Summer Swim

"This is the day that's today. There's the sun and clouds and wind. And that's me in the pool!"

Max Was Here

The first thing Max does when we get home from anywhere is take off his clothes. All day long he wears just his underwear and socks. And for at least a year, the only thing he wears to bed is a diaper and socks. I keep the house warn, so I have no doubt that he's warm enough. It's become his trademark. I took a picture the other day because he couldn't even wait until he reached his bedroom before stripping down. 

Just now, I overheard Shari Brooke and Max talking about this very subject. It went like this:

Max (standing in underwear, socks and shoes because he was recently outside watching a moose eat a pumpkin on the lawn): I NOT naked!

Shari Brooke: Yes, you are! I can see your cute, little body. 

Max: I NOT NAKED!

Shari Brooke: I see your underwear and everybody's gonna laugh and say, "Where's your clothes?"

Max: No. 

Post-Mortal To-Do List

Scotty: Mom, do all the animals go to Heaven when they die?

Mom: Yes, Scotty. 

Scotty: All of them?

Mom: Yes, sweetheart. I believe they do. 

Scotty: Well, then, the first thing I'm going to do when I get to Heaven is look for all of my roley-polies. 

True Love

As I was hanging the children's art work from their summer classes yesterday, I found this on the back of Scotty's painting. 

It struck me how completely children love, and it melted my heart!

I Have Recently Survived Two Consecutive Years of Two-Year-Olds

A couple of days ago, a smile spread across my face as I realized that I am DONE with the terrible twos. I'm not naive enough to think that this is the end of all my woes, but it's giving me great comfort this week. 

Max celebrated his third happy birthday, which kicks off my month of two three-year-olds. 

Nicole made Max a birthday cake, which, in true Max fashion, he sampled before the party started. 

I bought Max a new shirt for his party. Even though he doesn't like new clothes, I thought he'd like this shirt because of the dinosaur and motorcycle. I told him to close his eyes while I held it in front of him for a surprise. He opened his eyes with a smile on his face, took in a deep breath and then said, "I no like it."

We persuaded him to wear it for the pictures at least. 

Do you love the unusually large candles? Our kitchen is still under construction, and we couldn't find our stash of wax birthday candles. No problem, however. Grant was excited to make several prototypes of awesome birthday candles until he found just the right design. These are the ultimate. 

Max just liked watching them burn. 

I think he would have watched them go all the way down to the cake. 

Max still says he's two, and he kinda still acts like he's two, but I'm confident we'll leave these terrible twos sooner or later. At least that's been the pattern historically. 

It's Time for "Max Was Here"

Many of these events occurred with Shari Brooke. The two of them are practically inseparable these days. 

In underwear/diaper and rain boots. Notice Max is sporting my boots, and there's not even a hint of rain in this hot, dry summer. 

The hooligans torturing me at the mall. The big kids were at art class, so the babies and I ran errands for two hours. This is every bit as difficult as it looks and sounds. Seriously, a two and three year old together at the mall. It's not exactly my idea of fun. 

While we're on the subject of fun at the mall, I'll sneak in a picture. It's called Nordstrom Sale with the ladies. 

Annual tradition, folks!!

While we were entertaining ourselves, so was Max at home. 

That's Shari's bed, but Max's signature. To this day, I fortunately have not discovered any casualties from this event. 

Here's another bed incident. 

Max felt the need to stamp our address on my bed over and over. This, folks, is why I have white bedding. Bleach works miracles at my house. 

Yes, that's my rolling pin being used to make mud pies. Permission denied. 

And lastly, Max came up with this goofy face all on his own. 

And Shari Berry dressed herself up. 

These babies are cute and crazy! They give us a lot of work, nearly as much laughter, and definitely more love!

Our Family Hike

It's been a long time since we all went on a hike together. A friend recommended Portage Pass as a great family-friendly hike. When I think of "family-friendly," I think of a trail that is really more of a walk than a hike, and a trail that is short that the babies can scale on their own so I don't have to carry anyone or listen to complaining. Well, it turns out that Portage Pass was short (1 mile). 

Max took frequent breaks in the middle of the trail. When he needed a break, he simply sat down. 

Everyone needed a break eventually. 

As you can see, Max needed some help for most of the way. 

We climbed 800' from sea level in our mile up the mountain. Before we started, the kids asked if we were climbing to the top. "Oh, no!" I told them. But, "Oh, how Mama is wrong!" it turned out. It did give us beautiful views along the way. 

The best kid-friendly perk of the hike is that the entire mile was lined with wild salmonberries, and the kids partook freely all the way up and down. 

Once we finally reached the top, all of us agreed that it was definitely worth the work! Just look at that beautiful Portage Glacier!

Here's an up-close view that Grant took. 

If you continue another mile, you reach the edge of the lake. I think I'd like to do that trail without anyone moaning (i.e., by myself or with Clint). 

Scotty learned to take a selfie. 

Grant loved this view at the top also. 

I hear there's another trail the takes you to this same glacier, but that is more like a flat road. So that's more what I'm talking about when I think family-friendly. I think it'd be fun to do with bikes. 

Even though the trail was challenging for the babies, we all agreed it was a beautiful Alaska day with our family. And it beat our beach time hands-down!

We drive to Homer with our sand toys, but it was so cold and windy that the most we did out of the car was watch Max and Shari blow bubbles without blowing. 

Shari Brooke said, "Daddy, I want to go on an airplane to the warm beach."  That's Hawaii. And I want to go, too. 

We loved our overnight camp out in Soldotna. It was my first time out this year, the boys and Clint having camped earlier in the week while dip netting salmon. 

I have one last picture to share, and it's of Max enjoying his car drive. Somehow he found a chocolate bar to nibble while holding Scotty's huge dump truck. This is typical Max. He takes care to keep himself happy. 

Scotty's Books

Scotty called down to me before bed and said that he picked out a few of his favorite books to read in bed. 

Meeting Kate DiCamillo

It seems a lot of neat authors find their way to our little town. Twenty years ago, the Alaska Quarterly Review was the first to publish Kate DiCamillo, and it was one of her short stories. Since that time, she has written some of our family's favorite stories, including all of the Mercy Watson books, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Tale of Despereaux. She had to wade through more than 400 rejection letters before publishing her first book Because of Winn-Dixie. 

And tonight, we got to meet her! She was well-spoken (as one would expect), intelligent, charming and hilarious. We had such a fun evening in her audience and in her company for a very short while. 

She said she reads every fan letter, which amounts to about 50-60/week. She tries to send them all postcards back. That's a lot of letter writing!

Boy Stuff

Well, they learned to shoot. 

Scotty's a lefty. 

I have a story about Scotty that I never want to forget because it captures his personality in such a cute way. We've had a large squirrel problem, so our contractor brought us a squirrel trap. Well, since the boys learned to shoot, it has occurred to them that there's more than one way to get rid of a squirrel. One day not long ago, Scotty saw that we had a squirrel in the trap, and he just happened to be target practicing. Clint was at work, so Scotty found me to ask if he could shoot the squirrel in the cage. I was talking to the electrician outside when Scotty approached with his gun and made his request. The electrician said to Scotty in a very sad voice, "Do you *really* want to shoot that cute, poor little squirrel in the cage?"  Scotty looked at me with an expression of incredulity, as if to ask, "Is this guy for real?!" I didn't give Scotty any cues because I was curious how he would handle it. Scotty looked back at the electrician, nodding his head up and down, and said slowly and resolutely, "Yes, I do." Ha! I laughed out loud then and still laugh thinking back on it. I'm glad the boys have learned to defend their territory. 

And never underestimate the fun of a dirt pile. 

More Summer Fun

It's not so much hiking as it is "forest walking."

And "nature-drawing."

When Max can't have mama, Nicole is an excellent second-choice.

We started swim lessons. 

We made an edible chess board. 

Seriously, does it get better than this?

Outside time!

Scotty likes to make scenes for his toys, as if they're really in the middle of their daily duties. Here we have a mini construction site. 

Scotty is becoming quite artistic. He created this seaplane, which we all agreed totally looks like a real seaplane. It even has a propeller. 

And no summer in Alaska post would be complete without a midnight sun photo. One of the boys' windows allows a beam of sunlight to shine right onto the boys' beds at night. Here is how the boys remedied the problem:

(They are sleeping under there!) 

Since she's growing up so fast, here's a snapshot I grabbed of Nicole yesterday before church. 

And just because it's true ...

Happy June!

Summer School!

Today is the first day of our summer school schedule. We decided to try year-round school so that we can spend more time with Daddy throughout the year when he has time off work. 

So to make it special, we are doing a unique activity every day. Today we conducted science experiments ... with fire!

We had our safety gear ready:

There's a hose somewhere. :)

We made fireproof balloons (no pictures) and hand-held fireballs. But only Grant and I were brave enough to pick them up. You can't see the flames well in the photo because it was windy, but you could feel them in your hands!

Scotty wanted to see if cooking oil was flammable, but we didn't have enough heat to make it work. 

Lastly, we conducted a safety drill with the fire extinguisher. We learned when to use an extinguisher, how to take out the safety clip, how far away to stand, and where to aim. Then we practiced!

Ok, now we're all trained! I think it's good the kids know all about the extinguishers now. It takes out the curiosity and fear and replaces it with empowerment. Plus, they didn't even realize they were learning because it was so much fun!!

Here's a bonus picture of Max, who is not fire extinguisher certified. He got a hair cut and a new shirt (it spells "WILD ONE"). I think it suits him well. Ha!