September 19, 2009

We have been "storing" the Swanson's drift boat at our house this summer/fall while they are in the process of building a new house. While storing it, Aaron told Shayne he could use it to float the Kenai. Shayne had been trying all summer to get Aaron to go out with him, but he'd been so busy with selling the old house, building a new one, living in a motorhome with a pregnant wife and 5 kids, and a very demanding job, that he just couldn't get away to fish. Finally on Sept. 19th, Aaron, Brian (his friend and the guy doing the trim in their house), and Shayne floated the Upper Kenai. It was a beautiful day. Shayne got some great pics of some of the fish he caught. The first is an example of how beat up the trout get on the Kenai. They are fished so hard, by so many people that you often get fish that look like they've run the gauntlet...and in a sense they have. So...this fish is missing the lower left half of his jaw. Nice huh? Poor thing. I just thought the other two pics were pretty cool. Shayne likes having the water proof camera to take these pics with. He couldn't get that fish eyeball with out it! :) I love the color on the last fish...they olive green with the black spots and bright red stripe are pretty awesome.

Thank you Aaron for letting Shayne (and I) use your boat this summer. Wish you could have gone more often with us...hopefully next summer will be a little less stressful for you!

I like Dirt...and other randomness

These were just some random pics of Lachlan in September. The first is when he found the dirt in one of my house plants. He decided to taste it...and then taste it some more. I think he might be slightly anemic b/c he kind of thought it tasted good! :)

The other pics are just of him discovering his world. He crawled under the excersaucer and got stuck. Shayne took the pic about 30 second before he panicked about being stuck where he was. He's also discovered the television...or at least finally got tall enough to discover it. He's been messing with the DVD player for awhile...I'm shocked it's not yet broken. However, now he can reach the TV, he's all about pushing those buttons. So, it gets turned on randomly throughout the day, will be totally silent and then be blasting at maximum volume the next. Oh what fun!

The last pic is just a pic showing how good he is at drinking out of a straw. He actually prefers drinking out of his "sippy" cups that have a straw. His CamelBak is his fav. It's a funny pic, but I think it's still cute.

We just love watching this little boy learn about his world. It never ceases to amaze us how much he learns each day.

Labor Day Scout Camp Out

Shayne was recently put in as the 1st Counselor in the Young Men's Presidency, thank you Miles. :) One of his first activites was going on a 3 day camp out over Labor Day weekend with the Young Men. They left on Saturday morning and came back Monday early evening. They hiked about 8 miles up to the Russian Lakes Public Use Cabin, where the leaders stayed in the cabin and the boys (there were 13 of them) stayed in tents around the cabin. They got permission to camp over the weekend and had a pretty cool Sunday service. Shayne of course tooke his fly-rod and had some fun fishing in the Upper Russian River and the outlet of the Upper Russian Lake. They of course saw bears, but that was to be expected. Some of the boys thought it would be great fun to test the waters...it was cold. Gotta love scouts! :) It was a great experience, minus the "Beaver Fever" a few boys and one leader got later that week from the water.

Shayne's excited to be serving in the Young Men's. He loves being around the youth of our church and is looking forward to more activities and experiences.

We're Back

We are back from Hawaii, but before I can post all those fun pics, I have to do a little back-posting. I swear I will catch up on blogging...in November when there's nothing going on. Until then...I will STILL be catching up on our fun activities.

Pics of Lachlan

I took these pics on Monday, Sept 28th, b/c the sun was shining perfectly, the yellow leaves were on the green grass, and there was an incredible storm of black clouds moving in. It was fun taking them...just wish I had a camera with a faster shutter speed so I could catch those cute candid moments. And, a better flash so I don't have the shadows. Hmmm...maybe I'll add it to my Christmas list.

Lachlan is easy to photo. He loves to smile and play, and you can see in some of them how hard he is concentrating on whatever happens to be in his hand. He also loves to be outside, so keeping him happy was not a problem. Keeping the dogs out of the pictures was.

Sorry for the amount of pics, but he is my first born...and he is a miracle. Can you take too many pictures?!

Lachlan's Birthday!!

At 12:34 pm today our Bug turned one.

It's been sort of a bittersweet day for lots of reasons. First, is that our little baby boy is growing up. Second, our friends, the Swanson's, had a little girl early this morning who had some lung complications and was flown to Anchorage to the NICU there. She is doing much better, and they are hoping they will be able to bring her home within a week. We are definitely praying for her and her family.

So...I've missed not having family up here a lot today. Sometimes I think it's not fair that all my other nieces and nephews got to have, or will be having birthday parties with our families, and yet here we are pretty much alone. I know we choose to live here, but still, I have a hard time on days like this. It doesn't help that there's a lot going on with most of our good friends. Here's an example; Angela had a baby 6 weeks ago, Darcy just had Maycee who is in Anchorage in the NICU, and Becky is developing toxemia will probably have to go on bed rest and end up taking her baby a couple weeks early too. So...we have opted to not have any birthday parties, like we had originally planned for this weekend. It's easier for everyone and especially all these newborn or yet to be born babies, and their mom's. So...I decided to still make Lachlan's B-day cake, wrap his presents, and try to have a little party with Shayne & I...before Shayne had to go to work tonight.

This morning, Lach already had a b-day card waiting for him when he got up. Shayne had stopped on his way home this morning and got Lach and I (Shayne's just like that to get me a one too) a birthday card. They were those cards that played a song when you opened them. Lachlan LOVED his! Seriously kept playing with it forever. I kept hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" for about an hour. Gotta love a daddy who loves his little boy.

Then, Lach and I went into town and did some birthday shopping. We got him a mylar balloon, which he loves, a couple of books, and a new toy. I also found a fun cake pan and some cake decorating "stuff" to make his basketball b-day cake. I didn't go all out on decorating the cake, I didn't have time. So, I just made due with what I had and what was quick. So, after quickly mixing up the cake, I wrapped his presents while it cooked, and then we opened them up about 5 minutes after I wrapped them. He got some fun things, and he was already enjoying them. You'll be shocked to know Shayne decided his big toy was a little basketball hoop with a basketball. They already started playing while I decorated the cake. I have some pics of that, but they are on the other camera and it's charging so I couldn't post them just yet. Lach wasn't sure what to do with the wrapping paper...mostly just watched me as I unwrapped them. He tried to tear the paper on a couple of presents, but it didn't last long.

I also got the cutest little birthday crown. He actually wore it long enough to sing to him, but that was it, which was perfect for me. However, his reaction to his cake after blowing out the candle was hilarious!

We sang to him, and then after Shayne blew out his candle, Lachlan freaked out! Seriously freaked out. He was trying as hard as he could to get away from his cake, and in the process got frosting all over his arms and chest. I had to get him out of his chair b/c he was shaking and crying so hard. Who knew a cake could be that scary?! Anyway...I ended up covered in orange frosting. Didn't think I needed to worry about my own clothes getting ruined from Lachlan's b-day cake. I had to move the cake away from him, tear off pieces of it to give to him, and every time we would bring the cake close to him, he would freak out again. Seriously...who's scared of their own birthday cake?! He ended up covered in orange frosting, so he took a bath and played with some of his new bath toys.

Overall it was a pretty good b-day. I'm still sad I didn't get to share it with any other family, but that's the way life is sometimes. I think we might go to Anchorage this weekend and have a little party with Kaye & Jared and their little girl Malia. They are our closest friends here in Alaska, and Kaye invited us to come up there for a little party, so I think we'll go have a little celebration with them.

I just have to say...

It is amazing how fast time flies and how much your life can change in a single year. Shayne & I cannot imagine, nor do we want to, what our lives would be like without Lachlan. He has brought so much joy and happiness and contentment and peace into our home. He has been such a good baby, even from day one. He's such a happy boy with a smile that is contagious. He loves to smile at everyone, and is constantly getting comments on what a cute little boy, or sweet little boy he is from strangers we come in contact with. We are grateful every single day Heavenly Father blessed our home with this sweet spirit. Every. Single. Day.

We love you Lachlan, and are looking forward to your next year!!