Blueberry Hunt

Last weekend we went on a blueberry hunt!  We hiked up flattop on a search for the wild blueberries that grow all over the place up there this time of year.  We found a ton of wind, and a ton of moss berries (which may or may not be edible), a little residual snow from last winter, lots of fun, and two blueberries.  I had Madeline in the backpack, gambling that if Chloe got tired I would way rather carry a 1 year old than a 3 year old!  

 I gambled correctly.  Chloe did get tired, and wanted to ride on Andrew's shoulders about half way up.  

 She went up and down, but when there was a chance of finding blueberries you better believe she had enough energy to walk on her own!

 We took a break in a promising blueberry field, but only found fun.  No blueberries to be found.

Silly girls :)

 We tried for some family photos, but never quite got "the shot" :)  Oh well, we had fun trying!

 It was a fun hike, but I think next time we will call it a moss berry scouting hike :)  We did find some awesome blueberries later at Costco :)  

Look who is ONE!!

What better reason to celebrate than to have made it out of babyhood into toddlerhood??!!!  Maddie is a full blown toddler who likes to explore.  She is fearless and crazy.  I would not be surprised if I came into the kitchen one day and found her on top of the fridge.  Okay maybe I would be surprised about that, but she climbs or tries to climb on everything!  She is almost always happy and smiling especially when she is with her sister.  (supervised of course).  If they are not supervised someone usually ends up crying within about 5 minutes.  You can probably guess who.  Overall Chloe is a really great big sister, and LOVES her little sister.  As they get older I am so excited to see how they will be able to play together even more!  

Back to the birthday party!  I made a birthday banner this time.  It doesn't make sense to keep buying and throwing away birthday stuff.  Plus this banner is way cuter than anything I could buy!  I will do a post about how to make your own soon!

Maddie was all dressed up for the big day!

 We got out the parachute and all the kids had a major blast playing with it!

 Of course there was cake!

 And candles

 And did I mention cake?

 Yum!  Maddie had a great birthday party, but as always we did not take enough pictures.  It wasn't because there were too many people this time, but because we were having too much fun!  We love you Madeline!!

Birthday in Girdwood

There has been a little lull in posting but not worry, we have just been too busy to sit at the computer!  My parents came up to visit and the weather was totally amazing!  We were outside as much as possible.  It was so great to have them here and the trip was over WAY TOO SOON, but I did get inspired to finish more projects around the house after seeing them effortlessly knock off my to do items--you know the kind of things that never really make it off the list.....Anyway more about all that later.  This post is about Madeline's first birthday and our full day of hiking on Winner Creek Trail to celebrate! (again actual birthday party photos later).  

Here we are just getting started!  Andrew took the photo.

 Maddie had fun the whole time!

 We did run into several significant Chloe related delays......

 posing

 Chloe got lots of special grandma/grandpa time.  Much of which was spent riding on their shoulders....which somehow I do not have a picture of.  

 We hiked all the way out to the hand tram over this gorgeous ravine.  Only two people could go at a time.  We went first then everyone else joined us on the other side for our picnic!

 Back across the tram to make the trek back to the trailhead.  

 And finally when the hike was over (maybe 3+ hours to make it 5+ miles) we went out for a special birthday dinner at Jack Sprat.  It was beyond amazing!  The girls even ate almost all of their dinner too!

 Of course there was cake too.  Also insanely good!

Happy first birthday Madeline!  We all had a great time!  Maybe we can make it an annual birthday tradition!  

Kitchen Intervention

BEFORE:  Hello 1981

DURING: looking better already

AFTER: Wohoo!  This thing works like a dream!  

 This whole process took way longer than we expected.  We had to have the granite cut, then we (Andrew) discovered that the gas line was not the correct size for the new stove and a converter piece from the size we have to the size we need was not available---ANYWHERE..... Then Andrew had to leave on a business trip.  So no stove for a few days.  When he came back our friend Conor came over to help Andrew brainstorm a new plan of action.  About 5 hours later they had the problem solved, and the stove was in and working!  Phew!  For SURE next time we buy anything big like this we will also buy the install package.  This was a crazy nightmare, with a beautiful ending! Well sort of, the granite guys did cut the beautiful cabinet facing in a rather jagged manner, but well we aren't sweating it, since that is the next kitchen project to tackle.  (a few years down the line).  For now we are counting this as one more thing checked off the list!