Easter

Bug's first Easter was successful. I made his basket for him and the Easter Bunny must have thought he was really good. 

Saturday we colored eggs. Bug also REFUSED to nap all day. He really wanted to help with the coloring. We ended up with broken eggs and googling "how to get egg dye off your baby's face." All in all we had a really fun morning. Saturday afternoon we went to one of Bug's friends 1st birthday party. 

Bug wouldn't give up the eggs.

Sunday we woke up and looked for eggs. Bug found 2 and called it good. The Bunny had Bug's basket on the counter and his daddy's was hidden in the hamper. We were able to make it to Easter service only 5 minutes late, which was pretty impressive for us. 

In the afternoon we played outside. Daddy and Bug tapped some of the Birch trees to see if we could get any liquid (nada.) Bug got covered in mud, and I took the bark off of a log we had. 

We still have around a foot of snow in the backyard. In order to get the gardens ready I shoveled all but an inch of snow off the bed. I still need to finish another one, but that will have to wait for another day. 

Dinner was lamb, roasted potatoes and honey/(random spices) carrots. It was delicious!!

Hope your Easter was fabulous!! 

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Monday on a Thursday

There are some weeks that Monday feels like Thursday, and weeks that Thursday feels like Monday. That was this week. Not in a bad way though! Just in a "I can't believe it's Thursday" sort of way. I can't even remember what I did on Monday. I showered. I think. Bug's birthday is Monday, and with Easter on Sunday I have been busy trying to get things organized. Ask me what I'm having for dinner on Sunday....yeah, haven't gotten that far yet, but I've thought about it. Does that count?

Today we met a friend and Bug's BFF for lunch to celebrate her birthday. We left our house, and made it the whole way down the hill and I couldn't remember if I had closed the garage door or not. SO, back up the hill we went. Sigh. As we were pulling into the resturant, I heard Bug cough and choke. I quickly parked the car and jumped out to see him covered in puke. COVERED. His car seat, my car, the window (how!) The poor guy. He just looked at me so confused. AGAIN, I am so thankful that I have a car that all my seats can go down. I took him out and took off all his clothes and let him crawl around the trunk area while I cleaned up the grossness. I assumed he choked on the water, so we got new clothes on and went in to see our friends. 

Post Puke (Didn't seem to phase him, hu?)

He seemed "okay" but when we got home he just wanted to snuggle and he took a nap. He NEVER wants to just lay there and snuggle, unless he's sick. I decided to cancel our play date tomorrow (boo). Hopefully he is fine, and I'm over reacting, but I know I would be not happy if I went to someones house when their kid was puking the day before. 

Hopefully he is feeling better for Easter and his Birthday. I made his basket and it is ready to go from the Bunny. We have it sitting on his birthday presents, and have been trying to keep him out of our room. He saw all the wrapped presents and got SO excited. Mostly because it was something new, but still. 

Bunny basket! 

Gah! How is my baby going to be 1!! 

Spring?

It's "Spring" technically....I am afraid to say anything about it out loud because every time I say anything, I get reminded that the temps could drop into the negatives at anytime. So, Spring in June then? That's when I will put my plants into my garden beds. I haven't seen the yard in so long I forget what it looks like!

So far, what Spring in Fairbanks means to me (this sounds like the start of a 3rd grade essay.)

 1. It means that my house will shake and large chunks of heavy wet snow will come flying off my roof, taking parts of my room with it.

2. It means that anything that was hit and killed during the winter is emerging from its snowy tomb. Case in point being the dog in front of our house. As much as I dislike playing around with dead things, VERY dead things, I know that if it were me I'd like to know where my dog ended up. I tried to find his/her tags, but they are underneath the dog and the dog is still very much frozen to the ground. I was reminded tonight that at least it was not a human we found. OH so true.

3. Where there were once roads, there are now small streams running across them. If it were the Pacific Northwest, I'd expect some salmon swimming, but nope, nada.

4. My car is officially brown. I can hardly see any of the teal on it, so I half hope that driving through these road streams it will clean it off enough to make it look presentable.

5. I have the gardening bug....BAD. I can not wait to plant in our beds! This weekend or next I will need to go down and shovel off the snow and put plastic down to start to warm up the soil. I have this feeling I'm going to bust my butt, and Martha is going to come along and eat everything. Gah. Still, so excited to plant. I never got "baby fever" but do I ever get gardening fever.We decided that with the Bug, and the cats we would buy starts. It just seemed easier. I have a list from the greenhouse of what they are growing and I CAN NOT WAIT, but I must or it will all die. June 1st. I need to wait until June 1st, and until then I will continue to figure out ways to have ALL garden and no grass to cut.

First Camping Trip

Yes, yes, I have a whole month of "stuff" that I am missing...I'll get to it...eventually!

This past weekend we added another thing to the "Baby's First" list. Bug went on his first camping trip! He turns one in a little over a week (SOB) and we wanted to take him before that. We left Friday and headed about 40 miles South of Fairbanks to a little dry cabin on the Salcha River. It was perfect! Not a soul around (other than the ones driving past on the nearby road) and just peace and quiet. We got to camp around dinner time, and hubby got to work starting a fire in the wood stove. (Note: My husband's friends are BRILLIANT, and gave us the idea of making calzones ahead of time to heat up on the fire. No cooking! AND yummy calzones.) We spent most of Friday evening trying to keep Bug away from the wood burner.

Friday night we snuggled into our sleeping bags, and Bug in his pack n' play in our little sauna, er....cabin. Around Midnight he woke up (probably because it was 934 degrees in the cabin.) My sweet husband tried to change him and let me sleep, but Bug thought it was a great time mid-diaper change to pee all over his dad's sleeping bag. Luckily, we keep an extra one in the car in case I ever break down in the winter. While up we went outside to see the Aurora. It will probably be the last time that we get a chance since it is really only dark enough from 11pm - 4 am, and even that is quickly going away. At some point during the night, the Bug ended up with us sleeping. He is worse than me, and takes over the ENTIRE bed area, elbows and all.

Saturday morning we work up and ate our breakfast burritos that we made before we left on Friday.  Bug wouldn't nap (too much light) so we decided to go for a drive since he will sleep in the car. We ended up driving to Delta Junction, which is about 100 miles from Fairbanks. On our way there we got run off the road by a large truck into a snowbank (on a back road.) Luckily, A. I have good tires. B. My husband is a good driver, and C. The truck actually stopped. We didn't actually need to talk to the truck driver since my husband got the car out of the snowbank and I got 1/2 my car cleaned off. No harm done. As frustrated as I was at the driver for causing my life to flash before my eyes, I did appreciate that he waited for us to get out.

When we were almost into Delta we noticed a small black cow laying in a field, a field without a fence and no other cows around. After getting some coffee and chocolate milk (and with a Bug still sleeping) we discussed rescuing "Norman" (my husband named him, and that's why I love him) and bringing him home with us. I mean, who DOESN'T want a pet cow? Well, when we went back, Norman was gone, as was my dreams of cow ownership.

We spent the rest of Saturday playing on the gravel bar next to the frozen river and sled riding (well, Bug was riding in the sled, we were pulling him.) Bug just wanted to be outside, just like his daddy, so we did a lot of exploring. Saturday night, Bug did a better job of going to sleep and staying asleep. We woke up Sunday, went sled riding, and then packed up in time for Bug's nap so he could sleep on the way home.

It was a great first trip for the Bug. I don't think I'd change a thing, and really want to go again....like tomorrow...I think Bug will agree.

AND now, in true Brooke style....a bazillion photos.

Bug REALLY likes the camera.

The Pipeline

Just scroll through the next photos quickly...it's funny. ;)

Remember me?

So, one of the joys of living Alaska is that we don't have Internet at our house. We've a hotspot and we have so many gigs of data. Last cycle, somehow, we ran low, which meant no internet and no blogging. 

So much going on! I'll play catch up next week, but wanted to make sure I remembered my password. ;) 

I'll leave you with a bunny in a basket. 

Take a Hike

Before we had Bug, before Bug was even a thought we knew we wanted to get future child outside as much as possible. 

This past weekend we took Bug on a hike on some trails near our house. He is becoming more independent and really thinks he should walk, so that made the end of the hike a little less than fun. We did let him walk at the end on the flat stretch. 

So less babbling, more photos. 

All hikers need a walking stick.