My folks don't have internet - so getting online is in snatches at the libraries and coffee shops around town. But here are a few shots - I'll actually have some doll pics up soon!
Our weekend in Anchorage:
UAF Botanical Gardens:
A children's maze and some coveted globeflowers.
Fantastic thrift store here - see my find?! Dansko!
And the light here... at midnight on an overcast evening.
Once again I've been neglecting this journal. Which means that I've also neglected to mention that I drove up to Alaska with the kids this past week. We started out Monday afternoon and it took 5 days of driving - approximately 44 hours - about 2370 miles to get here. More or less. We drove up in our new car - our tiny (well, it seems tiny compared to the minivan!) little Honda Fit. Which is actually very roomy when not stuffed to bursting with 4 children, a car seat, a tent, 5 sleeping bags, 5 sleeping pads, a large box of food, a small cooler, numerous pairs of shoes, sweaters and hats, at least 5 backpacks worth of clothing, books, toys, a laptop, a large mosaic in progress, a sewing machine(!), and myself - the driver. pshew.
And the drive was actually still quite comfortable, despite all that! Our 14-year-old son rode in front with me and helped out with the soundtrack (primarily the Decemberists, Magnetic Fields, Nouvelle Vague, Santogold, Iron Horse/Modest Mouse, and good old road tripping Son Volt), as well as reading me trivia from The Milepost, helping to choose camp sites, and general entertainment and humor value. The baby was unbelievably amazingly good in the car. Each day we drove 3 to 5 hour stretches at a time, with generally a longish one hour stop halfway through the day. And the car, even loaded down, got such fantastic gas mileage! Between 38.6 - 39.8 miles per gallon average, but (as you can see below) we did actually hit 40 there for a bit.
I feel like I should have taken a lot more photos than I did, but, to be honest - I just wanted to get there. Highlights of the trip though: Bright, sunny, gorgeous weather the first 2 1/2 days of the drive. Lots of close-up animal sightings: including 3 or 4 moose, 4 black bears, lots of buffalo (so great!), a couple bunnies, one retreating caribou bottom, and... a grizzly bear!! Easy driving the whole trip - very little traffic, not too many stops for construction, and only one chip in the windshield - which I had fixed as soon as we got to Fairbanks. Also - overcoming my trepidation at pumping gas with the seriously old school gas pumps - which I was pretty much forced into as that's about all there is throughout much of northern BC and all of the Yukon. As well as camping with four kids by myself - and finally learning to use our little gas can camp stove. So one of the great things about this drive, aside from the beauty, relaxation, and accomplishment of such a long drive in itself, was having to do some things that I really didn't want to do, but then once I tried - I found that they were easy - which was a good lesson for me.
Another big moment of the trip was finding out that there had been a large forest fire burning for weeks up north of Liard Hot Springs and that the highway had just been closed that day due to the fire. Luckily, we arrived there a half hour after they'd re-opened the road and were using pilot cars to guide people through. The woods were burned on both sides of the road in many places and there were still small patches of fire burning beside the road in some sections. The fire was still going strong in the hills and we were driving through pretty heavy smoke for about two hours that night.
So now we're in Fairbanks through mid-July, then on to Olympia and Portland for a couple days before returning home. I'm busy already trying to soak in every fleeting ray of sun here - already feeling the little pangs of missing the heat of Montana summers that I love so much. But of course it's gorgeous here, as always - bright lush green everywhere. We got here just in time for the wild roses that are now blooming everywhere, and there are thousands of bluebells this summer, too - more than I've seen since I was a kid. The kids are outside - despite the hoards of mosquiotoes - building fairy houses and going for walks with their Grampa. And I got on a team in the women's rec soccer league - my first practice is tonight - so it's good.
Even for me!
I wasn't planning on doing an update tonight, but here it is anyway. The girls are pretty darn cute.
xo
I can't believe I forgot about May Day this year! I'm actually one of those people who makes little May baskets with my kids and we put flowers in them and leave them hanging from people's doors (I found a picture of one of our past baskets, above.) Or, at least we used to, when we lived in a neighborhood - but even here we make them and give them out. Luckily it's a small enough holiday that the kids might never even realize my slip... maybe we can do them for solstice instead. Well, I did wake up to about an inch and a half of snow this morning, so I wasn't exactly thinking - May!
The snow did melt away within a couple hours and the rest of the day was sunny and warm. Below are just a few components of the day - gg is wearing her favorite, fairly dirty, very tattered, little purple dress - that I actually made for her older sister for her third birthday, almost 7 years ago. She used to wear it for days on end as well! And there's the minty green reconstructed sweater I chopped and re-sewed for the day and my new pair of awesome thrift store shoes.
Sorry that I've been so bad about posting of late, but winter really had me by the teeth this year! Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, Spring has arrived. It's northwest Montana, so, flowering trees do not abound, the scent of roses is not wafting through the air. But there are actually little bits of green popping up through the ground and the only snow I can still see is up in the mountains. It's even supposed to be close to 70 degrees this weekend - time for a hike!
So we had quite a long spring break here and while our oldest son spent his holiday in Hawaii, the rest of us hit the road and headed out to Portland and the coast for about 6 days. We packed it in. Lots of walking, shopping, eating, swimming (hotel pool - the kids were in heaven), and even sunshine. It was 75 in Portland! I love Portland so much. We used to visit there quite a bit when we lived in Olympia and it's still my favorite "big" city. So the flowers and trees were in full bloom there and it was quite lovely. I'm planning a return trip this summer for a new tattoo - more on that later...
Favorite shops, cafes, etc. this time around:
Presents of Mind - cutest Stuff
Red Light - like in Seattle, good place to find cheap used vintage clothes - I got two dresses
Backspace - stumbled into this one; really really cool design elements, (and graffitied bathrooms)
Vita Cafe - my son wanted to only go here, amazing fries, and kids eat for a buck from 5-7!!
Little Red Bike Cafe - mine and Ron's favorite cafe. So friendly, amazing 5/6 dollar egg sandwiches
Tender Loving Empire - my favorite shop. Got Tina a very cool screenprint t-shirt here
Frock Boutique - really cute stuff and clothes - gg's new strawberry sunglasses acquired here
Anoush Deli - super yummy Greek food and little grocery
and, um, New Seasons - yes, I love gigantic health food stores!
So here are some pictures, a lot, sort of. xo
I was going to hold out until I had a lot of stuff done, but have decided to try doing a little bit each week. So check out the shop tonight for a mini update!
A few peeks of what you'll find...
still not Spring.
Long, long ago, a little sprout and I decided to do a doll trade. Well, it was around Christmastime that I received my doll from her - a gift for our 9-yr-old daughter (who absolutely loves her!) - but here it is March and I am just now finished with hers.
So here's to surviving winter (so far!), to patient friends, to work completed, and to Monday night project nights with two of my close friends - these dolls might still not be done yet if it weren't for Monday nights. (*note - I was using a different computer today and so depending on your computer I think the images may look a bit... bright - even yellow-ie. But on my screen (and in person) they are quite lovely and decidedly un-yellow.*)
The current color is...
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And a little spring shoe dreaming...
(Fleuvogs)
