Open House at Fire Station downtown

Grinning from ear to ear! There was a bouncing house, a giant slide, a fire hose with a "flaming" house, hot dogs and balloons, but this was where Slater was the happiest.


Jade had her turn in the driver's seat as well.


This was Slater's favorite spot at the open house, if we had just been willing to leave him alone for 30 second he would have climbed to the top.



Family photo!! The babes weren't cooperating, so this is as good as it gets :)

The difference a year brings ...

Not so sure about horking down cake. The frosting proved to be to rich and she had a bellyache half the night.


The sassy side :) You could tell that she thought this was a cute thing to do, cheeky monkey!



What a privilege that we get to watch her grow!

My baby turned one today

Little things we will never forget:

1. She still walks a little bit like Frankenstein
2. While she enjoyed her cake, she was to busy watching everyone to giggle and be silly
3. Everything that Slater has is more interesting than anything else
4. She can make the best raspberry noises and loves to entertain herself with them on drives.
5. Drama is her best friend when she doesn't get her way
6. She says dada, mama, yup (up) and shit (???) I know interesting vocab for a 1 year old
7. The sweetest snuggles are given when she first gets up in the morning
8. When she wants Slater or another child to chase her she screeches, turns away, and runs for it. She is also learning to chase.
9. She loves to be naked
10. When asked she will hand you an object, go to the bathtub or find her brother.
11. She is a seasoned traveler who is a little wary of strangers
12. Her teeth finally started coming in and now she has five with two more on the way
13. Eyes are still blue
14. Hair is blond with tints of red
15. The great outdoors is her favorite place to be

How do you sum up a year? She has changed us all, given us a daughter, a sister, a friend. Time passes so quickly and this list will be very different a year from today. We love you sweet baby Jade, thank you for the joy, laughter and moments you have shared with us.

A trip to remember ...

This was our main-e vacation for the year. Over 5000 miles, 4 plane flights, hours (and hours) in the car, temperatures ranging from 50 to 95, fresh and salt water, laughter with family and new friends, tons of kids, more ice cream than is good for anyone and a chance to visit three states we have never seen. Traveling with two children under the age of three had its moments of insanity, but we were impressed with what they endured and how much we were able to see and do. The rest of this post has pictures from the end of the trip.


While visiting Boston it is required that you take the "T" and the kids thought it was a riot. Total strangers gave advice on how to get around, admired both the kiddos, and chatted with us like long-lost relatives.



Slater's favorite Frog Pond statue. There were many to choose from, but he loved the one with the goggles. This type of thing would be wonderful in Fairbanks, I heard that it is even used as an ice-rink during the winter and we could always use another one of those. The pond was only about 6 inches deep, which is absolutely perfect for toddlers (and parents) wanting to cool off in the heat.



The architecture and the flora was drastically different from what we are used to. We could have wandered the country side in Maine and the streets of Boston for days enjoying the buildings and gardens.


The old North Church on the Freedom trail in Boston.

So the following 10 entries show our time in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoyed going.

Mary Jo and family :)

I love to travel and see family and friends, but this is an unusual friendship. Mary Jo and I worked together at NPHS during the year that we were pregnant with Aiden and Slater. Although I liked her from staff meetings, school is always busy and there is not much time for getting to know people who work on the far side of the building. Naturally, after discovering that we were both pregnant, we were drawn to chatting. We each made a visit to one another when the boys were small (they were born only 5 weeks apart), then Mary Jo and family left for Boston.

If it had not been for the Internet and another blogging buddy I think we would have lost touch, instead we had emailed, blogged and formed a long-distance bond of motherhood. It was wonderful to get the chance to see the children we have watched growing up online. It makes me sad that we don't have the opportunity to see each other and physically get together, but oh so grateful for the friendship that was not lost.



Here are Audrey and Jade getting to know each other. Like all babies they were utterly fascinated with each other. Again we saw the difference that 4 months makes in motor skills, only this time Jade was the older baby.



This is Aiden and Mary Jo wading in the frog pond. This was one of many places that Mary Jo recommended that we loved. Thank you for being such a fantastic hostess while we were visiting Boston.


The boys playing together. I can hardly wait to see Mary Jo's posts, since she got some adorable pictures of both the boys and the girls.

Make way for ... Slater and Jade

So my son, the one that I hope out grows a few of his surly habits. We read him "Make way for ducklings" dozens of times before our trip and I would tell him how we were going to the Boston Commons to see the ducks on our trip. Moments after we arrived at the duck statues he was overwhelmed with with one of his "Mine, Mine, Mine" moments and actually pushed another little boy off of a duck and then tried to chase him away .. ugh, not one of my prouder moments. Needless to say we did NOT get the pictures or moment that I was hoping for.



You can see the surliness written all over his mug in this shot.



Sweet baby Jade loved the ducklings. Giggling and patting she made such a cute picture with all of the other toddlers enjoying the gorgeous Boston sunshine.

USS Constitution

Wade only had one real goal for his time in Boston: See the USS Constitution. It is the oldest commissioned ship afloat today. It was launched in 1797 and hasn't seen much action in recent years, but still goes to sea at least once a year. The most famous battle it was in took place during the war of 1812 against a British ship and de-masted her in 12 minutes, firing twice as many rounds as her opponent who had more guns.


Apparently the main masts were not actually up,they were re-rigging her for the celebration of the War of 1812,so only 1/3 of her mast is up and no yards, but this is one of her old anchors :)


Her nickname is "Old Ironsides." This comes from her first battle in the War of 1812, the first broadside that hit her bounced off her hull.


Hmmm, that seems safe.


The final image :) Here Slater is saying "Oh my goodness". He loved the cannons, ship and history lesson as much as his dad.

Sandy Beach

This quarter mile stretch of beach was covered in towels, seagulls, and every type of sand castle making apparatus you could imagine. The surf was to rough for swimming, but the breeze was strong enough to make the sunshine and 90 degree temperatures seem like perfection.

This was Jade's first trip to a real sand beach. She tried one mouthful and decided that grit was not for her. After a thick application of sunblock she was sticky enough to pick up half the sand on the beach and had to have an Atlantic rinsing.

Giving Daddy a bit o' lovin'.

Preparing the giant hole in the sand. Do toddler boys have any greater joy than digging a big hole and filling it in? Then we buried him and the fun really started...

And the baby rules the day :) She was thrilled to walk all over her big brother. These two could have spent the entire vacation on this stretch of beach and if all the days had been like this one I would have been up for it.

Lobster ...

Wade had to have a taste of the famous Maine lobster. It sure looked pretty, to bad it probably tasted like lobster (yuck).

Ben and Bill Ice Cream

Bar Harbor is a adorable tourist town, with dozens of boardwalk shops filled with cute Maine memorabilia. They have a public park where we watched a concert on Monday night, but our favorite shop was Ben and Bill's Ice Cream Parlor.

Together in the clutches of the ice cream lobster (only in Maine).

Our sweet little lobster lover.

Alrighty then, look in Slater's hand!! That's right he is carrying an R2-D2 lunch box!! Made by the tin-box company (they have a website)! He was so much more excited about this than ice cream. They had Bobofett (sp?), Toy Story, Star Trek, Elmo and many, many more, but Slater couldn't even take the time to look at the others after he saw old R2.

Portland Childrens Museum

This was one cool place to take a couple of two / three year old boys. On top of all the great things below there was: a ship, a grocery station, a farm section, a veterinary office, a treehouse that covered three stories, a space display and much, much more. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

The third floor had a Ranger Room with some live and some stuffed critters. Slater loved this snake puppet and spent a great deal of time tromping around with it and showing it to everyone that entered the room. There was also a live honey bee hive and a huge turtle tank.

The museum has an entire enclosed toddler area (a mom's dream come true). Jade and Kelly played in there for half an hour, but also got out and enjoyed following their brothers around to the "big kid" displays. As always Jade's favorite activity was Slater watching and he kept an eye out for her too.


LLBean had a fish stream on the third floor. Jade liked to climb the bridge and watch Slater play. He was busy sorting fish, arranging bars to change the stream flow and climbing the rock wall.

The fireman exhibit was extremely popular, the truck was two child-size stories high, contained a fire-pole, turn out gear, hoses, stairs, steering wheels and an entire display of fireman equipment.

Cousin Time

Living on the opposite ends of the country (Florida and Alaska) my cousins and I did not have the chance to form the same kind of bonds that Wade and his cousins did. But for all the distance we have always gotten along fantastically whenever we have had the opportunity to be together and this trip was no exception. I am excited to think that we have given our four children a chance to start building friendship that will hopefully last as long as the ones we have forged.

THE GIRLS:

The two girls took to each other and were fascinated by each others pacifiers. Kelly was at least 3 inches taller than Jade and at this point in age 4 months makes for an incredible difference in motor skills. Jade tried to keep up with everyone and learned by watching EVERYTHING that Kelly did.

Here they are enjoying dinner together. I put Jade a little to close and she grabbed Kelly's plate and threw all her food on the floor - one of the many moments that made me miss Piper and Vega :)

THE BOYS:

A quiet moment while the boys watched a little WALL-E. One night while the kids were having a game of chase around the house Slater stubbed his toe, sweet little Ryan thought that watching a little WALL-E would make it better and of course he was right. Ryan is very verbal and it was fun to listen to his thoughts on everything.

The boys in action! Slater never did quite get "bRyan's" name right. We have a good friend (who Slater loves) named Brian and while Slater emphasized the Ryan part he never dropped the "b". This was the normal state of the boys - going, going, going. We didn't get any lake pictures of them :( since it is hard to juggle kids and camera at the lake.

This is the only photo I have of all the cousins together. Tammi and I are first cousins (my mom and her dad are siblings). This makes all the little ones second cousins. Ryan is about 2 months older than Slater and Kelly is about 4 months older than Jade.

16 Salmon Road - Lakewood, ME

This was our home-base for a week. We were only two doors down from my cousins camp, where we all enjoyed the bliss of air-conditioning and the variety of activities for the little cousins. Both homes were less than a 3 minute walk from the lake (which we visited at least twice a day).

Our favorite room, was the glassed-in sunroom at the front of the house. We ate at the little table, played with Mr. Potatohead, assembled legos, rocked on the porch swing and read books. This was the first place Slater and Jade went each morning (in search of each other).

The house was built in the 1920's and had a lot of little quirks that we loved. One of the entries came into the bathroom, which we assumed was a mudroom / entry before indoor plumbing came to the lake. There was no air conditioning and the temperatures on the first day were in the 90's, but thanks to some fans, Alaskan ingenuity and cooler temps the rest of the week we were extremely comfortable in our home-away-from-home.

This was our view! Lake Wesserunsett was home to lots of loons which we heard calling at all hours of the day and night. In Maine vacation homes have two names, if you have one on a lake it is called a camp, where one on the ocean is called a cottage.

Plane rides and tired babies

The beginning of our trip included 2 big flights. Fairbanks to Seattle (3.5 hours) and then Seattle to Boston (5.5 hours). Slater was to excited to sleep at all during the first leg and finally wiped out during our layover in the Seattle airport. We hauled him onto the Boston flight just like this - sweet boy.

Our first night on the East Coast was spent in Seabrook, NH. After traveling for nearly 15 hours the kids were wiped out. They curled up with me in our blessedly air-conditioned room. All that cuddling was pretty sweet, even if it made it almost impossible for me to sleep. As soon as I got up Jade quickly shifted over to snuggle up with her brother.

Bye bye miss American pie ...

The fourth of July was spent in good company and what started off dreary turned out beautiful.

This beautiful pie was created, decorated and consumed by everyone after we gobbled up bratwurst, bbq drumsticks, broccoli salad and watermelon.


Wade busy cracking jokes, drinking beer and looking handsome ... I love that man!


This is my favorite shot of Jade eating watemelon with the "bird-girl".


We ended the evening with a Bocci ball game. Normally this is not a game where you get much exercise (easy to hold a beer and play!), but with five small children scattered across the lawn "helping" we all did our fair share of running, chasing, laughing and playing.