Camping Trip

This coming weekend we are scheduled to have a camping trip up to the John Muir Cabin with the Dalton family. Logan and JP went up Monday evening to check out the trail and the conditions at the cabin. They hiked it, mostly uphill, over 3 miles each way, in about 3 hours. I was really impressed. Here is Logan on the deck of the cabin:

When Logan came home Thursday night he got all his gear together and was outfitting one of his favorite back packs to carry it all. Elise wanted to be in the middle of it, and tried to put the straps on so she could go too:

Elise and I ended up staying home, but are so pleased that Logan got to have this great experience, and that everyone made it, despite sore muscles, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to do something similar again...hopefully we'll be able to get a picture from Wendy's camera to add.

Longest Day of the Year

Today is the summer solstice, the first day of summer, and the longest day of the year. For us here in Juneau, that means our sunrise was at 3:51am, and the sunset tonight will be at 10:08, giving us an 18 hour, 16 minute, and 38 second day. That's 5 seconds longer than yesterday. Tomorrow, we start losing daylight again, starting with a 3 second shorter day, and losing progressively more time each day until December 21, where we are at the shortest day of the year, when the sun will rise at 8:45am, and set at 3:07pm, giving us a 6 hour, 22 minute, 25 second day. What a huge blessing that the power problems with the avalanche happened as we were heading into spring and summer, so we had much less need for lights, and were able to conserve huge amounts of electricity. The power company reported that Juneau as a whole conserved energy, so that our intake was almost half what it normally would have been. In our home, we used about half the electricity we normally do, which made us feel great when our bill came! However, now that we're back on the normal power supply, we're enjoying an occasional light when the weather outside is still gloomy, as it so often is, living in a temperate rainforest. So, today, when "the sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are getting out of ....the tank is clean!!!" (that's from Finding Nemo). The sun is shining, hopefully for all 18 hours today, there's a blue sky, with little white clouds, and we are hoping to enjoy every second!!!! What are you going to do with the longest day of the year?

Let's go for a Walk

It's no secret that my little buddy likes the great outdoors. She loves to stand at the window and watch all the action going on in the parking lot outside our door. She also dearly loves to actually go outside, although this is a bit more of a rare treat. She gets her shoes, and her sweater, and her pacifier clip, and stands near the door with all these accessories assembled, and waits for me to catch the hint. Since we recently got a frame back pack child carrier, she will go over to it, and put her arm in one of the openings, and wait for me. When I ask her if she wants to go outside for a walk, she will then get her shoes and sit on the floor next to the carrier, and wait for me to come help put them on. This happens several times everyday. I am amazed how much she loves being in the carrier, where she can see so much of what is going on as we walk. We went for a short 15 minute walk today, and Elise loved every minute. She is still a bit scared of the rain/sun shield, and the bug netting, but she loves being in the carrier. Even if we stay inside, but we walk around to the different rooms of the apartment while I'm wearing her in it, she loves it. Hopefully this will help in my quest to get myself into better shape....and will give my shoulder a bit more of a break than the Baby Bjorn front pouch was giving it. So, any one up for a walk? Elise is, so let's go!

Happy Father's Day!!!

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday, and are so grateful for fathers everywhere, including our fathers, and grandfathers. We love them, and are thankful for all they have taught us, and the blessing they have been in our lives. We wish we lived closer so we could give hugs, and spend time together.

On Sunday we celebrated Logan as a wonderful father, and Elise gave him his first father's day gift (with some help from Grandma). Elise gave Logan a tie that says #1Dad, I love you Daddy.

Now, normally Logan is not a tie person, he's been wearing the same 2 ties for the last several years, and prefers the ones that are calm, not crazy. He made an exception in this one case and wore the tie the next Sunday for church.

Hugs for Daddy!!!

Straightening Daddy's Tie...

Elise loves her Daddy!!!

Latest Electricity Update

Our power is back on!!! That is to say, the lines with the Snettisham Hydroelectric plant have been restored, way before schedule! They are dropping the cost of power for the next month to 11.4 cents per kwh, and then the next month it will be 10.8 cents per kwh, and stay there through October. This is wonderful!!! We will still be conserving our electricity, but this means that on those gloomy overcast days I don't need to feel guilty about my strong desire to turn on a light, rather than rely on the not so strong sunshine coming through the windows. Hooray!!! I'm so excited!!! And maybe I can do a sewing project or two. We're still enjoying doing lots of things together at home, but are hoping to get out and about a bit more once we figure out a suitable method for hiking with a 25 lb girl! So, kudos to the power company and their emergency response team/repair guys!!! Thanks for getting us off the expensive generators, and back on a more affordable power supply!

Happy Birthday Logan!!!

You've had a birthday, shout hurray!!! We want to sing to you today. One year older and wiser too, Happy Birthday to you!!!

Logan's 27th birthday was Friday, June 6. He is just getting so grown up! Last year Elise and I made him a hug. This is something in my family we used to do as kids, to share hugs through the mail with family that was far away. We would draw around ourselves with arms outstretched, and then decorate the paper, and write loving notes. I drew around Elise last year, and found it very hard to get her to keep still long enough for me to finish. We decided to do the same thing this year, and found it fun to see how much Elise has grown. Wendy Dalton was fabulous, and found a big piece of butcher type paper, so I didn't have to tape together 8x11 sheets like I did last year. We waited until Logan was at work (which he is a lot these days), and after naps and lunch on Wednesday, we went to work. We taped the paper to the floor, and I held Elise down one arm at a time, which she resisted for all she is worth, and tried to draw around her. The arms came out a bit funky, but the general idea was there. When I was done she immediately popped up, grabbed the crayon and started scribbling. She thought it was the coolest thing to be coloring on the floor on a huge paper. Although there are some red marks on the tile, they come off, and she mostly kept the crayon on the paper...good job Elise!

She colored, while I put stickers and words we'd cut out using Wendy's cricut machine. Here is the end result hanging up for Daddy to find in the morning when he came down to go to work:

Elise wore her Daddy's princess shirt, and posed for me in front of her hug poster. It was a little confusing for her when I asked her to hold her arms out like a hug, so she ended up just putting them on the wall behind her. What a great smile!

WE LOVE YOU LOGAN!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Tide Pools at Falsetter Point

Wednesday was a very low low tide out the end of North Douglas, near Falsetter Point at the Outer Point Trail. Elise and I went with the Dalton family, and the Rosenbruch and Walker families as well. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but as it had been rainy the last few days, we came prepared to be wet. The tide pools I've been to before were large boulder types with pools of standing water left by the receding tide. This group of tide pools were less actual pools, and more like moist spots under rocks on a sandy beach. It was really neat to be out, and to see all the neat organisms. Like all tidal areas, there were zones of different organisms. On this beach there were lots of different species of seaweeds, some mussels, barnacles, and limpets. There were some green sea urchins, and some baby seastars, as well as some polychaete worms sheltering under rocks. We walked along the sandbar between the shore and Shaman island and flipped over rocks to find little critters. Elise did very well, although she got tired of being in the pouch. She is getting way more independent, but I didn't think the ground was stable enough for her to walk, especially on that slippery seaweed. She held one baby seastar, but thought it was slimy and dropped it as quickly as we'd let her. We got there as the tide was coming back in, wandered and explored, and then headed back to shore. Elise and I then headed for home, for nap and lunch time. We had a great time, and thought it was worth all the sore muscles from carrying a 25 lb girl around for over 2 hours. We hope we get to go again, and maybe Logan can come too!

This is the tide pool area as the tide came back in. Shaman Island is in the distance, the path now almost covered by the water.

You can see Mendenhall Glacier in the background. I didn't realize we would be able to do that from that point on Douglas.

And here are Elise and I as we hold a baby seastar. Doesn't Elise look so excited? What a fun day!