day at the beach

Well much to my surprise there is a beach in Anchorage.  I live here and never knew it existed!!!  Furthermore Andrew grew up here and had never been there either!  There is real sand but no palm trees :)  It is a hidden beach, and it is within Kincaid Park.  We had to hike a bit off trail and down a slightly treacherous steep section and the WOW there it was!   It was so pretty.  Cold but nice!

Chloe with her bucket and shovel in the parking lot, ready for the beach!

Glamour shot by Carmen...the leaves were just starting to change colors.

Super windy, but Madeline was snuggled in the babyhawk.  She slept the whole time!

Playing on driftwood.

A shot of us girls.  The part closest to the water was rocky. Chloe collected a bunch of cool rocks, so many that Andrew got to carry the bucket :)

They flew a kite during our snack break.  Chloe got a turn too.  

Chloe getting a lift from Andrew.  

It was so much fun to go out to this little hidden spot, and we will definitely be going back.  There were no other people out at the beach, probably because it is so very well hidden.  Well actually we did see two duck hunters at the very end, which freaked us out because they had guns.  Apparently you can legally hunt ducks out there this time of year.  It doesn't seem right to me that people can hunt in a wildlife refuge, or in a park.  Call me crazy.  Good thing Andrew left his duck costume at home :) 

Turf and Surf Weekend

The other weekend we had quite the adventure.  We went to Girdwood for lunch and a hike and then to Whittier for an afternoon on the boat!  That is a lot for someone who calls making it to the shower a successful day, but it was gorgeous out  and we didn't want to squander our sunny fall weekend!

To Chloe's delight Peter, (Elena's boyfriend) came out on the boat too!  Watch out Elena, Chloe is after your man!  She follows him around everywhere and doesn't let him get too far from her sight.  He is her new favorite person.  

I spent most of my time relaxing inside with Madeline while the guys tried their best to catch some fish.  Chloe switched back and forth from the kitchen where Jim had a huge spread of treats, the back deck with the guys and wherever Madeline happened to be.  Chloe probably had more fun than anyone!

Behind the scenes

I think this pair of photos describes my life perfectly right now; not everything is as it seems at first glance!

At any given time crazy bed-head (or fill in the blank with anything else) is hiding just beyond view :)

color play

Awhile ago I came up with the idea of melting my own crayons into toddler manageable (less breakable) shapes.  The first time i did it, Chloe didn't participate much but this time it was a whole mornings activity.  First we sorted all of the crayons by color groups: reds, purples, oranges, purples etc.  here are the red/pinks.  This was hugely fun for Chloe to do.

 Next Chloe broke the crayons into pieces and put them in a bowl.  Then when she had broken enough of them she put them into the mold squares.  She was incredibly good at this.  I really did not expect her to be able to do every part of the process by herself (well mostly on her own).

Here is the finished product.  Reds and purples :)

 Not only did Chloe like making the crayons, but she liked playing with them when they were all done too!

Madeline chilled in her vibrating bounce chair, and was content to check out the progress from her snuggly blanket.

 Whoa, super cool!

  Life is still very hectic around here, but I am getting at least slightly better at finding fun things for Chloe to do that doesn't involve taking care of her baby sister.  Although if all we did was take care of Madeline I think Chloe would pretty much be in heaven anyway.  She love her "baby Madeline".

Life at home

Chloe holding Madeline

 Chloe pretending to be a baby.  She likes to be swaddled, and also likes trying to squeeze into the carry cot.  I recently put her in the babyhawk and she LOVED it!

 Andrew with Madeline in the babyhawk.

Moo!

 Eating a carrot from the organic produce booth.  (Trust me this was the only healthy thing she ate at the fair, we aren't super parents).  We (by "we" I mean Andrew) also found and purchased cheesecake in a cone (he says Chloe insisted), chocolate covered bacon on a stick, fried peanut potatoes with bacon ranch sauce, elephant ear-for me, and doughnut burger.  Okay he didn't actually buy the doughnut burger but it was a close one!  I was able to talk him out of it--- even the name screams heart attack. 

 She met the fire dog and got a fire hat, a hug and a pound dawg.

 Shared a massive popcorn 

 Tripped out on her sugar high

 Pet some baby sled dog puppies

 Worked on hula hooping

 and generally had an amazing time.

All this fun did end with a melt down but before that a good time was had by all!  We also spent a really long time in the petting zoo and 4H animal barn, as well as at the tractor exhibit.  Chloe loves her heavy equipment!  

Hatcher's Pass

On the way out to the fair we stopped at Hatcher's pass....Well it isn't really on the way it is 30 min past the fair but the extra drive allowed for more nap time in the car.  We narrowly missed the rain, but did get to experience an extra dose of wind up there!  The view is amazing, and it is so worth the drive out there.  Too bad we didn't have extra time to enjoy hiking around.  

Madeline was there too but is asleep in the car seat.  If you look closely you can see Andrew is carrying her.  It was way to cold and windy to get her out for the family pic.  No offense Madeline!  I am sure we will have plenty of photos with the four of us soon!

pictures from the week

Baby number one (Chloe) did not prepare me at all for the perils of baby number two (Madeline).  Holy moly, it is much tougher than I remembered.  Most nights I am up 5-6 times or about every hour with a crying baby who may or may not be able to be easily soothed back to sleep.  Some nights it takes more than 2 hours at 2 am, and multiple attempts to put Madeline back to sleep in her crib without her eyes popping open and screams shooting from her mouth.  Every once in a while I get a good night where she sleeps in at least 2 hour blocks (like last night), and it is glorious!  I LOVE the weekends,  Andrew is here all day long and takes the morning shift with both girls so I can sleep.  It is wonderful.  Aside from the sleeping at night issue, life is pretty awesome.  

Here is a picture following Madeline's first real bath.  

Chloe is an awesome big sister, and loves to kiss her baby sister about as often as we will let her.  With Amber's help I made the girls coordinating big sister and little sister shirts with my new silhouette (just like a printer except that it cuts instead of prints).  They each have their initial on the back.  Very cute!

 I also finished a new pair of wool knit pants for Madeline.  The pattern is linked here.  They look a little orange/red here but in person also have a pink hue.  The yarn is superwash merino wool so I can even wash them in the washing machine!  Pretty awesome right?!

Baby toes 

 close up of the glittery shirt.

 A hat I knit for Madeline when I was only a couple of months pregnant.  I used some left over yarn from one of Amber's amazing knitting projects to make this adorable little tri-tip hat.

 And pretty much the cutest picture ever.  Chloe is constantly doting on Madeline.  Here she is holding her hand as we drive to the fair.  So flipping cute!  Madeline is fast asleep but that doesn't deter her super loving big sister!

For the next few weeks I will probably just be posting pictures without too much narrative, as sleep is my number one priority these days....Well I suppose family is number one, sleep is number two, food is number three and personal hygiene (aka showering) is number four...... blogging and personal time didn't even make the ranked list.  Oh and coffee fits in there somewhere too :)