Project 52 - Week 22

Week 22 ~ May 29-June 4

Memorial Day (which also happened to be Baby Bear's birthday!) was bright, sunny, and warm. We took advantage of the weather and decided to try a short hike to Thunderbird Falls. It is located just a mile or two up the highway from where we live. The path was actually quite crowded with people. A bunch of people had the same idea, apparently. Not quite the out in the wilderness quiet hike I was imagining, but still fun just the same.

Daddy packing baby and packing heat! (The gun is for the bears, but the path was so busy this day that we probably would have been fine to leave it at home)

Heading down the trail.


I love signs with goofy illustrations! (There was a great one back at Tinker showing what would happen to your car should you run into the barricade)

The falls!

Unfortunately, they looked more like this. The viewing deck was pretty far away.

A nice lady took a family shot for us.

We took a side path down the to the water on the way back. I think we could have gotten closer to the falls using this path but it would have added quite a bit of walking to the hike.

Elijah's Birthday Celebration

We made sure that Eli got his own special cake on his birthday! This one is a special milk free cake. It also happens to be gluten free, but I made it because it was milk free. Since Eli has had problems with ear infections, we have taken all cow's milk out of his diet. Milk allergy/sensitivity is a common cause of recurring ear infections and we are trying to do everything we can to help poor Baby Bear! The cake was just as delicious as regular cake! Everyone loved it (except James who doesn't eat sweets)!

Getting his first taste

Chocolate beard!

Daddy helping him get a nice big bite

Chocolate everywhere! (It actually got worse, but I had put the camera down)

Project 52 - Week 21

Week 21 ~ May 22-28

We are on a quest to find great fishing places. Our first stop was Sixmile Lake. It is right on the Air Force Base. While driving around the base to find the lake we stumbled upon our first bear in Alaska! Isn't this just the cutest black bear you've ever seen!?

We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed the beautiful scenery while eating.

An beaver swam right by us!

Kindy Graduation!

William is now a Kindergarten graduate! I can't believe he is already a first grader! His teacher, Mrs. Carlson, put on a very cute little ceremony. It was originally to be held in a park down the street, but road construction right infront of the park made that impossible. I think having it in the classroom turned out nice though.

William with his cute little graduation hat!


Getting his certificate



All the kids with their certificates



William and Mrs. Carlson

10 on the 10th - Late Again

Late again, but here it is!

1. This is my last ten on the tenth for the year to say the days are getting longer. June 21st is the longest day of the year and then we will start heading back into the dark days of winter. We still have many more long days of light to enjoy before then though! This morning the official sunrise time was 4:24 am and sunset time will be 11:35 pm. 19 hours and ten minutes of sun! So today will have 13 hours and 5 minutes more of sun than my first ten on the tenth in January! The 21st will have 19 hours and 22 minutes of sun. What this means is that it never truly gets dark here. In the middle of the night we have dark twilight type of light, but I can still clearly see the neighbors house if I look out the window.

2. Eli has been fighting ear infections for over a month now and after 3 rounds of antibiotics he no longer has an infection, but there is still fluid both ears. The fluid is a breeding grounds for bacteria and could cause him to develop another infection, so we have an appointment with the ENT next week. Pray that the doctor can help him or his ears have cleared up by then!

3. Ben's soccer is in full swing now! He really loves it! His age group plays 3 on 3 with no goalie, so there are only six kids on his team.

4. We are planning to have a big first birthday celebration for Eli when we travel to San Antonio next month. I have been consumed with the party planning lately. I'm finding all kinds of cute stuff! Like these adorable milk bottles from Shop Sweet Lulu!



5. Wild Animal Sighting Count: Moose-4, Bears-1, Beavers-1

6. We have been doing a lot of fishing lately. We spent an entire Saturday recently driving to several lakes nearby. Still haven't caught anything, but the salmon are starting to come in so we are excited to try salmon fishing!

7. Only a few weeks until we will meet our niece! I'm so excited that we will get to be in San Antonio when she arrives (unless she decides to come more than a week early)! Annie and I are planning a shower for her and I having a lot of fun planning that too!

8. We had to take Eli to the emergency room last week. He was running a fever and had a febrile seizure. It was quite scary for mommy! I have since learned that they are more common than I knew. You can read about them from the Mayo Clinic. It seems to have been a virus that caused the fever since Eli's ears are currently infection free (but not fluid free).

9. My current favorite snack is the Larabar. So good and with healthy ingredients! I have tried 8 of the flavors and loved all but one. Wish I could find the other flavors for sale somewhere!

10. I heading to bed now. I'm going to watch the movie "Taken" with James. Although I do like the movie, I wish FX would stop playing it. It is all we have watched all week!

Project 52 - Week 20

Week 20 ~ May 15-23

William learned to ride his bike this week! James and I couldn't be prouder of him! He got it in one day and learned to get up on his bike a start going by himself the next day! Ben has seen some older boys jumping hills next to the park and really wants us to take his training wheels off so he can do it too. Since Ben's bike is still just a tiny bit too big for him and he can barely push the pedals, we had to convince him to leave them on for now.