Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tale of the Missing Turd

Abe has been eating so many solids these days, and it shows! (in his diapers that is) Yesterday Neil was changing his diaper and called me in for back up to dispose of said poop. But for some reason when I got to the bathroom with the diaper the turd was gone! I looked and looked, but could not find it anywhere. I started yelling at Banjo, thinking that he must have eaten it somehow while I wasn't looking. We were sure it had disappeared, until Abe moved his head, and low and behold...there was the turd. Chillin' out next to Abram's head.

Babies make it okay to post poop stories on the internet.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Crisp 'N Juicy

No that is not the name of a strip club. It's the name of this sweet chicken place by Jimmy and Mary's in DC. I think it's Argentine, or El Salvadorian. Jimmy got some chicken for us for lunch for the US-England World Cup game. The chicken was way tasty, and it came with two different kinds of sauce - yellow and orange. Ahhh, to live in a real metropolitan city again where you can get GOOD ethnic food...
If we're not putting pictures of Abe or Banjo up on our blog, we're putting up pictures of our food! This chicken lived up to it's name - crisp and juicy!
Jimmy and Mary have three cats - Lucy (or Snout as she's called), Olivia and Rudy. Abe had never really been around cats before. They were very interested in Abe, and Abe liked them too.
The cool thing about staying at a friend's place who are about to have a baby is that there are lots of cool baby toys around. These were soft blocks that could make a giraffe. Abe loved these. I would attempt to juggle them (unsuccessfully) or throw them at him. Hey, they're soft, and he liked it.

Lunch wasn't the only thing Jimmy brought back. We had told him of our adventures of playing Settlers of Catan with Teresa in Homer, and Jimmy's sister had told him about the game before. So when Jimmy returned with lunch, he also returned with Settlers of Catan. So of course we played a few games Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night. But Jimmy didn't stop there. He also downloaded Settlers of Catan on Mary's iTouch and plays on his computer. Mary says we've created a monster.

Between games of Settlers on Sunday, we drove to Baltimore. It's only a 30 minute drive. Being from the West Coast where other major cities are at least 3 hours away, it blows my mind how places are so close to each other on the East Coast. We went to the Inner Harbor and toured around. Apparently that the only real thing to do in Baltimore.
We toured around the Baltimore Aquarium. It was real cool. I hadn't been to an aquarium in years. Here is Emily putting on a little costume for Abe (and our) amusement. I think she makes a pretty good fish!

Sadly, our time came to an end on Monday morning. Jimmy was nice enough to get up at 4:45 to drive us to the airport (Emily's flight left at 6:45, mine at 7). Of course Emily's flight was delayed because it didn't have a flight crew, which meant she missed her connecting flight in Minneapolis and had to walk around with Abe for 6 extra hours. But everyone got home in one piece at the end.

Little Buddy Turns 10!





Thursday, June 24, 2010

Under the Midnight Sun





We went to the latest baseball game in the world played under natural light. It started at 10:30 pm & got done at 2:00 am. (We didn't stay the whole time.) Fairbanks beat the Military Reserve team in extra innings.
21 hours & 50 minutes of daylight. It never really gets dark. More time to celebrate my birthday. Too bad I don't really celebrate birthdays. We had a dinner of pulled pork (my choice) with lava chocolate cupcakes. Thanks to grandma for my one present to open. (This kids got us dance lessons earlier.)
Putt Putt golf at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. Emily was the winner with a score of 53, which included a hole in one. As you can see, Abe seems to be a natural.

They learn how to ride ATV's young in Alaska.It's about 10:30 pm at the Fairbanks Summer Solstice festival, which lasts until midnight. It's the biggest event of the year. There were numerous food & craft booths & several music stages.Father's Day Dinner of steak & lobster in our vacation house in Fairbanks. It was a really nice house with a view of the valley. Every room had it's own bath & the kitchen had all new SS appliances in a very large combination living/dining room. It may have been built as a B&B. We played a lot of Settlers of Catan on this table.
Long, story,but this is the cabin we were supposed to stay in Chena. We couldn't get in because we didn't have the combination to the lock. It looked like it would have been fun. At least Emily will get credit towards another rental cabin.
Since we couldn't get in the cabin, we stayed at Chena Hot Springs Resort, which wasn't too far. This is the Yurt that Hannah & Jacob stayed in with Banjo since dogs couldn't stay in the hotel with the rest of us. The hotel wasn't much nicer than the Yurt, but a least we had a place to stay. It wasn't until about 9:00 pm that we got here.
Abe likes the water, however, he swam a little too hard & fell asleep in the pool.
Here we are up on Angel Rock, which was about a 1.5 mile hike in Chena. We had to put on a lot of misquito repelant to keep from getting bit.


The Rock Pool at Chena Hot Springs. The temp was similar to a hot tub.


Abe on a plane in Talkeetna on the drive up to Fairbanks.
Mom & I went to Denali on the way back to Anchorage. We saw several wolves, which is pretty amazing since there are less than 100 in the 6 million acre park, several grizzly bears, a moose, fox, cariboo, golden eagles & mountain sheep.
The Raging Grannies at the Seattle Center during the Folklife Festival. (This has nothing to do with Alaska, but Grandma doesn't have her own blog.)

Guest Post by Grandpa

Monday, June 14, 2010

Lexie in DC

While we were in DC we met up with my old friend Lexie. I'll write more later, but I have to pick up Abe and Emily (and my bags). Hooray!

Lucky I was able to get a hold of my good friend Lexie while I was in DC. Emily, Abe and I visited her at her apartment after my training on Friday afternoon. We were able to rest and relax and catch up. We walked around Lexie's neighborhood (it's pretty freakin' sweet living in a real city - where there are cool parks, restaurants, and even embassies all within walking distance). Lexie took us out to this real sweet El Salvadorian restaurant. I had some paupapas (I'm sure I messed up the spelling) and Emily had a sandwich. Even Abe got in the mix and had a side of avocados. Lexie told us all about living in DC, her wedding (she just got married in April), and her husband Marc. And Abe was even able to take a min-nap too.

After visiting with Lexie we went to Jimmy and Mary's. Jimmy is my old college roommate. We hadn't seen Jimmy and Mary since Dim Sum after our wedding. They are excepting their own little Abe in less than three months - except theirs will be a little Mia. For dinner we went to this Korean restaurant. Jimmy said that the miso soup had been described to him as "a midget dancing on your tongue after he's stomped in dog shit". With a description like that I had to try it. It tasted like normal miso soup to me. I had some BeBimBop and it brought me back to my travels in Korea with Scott 8 years ago for the World Cup.

Lexie, me, and Abe.
Lexie, Emily and Abe. I think Abe might be a tad grumpy.
Mary and Jimmy at the Korean restaurant. Jimmy and Emily each had some meat on the table-top grill. It looked pretty good.

Nationals and Pirates

Last Wednesday Emily, Abe and I met Jimmy and Mary to catch a Washington Nationals baseball game against the Pirates. It was Abe's first baseball game. We had really good seats, but we didn't sit all the way down the aisle because it was raining a bit and we didn't want Abe to get wet (it was a little rainy). The Nats won and we had a great time, even though we missed Stephen Strausberg's start by one day!!! Arghh...that would have been so cool. They sold out for the Strausberg start, but there might have been 12,000 people at the game we went to. It was nice b/c we had lots of room to spread out and put Abe's stroller. Now I've been to a Washington Nationals game and a Washington Capitals game (my only NHL game with my Dad by in 1999). Now I just need to go to a Redskin's game and a Wizard's game, and I'll have all the DC-sports teams in person in DC.

Here is the happy fam in front of Nationals Park.
Mary, Jimmy, Abe and me. I figured since we were in DC I should sport my old school Murresan jersey. That's Gheorghe with 2 H's!
Abe likes sitting in his own seat.
Check out our seats. As you can tell, not a whole lot of people at the game.

Trailer, Sweet Trailer

This will be a little out of order, but I am now back home in Anchorage. I say "I" and not "we" because Emily and Abe are currently flying 34,000 feet above Canada on their way home. Emily's flight was delayed because they didn't have a crew (wtf?), which meant she missed her connecting flight in Minneapolis. So instead of arriving in Anchorage at 12:15 PM, Emily and Abe won't arrive until 6 PM tonight. I arrived at 1. At least this gave me some time to run to Costco and get some food.

And of course when I got into Anchorage, the stupid airline lost my bags AGAIN!!! They lost it on the way to DC, and now they lost it again on the way coming back. Are you freakin' kidding me? You'd think when you pay close to $100 to check your bags they'd be able to actually give them to you on time, like you pay them to do. Good thing the FBI is paying (if I can find my receipt).

Once I get Emily and Abe, I'll go pick Banjo up from his home-away-from-home. It will be nice to have the family all together under the same roof again tonight. And I'm sure Abe will like sleeping in his own crib again (I think he's been on the road 12 out of the last 14 days - what a little traveler!).

P.S. - I'm listening to the M's - Cardinal's game and the Mariners are garbage!!! Hitting the runner with the baseball at a play at the plate, are you kidding me? Way to squander that 2-0 lead to make it 6-2. Check that. 8-2.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Forgot one!

I guess I didn't take any photos in the zoo, but we did get this one outside of Starbucks, right outside the zoo. What a strange looking dog.

Molly and Chris in DC!

Last Friday Abe and I flew cross-country to our nation's capitol. It is both of ours first time here! Abe was a charmer on the 6 hour and 2 hour flights. I was a little worried, because Neil didn't fly out to meet us until Saturday, but he did great.

are kind of famous). We also saw a zebra, gorillas (including a very playful baby gorilla), a butterfly exhibit, and a bunch of other animals. Abe mostly enjoyed people watching. On Saturday, while Neil spent the entire day flying, Abe, Molly, Chris and I went to the Smithsonian zoo. It was extremely hot out! We saw the panda bears (which unbeknownst to me. In the evening we joined Chris's brother and his girlfriend for a nice picnic in the park near their apartment.

The next day we all toured the national mall. Again it was extremely hot and humid. Poor Neil had to wear his long pants, because our luggage was lost.

My shirt got a lot of comments!



Chris and his brother got a kick out of feeding and playing with Abe.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Kenai Fjords National Park

On our way back from Homer we took a detour to see Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. It's the only part of the park that is accessible by road. After living in Alaska for almost 3 years now, this is only our 2nd national park that we've visited. The park had a little visitor's station and a ranger how took us on a guided walk and trip up to the bottom of the glacier. He reminded Neil and me of our professor from Whitman (Drabek)--such a nice grandfatherly figure, with a very peculiar way of talking. After the glacier visit we drove the rest of the way down the seward highway to Seward, where we had some gelato and walked around and enjoyed the HOT weather.

This is as close as banjo got to exploring the park. No dogs allowed!
Exit glacier

Pretty cool backdrop for a playground.

Teresa's Visit in Homer

Our friend from Whitman, Teresa came to visit last week. She gets the prize for being the first non-family visitor of ours in Alaska! That prize was a trip to Homer. We drove down to Homer (around a 4 hour drive) and hung out at our condo. The weather was great! We hung out on the beach, walked around the spit, tasted some mead, and played Settler's of Catan into the wee hours of the night.

We saw this street sign on our drive down to Homer, and said how we had to stop on the way back to get a picture. Amazingly, Neil remembered where it was!

Banjo and his new best friend.
Abe eating at the 2 sister's cafe. Yummy!Banjo loved the chuck-its on the beach, although he couldn't figure out why the water tasted so bad!



The view from our apartment. Pretty hard to beat that. Plus, Banjo loved the enormous backyard (which stretched onto the beach). As those of you who traveled to Homer with us a few years ago may remember the steep hill you had to climb to get up from the beach, it now has a nice stair case.

"I've had enough!"

"Oh...but if you take out the camera I'll crack a smile." (Banjo wanted in on the photo too.)
"I'll even put my foot into my mouth."