First Camping Trip of the Year- at Least We Tried

We even made the Sitka news... May 8th, 2010
This was what met us when we finally tore ourselves from the whales (pictures coming soon)...
"Danger!! Garbage/Pest bear terrorizing cabin!! Not affraid of flares, horn, shotgun, etc. Drinks from water collection system. Broke into cold box. Loves butter.
5/7/10- 5/8/10"

To support this claim, we found 6 spent (new) shotgun shells, and 2 from a 30-30 (that task kept the boys out of the glass that was everywhere). There was some blood smears inside the cabin, where food was scattered all over- we suspect from the bear stepping in the glass from the window he broke.
This is the cold box they were talking about...
The latrine... must have had food down there.

A table that was in the way...

It was lots of fun cleaning up the glass from this.

With the kids running around, even for an hour or two, we couldn't leave it all over.
The other windows- glass popped out (unbroken oddly enough)

Some of the sills were damaged- some weren't...

This widow was the only one left in place, though you can see, not exactly for lack of trying.

It was one determined bear.

The door was still attached, though not as solid or secure as it was before...

Door jam ripped apart...

The old wood held up alright... up until it splintered.

A clear claw mark...

You can see the cabin's sign in the background, along with some coat hooks.

That should give a bit of indication how high up this was.

We naturally didn't stay- mainly for the kids' sake. After of few days of phone tag and sharing information and pictures, the Forest Service agreed to refund our money. And once they went out and looked over the place, decided to close teh cabin for a couple weeks until repairs could be made. I don't think anything has been decided about the bear considering it's classified as a remote location. In fact, they had planned to relocate a troublesome town bear out to that area. That is not happening now. As soon as we find out what's going on with that, we'll decide if we can try that site again. It is truely a great site... beach, trees, cleared area, great fire site, even a giant hammock that Austin thought was the coolest.

Not Fast Enough

The boys raided the fridge while Brett and I were eating lunch. Not happy with thier choices they took matters into their own hands. Shane came out with his big Camelbak bottle of milk. Austin wasn't as sure of what he wanted and came out with the full bottle of lemon juice and didn't believe us when we told him that it wasn't what he wanted. He set it by his side while they watched cartoons and played around. Every few minutes he would pick it up, test it's weight, then notice our attention on him and put it back down. Again and again, he'd make a move with the lemon juice- even going as far as to open the lid and peek into the funny liquid. Again, Brett's question of what he was doing stopped him from anything more. Then came a moment when we were both just a bit too distracted, we saw the bottle go up, only for a second.
Oh the faces and crying. It was hilarious!
Brett is just weird enough to offer Austin the lemon juice AGAIN!

Brett's Fun- ask him

Coming Soon

I've been trying to talk Brett into doing a post with what he's been up to- all the cool pictures from his training trips, especially the Fairbanks Extreme Weather Survival one that he did in March. I really ought to know better by now. So, once this crazy week/weekend is over, I'll post pictures and y'all can bug him with questions until he writes something. In the meantime, I'll be able to get pictures of the boys and some beautiful spring days up. And by the time I get through all that and all caught up, I hope to have news for all y'all about the baby.

Coolness

We got stuck in Hidden Falls an extra day due to wind and as we tried to think up something fun for the kids to do, my Uber crafty friend just happen to have some Plaster of Paris hanging around.

Austin's handprint in the star.
Shane's handprint.

They were fascinated doing it, and it was fun to do with them. I know you can get those baby ones (which is where the star mold and the idea came from) but I had lousy luck with the one I tried with Shane- so I'm super stoked about these!

Easter!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Beagle (yes, re-read that) visited our house.

(the bananas are an attempt to get something healthy down them before they attack the candy. It worked with Shane, but led to a screaming fit with Austin.)

Surprise!
When Shane took off to look at the eggs, Austin was still admiring his basket and bunny.

Immediately, Shane started organizing the eggs according to type- real vs plastic, size, and coloring- the reg dyed vs the painted ones.

Talk about OCD!

Austin had fun finding them in all the odd places the Easter Beagle hid them.

So did Shane...

For a while, Mom was base, and all eggs came to where I sat on the stairs. Then they got to be sooo many...

That I moved the whole lot to the center of the living room-

And made sure they'd gotten every last egg.

Shane (after his banana) went straight for his chocolate rabbit- which is odd since he's not much of a chocolate fan. He methodically removed and ate the bunny's carrot, then it's candy eyes, and then cut off the poor things ears (there was no tail otherwise I'm sure it'd have been on the removal list).

A little later, we ALL got a surprise.

The Easter Beagle had struck AGAIN!

Thanks to our Home Teacher couple who like to spoil the boys shamelessly.

Then Shane had a very nice idea.

They would hide all the painted/dyed eggs for Dad to find!

They did a great job hiding them, and helping Dad get them all.

Although, by the time we got to the last couple they'd forgotten where they'd put them and had lost interest in finding them anyway. Those were the hardest to find too. It took us over 1/2 an hour to find the last one.

Then I took the cracked and damaged eggs and started on a tray of devilled eggs- Brett's favorite egg food. I got all prepped and then had to sit down, so Austin decided to finish the job for me.

He actually did really well and had that one not flipped over (he got filling on his fingers trying to fix it and needed help in getting it off) we wouldn't have known what he was up to!

Later on, when Mom and Dad were snacking on the devilled eggs, Austin decided Dad needed soem direction. It was too hilarious watching him carefully select an egg half, scoop a bit of filling and fill the egg, hand it to Dad to add the paprika, and then ORDER him to "bite, bite!"

Another Easter gone, Shane is still asking to paint Easter Beagle eggs every day.

The only down-side was that I didn't feel up to going to conference

(and my little laptop isn't up to it either.)

Easter Prep

We did the requisit egg dying, both with our friends in Hidden Falls and here at home.
Points to remember-
-Easter Unlimited dye is silly. You have to use warm eggs and can't refrigerate the colored eggs or the dye "will become wet and may stain". LAME!
-If there is a dye problem, a good soak in water will wash it off the egg (Austin proved it for PAAS dyes too).
AFTER we got the eggs dyed, I got the dried eggs and let Shane and Austin go to with real paints on them (acrylics)

Shane was fastidious, made very colorful eggs, and barely made a mess...
Austin mixed his colors, got paint all over his hands and tummy, and used his paintbrush water to soak the eggs, maybe to wash off the paint? He gave up after only a handful of eggs and asked for a bath.

It's kinda silly, but I really loved how they turned out!

though the picture doesn't quite do them justice.

I think we'll make this a fun tradition, maybe someday we'll get some really creative ones.

Family Time

A sad thing happened Friday before Easter. Brett's last surviving grandparent- Grandpa Milo passed away. It was the same day the kids and I got back from out trip cross-island and Brett's Christmas and Birthday gifts showed up, one of which was a new gun (Kimber). The positive things helped Brett keep from losing himself in the sadness, and he wanted to spend time with us. So we all loaded up and headed to the firing range with Dad!
Shane was suddenly on a hunting rabbits kick. I'm not sure where it came from, but Shane was convinced he needed to shoot rabbits. We knew that wasn't going to happen, so we stopped at the Orions (the outdoor store) and got a target for him to practice on instead. Too bad there were none rabbit-shaped.

Dad only had to arm the gun for Shane, who did pretty good aiming down-range.
Austin needed a little more help, but managed to get the trigger pulled on his own.

And to top off the fun, after Dad and Mom had thier turns shooting the .45s, we all got to hunt around finding all the .45 caliber brass that was lying around. The boys got pretty good at recognizing the .45s among all the rest, even the .40s.

Just A Kiss

Boys WILL be boys, and often that means accidental injuries. Heck, it's a kid thing.
Austin had a fun moment during a game the other day. His forehead met the corner of the gun safe. You heard the thwack but at the same time, knew that the contact hadn't been too intense, just "kissed" it a little. The goose-egg was there before I even reached the poor little guy and pretty well gone by bed time.
Bit of a reminder... over the last couple years there has been NEW first aid rules for kids with "head injuries" like this. When you were a kid, momma would put ice on bad lumps and knocks, to keep the swelling down. But, due to the somewhat-recent deaths, the great THEY looked at the first aid measures again. NOW, the rule is to NOT put ice on heads, especially kids' heads. They've found that the bump will swell regardless of the ice, the ice merely reduces the outer signs- instead the swelling goes inside, putting pressure on the brain (which we all know is bad). So, forget the bag of frozen peas, and stock up on the best first aid tool there is- HUGS and CUDDLES!

Bett's Birthday

Since Brett was off up in Fairbanks for his ACTUAL birthday, we celebrated the old man when he came home. But Dad's not one for big social situations... unless there's kareoke! (A total surprise for everyone, I know.)

Austin IS his father's son!
You can kinda see in the back there- Our buddy Troy who, when told there would be kareoke, swore up-down-back-and sideways that there was NO WAY under heaven we'll be getting him to sing... he he he... YOU might be next!

Makin' Dad's Birthday Cake

Yes, neither was clothed and they were only in it for the beaters.

Like father like sons!

A Tissue Issue or Ode to a Loved One

After 27+ years of life I have made a very interesting discovery about myself this month. I hate tissues. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against blowing my nose, though I wasn't a fan as a kid probably because of those bits of toilet paper and paper tissue that you're supposed to use. I haven't thoroughy thought out the whys and wherefores, but I imagine my hatred for tissues is based in chapped noses, stuffed pockets, and hands full of boogers.
So what to do with stuffed sinuses and gushing noses? Well, as a mom of boys, sleeves and t-shirt hems work in extreme emergencies. A bandana works in a pinch, though even the best most well-used and worn of mine chaps the nose after a while. Actual store-bought hankies are rare, though work fine if a bit on the thin side. But the very best has proven it'self to be a scrap of memory.
A number of years ago, I got a pair of leopard print flannel PJ pants at Wal-mart. They were incredibly soft and warm and 2-3 sizes too big. Eventually they ripped, and I held on to them until a stroke of genius and desperation inspired me to turn them into a Halloween costume for Shaner when he was 2. (Austin wore it last year too!) My kids are the most adorable leopards ever and I'm immensely proud of that little costume. There wasn't much material left over from the pants' reincarnation but enough to make a headscarf for when I was feeling edgy (gotta have leopard print once in a while).
But, life goes on. One day in utter desperation of something to help clear my poor chapped nose that was gushing all over the place, I reached for the nearest unoccupied scrap of material- and my headscarf became my go-to-booger-catcher. It's substantial and soft, no more chapping for me! The only downside is the fact that I have to wash it- and don't have it during that time.

In fact, I'm contemplating making everybody one for Christmas. Share the Love!

Aprons

My friend over in Hidden Falls (hatchery on the other side of Sitka island) is a crafty nut and MADE all Christmas gifts this year. I didn't get a shot of mine or Brett's but these were the boys'. They were pretty thrilled and one day I will actually remember to get them to wear them when helping me cook.