Nigh, Nigh...

So, the weirdest thing just happened tonight.

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It was about 7pm and Emily was in the tub. She had a ton of bath toys in there with her, so she was self-entertained. I no longer watch her like a hawk while in the tub, so I was walking back and forth cleaning the bedrooms and doing laundry. Our upstairs floor-plan is laid out with just a long hallway connecting the bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry room...so, while cleaning back-and-forth, I'd poke my head in to make sure she's not making a mess. Most of the time you can hear her playing with her bath toys and talking to herself.

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Anyway, I happened to be in the laundry room putting a load of laundry in the machine. I finished up and turned around to walk back to the bedroom...and there...in the hallway...comes little naked Emily walking my way saying "All Done" - "Nigh, Nigh."

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HOW IN THE HELL DID SHE GET OUT OF THE BATHTUB?!?!?!!!!

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I am still in shock by this! How did she get out of the tub by herself? I stared at her for a moment and then asked her if she wanted to wash her hair. She said "No, all done" "Nigh, Nigh." After a few more attempts to get her to finish her bath, I finally gave up. We put her PJs on, she grabbed her stuffed moose and a blankie, she made her rounds of kisses to everyone, and then she went to bed. It was about 7:20pm and I haven't heard a peep from her since!

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WEIRD!

Pockets

Well, Emily finally discovered her pockets. It was super cute...she realized that her jacket had pockets and kept saying "pockets...pockets...pockets..." She was so excited to be able to put her hands in her pockets to keep them warm. And then she realized she could put her Binky in her pocket. Later that night she tried to find pockets in her PJ's and was sad to discover that they didn't have any pockets. :0(

2009 Eco-Challenge

Saturday we spent the ENTIRE DAY at the 2009 Eco-Challenge. It started at 6am and ended at 5pm. Chris was on a team with 2 other Swimmers and a gal who was a friend-of-a-friend. There were 4 of them total on the team called "We Need a Vacation."

The Coast Guard puts on the Eco-Challenge every year and it is supposed to be a "Wilderness Race" full of running, biking and rafting. It ended up being a total of 32 miles in length and Chris' team finished in about 8 hours. Once we all got our first clue we discovered that the Race actually started about 45 minutes away, deep in the Kodiak Wilderness.

So, the whole Team and Support Crew jumped in the truck and we were off to start the Race.

The First portion of the Race was based on lat/long coordinates where the teams had to go from Point-A to Point-B. Most of the teams made it through in about 2-3 hours...our team did it in 4-5 because they read into it a little too much and got lost. Because of this they were now in 2nd to last place.

Back on track the team, as did most teams, completed the rafting portion with tubes in hand because the river was down too low to do any rafting. Everyone that came thru was soaking wet! (Did I mention that it was probably 45 degrees outside and raining most of the day)

Well, the team had another few miles before they reached the ocean bay, which was another check-point. Then they picked up their bikes and it was Bike Time. I would think, in total, that the group biked about 15-20 miles...up hills...down hills...and a little off-road.

When they reached the Finish Line, however, they weren't quite done just yet. They still had to complete a ropes Challenge Course, which was probably the most fun of the entire Challenge.

All-In-All...all team members finished the 32-mile course. Yes, they were in 11th Place of 12 teams...BUT THEY WEREN'T LAST!!! Getting lost in the very beginning really set them back and they weren't able to overcome from that. Perhaps next year they will do better.

Chris was extremely sore when he got home, but not so much the next morning...which is good! The Support Crew supported the team all day long, and we too were tired from the long drawn-out day! Emily was a REAL TROOPER all day long!

The Official BLOG Announcement

Well...I know most of you already know this, but just to make the

"Official BLOG Announcement"

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BABY #2 IS ON THE WAY!

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As you may have noticed, there is a tracker on the left side of the blog which tells how far along we are. #2 is due on December 20th and we're looking forward to the new & wonderful Christmas Present coming our way!

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So far everything has been fine and normal. The morning sickness has died down and I'm feeling great! No Belly-Bump just yet...I think it's all still me (lol) But, I know that I'll be growing quite a bit over the next few weeks. Our next check-up is the first week of August and then we'll schedule an ultrasound where we should be able to find out if it's a boy or girl. (I can't believe we're already at that stage in the pregnancy.

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We're all excited! Emily doesn't quite understand it all just yet, but perhaps she'll grasp it a bit more when the tummy begins to grow...? We'll see.

1st Time Home Buyers

Well, as most of you know, we've been looking into buying a house here in Kodiak for the past month. We've had a month-long negotiating debacle with the sellers about every tiny-biddy detail of this silly house. Honestly, our excitement has really dwindled with every "amendment" they've made to the sell of the house. But, after the month-long process I think we've finally come to an agreement.

The hang-up with the house really came when we found out the house needed a new roof. A roofing estimate came in at nearly $15,000. (Things up in Kodiak are very expensive.) Well...then the real negotiating began.

Of course, they didn't want to pay for a new roof...but, neither did we! So, we went back and forth on this roof-thing for almost 3 weeks. I think that, after their offer today, it's something we can all agree to. I won't get into the nitty-gritty details about their last offer...but, let's just say that these people are just stupid! And childish! And they're, like, my parent's age! And they're acting like a bunch of 3-year olds! Their last offer is so stupid that it almost pushed us off from even wanting to buy a house from them! It's not like they had any other offers on the table...how can they afford to act like toddlers?!?!

Anyway, I digress...point is....we're buying their house. We'll be signing the offer tomorrow...and then escrow begins. We should expect to close escrow the first week of September. I hope the rest of this process goes smoothly! I'll be sure to keep you informed with all the updates as I get them!!

Here's a link where you can see the perspective house...please be advised that their choice of decor isn't really along the same lines as ours, so there will be a lot of painting and other improvements that we make.

http://soldonkodiak.com/index.php?option=com_hotproperty&view=property&id=261

Sweet Tea

Ok...let's talk Sweet Tea. Now...I bring this subject up for all of you Californians out there who have no idea what you're missing!

My love of sweet tea started in San Diego. There was a song on the country radio station, at the time, about "sweet tea" - which they played over-and-over again. Well, one day, we were in line at the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A in San Diego. (On a side-note, for those of you who haven't experienced Chick-Fil-A...you're totally missing out!! I miss that place.)

Anyway, back to sweet tea.
So...we're in the drive-thru...I was pregnant at the time and nothing sounded good. I was really thirsty, so I opted for something "different" - Chick-Fil-A is originally a "Southern" company, so they've got sweet tea on the menu. I decided to give it a try...and I haven't looked back since!

Sweet tea is the most wonderful thing ever!

Well...I'm sure you're asking yourself...Um, why is she going off about Sweet Tea?

Well...let me answer this for you...

For One...I'm pregnant again.

For Two...McDonald's brought Sweet Tea to the island!! OMG!!! AMAZING!!! And, they're running a promotion where you can get a Large Sweet Tea for only a buck! Discounts in Alaska are un-heard of! This is a HUGE EVENT here!

Sweet tea in Alaska...and at a discount! UNHEARD OF!!

Do yourself a favor...go to your nearest McDonald's, or Chick-Fil-A,

and get yourself a large sweet tea with lots of ice! You won't regret it!

Fishing

As you know, fishing in Alaska is pretty good. Well, last week Chris went on his first halibut fishing trip out in the ocean. He had a BLAST! Him and 5 other guys, all together, caught about 12-15 halibut, and some cod fish. They were out most of the day...and then spent about another 4 hours cleaning all of the fish!

After everyone divided up the fish, Chris came home with 15lbs of halibut and 5 lbs of the cod fish. All the halibut fillets are sitting in our freezer waiting to get eaten. Chris is hoping to go out again really soon and stock up the chest freezer we have sitting in the garage.

(The chest freezer has a bear head in it, but that's another story...)

Here's some pics of the fishing trip.

Happy 4th of July!

This year we celebrated Independence Day amongst a bunch of Rescue Swimmers and their families. We had a nice potluck and BBQ a top a hill at a friend's house.

We bought fireworks for the first time in years (fireworks have been outlawed in California for the past 10 years or so). We had NO IDEA what to buy! We spent $20 and got our fill of explosives. Unfortunately it doesn't get dark in Alaska this time of year until the wee hours of the morning. So, 9pm we shot off our fireworks in broad daylight.

Emily enjoyed playing with the sparklers and a tube-rocket-thing. She wasn't "super interested" in the fireworks...she was more interested in jumping on the trampoline these people had in their yard. She had a BLAST with that!

All-in-all we had a really good time and a wonderful 4th of July!!!

Here are some pics:

New Food

So, once back in Alaska Emily got to explore some new foods.

Fruit By The Foot

Corn on the Cob

Legoland with Grandma & Grandpa

Our final weekend in California was spent with Chris & I at a wedding, and Emily at Legoland. Shaun & Jenna's wedding was beautiful. There was a lot of natural light throughout the ceremony, which means that my pictures didn't turn out so well. I'll try to salvage a few of my pics from the wedding and put them up to share. But, here are some pics of Emily's time spent at Legoland:

Pool Party at Grandma's

Once back in San Dimas, Emily spent some time with Grandma. They had a fun-filled day in the pool...both Emily and her cousin Kylie. Emily loves the water, so a "pool party" was right up her alley!

A River Vacation

So, as you all probably already know...we spent the first few days of our trip out on the Colorado River. It was nice to be able to get a little "vacation" (it will be our only one this year.) It was really relaxing to be able to be out there on the water and in the sun. (We don't get much sun in Kodiak.)

Thanks to the Fam for taking time off work to take us to the River...I'm really glad Chris suggested it. We all had a lot of fun and I know Emily really enjoyed it!

Here's some pics:

Here are some videos: