First field trip

Today we went on our first field trip with Axel's preschool. We went to Pryah's farm in Palmer AK. The kids got a story about were veggie's come from and all the things you can cook with them.
Getting ready to board the hay ride. Axel was super excited to ride on the blue one.

These are the first fields we've seen since we moved here. I think there is one dairy farmer in the state. You never see a corn field when you drive-only forest's and mountains. It's weird for a MN girl!
Picking potatoes right from the ground!
Very different from MN fields and farms
Axel was super happy to see a tracker

Fresh carrots. Yummy
Of course Abel's always along for the ride! He did really well on the hayride but got scared and cried when every one yelled "Yeea-Ha"! Soon buddy you'll get to eat veggie's too!

Trick or Treat in the Heat

Today we went to a benefit for a boy that endured childhood cancer. The story is that a little boy, Ian, wasn't going to make it to his next Halloween so his neighborhood put on it's own Halloween earlier. It has been going on now for 6 years. It started for a sad reason but the kids love being able to treat or trick and not have any snow on the ground. September is childhood cancer awareness month.


There's music and dancing in the streets!

Playing in the bounce house



I was worried about how the baby would do? We were so luckily to have a beautiful sunny day.
Abel was really in to the trick or treating
Here is Axel after a candy rush! I wanted a picture of his chocolate face and this is what he gave me.

Denali National Park

On the way to Denali. It was about a 5 hour drive from Eagle River AK. (counting the 3 stops we made) The boys did very well in the car that long. Abel ate each time we stopped and was ready to get back in the car. Once we made it to our hotel every one was ready to be done with driving!
Axel taking a break in front of our hotel. Road trips are so much fun.
This is our hotel-on the edge of a cliff-right outside of Denali Park. The hotel was call Grande Denali Lodge. It had an amazing view.

Driving through the park. Fall colors were out in full bloom. It reminded me of northern MN-besides the crazy mountains every where. Down south AK where we live the only fall colors we see are yellow and green. Up north the is the reds and oranges that I love in MN. Um..yes we are talking fall already here! Yikes...the summer goes way to fast and it's even shorter in Alaska. In Alaska every one watches the mountains for the weather predictions. This time of year you start talking about termination dust. Meaning watching the tips of the mountains for snow fall. Once you notice it on the top on the mountain you can watch it slowly-or not-make it way down the mountain until it's all over the ground. :( The weather has been starting to get cooler. It's been around 50-60's and rainy with lot's of fog.
The sunset over the mountain. A view from our hotel.
Mt McKinley-or Denali is another name for it. It's the highest point in north America at 20,320 feet. This one always has snow on it! You can only drive 12 miles into the park in your own car. If you take one of the tours you can go further in the park-all the way to wonder lake. We didn't do any of the tours-the shortest one was 8 hours on a bus. I didn't want to push that with the baby. It was still a really cool drive.
Some of the wild life we saw. Brian was super bummed that we didn't see any bears but we saw probably 8 moose and we saw one fox. I have seen 3 bears now in Eagle River driving to work. I even got to see a momma with two cubs (black bears). Kinda crazy because it was only about 2 miles from our house!
Me and my boys on a hike in Denali. The weekend turned out great. No rain and the weather was a balmy 60 degrees!
Axel and Brian at Savage River.
Savage River-the end of the 12 miles that regular cars can drive to. You can see the buses driving past the mark and making their way further into the park. Next year I'd like to try one of the bus tours. I heard they are really amazing and you get to see a ton of wildlife.
Abel and dad snuggling on a trail. Abel loves sucking on his hands. He won't take a Nuk at all but he loves his fingers.
Axel hiking at Mt Vista trail head. He loves being the leader. Brian was looking for bears and Axel was looking for dino's. Luckily we didn't find either while we were hiking.
Me and my boys at the south view stop area. (view of McKinley)
It was a great weekend. A little tricky with a baby in the hotel room, but he did great and so did Axel. Axel is having a great time with pre-school. He loves to be social and to learn new things. Abel is growing so much and even giggled this week! Brian got to hear the first one on Monday and finally today I got to hear one!! It was so cute.

We love our Thursdays!

Abel and Axel playing with dino's.
Abel is starting to be able to grab things. I love Thursday's because it my day off during the week! :) I start the day off going to preschool with Axel 830am to 1130am. We then go get lunch for dad (some great like Mc D's or pizza) and head home. We all eat lunch together and get to spend the rest of the day lounging around the house. I couldn't ask for more.
Axel's guy he painted at preschool.

Axel's new gun. Brian couldn't help himself when he saw this one. A shotgun-just like dads!

1st day of preschool

Axel all ready for his first day of preschool.
He was SO excited! He has been wearing his backpack for at least 2 weeks now!
Thumbs up Mom! I'm ready!!
Axel had a great first day. He met some new friends, read books, learned a new song and even got to play outside. He can't wait to go again next week. The song he learned was about apple trees. He thought it was very cool that he got to tell every one that there are a lot of apple trees in MN. Most of the kids in his class had never picked a apple right from a tree!
Of course I had to throw in one picture of the little brother. Abel had to stay at home with Dad while Axel and Mom got to go to preschool. It was really fun being a helper for his class. I will help on Thursday's and Axel will be on his own on Tuesday's. It was fun watching him introduce himself to every kid. He is NOT a shy kid, well at least when Mom was there. It'll be interesting to see how he does when Mom's not there. On Tuesday they get to do show and tell. I wish I could be there for it! Axel is already picking out his toys.

12 weeks

Abel is 12 weeks old today! He is a really good baby. He smiles all the time, loves to eat and well sleeps like a baby. Which means he doesn't sleep much. Who ever made up the saying slept like a baby? When I get a chance I sleep sound and could sleep for ever-a baby only sleeps for 2-4 hours and then gets up again. The saying should be sleeps like a mom! He did sleep 7 hours last week-only for one night. It was wonderful but I woke up in a panic.
Batter frying some of our Rock fish that Brian caught this summer. Yummy!
My two boys :)
Axel showing off his tricks
I can't believe that I missed a over a week on my blog. Life has been really busy. Back to work and every thing that comes with it. Breast feeding is still going very well. I only made it to 4 months with Axel and was having a hard time keeping up the last month. I've been bring home about the same amount that Abel eats and then when I'm home he only breast feeds and doesn't take bottle. I have to give props to any women who ever tries to breast feed. It's a big commitment, but I'm super happy that things are going well for Abel and I. (and it saves us on formula costs) My goal is at least 6 months-so far so good. Work has been crazy since I've been back. I work at a Pediatric Oncology clinic. (kids with cancer) We had 6 new diagnoses when I was on leave and 2 more since I've been back. We do case management for all our patients along with giving chemo and caring for the families. It's an amazing new clinic that is growing a ton. Before six years ago any child that got cancer in the state of Alaska had to leave the state for treatment, now they get to stay in state. Which is really cool. So needless to say Prayer for all the bald children! It makes me so grateful for all the health we have in our house.