Rain Rain Go Away

Forecast for the next five days...rain.

Days Like These

When every day starts to feel like a Sunday, and you can spend the entire day outside, without paying a single thought to the growing pile of laundry, or the unmade bed, you know that winter is officially over.

This morning when I stepped outside, I could smell rain in the air. The ground was dry, but that comforting scent hung on the breeze, nothing can quite compare to that smell. I can't help but stop on my way to the car, close my eyes and breath in deeply, letting it fill every corner of my lungs. Even though I knew that the rain was still near, the sky was blue and cloud free, and promised to me, with a warm gentle whisper by my ear, that it would be a beautiful day.

These are the days meant for barefoot romps in the driveway, and hands covered in dirt and sidewalk chalk. The kind of days where odd looks from the neighbors are thrown in your direction, as your kid tears around the front lawn, on a sugar high from the blueberry ice cream that now covers his face.

Few things bring me joy more than days like these.


These are father and son "playtime" days








And that scrumptious afore mentioned, Alaska blueberry ice cream - not to be consumed in small quantities =)



And when days like these start to cool down, and the sun sinks slowly behind the trees, they give way to evenings spent rolling around the living room floor. Evenings where you can't even hear your thoughts above the laughter of my wonderful little boy. But when he laughs, it's the only sound in the world I want to be listening to anyways.



And then, at last, as evenings always do, they fade into night. And we wash away the dirt from the day, and we spend a few moments with the ones we love, quietly, soaking them in, thinking about the wonderful day behind us.








And then it's off to bed, to dream about the possibilities of tomorrow, and the adventures that the days that follow may have in store - and hopefully those days, are just like this.

Prince Charming

Sometimes a girl can have more then one prince in her life..

Just Passing Through

Every spring and fall here in Fairbanks, we are greeted by the familiar sound of the geese flying into town, in their traditional V formations. Fairbanks is home to Creamer's Field, which was once a long time working dairy farm, and is now a migratory waterfowl refuge. Every spring and fall on their long journey, the birds make a stopover here to rest their weary wings.

Wednesday was a blue sky, warm breeze sort of day. Just warm enough for a little pair of shorts, on a little pair of legs. We loaded up in the car and drove over, in search of some "dees" as Wyatt calls them. I rolled down his window as we pulled in, and I could hear the excitement building in his voice as his eyes caught the sight of the hundreds of birds on the field.

His little legs ran so fast, I was certain he would take off at any moment, if it hadn't have been for the small wooden fence, he would have been right there on the field, basking in the sun with them. We watched for a few minutes before walking around to get a better view of a pair of swans that we spotted. They honked at Wyatt, and Wyatt honked back, such a simple language, and to Wyatt, I'm sure the language was loud and clear.

The refuge also has great walking trails, that in the summer are surrounded by tall green grass, then weave gently back into the shaded woods, and through the wetlands. My good friend Will met us there and all three of us ran through the trails and the grass after each other for about an hour before our legs needed a break.

We worked our way slowly back towards the car, Will and I chatting while Wyatt walked ahead, looking back every few steps to make sure we were still there. Will lifted Wyatt up to the fence so he could give a proper goodbye to the geese, which consisted of wild hand waving, followed by blowing handfuls of kisses out in their direction.

We pulled out of the parking lot, Wyatt's head craning to see behind him as the birds faded out of sight, and drove home, just in time to greet Daddy as he arrived home from work, and to show him Wyatt's first (of many I'm sure) skinned knees, which by the way, didn't phase him at all.

And tonight, Justin is working one of his few night shifts of the month, so Wyatt and I are left to fend for ourselves. We both felt a little beat from getting up early this morning. So a long warm bath was in order...followed by playing with stickers =)

After Bath Yawns

Wonderful days, with my wonderful family, and hopefully a good nights sleep to follow.

RICH

Speaking of rich, check out the new floor in the picture! Things are in the wrapping up process in the bedroom/living room remodel and will hopefully be done in the next day or two! I'm ready to put my house back together.

First Day of Shorts

Today we crossed the line into what I officially consider Alaska summer weather, at 65 degrees. It's so nice to see numbers in the 60's, but did I mention the forecast for Tuesday is possible snow flurries!? Wonderful unpredictable, Alaska.

I watched my niece and nephew this weekend while Justin's sister went out of town, and let me tell you, I'm glad I'll have a few years to adjust to being a mom of two before I have to jump to three, it was a long weekend! But, since the sun was out and shining we were able to burn off a lot of energy running around. Sunday we had been playing for about an hour, and Wyatt's face was beet red, so I figured, it was time to make the move to shorts, yet I was a little disappointed when I realized that I don't have any shorts that fit me!!! So it was just shorts for Wyatt.

Going for a drive

So Wyatt always offers Maggie sticks....

...And then freaks out when she takes them, like he's trying to get her in trouble! =)

Would you like to take a look at this ever-expanding belly of mine that can't fit in shorts?? Well here it is, 29 weeks and counting..

18 months, 85 days, and oh yes Easter

My days lately have been very busy. I am down to three more weeks of classes before finals so most of my free time (aka when Wyatt is asleep) has been devoted to school work. I am counting down the days until summer vacation!! We also dove head first into another house project. In preparation for our addition (both the baby, and on the house) we are re-doing our bedroom which will become the new baby's room. We tore down all of the walls and replaced the insulation and sheetrock, and now it is currently being put back together, with paint soon to follow. Next weekend we install our new laminate wood floors in the living room!

Wyatt finally had his 18 month well check - a little closer to 19 months. He weighs in at a whopping 28 pounds 4 oz, and is 33 1/4" tall!! Since his last visit for his ear infection just a little more then a month earlier he grew two inches and gained two pounds! This puts him in the 75 percentile for both weight and height! Grow Wyatt Grow!

Easter was, as every other holiday with our family is, a lot of fun. We gave Wyatt his Easter basket at home in the morning..

..which was fun for a few minutes until he remembered that there was an empty toaster box to play with - that occupied him for a good bit of the morning!

(check out his slippers I made him!)

Later that afternoon, after a quick at home hunt- which was a wonderful surprise set up for Wyatt by our awesome neighbors,

We headed to Justin's Grandparents house for Easter dinner and festivities. Dinner was egg-cellent as usual. And Wyatt had a blast hunting eggs with his cousins Lilliana and Haydn.

See you again next year Easter!!

And last but not least, the countdown is on. There are only 85 days left until my due date! I welcomed the third trimester last week with open arms! At first I thought, 85 days sounds like a lot, but then I thought, that's about 12, weeks, which is only 3 months, then I thought about everything left to do in that short three months, then I thought I better just stop thinking about this and get to work! July will be here before we know it!

In Color

After a walk with our doggies this afternoon, we came back to the house to play. The yard still has some snow cover, so we have the driveway to play in, but it seems to be all Wyatt needs. Today on our grocery trip I picked up some sidewalk chalk, not surprisingly though, the bucket they came in was a bigger hit than the chalk itself.

He tried it out for a minute, but taking all of the chalk out of the bucket and rolling them around in the driveway is just more fun.

And see this...this is my privacy fence! 22 "mammoth" sunflowers with growth potential of 7-12 feet. It will be a far better sight to look at then my neighbors unkempt back yard.