G'parents Wisconsin

Here's Ed at g'ma and g'pa Wisc's house playing with the 40+ year old toys. I love this picture. Can I just tell you how nice it is to visit g'ma and g'pa's house (in both Wisc. and Ohio) and not have to worry about a crib or stroller, or even toys because their houses come fully stocked. What a treat!
Part of the stocking is with balls of course.
He plays this game at home, but it doesn't work as well on wood floors--he pushes the laundry basket all over--loads it up and unloads it full of stuff, like a little train or bus. I had a ton of great pictures of him doing this, cracked me up.
Here we are at the community pool. Took Ed just a short while to get acclimated and then he was in for good.

I did discover that 96 degrees with no a/c is not as bad as I had thought when the humidity is not too much. Helped to have afternoon dips in the community pool.

As usual, Ed did a great job with the whole trip. His hair has definitely become blond. He is such a flirt with the flight attendants. When he will not smile at anyone else, he will laugh, giggle, and carry on with them. And they seem to eat it up.

Homeward Bound...

Here's a couple snaps of Ed playing out on the back porch.

I must have written too much on that last post, cause even Auntie M, who I can always count on for a comment didn't have anything to say :)

We leave tomorrow for a whirlwind trip--3 cities in 5 days. Fortunately for Eddie, it's just 2 cities in 5 days. We head to Wisconsin for Den's high school reunion (I won't say how many years, but lets just say there are college students who weren't born yet and he has some classmates with grandchildren (!)).

Then on Sat. we head to Ohio to drop Eddie off at my parents while we head to Pittsburgh for the wedding of a dear friend of mine. Happens to be our first night away from Eddie. I'm so excited, but feel a bit bad for g'ma and g'pa Ohio as Eddie rises for the day shortly after they go to bed for the night. Monday we drive back to Ohio to get Eddie and then fly back. Whew! We're tired just thinking about it.

When we were planning the trip it sounded like it would be a bit rough after Alaska, but I don't think we anticipated how rough it would feel. Eddie was just getting back into his normal schedule and must be cutting some teeth, because Dennis just about needed a tetnus shot this evening.

With all that traveling, not sure what time I'll have to post till we return...oh and did I mention it's supposed to be 96 degrees in Wisc. --a temperature that used to be so rare, Den's parents don't have AC. Den says he never remembers it being that hot growing up--does his memory serve, or has it been tooo many years since his high school graduation?

We've historically managed to dodge the bullet and had beautiful summer Wisconsin weather--but I believe we'll sleep in the basement. :) I definitely encoutered 90 + degree days in my time growing up in Florida and occassional heat-waves in Ohio--I remember being at girl scout camp in Florida and the temperature reached 107. My parents only let us turn on the AC at 90 degrees--once I could prove to my mom the mercury had hit 90. I think a heat-loving chick such as myself might even wilt.

17 months

Eddie is playing 'catch' with his friend Sharon. He was giggling hysterically, although I'm not sure these pictures show the degree of his amusement.

He even would fake out, like he was going to throw the ball and then wouldn't, or would fake that he wasn't going to and then would. He was playing a lot of games.

Here Ed is spoon feeding himself some yogart at b-fast. See the post below for discussion on this.

I'm 2 days late on this--was a hectic weekend--the kind that started out with not much to do.

First and foremost, language skills. Ed developed quite the vocabulary in Alaska. He now has, in addition to 'ball', 'bear'--likely only for use in Alaska, mama (this is a definite, before I think he'd been playing around), daddy, banana (so maybe we are the only ones who understand him on this one), balloon (ba'-ga), bamm (as he throws something), bottle, bye, and two non-'b' words that we can think of at the moment-- 'eye' and 'duck'. It's pretty exciting how adept he is at communicating.

His walking has become more steady, although he still takes a good tumble at least a couple times/day. He's really getting into what is a fun age for me. He's so much easier to care for than when he was an infant. He is so completely obsessed with balls and frankly anything spherical--like a hidden Mickey at Walt Disney World, he finds 'balls' in everyday objects and things we just don't see.

He is trying so many new foods now, it's hard to keep track. I'm trying to not only balance giving him the ocassional sweet, but also not spoiling him with meals that are specifically made for him. Ed is also supposed to be learning not to throw his food from the table. He can usually take bites off of food, like a bite of a sandwhich and can self-feed in this way. One of the more exciting developments is that today he started self-feeding with a spoon. Previous attempts consisted of him shoveling something into his mouth and then throwing the spoon to the floor with glee. He seems to have started to move past that stage. Course now I'm having to retract my Feb. 26, 06 post about eating utensils as now many of them are coming into play. I've pasted the link below and at this point at least, retract what I said about their frivilous nature--some seem to actually work at this age/stage.

http://watchusgo.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_watchusgo_archive.html

He still doesn't care for ride-on toys, loves to look at books, loves to throw objects, climb stairs,and go down slides. Today he went down a pretty big slide at the neighborhood park. It was a curvy slide about 5 feet tall. He set himself up at the top, under my watchful eye, then I told him to wait and then I hopped down to the bottom of the slide to catch him. He waited each time and aside from starting to tumble forward on the first run, seemed to eat it up. Oh, and he really enjoys throwing things down the stairs. I have to admit, it's fun to watch them fall, and see what happens. He dropped rocks down the slide, which isn't a big deal, but it's just not a habit I want to encourage at home.

We think he may be entering a growth spurt as he is eating a lot more and sleeping more for his naps--he logged over 3 hours today, which is just unheard of for Eddie. We'll find out at the doctor's apointment next month...

I'm sure there are tons of other developments, but those are what come to mind. So far the only fallout from Alaska seems to be that he crys a bit before falling asleep, which he didn't used to do and he is pooping his pants about 5 times/day.

The Fish Have Arrived!

Den with his 7# coho Salmon off the coast of Juneau.
The fish from the processing place. Shipped fedex on ice. They left the skin on--ewe! Den vows when Ed is older to take him on a fishing trip to Alaska. I don't know how he expects to go to Alaska without me, unless I'm dead of course.

Here's Ed -- who of the three of us has migrated the quickest back to east coast time--or so we think. Thank goodness.

While we were in Juneau, we took a rather spur of the moment 1/2 day fishing trip while g'ma and g'pa Ohio babysat Ed. Juneau is just about the last coastal area known for fishing in Alaska, but we had the time, the childcare, and the opportunity, so we went. In the streams, my understanding is that there are basically 2 runs of salmon, and it depends on the river and the type of fish as to when they run. Basically for most of our trip we were between "runs" of fish, swimming upstream to spawn and ultimately die after doing so.

At any rate, we (Dennis) caught a 7 # coho. There was a couple from New Zealand who caught a pink Salmon and they gave it to us as they couldn't ship it back due to customs. There were 2 guys from a cruise ship and one of them caught a King Salmon, which is a mighty good catch in these waters--at least everyone we told was impressed. Really I should say they reeled them in because this one kid works his tail off, sets up 6 poles trolling off the back of the boat and we took turns each time one of the rods had something on it--which happened 3 times for 3 fish--I don't think we lost any fish, we just weren't catching them like crazy. When it gets to the boat, the same kid knocks it with a blunt instrument to put it out of its misery and then when things settle down, he guts the fish. I've definitely seen my share of gutting and 'bleeding' of fish. Woo wee.

We're HOME!!

After a remarkably uneventful trip home, the worst decision of which was deciding to take public transportation with too much luggage to avoid sitting in rush hour traffic home from the airport. It was 90-something degrees outside, a shock to our system from the 50s and 60s we'd had the last 2.5 weeks and hauling 2 backpacks, an overflow bag that contained my camera and Eddie's toys, 2 large suitcases, a stroller in a bag and a bag for a carseat that had been transformed into the overflow suitcase so we didn't exceed 50 pounds in the regular luggage. I shopped remarkably little on this trip, mostly buying postcards, save for a couple books for Ed.

While we had a good time, we were all happy to get home. I think nobody more than Eddie, who excitedly ran from toy to toy as if he was greeting long lost friends. After 2.5 weeks of bad bedtime/nighttime behaviors by both parents, Eddie is having a difficult time adjusting. Den put him to bed basically every night and changed most of his diapers and in general was lead parent on the trip, so if Den even left the room for a minute, Eddie would (and will) burst into tears and hysteria. There is nothing I can do to comfort him, he just wails with big tears streaming down his cheeks. Sobbing and inconsolable, I am dependant on Den's return. Talk about a turning of the tables from the first 6 months when I was the magic comforter.

Ed doesn't know this, but he gets me all day tomorrow, so it could be a long morning. Yikes! Sure wish I knew why he was so touchy--so unlike Ed. I hope to post pictures from the trip once we get them loaded onto this computer.

Goodbye for now

I was finally able (I hope) to post a couple pictures. These are from a couple mile hike to Exit Glacier outside of Seward. You could get right up and touch the glacier. Course they don't want you to do that and there are signs asking you to stay away, but of course everyone was right up with the glacier.

There were bear sightings in the days leading up to our taking this trail and even a couple the day we went on it. I almost didn't want to make the hike, for fear of getting between a mom and her cubs.

Den carried Ed the whole time on his shoulders and I sang kids songs and nursery rhymes to ward off bears and entertain Ed. Den probably thinks seeing the bears would have been less tortoruous.

Not sure when next I'll have both internet access AND time. We're supposed to be home in a couple days--unless they offer us an amazing bump on the way back. From the Homer Spit...

Homer, AK

Writing as I watch the waves role in from Kachemak Bay. If it were about 30 degrees warmer people could be playing in the water. Right now, everyone is wearing coats and just walking along the water. We got one of the better camp sites, right on the beach. Den and Ed are playing in the rocks, which is pretty much the composition of the beach. This whole trip, Ed's main entertainment has been playing with rocks.

Today we hauled from just north of Seward all the way to Homer. It was 6 hours total including several stops, so about 4 hours of real driving. Today Eddie let us know it was too long to be in the car. We are thinking of staying here through tomorrow afternoon just so he doesn't have to get in the carseat again for a while. On the way over, we stopped along the way to view the Kenai River and Russian River, renown for their salmon fishing. Unfortunately we are between runs and not much is going on, except a bunch of dejected fishermen. There are exceptions, but again, not much to see.

Homer is sprawling, with no real downtown, just a bunch of little concentrations of businesses. We're camping on the Spit, at a place called the Homer Spit Campground, I'm sure you can google it. What I've decided to do is eventaully file a report with pictures for each day, right now, I have a couple entries ready to go, so will fill in.

We've been talking about what we'll do on a return trip to Alaska when Eddie is either older, or completely out of the nest. We've certainly had a great experience, but missed doing things like bear watching, more fishing, and there have been several float trips that would be fun. I'd say 90% of the rivers we've seen flow like they are at permanent flood stage. It's pretty cool to see, the water flowing at such a good clip--seems like it would make for nice float trips--just not for a baby. This week as flown by, but now that we've gotten the whole RV travel thing under our belts, I would love a summer to just drive around an RV in Alaska, staying at places as long as I felt. But that will have to wait for retirement...

Greetings from Talkeetna

Here's a view of a glacier from today's ski plane ride. I took about 250 pictures and Den about 50 during a 2 hour ride. Looking at these makes me think of a road in a City during rush hour. Yet someday it is will be a river. It was breathtaking.

The blue you see in this picture is of the glacier where there are pools of water in direct contact with the glacier ice. These areas really stand out. The blue makes me think of a child's drawing of a blue sea.
This is our trusty airplane. The peak just to the left of the propeller is McKinley. It has a cloud just about obscuring the peak. We landed uphill with plastic sleds stuck upright into the snow (6 feet worth) serving as runway guides and then took off downhill--starting at about 5500 feet. Pilot at a couple points had us up just above 12,000 feet. What a blast!

Later in the day, we went down to the Sustina River and let Eddie throw rocks in the river for at least an hour. It was a fast-flowing river and these pictures were taken just before it's confluence with 2 other rivers.

G’ma and G’pa Ohio left this afternoon to go back home. Their red-eye flight should be leaving soon. We had a great time with them. They were game for just about whatever we---or Alaska---could throw at them. Today was probably the highlight of the trip thus far. We took a Beaver ski plane (type of aircraft) and flew from the town of Talkeetna (62 degrees lat) to Mt. McKinley/Denali NP. We circled the mountain and then LANDED on a nearby Glacier—Ruth Glacier.

Wed. (tmr) we are heading south to the Kenai peninsula—an area south of Anchorage that is supposed to be a microcosm of the whole state. Eddie is still feeling a little dicey, but we’re hopeful a week on a more regular schedule with foods more to his liking will help. It doesn’t help that he is cutting his fourth tooth. Pretty soon he’ll be 2 up and 2 down.

Got wifi at the campground. It's 11:40pm and still light out. Hard to go to bed when it's light so late. I feel exhausted, but can't get myself to sleep.

Adentures in Alaska

Just a quick post to bring you up to date:

July 4: Eddie acting weird, threw up a little overnight and then a little more in the morning. Checked out of bed and breakfast and headed to the local museum that was supposed to be fabulous. Eddie yakked. Completely covered himself, got his carseat and managed to get mom and dad during the clean up. Think g'ma and g'pa Ohio in the backseat managed to avoid coverage.

G'ma Ohio discovered the museum we'd saved for this day was closed on July 4 even though we'd been assured everything in town was open. Hence no paper towels with which to clean Eddie.

Skip ahead to afternoon: Ferry was supposed to leave Sitka en route to Wrangell. Called on July 3 to confirm. Showed up at the terminal 3 hours early to find the ferry had been CANCELLED.

Lost cell phone in back of car behind taillight--in parking lot of ferry terminal. G'pa Ohio had to crawl under car and reach up underneath to retreive. It wasn't lost where you change the light.

July 5: Chartered 8 passenger plane to Wrangell. Not the way we had planned to see inside passage. G'pa Ohio thought he'd died and gone to heaven. G'ma Ohio was afraid she would die. Eddie slept from about taxi to after we got to the hotel in Wrangell. Nice homemade dinner at hotel in Wrangell.

July 6: wee hours. Mom didn't feel so good--puked in the middle of the night. Early morning, while mom laid in bed, green, Ed puked up his freshly drunk milk--somehow it managed to curdle quickly. Got dad all over his pants and the floor of the hotel. Thought dad was going to puke too from all the activity. Took a ferry ride that morning for an hour (unlike Sitka, hotel we were staying didn't have room for us for another night) and then a 45 minute ride on a dirt, then curvy paved road. Slept all day in hotel while everyone checked out the town.

July 7: Mom much better. Rode out by boat to LeConte Glacier. Took some hikes in the afternoon. Watched a kid and his dad catch 3 or 4 HUGE king salmon in about 20-30 mintues. One was 34 or 36 pounds. Got a biology lesson too as he gutted them.

Have seen eagles like we see squirrels back home.

Hope to update with pictures soon. Have taken about 500 in spite of illness. That's just with one camera--not including g'ma and g'pa Ohio.

We're Here!

We're here! Ed did real well. We'll know exactly how well by how late he sleeps tomorrow. We're about to fall asleep for the night and Ed has been out for an hour or so. Den says he's very excited to have reached his 50th state before 50.

As we were flying in, I began to realize what makes Alaska so spectacular, so far anyway, from the plane it was just mountain after mountain after mountain. As far as you could see. In the distance they were snow capped jagged peaks. In the foreground they were not as snow capped, but every bit as jagged. It's 1:00am our time.

Gave Den the SLR to take pictures out the window. Now this is a man who isn't a big picture taker and I wondered if he was going to smoke through a memory card in the 40 minute flight. He barely dropped the camera from his face. People were perring out in both directions, as I looked up at the rows in front of us, nearly all the heads were turned to the windows.

Ed fell asleep just as we rolled out to the rental car. Here he is before we put him in his porto-bed. The other is as we were flying into Sitka.

G'ma and G'pa OH get in tmr. We haven't decided what we'll do tmr or the next day, but there is plenty from which to chose. We'll have internet until we take the ferry on the 4th, then I'm thinking it will be at least 2 or 3 days of silence.

How to kill 4 hours in an airport

SEA-TAC, AKA Seattle airport has this GREAT softplay area geared just for kids Eddie's age. Den and I have been taking turns chasing Eddie around and keeping him corralled in here. We decided to fly to ATL last night so as not to have to get up for a 6am departure. So glad we did that, we got 9, count 'em, nine hours of sleep last night. It wasn't completely uninteruped, but pretty close. Something about still trying to settle your child to sleep at 10pm that gets you to lay down with the lights out too.

So I have to tell this quick story. We went to take care of changing our Alaskan Airline flights yesterday at the airport. There was this rather "artistic" seeming couple checking in next to us. They had a parrot in a cage and kept talking to it. My ears perked up when they said the parrot had a seat. I'm not kidding. The ticket agents were trying to remain unpulsed. The couple had 6 bags and were reasoning that because their bird had a seat, they didn't have to pay for the extra bags. The agent said she'd have to look into this.

Den is standing there, trying to make me laugh as we listened to this couple discuss their bird's seat. The agent said that she wasn't sure how to check the bird in. She said on American Airlines, for whom she worked, they no longer allowed birds on flights because of Avian flu. That she was even trying to treat this as casually as she was certainly was laudable. As we walked away, Den wondered how they were able to buy a ticket for the bird. I guess they just put the name of the bird in the blank.

Well, it's about time to go. We have about 3-4 more hours to go. Till next time.

Alaska or bust

We got to the airport around 5:40AM today. We left the airport about 8:30AM--via cab.I will try not to be bitter, but basically the flight was delayed, we'd have missed our connections and the gate agent took 2 hours to screw us out of even getting underway to Atlanta because he took so long that we were unable to make our original, yet delayed flight. Den thinks he gave our seats away immediately when he began to look for other options. Needless to say, we're pretty ticked.
We're trying to make the most of it--I mean how many times do you get to make a dry run for a trip like this? We are not touching our bags--no second guessing on packing or anything. They are sitting in the living room, awaiting tomorrows taxi.

We're going to meet up with Eddie's buddy Eli for a dip in the pool later this afternoon and then hopefully all of us can have a nice good nap after getting up at 4:30 this morning. Tomorrow, we'll get to wake around 4ish to make a 6am flight. The real frustrating part of this is that if we had just taken the flight to Atlanta, knowing we'd miss our connection, we could have spent the day in Atlanta with relatives and then slept in till at least 6 or 7am tomorrow for the flight to Seattle. UGH.

Apparently this is a really crazy holiday weekend this year. Ironically Dennis thought the airport would be dead. Taxi drivers said they were out of cabs and had been busy since 4am.

Hopefully the next report will be either of the pool, or from Alaska...