Alaska

Whew! We made it!  We took Colby, at 5 1/2 months old, to Alaska.  That's a 9 hour plane ride plus travel time to and from the airport both ways, 7 days and 7 nights spent in many different hotels, houses, and "strangers'" arms, 3 barbecues, and countless restaurants.  He did amazingly well...and then he started teething while we were there.  Needless to say the flight back was not quite as good as the flight up.

The trip was perfect; exactly what I envisioned.  The primary purpose for the visit was for Robert's family to meet Colby.  The secondary purpose was for our friends to meet Colby.  And if we had time, we wanted to fit a bit of Alaska sight-seeing in.  I consider all three goals to have been met!

We spent the first day in Anchorage, driving around our old stomping grounds.  We visited Robert's mom's work in the morning, drove by our old house, met Keith, Morgan, Emilie, and Joe for lunch (I finally got to meet Aubrey Bell!), then went over to Keith and Morgan's for a playdate, and stopped by Robert's old workplace in the afternoon.  After all the time changes, and dealing with Colby, I was in bed by 8!

Colby hams it up in Morgan's lap while Emilie looks on.

Little Aubrey Bell

The weekend was all about family.  Saturday, we drove out to the Valley, stopping first at Jenny's to drop off some steaks for the barbecue on Sunday.  So Colby got to meet Wyatt and Gunner for the first time, and of course Jenny.  Then we went to Grandpa's for several hours - where Robert introduced Colby to the wonders of the four-wheeler, then to Aunt Kim's, and we ended the day at Robert's moms, where we had barbecue ribs with Rick's family who was visiting as well.

Colby hanging out with Wyatt and Gunner

Grandpa showing Colby how it's done.

The inaugural ride on the four wheeler.

Sunday, we got up early to take Colby to the reindeer farm!  I had never been, and I have to say, I really enjoyed myself.  Those reindeer are like stupid, simple, gentle dogs.  You can kind of knee them out of the way, to get into the field, and then they'll eat right out of your hands.  I had no qualms of taking Colby right up to them to pet their coats and even antlers.  It was great!  After that, we went to Jenny's where the whole family met for a barbecue.  Everyone loved to see Colby, and Jenny held him in the baby bjorn for a significant amount of time - so sweet.  Wyatt and Gunner kept piling toys up in front of Colby to see if he would play with them, and about that time is when he started figuring out how to get his knees up under him...

Colby picked out the biggest reindeer on the farm.

Jenny has baby envy!

We spent the night at Jenny's so that Grandma could visit in the morning, and she loved meeting Colby.  She even got to rock him to sleep!  We went to BP for lunch, so that my coworkers could stop by and see Colby if they wanted to.  We got to see a lot of people, so that was nice, including Jenny J, who I was the happiest to see (and judging by her reaction, she was the happiest to see me)!  We met Storman and Nathania for dinner at their house, and got to see how much Aria has grown!  She was so cute, trying to get me to change Colby's diaper again and again (which ultimately resulted in several diapers being strewn across their living room).  She tried to sneak some mandarin oranges off my plate with a fork, and couldn't believe I caught her doing it!  And she climbed up into my lap twice, once to trace hands, and another to read her "Pat the Bunny"  I can't wait until Colby gets that age - it is so fun, and so tiring, I can imagine!

Grandma giving Colby some TLC.

Nathania feeds Colby, and Aria helps.

Tuesday we met Chris and Candace for lunch at Moose's Tooth.  And in the afternoon, Nancy stopped by the hotel to see Colby, and then we met Brittany and Pat for dinner, and got the grand tour of their house afterwards.

Wednesday, we went to lunch with Gwen, so she could see Colby one final time, and then I met Nathania for a walk, and then went to Jeff and Ericka's for a BBQ (so many BBQs)!  Thursday, we went back out to the valley and visited Grandpa - Robert helped him tear up the TundraTank and scoot it into a connex.  And then came back to the hotel with Chinese takeout and Eliot stopped by to visit!

Phew - so 1) see family...check, check and check.  2) see friends...CHECK and 3) Alaska sites...check (I'm counting the reindeer farm).  All this and now Colby can get his knees up under him, is teething AND has started sucking his thumb.  A VERY successful trip!

The Beach

Silly to be posting this the same day as the Alaska trip, but the weekends were back to back with little time in between.  So, the beach: We did it!  The one thing I wanted to make sure we did this summer since we are now in Texas again.  We went to the beach!  And not just any beach, we went to Corpus Christi - the beach where I was born, the beach that I spent at least 5 summers, watching my parents run, and then running myself in the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon.

Robert and I drove down Friday, and got to Corpus late afternoon.  We ditched Colby with my mom in the condo that we were all sharing, and spent an hour in the water, all by ourselves - it. was. awesome.  Then we spent another hour on the beach with my dad, drinking beer and watching the waves.  When we got back to the condo, Amanda had driven in from College Station, and we had brats for dinner and marshmallow creme and cookies for dessert! 

The next morning, Robert and dad went fishing early in the morning, and my mom and I took Colby down to the beach for some quick photos - the sun was so hot, we didn't want him out there for too long with his fair fair skin.

Angela got in around noon on Saturday, so we went back to the beach with her, and then had a birthday party for her that night.  We took her to (surprise!) a Pat Green concert out at Port A after dinner, since she's moving to NYC in August, and the opportunities to see Pat in concert will be few and far between.  Again, awesome.

Sunday, Robert and dad went fishing early again, then we all went to church.  Then I went to the beach with everyone, while Robert watched Colby, and then we headed home.  It was a great weekend - the weather was beautiful, and the waves were perfect for body surfing.  Loved it!

A Pinteresting Weekend

This weekend, it seems, all of the food I ate was inspired by recipes my mom or I found on pinterest.  If you're not a member yet, join!  It's amazing!  Very inspirational!

On Friday, we had Susana and David over for dinner (with Sam, of course) and we served chicken tikki masala and then baked apples with ice cream and caramel drizzle for dessert.


Then Saturday, I'm not ashamed to say, we did n.o.t.h.i.n.g.  A welcome break from the wedding of my cousin on my mother's side last week - Congratulations Chris and Mita! - and the baby shower for my cousin on my dad's side the week before, not to mention the beach this coming weekend and then Alaska the following week!  I made this for lunch/snack on Saturday.


Sunday, I did more nothing, but went over to my parents with Colby for lunch.  We had grilled chicken fajitas and this dip as an appetizer - thanks mom!


Everything was delicious - feel free to try them all and let me know what you think!

Sick

Sorry no pictures this time.  I'm SICK!  For the first time in I don't know when, I actually have a cold!  It started on Monday, but very slightly with a sore throat.  Then by Tuesday I was coughing and sneezing, but again, not that bad.  Well today I woke up a little drained, because it was a bit hard to breath last night, but I went to work anyway.  Ironically, I went for my Well Woman exam today, so I missed some work this morning.  By the time I got back to the office, my head was in a sinus cloud, and almost immediately, a pile of used Kleenex appeared in front of me.  So I decided to call it quits and go home.

When I got home, I realized my germ-aware husband was not going to let me hold, kiss, or hug my baby.  In fact, the only thing I'm allowed to do is feed him.  That's right, I tried to explain to my husband-with-a-biology-degree that my germs can and WILL get to my baby through breastmilk, but he won't listen.  Instead, he keeps Colby on his lap, and as I approach, he starts waving his hands over both of them, saying, "Safe zone, safe zone, Jenny."

Fine, since I can't hold my baby, I guess I'll go take a nap.  Which I did.  But instead of waking up feeling miraculously better, I woke up with a sinus headache.  One bowl of chicken soup later, and still feeling fuzzy - like Meg Ryan says in You've Got Mail.

This is so bizarre to me.  I really don't think I've had a cold in at least 3 years!

Here's hoping I can hold my baby tomorrow...

Picture Worth a Thousand words

At a Butschek (my mom's maiden name) family wedding over this past weekend, my uncle's girlfriend snapped this candid shot with her phone!  A true work of art.

Starting a Business

After several weeks of woodworking, carving, sanding, staining, sealing and painting, not to mention word-smithing, editing, photographing, and detailing, Robert has finally gone live on Etsy.com with his shop Wild Wood Reflections!  He's done so much work to get these mirrors in top condition, and gone to several stores to find the right materials.  Tonight, all that was left was to demonstrate how we were going to package these mirrors to ship them, then I took one last look at all the verbage on the website and edited it.  Then, with a ceremonial click of a button, we went live!  We toasted the start of our new business with a glass of New Age (and then proceeded to drink the rest of the bottle, so Colby got a good taste of wine in his dinner tonight...).

Wish us luck - now it's just a waiting game to see who may be interested in purchasing these cute, hand-crafted, animal-themed mirrors!