cupcake, but the joy on her face and the exclamations of surprise were well worth the wait for her to dig in.

And dig in, she did...

First, feeling the frosting between her fingers. Mom never puts that much frosting on her cupcakes. Second, finding out that there was chocolate under that frosting. And finally, the smear all over her face. (Don't you just love that little wrinkle of her nose? She does that when she's really excited about something.)

Today, she had her annual check up. Today, Bailey is 19 lbs, 14.5 oz. She's in the 30th percentile for her weight. She is 28.75 inches tall, in the 37th percentile for her height. She's come a long way from her beginnings in the hospital!

Bailey loves pasta. She loves her baby doll (not as much as Caroline loves baby dolls, but close...). She is one fast little punkin, and heads straight for the stairs if she has a chance. Mom is her favorite person on the planet; Dad can calm her merely by saying my name. Her first four teeth came in a month ago - she is adorable with them. It's also opened up food options considerably! Bailey loves fruit. She also loves meat.

Bailey, I love you.

Oh yeah. Bailey also loves raspberries. Consider yourself raspberried. She means it in the nicest way.

we just wanted to replace the deck.....

Three weeks or so ago, Andrew took the deck off. It was our "summer project" to replace the deck and replace the siding on the south side of the house and to replace the windows in the sun room. Sounds simple, until we got the deck off.

What we found left us wondering how our Sun Room hasn't fallen off yet. With the siding off, we found some insulation, but that the house wasn't built the same way houses are now. Our sun room was built from the ground up. With the windows resting on some post type things (Andrew could say what they're called, but since he's not typing this and I am, you just get what I'm going to call them. If you want technicalities, call Andrew.)

So... we started the re-build. From the ground up.

Andrew jacked up different sections of the house, and piece by piece, replaced the mud sill and the braces holding the house up.Then he replaced the dirt sill. And then, he started rebuilding the walls. Including framing in window spots. Windows will be here on Friday.

It has meant that we've boarded up the house nightly, and that we go through a different door. But it also means that our sun room has a stronger base, and that the walls will be sturdy. We also won't have the slight breeze into our house every time the wind blows. The pantry will be larger, the windows a tad smaller, but the difference won't matter because of the craftsmanship that has gone into this "little" project.

The new door will be centered in the entryway of the sun room. The windows will be equal on both sides. This view through the wall will be gone... but I'm grateful for a husband who has the skills to do this work.

This work in progress, unlike other projects that are still on-going, will be finished by the end of this month. At least the outside part will. The inside part is not as essential, and can wait. For a little bit, at least.

Improvements include new siding, new windows and a new door. A more stable sun room - with the corner no longer drooping as badly as it used to be.

Really, we just wanted to replace the deck. What we're getting is a new sun room, new windows, a new door, and a lot of sweat equity. Andrew's sweat.

Finished pictures to follow. I promise.

All work courtesy of Andrew Stahr Specialty Woodworking. Thank GOODNESS!!!!!

The Month of the Mouth...

Crazy, but it seems to have been a month with Mouth Issues at our house.

It all started with Caroline. She tripped on a bicycle that was by the stairs, fell, and bit her tongue. Right before I needed to leave for Enrichment. I've never seen so much blood coming out of someone's mouth in my life. I'm just hoping that years from now, we'll be able to use this as reason number 1 why we don't pierce our tongues.

This was taken the morning after the bite. She would only show me if I promised not to touch it. She wouldn't show the doctor that afternoon, so I was grateful for the picture. It's healed now, with only a little divot to show for her pain. She had ice-cream for dinner, twice. Lucky.

NEXT, a LOT less dramatic, Andrew and I both had to have fillings. Yep. No excitement there.

FINALLY, Margaret had some issues with shark teeth. And a phobia about pulling her own teeth. After threatening, I finally took her to the dentist, where he pulled THREE teeth. She was expecting one. She got three. She was a brave little trooper, and didn't complain at all - except to say that she couldn't see the movie very well. She is also healing well, and I'm hoping that she starts wiggling her own teeth next time she has a loose one. I'm also very thankful that her teeth were covered by insurance.

Next time, I'm banking on one at a time. The Tooth Fairy didn't come when Margaret expected her to, so Margaret went back to bed telling me she was going to sleep until she was visited. Chores called, and the T.F. visited on the sly. I'm not sure she's rich enough to pay for teeth that the dentist pulls.......

If this were my Journal...

My posts would probably be more spread apart. But that's just being totally honest, and not trying to pretend that I write in my journal. I used to be good at doing that. Then I had kids, and made them my excuse for not writing. I should do better. I'll keep telling myself that.

ANYWAY, this was not started to air my faults. Though there are plenty of those! I thought people wanted, instead, to see what the children have been up to.

Margaret lost her first tooth. And then she had a birthday.

Margaret's birthday: The beginning of February, pictures never posted. Well, here they are. (FYI, I'm even farther behind on my scrapbooking than I am on my journal writing.)

WOW! Look at all the fun stuff you get when you turn 6!!!

Strawberry "TALL" cake... if you eat tall foods, you'll be tall! If you eat short foods, you'll stay short!

Grandma Pierce made this super fun dress. Bloomers and EVERYTHING!

Caroline, a few weeks later, turned 2. Silly girl, she appeared to be afraid of her chocolate brownie sundae...

March came in like a lion. A BIG, White, FLUFFY lion. It snowed for 26 hours - without melting! It was fantastic to wake up to some Alaskan weather... MUCH more snow than we normally see here, so school was - of necessity - cancelled. (When there isn't much snow, you cancel homeschool to play. That's how we chose to roll that day...)

We ended up with about 6 inches this snowfall. Not much, but 6 inches more than we normally get!

I miss it when the trees look like this!

Note the thinning snow on the roof... 

Our Western Pasture...

Andrew stayed home to participate in one of his favorite activities... Shoveling the SNOW!

March continued like a wet dog with lots of rain for most of the remainder of the month. Oregon officially had the RAINIEST MARCH ON RECORD, if that says anything... Not like the snow my Alaska family had, but... The END of the month brought another 8 inches of snow. Public school wasn't cancelled - they used up all their snow days on hoar frost, but we cancelled so the children could play! My pictures from THAT snow are stuck on my phone. I'll post them later.

April is working on redeeming itself with better weather. So far, it's doing better. I'll be satisfied when we have the SUNNIEST SUMMER on record. Probably won't happen, but hey... I can dream.

April started with me vacuuming water out of the basement. Again. I wasn't super thrilled to be on flood watch - still. Nevertheless, Conference was fantastic, and I'm looking forward to re-reading the talks I missed while vacuuming water.

Then came the annual decorating of the Egg! This year, both Aunt Rachel and Aunt Laurel joined our tradition at Grandma Stahr's house. (Grandpa lives there to, but he didn't decorate eggs this year.) LeGrand still is a dipper - all one color, 1 second per egg. He's done with is dozen in 12 seconds flat. No time wasted here! This year, we asked him to do them all over again, and to use different colors. Not his most favorite idea. Caroline spilled green dye all over Grandma (it comes out with hot water if you catch it right away) and herself, but had fun. Margaret was a champion dyer with the patience of Job waiting for just the perfect color. Savannah experimented this year with different styles of decorating. All in all, we completed 8 dozen eggs - and taught Savannah how to tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard boiled one; without breaking the egg.

Our Easter egg hunt happened, this year, on Easter. LeGrand and Savannah were the big egg winners - each getting the prized $1 egg; Margaret was the hostess with the mostess! She picked the eggs one by one off the trees, and filled her basket to the top. Doesn't hurt that Grandma has about 200 eggs that she hides!

This was Caroline's second year of hunting, but her first year of realizing the the eggs are filled with candy...

She was fascinated. Note the basket of eggs... they're all hers. This year, LeGrand got to hunt eggs from the BIG yard, and he managed to escape Caroline helping herself to his eggs. He was pleased as punch to get each egg.

Other noteworthy news: Bailey FINALLY has a tooth! And another on the way. She isn't ready to share yet, but I'll get a photo soon!

 Because she didn't dye eggs and slept through the hunt, HERE SHE IS!

Bailey is constantly on the go. She's faster than a blink at moving from one place to another, and her favorite destination is the stairs. She can be quieted simply by someone saying my name - but that's a temporary fix. she'd much rather have Mom.

If you've read through all of this, you are now officially caught up. Until tomorrow.