KTN...

Well, Ken and I made it up here...with some good and poor luck. Good luck: fifty miles outside of Prince Rupert, a trailer tire blew up on us, and we had to drive into town without the boat to buy a new tire then drive back out to put it on the trailer. Bad luck: two dry bags were stolen out of the boat in Prince Rupert. Well, time for some new clothes...

This past weekend I went up to Sitka with three of the captains to bring two of the boats down. I was with Amanda, who will be my captain this season, and we had quite the trip. We got out of Sitka and into Chatam Strait, into four to five-foot following seas, and ended up taking three huge waves over the bow (green water over the bridge). The water blew out the front window on the lower deck, and we had to pull into Warm Springs for repairs. We ended up only making it to Petersburg that night, and the rest of the way to Ketchikan the next day. The last couple of days I've just been working on cleaning up and repairing minor things on the boats, and will continue doing so until we have to bring more boats down.

Hope everyone is doing well. My cell phone works here if anyone feels like giving me a call. Plus we'll have a regular phone line hooked up in the next few days. Our new number is 907-247-8589. Adios.

Today's just been one of those days

Eli is a character. I got him ready for bed & he decided to tackle Hans & tickle him. Except Eli's "tickles" are more grabbing pinches & we really only laugh because he's so dang excited about it all. He laughs so hard when he thinks he's getting us. Then Abby's ready for bed & I'm following her into her room to tuck her in when Eli comes racing past & climbs into Abby's bed before she does & starts pulling the blankets up over him while looking at me & saying, "please?" He wasn't terribly disappointed I didn't let him stay there thankfully. However, before he could go to bed he had to find his baby since Abby had hers & wasn't about to share. Then off he trots to his room clutching his Dee & his baby boy happy as can be.

Maybe Abby will potty-train Eli

Hans brought the potty home a couple of days ago. Eli's at the age where he's very curious/proud of his "pee-pee" & we thought it'd be good to have the potty around for him to try out if he feels up to it, just so he gets used to the idea of using it. Anyway, Abby has taken it upon herself to decide that Eli needs to go potty & run him to the bathroom, undress him & get him situated on the potty. He thinks it's great since we then all have to troop in to cheer & tell him how great he's doing. So I got tired of waiting for Eli to finish sitting on the potty (nothing was happening & you can only cheer for sitting for so long) & I knew he'd come out of the bathroom when he was finished. Well, Abby stayed in there encouraging him ("Just go pee, Eli.") & then comes running out clapping, "Eli peed! Yay!" I go back there & Eli's squatting by the potty playing with 4 drops of pee in the bowl. Disgusted & yet still cheering the drops of pee, I reach for Eli to clean him up only to have him wave me away so he can sit back down for more cheering. It's been about 5 minutes now & he's given up again & is currently pushing Abby around (she's sitting in the Tonka dump truck) with his little naked bum & bits airing. How are you all coping with missing this?

Say "silly foots!"

Abby's feet are sneaking into her pants. "Silly foots!" She's getting dressed after her bath to wash her hair since she had her first swimming lesson this morning. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it. She was a little nervous waiting to start, dripping from the required pre-pool shower. By the end, her little transluscent body took on a purple/bluish tint as she shivered waiting for her turn to jump to the teacher. Abby even tried putting her face in the water. I think she managed to get her mouth & nose in--the rest of her face didn't go, but she thinks it did. Eli was a pill during Abby's 1/2 hour lesson. Last summer, he freaked out about the swimming pool, climbing up my body as I was holding him so the water wouldn't touch him, even with Hans & Abby also in the water. Today he wanted to be right next to the water's edge & would get mad at me for holding him back. Eli loves taking baths, just not ones with bubble bath (he can't cope with those bubbles--he screams & won't put his legs down to stand) & not ones with water higher than his belly button. You always hear "every child is unique" & it's been proven over & over at our house.
So, is this blog morphing into Mom, Robyn, Anna & Alec's post board?

Stuck...

I tell you, I will feel really good when we finally get to get going. We all know how papa likes A: to be extra extra safe safe, and B: right. Well, he went to bat two for two this morning, and now the clutch and rear brakes are getting fixed. And so we're waiting. And so our days of driving are going to be a little longer than originally planned. We'll get off before noon the guys said, but we'll see. I'm not really very patient...

Alright new solution

4 kids...4 puppies, that works too. If you saw them it would be a given, they're really cute.

What about Alec?

Wouldn't he feel left out if he doesn't have a puppy match him?

I've got it!

4 puppies....4 grandkids...it's a MATCH!!!

Now I'm in Oklahoma, too...

Funny story: Robyn was explaining to me how she went to hang out with some Mormon girls who began to talk Mormon talk--They use all these strange words like "Bishop" and "Calling." She then got on the phone to her work and began to use all these strange words like "Equity" and "Bonds."

Caden seems to enjoy everything without smiling. Right now he is kicking his legs in the bouncy chair, which is apparently only fun if you're serious.

Okay, we're going for a walk soon.