Early morning fun

Since Abe has no sense of weekends, he woke up this morning around 6am. And since Neil's basketball games are insanely early (at 7am) we decided to go out and watch. It was like the BA times (before Abe). Last year I attended all of Neil's games, so that I could go to swimming afterwards, since we only have the one car. Abe and I had a good time watching his daddy hoop it up. He was 5 for 5, with 10 points. It was a pretty good game. Neil's team won. Abe and I helped by keeping score. (I accidentally forgot to turn the clock back on at one point, so the boys got a bonus 30 seconds of play)

Yes. Neil really does wear those dorky glasses while he plays. And yes, his shorts are see-through.
Neil's team was wearing maroon.

Baby cheer squad.

Babe in the Snow

Ever wonder how to keep a baby warm when it is COLD outside? In addition to Abe's snow suit I've been strapping the sheep skin around him with bungee cords when we go out for walks. It seems to work pretty well. Abe is always nice and toasty when we get back home. To keep his cheeks and little nose from getting too cold I've been putting lanolin on it. He's a regular sheep.

The bottom picture is at Cheney lake near our house. Two guys are drilling a hole in the ice to catch some fish. Other people we've seen with these little portable houses that they set up over the hole.

Banjo and Me

The other night we watched Marley and Me on Netflix. When I say "we" I mean Neil, me and Banjo. He (Banjo not Neil) was really into the barking. Banjo seems like a saint compared to Marley!

Every night around 5:15 Banjo senses that Neil will soon be home, so he goes and waits by the door.

Just for fun

I decided to try on Abe's sweater that auntie Sarah made for him. Still a little big. Any wagers as to when it will fit him? My guess is sooner than at first thought.

Happy Birthday Abram!

Today Abram turned 5 months old! In the morning we went to his music class, then in the afternoon while he napped I baked a lemon meringue pie. At 5 months Abe has two teeth poking through. He puts everything in his mouth. He's quite vocal and laughs a lot when he's tickled. He still loves splashing around in the bathtub. And he's getting good at jumping around in his new jumparoo!

Abe poses in his jumparoo while we sing happy birthday to him.
The monthly Banjo/Abe pose. Someone's gotten larger.
Abe chewing on the teething ring in the tub. Best of both worlds.

Neil's Graceful Descent

Jared captured some video of our sledding adventure this weekend. This is me going over the jump - not so gracefully. It's sure to give you a laugh when you watch it.

I think my hat shrunk!

Weekend o snow fun

This weekend we had fun in the snow! On Saturday we went sledding with Kari, Jared, Rachel and Tracie. Jared found this really great sledding track at a place called prospect heights. It was a narrow little trail so it seemed like a luge trail. It was pretty long, but dropped probably about 100 feet in elevation. At the end there was a great jump. Abe and I didn't get to go down, but everyone else (including BanMan) had a great time. Banjo ran up and down the trail. At first he was able to run in front of the sled and it would chase him, but then he got too tired and had to chase after them. Needless to say, he was really tired at night.

Neil, Abe, and I left before everyone else, and went home to warm up. Then everyone came back for some hot cocoa. Later in the evening we went to a party for swimming. It was at this really cool 3 story house. The center of it was open, so there was a tree growing through all three stories. It was fun hanging out with all the swim crowd.

Today we went on a walk around Cheney lake by our house. It was around 9 degrees out (I finally hooked up my weather station). It was fun to get out of the house though.

The boys down the trail at Cheney lake. It kind of looks like Narnia.

Moose on the trail.

Abe can almost sit up on his own now.

Laughing Monkey

Check out Abe and Mom this morning. Emily got him to have some good laughs.

A sad day

Today while I was driving to swimming I had to stop in the middle of the road to allow a young moose to cross the road. The moose seemed oblivious to the 45 mph traffic driving by. It crossed the 2 lanes going westbound and then stood in the median in a big pile of snow and then right as some cars driving eastbound came right up to it, it decided to jump right out into traffic. The poor moose was thrown up on top of the suv and then bounced off the hood and landed on the road. The impact made the poor little guy poop, so this poor moose was laying down on the icy road with a bunch of bouncing moose turds around it. I'm not sure if it was okay or not. I didn't want to cause an accident by stopping in the middle of the road. And the moose was at least okay enough to get up and walk back to the side of the street. My first instinct was to call 911, but then I realized that they probably wouldn't care (There's a sign going out to Palmer that tallies the hundreds of moose that are killed each year.) Poor beasts.

Neil asked me to report that he played basketball at our friend Jared's church tonight. (He's also playing in their league, which plays every Saturday morning at 7 am.) He had a good time tonight. He even won Super Bump, whatever that is. Consider yourself informed.

The Way-Back Machine

Here are some classic early Alaska pictures. These must have been taken around March of 2008, not long after I arrived. Be warned - they're not for the faint of heart.
Banjo used to be so little. Not any more.


Here are some classic early Alaska pictures. These must have been taken around March of 2008, not long after I arrived. Be warned - they're not for the faint of heart.

H2Oasis

It had been suggested to me that you can take your baby to Anchorage's indoor water park, h2oasis, so today Neil and I decided to take the little boy. One thing we should have considered was that today, being Martin Luther King Jr Day, meant that all of the school children were also off. So, the place was pretty crowded. This time Abe's swimming experience wasn't quite as fun for him. The water seemed colder and I think he got way too over stimulated by all of the noise of the people, water, etc. So, each time we'd try to take him into the water he'd have the most pathetic little face and quivery chin. We stayed a little while and hung out by the pirate ship. Arrrr.

On the way home we stopped off at Babies R us to get a high chair for Abe. Although he's not eating solids yet, he does like to join us at the table when we eat dinner. So, we got a "space saver" seat, which fastens to a normal chair. Tonight we tested it out and dinner went way more smoothly. Both Neil and I could eat at the same time without either of us holding a whimpering baby.

I had some cool pictures to include, but alas, last night our camera took a turn for the worse. Neil was trying to get a picture of Abe in the bathtub, and in the midst of arranging all 9 of the rubber duckies, he dropped the camera into the tub. I was looking for an excuse to get a new camera and now we have one.

Weekend happenings

This past weekend was busy one. On Friday afterwork (Neil’s work that is) I picked him up and we met our friend Dan at the Moose’s Tooth. The day before was his birthday so we treated him to pizza. It actually turned out to be the gift that kept on giving, because we used the gift card that the Lorimer’s gave us for our birthdays. Thanks Lorimer’s! It was great. We had half McKinley (which was a special one with lot’s of meat—Dan’s girlfriend is a vegetarian so he took advantage of her absence by loading on the carne) and half Brew House Special, which is Neil’s favorite. We even had enough dough on our card to get a growler for the weekend.

On Saturday we had a day of athleticism—started by Neil. He is playing in the league at Jared’s church again. So, he woke up early for his 7 am game. Apparently his team is really good this year. Neil only scored 2 points, because his back was hurting him.

After Neil got home I headed to the pool for my “Postal” swim. This was a masters event where you swim as many laps as you can in one hour. I’m not really sure why I signed up, but it was good to get back in the swing of things. I ended up swimming 3645 yards (just a little over 2 miles).

Then I went home for lunch and then went off to my skate ski lesson. (Thanks gramoo!) It was a lot of fun, but I’m far from a natural. It was pretty tricky. I’ll need plenty more practice. The lesson was at Kincaid park where they held the Olympic trials just that week. Kickan Randall, AK’s Olympic skier, was there to help coach this huge girls ski clinic thing. It was really crowded, but pretty fun to watch. (There were definitely many 7 year olds with much more skiing talent than me.)

At night Neil went to his friend's house for a Christmas tree burning party. He took our tree and Banjo. They had fun hanging out by the huge bon fire (our tree was too alive though and didn't shoot up in flames like all of the others). Neil stood a little too close to the fire and his sleeve of his coat caught on fire. Now it has a big melted hole.

On Sunday Neil’s back was still sore, so Rachel (who just returned to AK from a 3 month stay in the Philipines) Banjo, Abe and I went snow shoeing. Little Abe is not so little any more. He now weighs over 18 pounds, and he was very heavy in the Bjorn. So we didn’t go too far. Rachel was nice enough to take Banjo.

Rachel and BanMan. During the summer you can view salmon in that lake.
It was really cold out, but nice and clear.
Banjo looking inside a hollow tree.
Pictures of Abe, just 'cause.
Abe was having fun playing with the camera.
Such a serious look.

Sadie "Bear" Locke 11/17/94 to 1/8/10

Sadie was our family beagle. We got her and her sister Bessie when I was in the seventh grade. Supposedly Hannah got them for a Christmas present. We didn't end up keeping Bessie at our house too long, because two puppies and Otis made for too many dogs. Bessie went to live at my grandparents house.

Sadie was a true hound. She would follow her nose anywhere. This also meant that when given any opportunity to sniff her surroundings she'd take it. Many people throughout our neighborhood personally knew Sadie, because she would run away and they would end up finding her and calling us to come get her. Sadie loved walks. Even in her old age she'd transform into a puppy when she heard the word walk, or if she heard the closet door open where we kept her leash.

Sadie also liked food. She had a ritual with my grandma, where whenever she heard her come she'd run to get a few cookies.

For the past several months Sadie's health had been declining. She seemed to have something wrong with her stomach, perhaps cancer. She had gone deaf, and her legs would give out on her sporadically when she was walking. But, even when we were in Seattle for Christmas Sadie still had her frisky stints where she'd run around like a little puppy. We'll all miss Sadie (even Clave). She had a good long life. R.I.P Bear.


Pictures of Sadie walking in the pet parade around Eastlake in 2007.

A stroll in the park.

Sadie RIP 1/8/10

Libby

Feelin' groovy!!!!

Our little hippy baby.

Neil trained Abe to watch tv.

Bath time fun! This is how Neil and Abe spent their New Years eve.
Abe taking a soak in his pot bath to make his legs feel better after his shots on Saturday.

When Abe is Neil's height

Since New Year's Day seems to be destined to be filled with lot's of football (boring), I made a little math project for myself. If Abe were to grow to be as tall as Neil, but with his current proportions, he would have a calf that was 22 inches around (Neil's calf=15.75"); a thigh that is pretty comparable to Neil's 27" and 23", respectively; and a stomach (measured at the belly button) that is over four feet in diameter (Abe stomach=51", Neil stomach=35").