Mar 30

Birthday Brilliance

The month of March always turns into quite the busy few weeks, with family visits, birthday preparations and activities, a number of friend birthdays, and then you know…work and the normal, every day things. We attempt to make each birthday special and somewhat extravagant, knowing the girls have to share it and this momma doesn’t have any other kid parties in our household to plan.

I hatched a plan this spring to replace the girls’ 18″, very ragged dolls with new ones with bright pink, purple/teal, and teal hair, especially since the current Babela (Haper), Moriah (Reagan), and “she doesn’t have a name” (Emerie) have seen better days. Of the three, Harper loves and plays with her doll the most and my attempt to replace it with a new one that “went to the salon” is working so far! I told the girls during the school day the dolls attended a salon day. This fabricated story expanded to include facials, spray tans, and a solid bath to remove existing band-aid and makeup residue, and create new hair. Surprisingly everyone bought the story, especially after seeing the photos when Mom and Grandma Sue took them there (which we actually did- go big or go home! Thanks April!!). Harper scrutinized her doll more, insisting differences but with beautiful hair, and I reinforced she had new contacts (eye color changed) and a solid facial to get all that makeup off, plus the hair dye and styling. Reagan noted the skin is darker on hers, which I responded was her new spray tan. And the white lie continues to grow….

Here are a few other activities that occurred the past two weeks:

My annual goal continues to create an exciting, custom themed birthday cake the girls will enjoy, since we only go big once per year. Grandma Sue made the cake and icing and like last year, I created the accessories and decorated. Edible grass, Oreo dirt, and a LOT of custom colored chocolate mushrooms, grass, and multi colored flowers, and topped with a million Trolls Band Together characters, from opening 20+ mystery packs to find the right ones!

On the big day we joined the family and had a “fire dinner” at Benihanna. The girls especially love this place and eat their body weight in fried rice. This time around Emerie did so with shrimp and the cook thought it was funny and kept giving her extra! Watching cousin Elliot and Corbin’s faces during the fire tricks was also a highlight of the night. For the first time maybe ever, Craig and I actually sat by one another while Reagan wanted to sit by Tyler and Sue and the other two with Papa Cliff at the other side of the table- so weird. By dinner’s end we had full and tired, giggly girls who were excited to go home and have cake, you know, after they had ice cream with dinner.

Professional birthday photos are another one of my favorite things each year. We trekked out to our favorite newborn photographer in Palmer and the girls were on their best behavior yet! As always, I can’t wait to see how they turn out and everyone fully participated. This time around was less of the I have to be in the middle or else attitude, which is predominant in almost every group photo I take these days! Who know order was so important?!

One handmade gift that deserves mention was from Papa Lon, who created custom colored deer callers in the girls’ colors. While kazoos and whistles and other generally loud toys mysteriously go missing in this house…Craig and I will let these slide. They are beautiful and the girls looooove wearing them as necklaces and ensuring the house never stays quiet. Emerie is modeling her purple one in this photo.

Another annual favorite timed with birthday events, the Daddy/Daughter dance. Craig typically receives questions about two days after this occurs, wondering when the next one will be. The girls wore fancy dresses from Costco (which half the kids did apparently!), silver flats and custom makeup by Grandma Sue, and Emerie rocked her new turtle necklace from Seward. Their late arrival home may be record setting at 9:30, but all were very happy and excited to attend. Craig noted no one wanted to take the cute group photos, and the girls were overjoyed to see Nichole and Sierra attend with their dads. Sue and I enjoyed leisure time, which is very rare, and finished up birthday preparation.

We spanned gift opening throughout the past week, after a good amount of toy cleanup and donations to make space. If I had to choose some favorites, it would be Disney princess play dresses from Mom and Dad, new doll sets (a cabin and furniture), the stylish “new” dolls, and instantly opened Polly Pockets (how fun is it they are still as fun as the 90s!). Custom colored scarves from Jordan were oo’d over; our kitten Winston adopted Reagan’s and sleeps on it now, and Uncle Will helped open surprise barbies and new clothing sets. We are very blessed for such wonderful friends and the girls are still playing with all the new goodies.

Sue and I attended the field trip to the Seward Sealife Center, picking up an extra six year old for the drive. A fourth kid meant best behaviors from mine, and all shared toys and snacks with Nichole. It was a nice visit; everyone tested the touch pool, oo’ed over the seals/sea lions swimming around, and laughed at the one who flirted with the group. At the gift shop before heading home, Harper informed the cashier she renamed the seal to Harper, and indignantly said it is now a girl. She loves seeing her favorite animal in action- thank goodness we live in Alaska!

The actual birthday party occurred the weekend after their big day, which allowed Sue and I time to get everything prepped, ordered and finalized well in time for the trek over to the party place. In the midst of all this, Harper came down with a cough and confirmed ear infection, but she managed to muster up enough strength to enjoy her party.

We were unsure how many kids would show up to the party, and it turned out to be almost thirty! It was great to see cousin Jamie, Steve and Hayden drive up from Kenai to join us, Cousin Tyler and Uncle Will, Keegan and Jenny and the boys, Papa Cliff and of course Grandma Sue. The sound volume (and heat) level increased dramatically and the girls’ flushed faces showed it. We recycled the Halloween candy in a rainbow pinata (sorry, not sorry parents!) and played a Bluey favorite, Pass the Parcel, which everyone participated in with minimal crying. We ended up giving out all 48 Trolls themed cupcakes, which I call a success in itself.

The whole day was a great success; Reagan told me it was the best day EVER. Somehow this year felt a bit easier than the fifth birthday, not sure if that was because we prepped less food (much to the dismay of all those vegetable pizza lovers out there….Grandma Sue…) or because we did the full Trolls themed cake at home on their actual birthday this year; or simply because they are a bit older this year and getting things done while they entertain themselves is more of a common occurrence. Whatever reason, it was a busy month and we made it to the other side unscathed! Our house looked like Christmas morning by the end of the day and the girls happily sucked down their pho for dinner so they could return to the floor to play with new toys. My brain still can’t comprehend I have three kiddos a third of the way through their childhood- if you think about it- and who knows what wonderful adventures we will experience this year.

❤

Mar 18

Spring Break Sprint

As amateurs to the concept of spring break, we jumped in full force this year to keep our first one with kids interesting. Thinking back to this time last year, I remember telling myself to enjoy my last spring break with childcare for the foreseeable future, and it’s crazy to think that was already a year ago. Grandma Sue was happy to come up early to help me with birthday preparations and child watch while Craig and I got a few (or more!) hours of work in over the two week span, and of course that comes with all the Grandma Sue benefits of toy sorting, house re-organization, and fun birthday antics!

The weeks before spring break continued the theme of weekend birthday parties, and trying to get the kids outside a little more than when it was extremely cold temperatures. Craig broke out the kid and adult four wheeler for an afternoon and their BFF from school and her brother experienced the fun too. Maybe it’s just my kids, but other kids sure seem to be able to steer better than my three. This was the first afternoon that Emerie saw the need for speed and instead of her usual slow down scolding, she was smiling ear to ear on the back of the wheeler with Noah driving, something not often seen from her.

Reagan pulled a first in the household and gave herself unplanned bangs. Craig and I didn’t even notice; in fact, Sue noticed on Facetime before we even realized it happened. Reagan eventually caved and claimed they were annoying her, so she chopped them. A few days later I found the small pile of her beautiful hair under the bunk bed. During that same cleaning excursion I also found a good amount of doll hair trimmings, something we hadn’t noticed either until now…and doesn’t grow back!

Speaking of hair cutting, one to-do for spring break week was a triple hair trimming to cut off those ends. Because I absolutely refuse to go to the places that charge crazy amounts for a kid haircut, we wandered over to Craig’s barber again and asked for a trim. Middle of the day in the middle of the work week is apparently a good time, and all three went at the same time; that and no one wanted to go first! They all sat very still, with Harper and Emerie making their normal goofy faces at us, and Reagan’s bangs were trimmed to be a bit more acceptable. A set of identical twins actually cut two of them, which was very random and spurred some conversation. I also realized their super blonde, baby hair is already down to the bottom trimmed area, and the majority of their hair is now a darker blonde, which makes me a little sad but I’ll survive 🙂

Somehow we are already entering into the next clothing size, even though we transitioned into size six in early winter. Considering all three were wearing size 4/5 shorts all last summer is a bit crazy considering the 6/7 pairs I tried on them this week are super tight. They are growing so fast!! As I began to sort through clothing to sell and donate, which is quite the process in this household (what can I say, I only have kids once so I will enjoy fun clothes!), I could hear all three playing doctor in their room. As I paused to listen to the conversation, I realized it was even more specific; they were playing triplet pregnancy. Emerie was the doctor and Harper apparently having the babies. Doctor Emerie burst in the bedroom door to consult Nurse Reagan and her patient, as Harper announced oh the babies are coming! Oh wait, actually only one! Is it just my kids, or do other kids pretend they have more than one cooking in there? Pretty funny.

The tiny humans are greatly improving their cooking skills. One day while Mom and Dad went to the office, everyone practiced their baking skills and produced chocolate and powdered sugar covered donuts. How many of these were eaten that afternoon? That’s a great question that I probably don’t want to know the answer to; much flour was likely consumed as well. I’m happy to see my three little bakers love to cook and try goodies, since this is definitely in their DNA on both sides! From the moment Sue gets off the airplane, everyone starts requesting homemade donuts, that will certainly be a good childhood memory for them as they age into adulthood.

If I had to pick a few favorite moments from this week, watching the girls clean under the grandma regime is definitely near the top of the list. Grandma Sue organized all the toys in the house, helping me decide what to donate to prepare for incoming birthday presents, and now that the girls are elementary age, this means they participate. If we are being honest, I believe Reagan enjoys the organization and de-cluttering; Harper and Emerie are often more excited at finding lost toys and vanishing to play with them. The kids cleaned the playroom and helped put everything go in its correct home, organized their bedroom doll kingdom and stuffed animal repository, climbed under the bed to vacuum and got down on all fours to scrub the floor. At one point I heard Harper exclaim I am NOT going under that disgusting bed, with her normal level of indignation, and Emerie and Reagan did the dirty work (literally!). If this wasn’t enough, an (intentional) chocolate milk explosion from a couple days prior meant all four were exiled to scrub the doll spa set in the bathtub. The sour smelling, chocolate milk residue was pretty gross, and I found it by putting my hand in the mushiness of their floor rug, which hasn’t recovered yet. The girls definitely find creative stories to play, but were warned that any more chocolate milk events will equal those toys going into the trashcan. And for the record, no triplets were harmed in the making of a clean house (that might be disputable from Harper)!

Scrub a dub-dub, three triplets in the tub!

It’s not just that all three participate and help clean up our household and will begrudgingly give up toys to donate; it’s more listening to them from another room as the activity occurs. The banter between the four is completely hilarious, even better when you add Craig into the mix. The girls’ reaction to the discovery of something gross, or being reminded cleaning isn’t supposed to be fun, or when one pops out to ask for scrubbing rags with an eye roll; it’s all pretty funny. Watching everyone on hands and knees, scrubbing their dirty floor….that’s pretty priceless.

Spring break wasn’t only cooking and chores- some fun was also shoved into the latter half of the week. Craig booked a pre-birthday trip down to Seward and luckily the weather cooperated and the road through the pass was pretty clear for winter time. My little ladies made the drive down and back with no screen time, fully entertained with coloring, snacking, listening to music and playing with a few toys. It helped that Emerie napped most of the way back and Reagan part of it. Harper was happy to keep those eyelids open and catch Craig snacking on any candy, so she could participate 🙂

The quietness of a town like Seward in the winter is a welcomed break from Anchorage. The weather was perfect, still winds and about 35 degrees, just warm enough to leave the snow gear in the house and explore the beach in coats and boots. We arrived when the tide was coming in, but early enough to spend an hour beach coming and looking for shells. The girls liked seeing all the (dead) jellyfish on the beach; Reagan was picking them up and throwing them back into the water after the first few spottings. Harper and Emerie were NOT enthused.

A couple harbor seals played out in the water as we walked down the opposite direction as the tide recessed. With Harper’s love of seals, and the fact that wildlife always pops out and says hello during our Seward visits, makes it one of the girls’ favorite spots. The open restaurant wasn’t our normal summer stop at the harbor, where we could keep an eye out for the wild animals, but clearly the girls were hungry, because all three scarfed down a whole cheeseburger and french fries. It was a relaxing afternoon and evening and other than the never-going-to-sleep shenanigans, everything went down without a hitch.

And with that, spring break is over and the birthday preparations are a go for next week!

❤

Aug 09

Pre-Kindergarten Fun

And just like that, the final two weeks of summer vacation; meaning the time before our first school year kicks off, means some family adventures and activities to round out the season. I started day one of fourteen with kids home off with a bit of a bang- while Craig went into the office at the crack of dawn, I worked a couple hours before everyone woke up, made requested zucchini muffins during breakfast, completed a couple loads of laundry, packed up lunches and the car, loaded everyone up and drove down to explore the wildlife conservation center about an hour away, AND made homemade, puffy chalk paint, that the girls proceeded to make a HUGE mess with on the driveway (and themselves).

This was our first conservation center visit in quite a while and it was probably the nicest, least windy weather we’ve ever had there. The girls played with stuffed animals and counted waterfalls on the drive down, and saw the train twice! The shrieking for a train sighting woke up Emerie, who had drifted off to sleep. She excitedly watched it out the window and went right back to sleep. Everyone was more excited to pick dandelions and other flowers than get up close and personal with the rescued animals. Emerie walked around the center announcing I’m a triplet! to anyone nearby, whether or not they wanted to know or were remotely paying attention to us. Silly girl. We ate packed lunches at the picnic table by the playground; at one point a hornet- or some kind of massive bee related bug- drove all three away screaming. Now every time anything even close to the same species flies by; everyone scatters. Even dragonflies and mosquitos. Needless to say, there is more reactive screaming now than previously.

By the end of the day I was TIRED from overdoing it a bit, and the girls were asking to go to bed by the end of the night. Reagan and Craig picked up Grandma Sue at the airport and everyone snuggled into their beds afterwards and drifted right off to sleep.

The following day Sue and I packed up the car and headed down to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days of adventure. We are getting quite good at long drives with the kids and made it down in one straight shot, only stopping once for a random traffic backup. No naps, no screens, a lot of snacking and music, and of course, coloring. Tiny notebooks and multi-color pens are great for drives. The tunes for this whole week were the new Little Mermaid soundtrack- the girls ask for the songs Prince Eric and Ursula sing, not Ariel- and a lot of My Little Pony, the movie and the show. I recently introduced them to some “old” techno with Cascada, and they now ask for her by name, and a couple songs from Imagine Dragons. It’s cute that they fight over the band name; Emerie is convinced it is Magic Dragons and Reagan argues it’s Imagine. Harper just asks me to play the magic in my bones song!

The girls were SO excited to see Becky and spend a few nights at her house on the lake. After asking for a solid year, you know since our last stay, they were more than excited to play in the yard and run up and down the stairs. Becky made her fancy pasta salad and brisket and all was well in the world! I may have eaten that salad for breakfast the next day…it was THAT good.

With no agenda for the trip other than to do whatever we felt like whenever we felt like it, we spent day two traveling down to Ninilchik for a quick visit with Cousin Brian and an afternoon in Homer. The farther south we went, the nicer the weather, so by the time we arrived on the spit, it was glorious. After a fantastic late lunch of burgers and fries (and soda sips courtesy of fun grandma!), we explored the docks and looked at boats, walked on the boardwalk and took pictures in about every cardboard cutout, checked out the catches of the day, tested out some sorbet, loaded coat pockets with shells, and reluctantly checked out the swing under the boardwalk, with a high tide underneath. All the random strangers entertained the girls questions and comments, especially those cutting or hauling fish caught that day, and we stopped to ogle at the 109 pound halibut hanging at one of the charters. The girls watched the experts fillet fish and toss the bones, with both interested and horrified expressions. Emerie announced a number of times to a crowd of fish professionals, that she hates fish and it’s DISGUSTING. Harper and Reagan watched with interested but also wouldn’t go anywhere near any of it. Maybe someday we will get them to like salmon…but for now they will eat halibut, especially when told it is chicken!

We left the beach with less shells than our last visit, mostly with instructions that only whole and unbroken shells couldn’t come with us. You can tell the beach is one of their happy places the moment they see one. Emerie is instantly throwing rocks in the water with loud giggles of pleasure, hefting big ones with joy and watching the splash; Reagan immediately hunts for a good stick and scrutinizes the sand for treasures; and Harper hollers after finding each big shell and random bird feathers, which made it all the way back to Anchorage with us. Oh yes.

We tried Face-timing Craig on the return drive and they were so wild, it was just screaming and three kids yelling into the phone all at once. We stopped one time at the only solid fireweed patch we spotted the entire drive, and the girls entertained their mother’s request and smiled and wandered through it for a few photos.

The following day we wandered around the area and searched for treasures at random garage sales. Nothing crazy, but some great scores and a good way to explore Kenai and Soldotna. Grandma spotted an amazing old dollhouse with tiny furniture that was worth more than the fifteen bucks we spent on the house. Packing that into the back of my SUV, with all our trip gear and bikes, was quite the adventure in itself.

After a delicious lunch at a recently discovered restaurant in Soldotna with Craig’s cousin Jamie and Steve, with noodles and oodles of egg rolls, fried rice and broccoli for the girls, we meandered over to the park across the street and did the traditional stroll down the riverbank boardwalk. The riverfront beach area that we played on in June was completely submerged underwater, so instead the girls checked out each fishing group at the bottom of the access staircases. One group caught and released several red salmon and everyone sat quietly at the top of the stairs and surveilled. Another kind lady brought her catch over for the girls to see up close.

Jaren and Savaya stopped by after a bit and broke out their fishing poles, so we put life jackets on the girls and let them carefully walk along the riverbank while the experts reeled some fish. Harper had the one snafu of the afternoon, who lost her footing going down the grated, metal stairway and would have tumbled fifteen feet down and into the flowing river, except that I happened to be standing several steps below her. Some tears, a bloody knee and bruised leg and foot later, and they were back to exploring.

The rest of the day was spent playing on the dock and in the yard, soaking in the sun. With only a light breeze and intermittent clouds, the lake was smooth as glass. Over the three day visit they must have biked the driveway loop a hundred times, enjoying the hill and practicing how to balance on the way down while in traffic. It stayed warm enough for swimsuits and Jamie’s kiddos Amber, Hayden and Maddy swam in the water and played on the floats with the girls. Hayden attempted to catch a fish and bucketed minnows for them to play with. You could hear goofy giggles from afar on the float as the girls sat with Amber and devoured a snack, and also somewhat tortured her! The girls wouldn’t commit to swimming, even given the warm weather and great water temperature- well Reagan tried for thirty seconds and was not a fan- but they did enjoy splashing their feet, scooping buckets, and playing with the dock ropes. Watching Hayden jump off and into the water was also quite the hit; about as much them torturing him on the float out in the water or later on the grass. Lots of snacks, chit chat with family, and silly kiddos made for a nice and relaxing afternoon. It’s wonderful now that we are at an age they can play and mostly entertain themselves and the adults can actually converse with each other! For the most part they fully entertained themselves and played with family. Other than the minor whining and meltdowns throughout the day, everyone was mostly on good behavior and having fun and everyone patiently waited to go down to the dock until adults were ready to go. Kids don’t float!

In case you were wondering, Harper also learned how to whistle this week. She now walks around whistling about as much as Reagan breaks into random song, and it’s pretty cute. She is very proud and also announces to strangers at the store that she can whistle! Reagan and Emerie are less thrilled that they haven’t quite figured it out yet; Reagan’s missing front tooth certainly isn’t helping her learn it. Reagan managed to find all kinds of cool treasures this trip, that would all end up in my pockets somehow. She picked unripe cranberries and put them in her purse, green pine cones, and tons of clover and other flowers so she could use them later.

I also discovered that Emerie still chatters in her sleep; at one point I woke up enough to hear her snap I told you the color was purple! and then settle back down with a grunt. She said another phrase at some point that night, but I wasn’t awake enough to remember it the next morning. Emerie was also a good sport about patching a couple hours each day of the trip, since she does that for the mornings at school. Throughout she was still biking and running around doing her thing, her only request to sit behind me or in the middle in the car, so she can see out the window with her left eye.

More fun activities continue during our staycation before kindergarten starts next week, including a visit to the you-pick farm in the valley and meeting up with more cousins, this time Tyler and Chatum, for a quick lunch and minor torturing. We also snapped a couple photos sitting in Uncle Chris’ vintage teal truck (Reagan has told me it’s hers but I don’t think the boys will agree with that!) and everyone is looking so grown up. Grandma taught them how to climb up the side of a less vintage truck in the driveway (since you know…Tyler has multiple options!), and now all three proudly pull up on the tire and hike a leg over the side of the truck bed and taunt us to come get them.

One more week until kindergarten!

❤

Jul 28

Backcountry Fun & Emerie Eye Update

We took advantage of the first beautiful sunny weekend of the summer this past week; saddest part being it didn’t happen until almost the end of July. On Saturday we went the easy route, going to a local park with lake beach front, and the kids played in the sand and dove right into the kiddie swimming area. The water was “warm” in Alaska standards and I was surprised how quickly they played in it; last year it was received much less enthusiastically. Friends brought floats to play on, teenie-tiny fish were a hot topic for kid conversation and collection- with parents trying to keep them alive and well in water buckets and kids more interested in checking them out- and the ice cream truck stopped by for a nice, midday treat. We played outside for the rest of the day, washed the cars in the driveway and the girls wore dress up and played with their sun umbrellas. We ended the evening picking up the trailer at cousins for the real adventure the following day.

Day two of the weekend continued the beautiful sunshine and 70 degree temperatures so we loaded up two kid and one adult four-wheelers and headed out to Eklutna Lake, about an hour’s drive from our house. When I was a kid the ten-mile road was full of potholes, scary overlooks and absolutely no pavement; these days it’s much easier vehicle access with two lane, freshly painted asphalt. The girls fought over marker selection on their coloring for most of the drive there, and if you exclude the whining, the day went pretty well.

All the kids abandoned shoes and climbed on logs and played in the water a bit. The driftwood teepee on the beachfront was also quite a hit and they happily played in it and tried to build it bigger. Craig became an unofficial four-wheeler mechanic not too long after we were out and about and by the end of the day, he was manually hauling them back to the car due to a variety of issues. The boys in the group, meaning cousins and Kaden, are all pretty good drivers when they pay attention, so parking lot loops and some basic trail riding was a hit. The girls aren’t quite there yet and probably need another summer before we can trust they will go straight by intention; we will get there. We had several kid crashes off-trail, but none that caused any bleeding or too many tears. At one point five kids and an adult were riding the adult four-wheeler- that’s impressive in itself! Craig installing the back bench was the best decision ever and let’s us easily cart four kiddos on the back safely, all strapped in with seat belts.

It was a fun day and we all returned home with new sunburn lines. Now I just hope we can have at least one more weekend with warm temperatures before we head into fall. Harper keeps telling me summer hasn’t started yet. You said summer was warm and it’s not warm. She makes an excellent point and I don’t have a good argument against that!

Emerie Eye Update

Emerie’s eye specialist checkup this week went great after no visit for six whole months! This is the longest stint without an appointment since cataracts were diagnosed at twelve months in her left eye, and the outcome is looking better. Emerie was on her best behavior; I kid you not, it was the smoothest appointment we’ve ever had! She sat all by herself on the patient chair (past demands involved a parent underneath) and told the nurse all the letters she put onscreen across the room. In January she was seeing 20/40 out of her weaker eye, even with glasses on, and this time she was able to see a few of the letters in 20/25! After a couple in that size she declared they are too small to read!

This visit she also listened to Dr. Winkle’s requests obediently and maintained eye contact while holding still. For the first time he looked in her eyes with the fancier equipment typically used for adults- she is getting so grown up. And she did great! Dr. Winkle said patching must continue for several more years. The nurse did a quick light test before the doctor came in, a test that informs whether her eyes are working together or operating separately in conjunction with her brain. She couldn’t see both red and green, which tells us her brain is still fighting the connection between the eyes and patching will continue to help remedy that. He also praised our efforts to patch daily are paying off and her eye alignment is staying straight and not drifting out; if anything she is slightly inward on alignment. This is largely encouraging and means we don’t need another checkup for six months and no surgery on the docket. Very exciting!!

The plan is to continue patching in the mornings like we do now, and giving her a break on the weekends so she isn’t operating with one eye while we go on fun adventures. I’m not entirely sure how well this will go for kindergarten so I plan to see how she does with school while patched, and reassess if we need to start doing evenings or afternoons instead so she has less hardships during school activities. All in all, she does everything her sisters do while patched and it’s really impressive, knowing that eye is weaker and still trying to get stronger. She’s a rock star.

Lastly, in case you were curious, Dr. Winkle’s favorite color is green. This is not to be confused with teal or blue. He and Emerie had a deep conversation about favorite colors, and she loves to talk to him when we go. She also went off on a My Little Pony tangent and discussed the princesses and different ponies; it was pretty funny. His favorite color was quite the topic of conversation later in the day as well, and I could hear her telling Reagan and Harper, Dr. Winkle told me his favorite color is green! It’s not teal like Reagan’s color, it’s green like the color of Mom’s pants today. He loves green. So, very cute.

❤

Jun 24

The Road Best Traveled

For a second weekend in row we headed down to the Kenai Peninsula for a much needed life break, from work and the busy, everyday life we lead in Anchorage. It’s been a solid year since I took a week off from my day job; unsuspecting the tough events at work last year were right around the corner of that trip.

With no gil net fishing allowed this year by Fish and Game, we decided getting out of town remained worth it for some much needed family fun. I still revel at the ease of traveling now compared to last year, and with Grandma Sue in tow, it’s about as close to a vacation as you can get (with kids!). The first two nights spent at the same place as last week meant the girls were already comfortable and familiar and very excited to show Craig around. Everyone slept both nights in their temporary bedroom, which is a feat in itself, and did a great job staying at our other house.

With no daily plan or planned places to be, we adventured and explored as we felt like it. We dilly dallied in the mornings and the kids played, much less structured mornings than when we are at home and getting things done. We popped into the Kenai jump park to burn some energy and strolled the farmers market in Soldotna, playing at the playground behind it and trying out a couple tasty treats. The girls fearlessly slid down the extremely old, metal slide- probably installed when Craig and I were kids and now seen as more dangerous- and checked out the old-school monkey bars. At the market one vendor displayed a beautiful wooden bench with a fishing pole sealed into it; the girls all checked that out with interest at how it would come out for use. So funny!

We walked along the boardwalk of the Kenai River, the opposite direction we explored last year after the car broke down. The chanting of kids don’t float! followed our brigade, since life jackets weren’t on and the adults were carefully paying attention. Dandelions, well really any type of flower, were collected into kid bouquets and carried in hands and pockets for the entire excursion. Little did we know this direction took us right to an warm, open (Alaskan standards) beach area with lots of climbing rocks along the riverbank. The girls tossed rocks and sticks into the water with enthusiasm and explored. With the sun finally showing its face, it became surprisingly warm out and almost like summer was upon us! The girls asked to climb out to the farthest rock and in true grandma style, Sue removed her socks and shoes and walked out barefoot to assist them to it.

At one point a random lady and her toddler approached us, asking if we had seen misplaced keys. Craig and I helped her look around and eventually I luckily saw their reflection underwater, just enough to notice them. So random and glad we could help out a fellow mom that wasn’t having as good of a day as us!

At this point the girls’ “pollen coughs,” as I now call them, were in full swing from the warmer temperatures and our time outside, so after an amazing Thai noodle lunch and a lot of ice water to cool down, we drove around a bit so everyone could settle. This followed our plan to be unplanned, and we drove in a few circles trying to find a random flower shop that potentially sold poppies for Sue.

The one planned event toward the beginning of the trip was to barbecue at cousin Jamie’s house and hangout with almost all the cousins on that side of the family. Even with the mosquito club meeting that swarmed around the yard, the evening was wonderful. Savaya, Jaren and Chatum stopped in for a while and it was nice to see everyone. The girls were all on decent behavior, especially after a busy day of adventuring around a new place, at least until Hayden came home from work. Then like they do with Uncle Will…let the torturous games begin! Maddie shared a stuffed animal from her collection with each kiddo, Harper selecting a pink bunny, Emerie a Stitch, and Reagan a cheetah (or tiger?). Since returning home, all three get snuggles each night at bedtime. The pony coloring books from cousins were also a hit and colored while at the barbecue and for the rest of our trip.

After some delicious grilling by Steve, out came the marshmallows. The girls have tried this activity only a couple of times, so it was interesting to see their response to it for the first time this summer. In the past we just made a point to avoid fire situations, since three tiny running toddlers are hard to keep track of to avoid injury! Ultimately they all just wanted to eat the chocolate bars, which they did, and Emerie gave us a hilarious display of slow cooking hers, flipping it over and rubbing it into the fire pit grossness, and making everybody laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Jaren tried to show her a better method and she was not about to listen. By the end of the day they were all exhausted and immediately crashed after we made it home for the night.

The second half of the trip was spent in one of our favorite spots, Homer. We only spent about six hours in the town last year and I have been looking forward to a longer visit to spend more time exploring and hanging out at the beach. The weather took a turn toward beautiful for two of the three days, so even with the blustering wind, the beach adventures each day were fun. After the drive down that morning we headed straight to Bishop’s Beach. The wind made the girls instantly cold in their light sundresses, coats and shorts, asking right away to go back to the car. But by the time we walked to the water’s edge and looked for shells, they were more excited to find things than complain about the temperature. Well, I should say Harper and Reagan; it took Emerie a bit more convincing but she got there! By the end of that first afternoon, Harper and Reagan were down to bare feet and no coats and creating forts and “kitchens” out of the driftwood; Emerie kept hilariously laying on the ground underneath her coat, trying to take a nap, and wouldn’t take her socks off but abandoned her boots.

The second day the beach was just as gorgeous but the wind was blowing harder. The tide was pretty far out and we were able to walk a good distance and see some larger shells that weren’t visible the first day. Grandma Sue explained other small sea creatures and goodies as she found them, even finding two (dead) crabs at one point, that the girls glanced at and then refused to carry around with them. Buckets filled up pretty quickly with treasures and we rinsed them off in a shallow pool closer to the shoreline, that Harper ended up falling backwards into. This was after her walloping trek across the water a few moments earlier, which filled her boots with water and soaked her lower half, not that it bothered her (that time!)! While I wish we could have spent more time out there, the wind was so strong it was making my ears ache, and eventually we headed off to explore other spots in town.

This rental was a beautiful three bedroom house, so the girls took turns sharing beds. The first night Emerie won the lottery to sleep next to Grandma Sue and the second night it was Harper’s turn. I may have snapped a couple of nighttime photos of them unknowingly snuggling with one another as they lightly snored. When asleep and wearing the same pajamas, they look SO alike! All three did quite well entertaining themselves while we briefly got to relax, or cook, or enjoy the beautiful view of the water and the spit. Everyone spent a good amount of time playing on the front porch and creating forts with the furniture cover and, you know, fighting over it.

While of course we visited some of the touristy spots, which are boring to elaborate on here, one cute adventure was spent out on the Homer Spit, walking around the pier and looking at the boats. Personally I enjoy reading all the creative boat names, but since the girls can’t read yet, they enjoyed looking at the colors, fish in the water, and activity happening before them. When asked one thing they remember from the trip, it is pretty likely to be seeing the rainbow boat out in the water. It caused quite the stir of excitement and we HAD to walk over and see it up close and personal. Grandma convinced them the “dock police” would come and haul them away if they weren’t on good behavior, which included no running and goofing off because kids don’t float! A few passerby’s joined in on that humor and acted like they might be those enforcers. It was great. We also witnessed a random boat tour loading up and asked Captain Bob twenty questions about his boat. Bob was good sport and joined in on the fun.

As we rounded the turn back to the car we spotted several fishermen filleting catches from the day, one a good sized halibut and the other was cleaning salmon heads for a restaurant here in Anchorage that makes soup. The intrigue intensified and all three asked a lot of questions, wanting to get back in there and check it all out. The salmon fisherman was also a good sport, in general everyone we spoke to was so friendly, and brought one head around to show the girls. All three touched the eyeballs, because why not, and Reagan might have licked her fingers after and then wiped them on her dress. Gross! This picture accurately depicts the reactions; I trend toward the same feeling as Reagan when it comes to fish eyeballs. You could definitely tell they were bummed we didn’t get to do gil netting and we received a few questions why we didn’t go.

I am sure I’m forgetting some other cute and memorable things, but I didn’t write them down in the moment and don’t remember now. It was a nice trip, with tired kids each night, lots of treats and candy from different stores and restaurants, lots of coloring and driving and cute kiddo moments. The coveted candy rings from Grandma inspired Reagan to explain to her all knowingly, well you said we could have the candy rings tomorrow and today is tomorrow so we can have them! Such wisdom for first thing in the morning. The drive home was solid fog for the first hour and everyone snuggled in their blankets, ate their full lunches and snacks and finally watched a movie until we made it home.

❤

The Douglets

Triplets in Alaska

adventure