Random Lachlan Pics

These are a few random pics that don't really go together, other than Lachlan is in them. But, this is what blogging for grandma's and other family is about.

The soda is not open in the first pic. He just really wanted it and loved the feeling of the cold can on his gums. It made for a funny pic though. The second pic is of Lachlan and dad mowing the lawn with the Swanson's lawn mower. They are parking it at our house for a bit until their home is finished and they have more room to store it. Lachlan fell asleep while Shayne was mowing. It was too cute. Tipz has loved it the mower! She's sorta freakish about motorized vehicles...mostly 4-wheelers. But, since we don't have a 4-wheeler she'll make do with whatever we've got. :)

The other two pics are just of our cute little bug exploring his world. He had figured out how to pull up on walls and the beam and walk around them...he's pretty proud of himself. And the bottom pic is of him discovering the stairs for the first time. He's always been distracted enough by other things that the stairs have never been an issue. As you can see from the cute little smile...they are now! :)

Lachlan Messes

You know your child has gone mobile when he's all of the sudden into EVERYTHING. Yup...we have taken "child-proofing" our home to a whole new level. You know what though...Shayne and I love it! It is so fun to see him explore his world.

Reading w/ Dad

Lachlan seriously loves his books, and loves to be read to. This is he and his daddy reading some books he had pulled off the shelf. Pretty dang cute!

Canning Salmon

So, this was my canning adventure. I processed our 35 Red Salmon about 2-3 days after everyone else had left from dipnetting. I processed/bottled all but about 15 of the fish. I used two 16 pint canners (one was Kaye's), about 9 hours, and ended up with 96 pints of salmon. Counting the stuff we had from last year we have about 140 pints of salmon in our food storage. We eat it too. It's so good. Lachlan likes it ok...he's way more into the smoked stuff though. Shayne smoked the last 15 fish, and they are delectable! I tried to do most of while Lachlan was sleeping, but when he was awake he hung out in the pack n' play.

10 Months!!

Ummm...so today is Lachlan's 11 month birthday, but I realized I still hadn't posted his 10 month photos! And...if you look closely you will see I was 2 days late in taking his 10 month photo. That just shows you how busy our summer has been. In fact, the hand you see in the top pic is of my sister-in-law Ashley. Yup, I took this during the week that my brother Kade and his wife Ashley, and 4 of their friends came to visit. I haven't even gotten to that week yet. But...I had to post how fast our little boy is growing up.

Here's a little info about Lachlan at 10 months:
~He was only 26.5" tall (5%), and 21lbs(25-50%). So...he's average for weight, but b/c he's so dang short he looks like a little brick! :)
~And...no he does not have a huge head, it's in the 25-50% too...I measured it b/c I was starting to get a complex with all the comments from people(yes they actually told me he has a huge head...who does that?!)
~He had finally started "crawling". Which means he was on his hands and one knee while the other leg would stick out straight so he could push off our slick laminate flooring. :)
~Can stand on his own really well, but hadn't taken any steps yet.
~He had been going from crawling to sitting up to pulling up on the couch and other toys for about 2 weeks at this point.
~He started "walking" from toy to toy...if they were close enough and he didn't have to let got of one before grabbing the other.
~Had been camping for about 10 days.
~Been on multiple hikes.
~Had been fishing with dad multiple times.
~Saw a brown bear eating salmon on the Russian River...ok he was technically sleeping when this was happening but still...he was there. (Don't worry, I'll post pics of that soon.)
~Still only had his two bottom teeth.
~Still has red hair, but there's a lot of blond coming in underneath! I'm afraid to cut his hair, b/c I'm afraid I'll cut off his beautiful strawberry red/blond hair. :(
~Loves; cheerios, bananas, cottage cheese(a lot!!), cheese sticks, animal crackers(a lot!!), peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and any fruit, but not so much green beans...and definitely not beets!
~Still have very happy and pleasant boy.

We love our little bug!!

Dipnetting

Oh yes...it was that time of year that I look forward to, but hate at the same time!! Dipnetting! Fortunately it went pretty smoothly so I can't complain too much. We had quite the crowd at our house for the event, but that actually made things easier. On Thursday evening we had: Kaye, Jared & Malia Tuia; Ty, Liz & Zachary Zollinger; & Dave, Rebecca Claire and their four kids show up for the event. We dipnetted out of a boat this year, which was much easier, I think, than on the beach. We used the Wehrli's boat that they left at our house, which was such a big help! Thank you Wehrli's!! Tyler, Jared, Dave, and I (Shayne had just started his work week so couldn't go), went out Thursday evening for about 4 hours. The other women stayed home and watched kids, including Lachlan. We only got about 22 Red/Sockeye Salmon that evening, so went out on Friday morning at 6am! Ya...6am...I'm not a moring person, just so you know. :) But...it was good fishing. We got about 122 Reds in about 6-7 hours! Jared & Dave manned the nets, which are about 5 feet in diameter...huge things. Tyler manned the motor, which required some serious skill seeing how there were about 200 other boats all dipnetting in the same 1-2 mile stretch of river...craziness!! I got the "best" job of bonking and gilling the fish. This basically meand I beat 144 fish on the head with a bonking stick, and then had to cut their gills so they wouldn't bleed into their meat. Do you have any idea how much blood and fish slime gets on the bottom of a boat when you have that many fish flopping around? Ya...it wasn't pretty...neither was I. I was covered in fish blood and slime. Literally from head to toe. It was pretty disgusting. But we got our fish...and that's all the matters right?

Netting the fish is the easy part. After getting them back to the house, we had to fillet, skin, and cut up the meat to process or bottle. I don't fillet or skin, so Shayne woke up early and helped with that. The poor guy didn't get much sleep those couple of days, b/c he was trying to help out as much as he could while not at the hospital working. You should have seen the garage and outlying area...it was a serious fish processing station!!

The Zollinger and the Claire's had never bottled salmon before so Kaye and I, who had done this for a couple of years now, got them started and away they went. You can see the pics below of how many pressure cookers we had going. There were three by the garage, then Kaye had two more out at their camper trailer. I waited and processed ours a couple of days later just so there would be room for everyone. Our garage was packed...as you can see. Our driveways were full...as you can see. The Claire's stayed in our little guest bunkhouse, and everyone else stayed in the camper's or trailer's. It worked out pretty well. It seemed like craziness for a couple of days, but it really wasn't that bad. Shayne & I are just glad we can help out our friends.

It was a lot of work, but so worth it when we get to eat wonderful and healthy salmon all year long!! Can't wait until next year!! Rrriiigghhtt!! Who am I kidding?! It was fun...but not that fun!! The company made it fun!

Weddings and Other Messes

Right after we got home from our trip on Sunday, July 12th, we showered, dressed, and headed for a wedding. This particular wedding was for one of Shayne's basketball boys, Marcus. The pic above shows Marcus on Shayne's left in the white tux. Matt is on Shayne's right...he got married two weeks later. We went to that wedding as well, but didn't get a pic with all of them. Shayne loves his basketball boys, so is good at supporting them in whatever they need support in. Unfortunately both these boys either had a baby or had one on the way, which is why they got married so soon after graduating from high school. Fortunately, they both are facing their responsibilities and are determined to be good husband's and father's to their little girls (yup...both having girls.) They really are good kids, and Shayne truly loves these boys. We hope we can continue to support them, and be examples to them as they move onward with life.

The bottom pic is fairly random with this post. It's a pic of Lachlan getting into the book case for the first time. Ya...how lucky am I he hasn't been into it before now? This was on July 18th, I moved his books, which are on the top shelf, to the bottom shelf shortly thereafter. Why I hadn't done it previous I have no idea! Now, this bookshelf is almost the first place he goes each morning to pull his books out. He loves his books. Loves to play with them, open them and look at the pics, and be read to from them. We are definitely encouraging his love of books!

Day Two - Gulkana River

So, after finishing the Landmark Gap hike, we left Tangle Lakes and drove back down the Denali Hwy to Paxon, and back up to the spot we fished the day before on the Gulkana River. Shayne couldn't leave the area without going back and trying to get another 18" Grayling. 18" Grayling are not the norm. In fact, they are generally a smaller fish, so if you catch a 16" you feel pretty good about yourself.

So here was our deal: We would take one 3 wt. fly rod down to the river, b/c the "hole" is only big enough to fish one person. We would take turns. Every time you either caught or missed a fish you passed the rod off. If you've ever fished for Grayling you would know they have TERRIBLE mouth-eye coordination. Seriously! They see a dry fly on the water, go for it, and...MISS IT!! It's pretty funny and frustrating all at the same time. So, we ended up not passing the rod off when a fish missed the fly, b/c it happened too much. We just passed the rod back and forth after we caught fish. It was sooo fun! These fish were hitting every dry fly Shayne would tie on. It was crazy. And they weren't little fish either.

In fact, we caught another 18"er. Wait, let me clarify...I caught an 18"er!! Yeah for me!! He missed my fly the first time, and we could see how big he was, we were both kinda freaking out. Then I cast again and he hit it! What a beautiful fish! I had a bit of a struggle keeping a hold of him long enough to take a pic...in fact, he flipped out of my hands into the marshy grass where I had to dive in up to my knees to grab him again to take a pic. Shayne initially thought it was the same fish he caught the day before b/c of the clipped tail fin (notice the last pic), so he took a pic of it as well, b/c he had caught it before but I wasn't there to take a pic of it. After looking at him though, he thought the fish he had caught had the lower part of it's tail fin clipped, not the top part. So, we think there's more than one 18" Grayling in at that spot of river. We had such a fun time. We will definitely be going back to that section of the Gulkana River again. :)

In fact, this was the last we fished on this trip. We planned on driving down the Richardson Hwy to another campsite on the Gulkana, but it started raining, we were tired from a long night before, and so we decided to drive back to Anchorage to stay with Kaye and Jared. We got into Anchorage about 3 am on Saturday morning where I showered before going to bed. We stayed at Kaye & Jared's until Sunday. It was nice to shower and do some laundry at their house so we had clean clothes to wear while there. So after 9 days of being on the road we were finally back to our little house and our own bed. Yeah for my own bed!!

This trip was so fun! We are so glad we were able to do it. Lachlan was such a trooper and a great baby! He had fun where ever we hauled him. We can't wait to go back, and fish dry flies for Grayling again!

Landmark Gap

On Friday, July 10th, we went on a hike off the Denali Hwy. We hiked to a lake called Landmark Gap. You can see why it's called Landmark Gap. It's actually the place where a huge herd of Caribou migrate through. It's literally a gap between two mountains with a lake in the middle of it. The hike was about 3 miles one way, but was easy. It's on a dirt road that is driveable, but you need to have a lifted vehicle to get through some places with large boulders. Shayne decided he'd rather have us walk and know that our vehicle would not get damaged so we could rive home. I had to agree with him. :)

Of course we fished the creek that flows out of the lake. I didn't catch anything here, I did a little further down. Shayne caught quite a few fish here, and had fun doing it. One if his favorite fish he caught while skating a dry fly across the water over top of a fish he was sight casting to.

The lake was beautiful. The view itself was pretty incredible. You could see the snow covered mountains through the gap, and could actually see some glaciers as well. It was a nice day with the sun shining and a slight breeze to keep us cool and the bugs at bay.

This was our last day of camping. The night at Tangle Lakes was our last night of camping in the tent. It was probably Lachlan's worst night of sleeping. The wind was blowing pretty hard and whipping the tent, making lound sounds I'm sure kept him awake. It was a long night for me, but the other nights hadn't been too bad, so I couldn't complain too much. It was a pretty cool place to camp, but a much more barren campground. It's definitely more tundra than the lower part of Alaska. When Shayne got up in the morning to take the dogs out, he nearly ran into a Moose cow and her two calves wandering around the camp ground. One of those cool things about Alaska. :) Thankfully, we never saw any bears.

I have one more post and then I'm done sharing our fun camping adventure!! I'l post some recent pics of Lach after that, and then continue documenting our summer.

Happy Birthday, Babe!!

Thursday, July 9th, was Shayne's b-day. I had been sick most of the day which wasn't so much fun for him. We got to our next campsite on the Denali Hwy, at Tangle Lakes in the late afternoon, early evening. Shayne put up camp, and fixed up some Ramen noodles for me to eat...such a good husband! Then, I surprised him and got out his b-day cupcakes and trick candles. :) It was blowing pretty hard outside so we had to light the candles in the tent, probably not a good idea! :) Anyway, this is Shayne with his big ole' #32 b-day celebration. Notice the 3 and then 2 candles...#32? Get it? Ok...I'm a dork, but there is no way to fit 32 candles on two Hostess cupcakes! :) Anyway...HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY BABE!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Lachlan thought the candles were pretty cool. Especially when Shayne would blow them out and they would light up again. I also had to take a pic of his two little teeth that were coming in really good. Just a funny pic of him.

The last pic is my favorite pic of the entire trip. Seriously, I have it as our computer wallpaper. I love it! The look on Lachlan's face is priceless. So, I would put a hat on him and then give him to Shayne so I could get some stuff done. Shayne would then keep doing what he was doing, not noticing the hat would turn sideways with the strap in Lach's face. This happened on more than one occasion...I just happened to take a pic of it this time.

I love that pic...they are such a cute little pair...and so much alike in lots of ways. I love seeing my two boys together. Best thing in the whole world!!

Day One of Gulkana River

On Wednesday the 8th, we drove to Delta Junction and ended up staying at a B&B that night. Shayne had promised me we would get a hotel for one night of our trip so we could shower/bathe and sleep in a real bed. Well...Delta Junction only had ONE bed left in the town. We weren't going to sleep there, b/c the lady had family and wasn't really wanting guests. However, when she found out our situation with a baby, she insisted we come and spend the night. It was so nice to get a hot shower, bathe Lachlan and sleep in a real bed.

Well...I didn't sleep a whole lot...I got a minor case of food poisoning. Yup...not from our camping food, no...we got Carl's Jr. on our way out of Fairbanks. Ya...camping for a week and I get sick on fast food. Figures! I was pretty miserable the entire night, but was SOOOOO glad we were somewhere with a flushing toilet VERY close to the bedroom. It wasn't pretty! Sorry... :)

The next morning we headed back south towards the Paxon side of the Denali Hwy. We stopped on the Gulkana River, b/c Shayne had a buddy who had shared with him an unknown fishing spot. It was STELLAR!! I didn't go down initially, I stayed in the truck with a sleeping Lachlan. I still wasn't feeling so well. However, after Shayne came back and informed me he had caught at 18" Grayling, I had to go down. I didn't catch the 18"'er, but I caught one just a little smaller. Still the biggest fish I'd caught so far this trip. I would have a pic of it, but it jumped and slipped out of my hands before Shayne was able to snap the pic. It's all good though...you'll see why later. Anyway, it was fun fishing for them

You Know It's Hot...

...in Alaska when you let your 9 month old splash around in a river and he's having a blast!! It was that hot! We left Santa's house and headed out of town, but needed somewhere to let the dogs out to get some water and cool off after waiting in the truck while we visited Santa. So, we found the Salcha River and stopped to cool off the dogs. The river was actually warm and felt so good on our feet, that we decided to strip Lachlan down and put him in as well. He LOVED it!! He thought grabbing the rocks from underwater was pretty darn fun. We have the cutest video of him as well, but I haven't been able to upload videos from this particular camera...oh well.

So...you know it's hot in Alaska when your 9 month old has a blast playing in an Alaskan river! :)

p.s. This last pic is of one of Santa's reindeer. I'm not sure who this was, but I took it while holding Lachlan, so that's the side of his face in the pic. The reindeer are smaller than you thought huh?