The Moore Family Adventure

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Bear Hunt!

Saturday evening we went on a Bear Hunt.

About this time every year, the bears come down from the mountains and toward the rivers so that they can fill up on fish before the emanate hibernation. About 8pm you will see the same one or two bears at the mouth of the river fishing for a fresh salmon.

There are always a few cars parked along the roadside watching these humongous creatures in their natural habitat.

So, on Saturday night we took the kids and drove down to Bells Flats, which is a location about 10 miles from our home, and a location where many streams feed out into the ocean...a great place for salmon!

We made a few passes around the area before we finally saw a bear off in the distance. We all got out of the car so that the kids could get a better view. He was about 20 yards away when we saw him fishing in a stream. He was HUGE!!

The kids were extremely excited to see a bear! Well, Ethan was THRILLED! Emily was a little scared and apprehensive, as she's scared of bears...mainly because of the old "fireside chant"..Going on a Bear Hunt...which she learned at school, and now she's terrified of bears!

Emily was holding onto Daddy for dear life and Ethan was screaming with excitement.

......................And then the bear turned........................

He turned and looked right at us. Then he leaned back to stand on his two feet...HE MUST HAVE BEEN 15 FEET TALL! He was MASSIVE!

By now we were the only people left along the roadside, so I KNEW it was US he was staring at! He fell back down on all fours, and then we could see him charging in our direction...leaps and bounds over the grassy knolls! HE WAS FAST!

Chris started yelling..."Tracy! Come On...it's time to go! -- Go! -- Go!"

And I saw Chris bolting with Emily toward the safety of the car, which was about 30 feet away. I too, turned and ran back toward the car, not knowing if I had time to get Ethan in his carseat, or if I would have to thrust both of our bodies into the front seat of the truck.

Just as I finished buckling Ethan's seatbelt, still outside of the car, I saw the bear charge across the road where our truck was parked; but, luckily he crossed about 40 feet away and didn't confront us. He saw us as a threat, and was only running to get away and back into the safety of the forest.

(WOW! WHAT A RUSH!)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Mountain Rescue

So I know some of you already know about this mountain rescue I did in Seward in June, well I finally got some pictures and video sent to me from the Seward Fire Department. I wanted to post them on here so everyone could see. The kid we hoisted fell over 1000 feet in a skiing accident; we packaged him up snugly to prevent any further damage to his spinal cord and turns out he only broke his collarbone. All this for a collarbone! Haha anyway check out the pics and video...enjoy!

Monday, August 15, 2011

I Dressed Myself Today!

Over the last year we have been trying to encourage and teach Emily to dress herself. She is almost four years old and she NEEDS to learn to get ready to go in the morning without assistance.

Emily has her own fashion taste and her favorite color is "rainbow" - the more colors, the better! Often times when she dresses herself, I will ask her: Emily, how do these two things match? When they DO match, she explains how the colors on her pants match the colors on her shirt; and I give her kudos for doing a good job! But, there are times when things don't match and she realizes this and she, by herself, goes back to her room to change.

There are times, however, when the colors DO match...but, it doesn't really go together. But, Emily will confidently explain how the pink matches the pink, which matches the pink...that's when we smile and politely agree with her.

On the day the picture was taken, Emily was asked to get dressed by herself. She came running out of her room extremely excited that she did it all by herself!! She's just so stinkin' adorable...what do you say?!?!

(...and she goes to school with huge grins & proud of her outfit!)

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Care Package for Daddy

Last Thursday the kids had a great time putting together a little care package for Daddy. It was filled with snacks, magazines, a word search book for Daddy while he is away in Cordova. Emily helped me package up the items and even threw in her red Minnie so that daddy had someone to cuddle with at night. (totally her idea; she is so sweet!) Ethan added his own little touch by throwing dog food into the box (typical Ethan!)

Mommy drew stick figure pictures of a helicopter and daddy swinging from the bottom, and Emily colored all of the pictures so they would be "beautiful rainbows for daddy."

We taped it up and delivered it to the flight hangar with the rest of the items going on Friday's am flight to Cordova.

Chris informed us that the box was inspected prior to its departure because it looked suspicious...humm...maybe...it's not a box the military would see every day. :)

Chris was thrilled when the box arrived in Cordova and all of his manly-comrades thought the gesture from his kids (and wife) were really cute. He shared all of this treats and he is looking forward to coming back home real soon!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Baby Sign Language Basics

Although Ethan has many words already forming in his vocabulary, he is also well versed in the basics of baby sign language. For those of you who will soon be visiting with the youngster, here are some basic baby sign language words so that you can better communicate with Et.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Kankles

Emily has never been to the Emergency Room in her short life of nearly four years; her brother, however, has now been there twice...once for an extreme cold, and once for Pushki Burns.

How did he ever get Pushki Burns?!?! We've lived here for three years and hiked in-an-out of these forests. I know all about Pushki...I know what it looks like...I know it's affects...I know not to touch it...I know not to get near it. Heck, Emily even knows how to identify it and to stay away!

Ethan, on the other hand, well...he's a toddler, and a little boy. I don't think I need to say much more.

We had a great time on Sunday picking berries at the Buskin River. Most of the plants were already picked over by others, or had berries that weren't quite ripe yet. I think, in total, we collected about 10 berries. My plan was to put them in some jello for the kids...well, that was before Emily spilled the basket in the sand, and there was just no getting those berries clean.

It wasn't a big heart-break for the kids, they really don't like the berries that much. So, oh well...we went on our way. We finished up our day and the rest of the evening was nice.

The following Monday morning the kids went to school and I went off to work. I picked the kids up later that evening. Ethan was rather fussy, but I didn't think anything of it. We sat down to watch a little TV and I noticed that his socks were SEVERELY constraining his ankles and that his calves were swollen. I took his socks off & just thought that perhaps the socks were too small.

When, about an hour later, the swelling and redness didn't subside, that's when i started getting worried. I called my family back home to get their opinion, and we video knocked with the iPhone so that they could see what I was seeing. They were horrified by the state of his legs.

At this point it was already nearly 8pm, and the only doctor available was an ER doctor. So, the kids and I packed it up and went off to the Emergency Room at the Hospital. Once there the doctor said that it was the worst case of Pushki Burns that he had seen and he was extremely glad that I had brought Ethan into the ER. They gave him a loading dose of steroids and a topical cream to get the swelling down and to minimize the pain. (This would explain Ethan's irritability earlier.)

The doctor that was on call at the ER that night was Ethan's regular doctor, so it was really nice to see a happy, familiar face. Dr. Hambliton is my favorite! He has been with us since Ethan was born...through the heart/lung monitors, through the colds, the baby shots, and now...through Pushki Treatments.

Poor Ethan will be on meds for the next week or so, and be required to see a doctor every-other-day to review his progress. The next morning the swelling in his legs had subsided to nearly normal, and the redness has gone away. (The picture taken was from the following morning, after the medication had already kicked in. The previous night those same marks were dark cherry red and severely swollen!)

What a mess!

And, it's not like he was bathing in the Pushki!

From what we've now learned, the plant oils excrete into the water within the forest. What we think happened was that Ethan simply splashed in a forest puddle and there were Pushki Oils in the water which absorbed into his socks and therefore caused his legs to be burned by the plant poison. Strange!

I think we will think twice before going on another nature hike through the forest!