Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts

The One That Survived


Before we left Juneau in June, the girls and I stopped at Fred Meyer to stock up on some things that we thought would be nice for our "trip" to Hyder. One of those items was an envelope of flower seeds. For anyone who knows me, this might sound strange because I tend to have a black thumb. It's so bad that I even managed to kill our "wedding" fern that we were given at my bridal shower (you know, the kind that are supposed to symbolize your marriage - Ya, that one). It only took me 6 months and that thing was a crunchy corpse {ooops}. Needless to say, I don't have the best track record with being able to grow viable plants. Regardless, when you're standing in front of the "kazillion-gamillion" (Katie's words) packets of beautifully colored and artfully arranged flower seeds, it doesn't matter if you're the Grim Reaper of plants, you just have to get a packet (or 12) in hopes that maybe just one will SURVIVE your "efforts". So, that's exactly what we did. We bought a few packets of pretty, multicolored flowers to take with us.

When we first arrived here in Hyder and set up our travel trailer, I found one of the packets (Yes, you read that right.....ONE...not sure what happened to the others). The girls were so excited about the flowers that we planted them right away. We put some seeds in a pot and scattered the rest on the outskirts of our gravel pad. And, as is typical for 4- and 7-year old little girls, they checked on the seeds' progress every 5 minutes or so for the first hour and complained loudly that they weren't EVER going to grow. As the days past they started forgetting all about them, then a few weeks ago Alexis came to me all sad and deflated. She said, "Mommy, come look. There is something wrong with the flowers." Truthfully, I had forgotten all about them as well (thank goodness for all the rain). When we walked over to the little pot, what we saw did NOT look like flowers at all. It looked more like weedy, tall grass. I thought, "Great! They filled the flower seed packets with weed seeds - figures I'd only be able to grow weeds." We decided to just let them grow anyway since it was the only thing green I'd managed to keep alive (thank goodness I had completely ignored the plant, otherwise I might have succeeded in killing it).

Three days ago we found that our "weeds" had sprouted flowers.
 NO WAY!! 



Isn't it beautiful? We were so proud of it {smile}.

Of course, not knowing anything about flowers beyond what a rose, daffodil, tulip, and daisy are, AND not having saved the packet, we have no idea what kind of flower this is, but we love it anyways. As for the seeds we had scattered, nothing ever popped up - surprise, surprise {sarcastically, with an eye roll}.

Mud Fun and Giveaway Reminder


This is the view we have from our travel trailer here in Hyder. And, as usual, the picture just doesn't quite do it justice. We've been here nine weeks now and I'm still taken back by the scenery. Everywhere you look it's just gorgeous. Of course you have to actually take time to look up from what you're doing to notice it though. I tend to forget that sometimes. But, this week I've been more purposeful in enjoying what's around me.

We'll be finding out soon if we're destined to head to Petersburg, AK at the end of this month, or if we'll be enjoying Hyder for the rest of the construction season. The hubby is kind of hoping we can just stay here.  It's always a hassle to get everything together and move to a different location, especially if that relocation means a ferry ride. Did I mention that the girls HATE ferries. Yes, well, more about that later.


If I have done my post correctly, you should be able to click on the image to get a better view. It's more impressive in it's original size :)

Earlier today the girls, the dog, and I went down to the dock to enjoy the fun one can have when the tide is out. We call it our "Tide Flat Fun." And boy did they have fun.


Can you see that mud in front of where the boat is? That "glowing" playland just waiting for little toes to run across. 

This was actually the cleanest part of the trip. I was going to post a picture of the aftermath but Alexis (the oldest) requested that I not put that one in. Something about being embarrassed :). I thought that didn't hit until age 11 or 12. Oh well. But, I'm sure you can get a pretty good idea of how little of their natural skin color was showing by the end. Especially since they pretended that they were seals for a good 20 minutes.

Fun day for the girls and fun day for Mommy. We'll see how laundry day goes tomorrow :).

Remember to sign up for the "Mystery Crafty Bundle" giveaway that ends 8/25.

Yvonne

"Fishing" Fun

A few weeks back we took a Sunday to ourselves and spent some time as a family out at the river. With Anthony working so much, we don't really get much time to do anything together (especially now that he's working 7 days a week). So our river trip was a definite highlight for the month of July. We drove down the Fish Creek road for quite a while and found ourselves a very secluded spot to park and play. Alexis was ecstatic to try out her fishing skills and she spent most of  her time working on her casting (which is one the best parts about fishing).
We got some practice in on casting and reeling. Alexis did quite well :)
We didn't catch anything on this trip, but it didn't really matter because she had a great time trying to cast further and further out into the river. It was a success in her eyes.

Kaitlyn decided that fishing wasn't really for her right now. She was much more interested in a little sandy pool that she could wade and play in.
She had a great time making a "castle" and then laying siege on it with her stomping feet. Her dress got nice and dirty from the whole thing. Again, a successful trip in her eyes as well :).

We were able to spend quite a bit of time just relaxing and spending time with one another. Suzie even had fun chasing an obnoxious bird around and then diving into the river. She's such a nut.
Killdeer Bird - VERY obnoxious :)
http://www.jrcompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/Mar-07.html
The girls and I have since been to the river a few times by ourselves (with protection, of course) and had a great time playing in the pools of water. It's such beautiful landscape and so peaceful.

This picture is of a spot that is actually 1/4 mile behind our travel trailer. It's so close and there is hardly ever anyone there. This is a slow moving portion that runs into the highly volatile river just on the other side of that clump of trees. The girls get some good "swimming" practice in (it only comes up to Alexis's thighs) and I plant myself with a slingshot and a good book right on the edge. Great fun.

Yvonne

List of Fun Activities



Some Fun Things We've Been Up to This Summer:

1.  Flying kites at the ocean, of course.
2.  Building sandcastles and knocking them down.
3.  Chasing the surf.
4.  Sidewalk chalk galore.
5.  Playdates.
6.  Swimming.
7.  Family Fun Center in Tukwila - Kidopolis (love it).
8.  Splashing in the river.
9.  Running through the sprinkler.
10.  Nights around the firepit making smores - Mmmmm.
11.  Family reunions.

I hope that you all have been having fun this summer too.  I've been reminded at least 20 times today that school is only 10 days away.  My oldest is starting Kindergarten and she is very excited to meet her teacher and find her desk.  I'm excited too, but for very different reasons.  One happens to be the reduction of fighting sessions between her and her two-year-old sister.  It has been very loud (screaming, crying, tattling, etc.) during the days when we're at home.  Oh my, some peace and quiet - that's one thing I'm definately looking forward to.  Yeah!  Kindergarten here we come!

I'll be posting a schoolwork memory box later on.  I've just bought the box itself and now have to figure out how I want to decorate it.  Stay tuned.

Yvonne

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